Publicity Stunt // cth

01. anonymous

Bella breathed in and sighed out then knocked lightly on the door, opening it and walking right in, heading to put her stuff on the desk. They had gone silent as soon as she walked in.

"Good morning boys, my uncles running a bit late so he asked me to help you out for the time being." She smiled at them, keeping her head high as they all stared at her, unconvinced.

"Really? You mean he just woke up then. We might as well just wait then, mind fetching us some sandwiches and tea." Calum joked rolling his eyes at the tiny girl.

"Not my job. I can have someone get that for you if you'd like. He asked me to help you but if you'd rather spend your time dicking around than working that's fine too, I have other matters I can attend to. Just don't expect me to cover for you." Bella took out her laptop so she could start working on scheduling, finance mapping, and marketing ideas for tours and merchandise.

"Re-" Calum was beginning to make a comeback but was stopped by his friend.

"Okay Calum you've done enough talking. Thank you Bella for giving us your time, we'd really appreciate if you wrote with us. Right guys?" Ashton's voice was soft but commanding.

"Agreed." "Yeah." Michael and Luke nodded their heads not looking up from their table of songs.

Bella smiled, closing her laptop and walking over to sit on the only available spot next to Calum who rolled his eyes.

"So what're you guys working on currently?" She leaned in to examine the notebooks on the table.

Calum leaned back in his seat to examine her leaned over body. The thoughts in his head never matched the words that came out to her.

"Well, our main focus is this one called Monster Among Men? I think that's what we agreed on." Ashton shifted the papers around so Bella could see and then decided to sit on the other side of her causing her to scoot closer to Calum.

"Wow, personal space is so short handed now a days." Calum huffed.

He wanted to grab her and sit her on his lap but knew he never could.

"You can move." Ashton looked at his best friend insistently.

"I was here first." Calum squinted and glared at Ashton.

"I really don't see what your problem is sometimes." Bella rolled her eyes, her comment directed at Calum, and got up to take Ashton's previous seat, both the boys looking at each other angrily.

The other two were frustrated, already knowing these two would be causing problems the whole time.

Here's what you gotta know about them two, they both had feelings for Bella but only one of them has permission from John to attempt to date her if she ever happens to be single. The obvious choice being the one that isn't always grumpy.

Bella's personal phone buzzed. She opened her phone and gasped dropping it, her hands flying to cover her mouth, the audio from the video playing in the background, catching all of the boys' attention.

Calum went to pick it up, thinking someone had sent her a jerking off video or something but it was worse than that.

"Is-is that your best friend- a-and Diego? Shit." Ashton worriedly looked at her and Calum was left speechless.

The other two opened their mouths in shock.

"Turn it off." Bella was looking at the floor as she demanded.

The boys turned the video off and set her phone down on the table, it's just another day.

"So Monster Among Men huh?" She took the paper.

"Bella we don't have to-" Michael spoke softly.

"I like the little counting thing you wrote in, how about instead of 'the fucking truth' you say 'the stupid truth' and then instead of 'I'm no good for you' we go with 'so bad for you' yeah?" Bella suggested, keeping her head down.

"Are you okay?" Calum's voice was more gentle than it had ever been, he softly put his hand on her arm and that made her angry, she hated pity.

"Don't pretend you care." She snapped, pulling her arm away sharply then pulled herself together. "Sorry. Look, I just got sent a video of my best friend sucking my boyfriend's dick, on our couch, wearing the clothes he had planned for today, I'd rather not talk about it with you lot. And not a word to my Uncle until I figure this out."

"What is there to figure out? Dump his ass." Michael was getting angry for her at this point.

"I can't just throw everything away, I wanna see if he'll at least tell me, or I don't know, if she will." Bella played with her thumbs. "They're my oldest and only friends. And that's four years of my life that would just be meaningless."

"What if it's been going on this whole time and they still didn't tell you." Michael insensitively pointed out, earning a smack on the chest from Luke .

Bella looked at the floor, squeezing her left pointer finger aggressively with her right hand. Calum's heart was in his throat. He couldn't understand how someone could be so stupid.. Bella was one of a kind, that Hayley girl was basic.

"Bel-" Ashton started.

"Stop. Drop it okay? I'll figure it out. It's my business, not any of yours." She ran her hands through her hair, they all fell into a long silence, she felt a little bad for how harsh she was but she didn't care to apologize.

"I uh, like those lyric changes you were talking about." Luke spoke up, breaking the ear stabbing silence.

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"Hey sorry I'm so late!" John walked in with his coffee and similar book bag to Bella.

He frowned at how quiet they were compared to how they normally are.

"Hey Pops." Michael was the first to get up and hug him and everyone followed him.

"Um, I'm gonna go I have some paperwork to get through, good luck you guys it's going pretty great, loving the sound let me know when it's finished." Bella went to grab her stuff.

"You can stay here, if you'd like." John insisted, he was her boss still after all.

"No I should get this done, maybe next time, thanks boys, see you later J." She hugged her uncle, kissing his cheek, and started to walk through the door.

"I have to pee." Calum murmured before walking after her. "Hey, you gonna be okay?"

"I told you guys I didn't want to talk about it, and you should know specifically not with you." She kept walking towards her office which was in front of Oliver.

Calum grabbed her arm right as they reached the waiting room. He pulled her back, she was close to him and he was still holding her arm.

"Look, I know I'm a dick but I'm genuinely concerned and want to make sure you're gonna be okay." He was looking into her eyes making her uncomfortable, she yanked her arm back.

"I don't know what's going on with you, but I'm not stupid, you're somehow trying to get something out of this. Let go of me before you start something you're not gonna like. Have a good day." Bella brushed herself off and went in to her office slamming the door behind her.

He was left dumbfounded, not understanding why what he did was wrong. 

He doesn't get to just switch up and be nice, he's an asshat for that.

Bella's phone buzzed again. This time a notification on twitter, which she never got, she rolled her eyes as she saw a picture of Calum holding her with a caption "Calum's new girl? Who is she?", it was obviously taken from the waiting room. 

Great, this is just what I needed. Damn people really worked fast though.

"Ugh!" She dropped her phone on her desk and kicked a chair over.

Cal was outside her door, wanting to come in and check on her again as he had just seen the post on twitter.

"Can you check on her in a little? Maybe take some tea in. Or those sandwiches she likes- here my treat. Just text me whatever she tells you, like usual." Calum didn't even give Oli the time to object before handing him a $50 bill.