Who do you love?

17

"You look like absolute shit." Ashton said, entirely too loudly for Calum's liking, as soon as Cal made it through the door of their practice space.

"Take it down several notches mate."

"What have they had you doing? You look like you haven't slept in days." Luke snorted.

"Just the one day actually." Calum remarked, all of the boys casting curious glances at him hoping for a more thorough explanation. "I may have, no I definitely did, royally fucked up last night."

"Oh, hell. What'd you do?" Michael asked.

Calum felt his face heat up and instead of answering he made his way to his usual side of the stage and set down his gear.

"Come on, Cal. You can't give us that kind of lead up and then not tell us what happened." Ashton pressed.

He mumbled under his breath and his friends shot each other looks, trying to ask if anyone had caught what he had said.

"What was that?" Mike finally asked him.

"I said the wrong name in bed."

You could have heard a pin drop in their practice space for a brief moment before his three bandmates all burst out into fits of rambunctious laughter.

"It's not fucking funny." Calum protested as they struggled to reign in their amusement.

"It's a little funny." Ashton laughed.

"You wouldn't think that if it happened to Lauren." Cal shot back and Ash's face quickly flattened. "Exactly. I've got a sister too and I'd beat the living shit out of someone who did something like that to Mali if I knew about it. That's just not how I treat women and I feel like a total fucking tool."

"I mean your situation isn't really typical though, Cal. You're seeing like what, four other girls? They all seem great too so it's not that surprising that you name flubbed."

"I didn't say one of the other girls in the game's name." He added softly.

Ashton's eyes widened.

"Well...then, who's name did you.." Luke let his question hang in the air.

"Teal." Calum said, his tone indicative that he wasn't really looking to expand on his explanation and the other boys gave him space on it, instead moving on with their practice. 

Calum had missed practicing with the boys, in the years they had been together as a band he had come to love them like brothers and even a gnarly hangover couldn't rip away the happiness he felt from being able to hang out with them casually for the first time in over a month—he didn't count his birthday since it had been filmed.

A few hours into their practice they took a break, wandering into the sitting area of their practice space, spread out on the various furniture, Calum claiming the couch and stretching out, his brown eyes scanning the ceiling as he waited for an opportunity to ask what had been on his mind.

"I never got to ask you guys what you thought of the girls last week. We were all drunk and then you guys cut out and I forgot. So...?" He said, his silent question waiting for their reply.

"Well... to be honest, I was drunk and I don't really remember all that much about them." Ashton laughed.

"Thanks, that's really helpful." Calum replied with an annoyed roll of his eyes.

"Sorry mate."

"Don't think me or Michael will be much help either, Cal. We get a bit of tunnel vision when our girls are around. I don't remember any screaming red flags but I wasn't floored by any of the options either. Oh...wait, I liked the twins." Luke said, turning his head so that he could see Calum.

"The twins aren't an option." Calum said flatly.

"Sounds like one of them is, you calling out her name during sex and all." Ashton laughed.

"It's not fucking funny, Ash."

"You can say that all you want, Cal. It's still gonna be funny."

When they come to the show I need you three to be a bit more observant, tell the girls too. I just, I can't get a lot of opinions I trust right now so I need you guys to be honest and help me decide."

"I'm honestly surprised you're taking this seriously." Michael said, sitting up in the chair he had been laid back on. Calum squinted his eyes as he looked over at one of his best friends not quite understanding what the blonde man was saying to him.

"What do you mean?"

"I just thought you'd go out there and flirt it up, maybe fool around with a few of them, pick one for the show and then dump her pretty much immediately after." He said easily.

Calum's eyebrows raised at that and he scoffed. "I'm not a dick. I just don't feel like I can bitch about being single and then not take advantage of the opportunity when it's thrown in my face. I'm taking it seriously. I'm just concerned I'm going to mess up and, like, pick the wrong one or something."

"Maybe you're taking it a bit too seriously." Luke said, raising his hands in surrender when he saw the look on Calum's face. "Hear me out. You're just looking to actually date one of them. If you pick wrong you just tell her it's not gonna work out and go after the one you should have started with."

"What if it's not that black and white?"

"Is there a reason it wouldn't be?" Luke didn't push him to answer when Calum didn't reply immediately, instead, leaving his friend to wonder if Luke was right. Perhaps he was looking at this all wrong. Maybe he did need to relax and have more fun. It was supposed to be a sort of game right?

He didn't know how to phrase his hesitancies in a way that the other boys would understand so he instead just kept to himself until they retook their places on the practice stage. Music always helped him think and he couldn't remember a time he had needed to feel the bass in his hands more.

*

The set was a shit show. Teal knew she'd never get to leave the crew now, not that Brad had left much leeway for her anyways, what with practically reading her the riot act on her contract. Maybe it was selfish or cowardly on her part to want to run away but when every single day forced her face to face with the man she knew she had fallen for, the man she knew she could never have, it felt like the only option.

She hated seeing him with the other girls. Every time he touched them, kissed them, laughed with them she felt a piece of her heart break off. It wasn't fair, to be so completely falling for someone she knew she couldn't have. He didn't want her, that's what she repeated like a mantra over and over in her head anyways. He had girls to pick from that were prettier, more put together, more athletic, more everything and she had zero chance. She needed to move on, she just hadn't yet worked out how to do that.

What she had worked out was that if she was going to be forced to stick around and work as part of the crew still, they had a lot of ass covering to do. It was bad enough that Rileigh had left following her one-on-one date with Calum, it was worse that the film crew had not only missed her exit but had gotten basically no usable footage of their date. Apparently things had quickly heated up and trying to picture what the camera crew meant by that, made her nauseous.

She had a problem though, because now not only did they have very little footage of the one on one, they had no dismissal ceremony to be had. Rileigh eliminated herself meaning that the rest of the girls would stick around for the next week. The problem there lied with needing to fill an hour long time slot with, essentially, only group date footage. She'd have to spend all day doing confessionals with the remaining girls to try and fill the gaps and get something worth watching or that week's episode would surely send the ratings plummeting.

It was gonna be a long day.

AN: Mostly filler, but yay the boys are back

Think the only thing I don't like about this book is the lack of the other boys

What are we thinking?

ILY,

Sav