Even If You Don't // Calum Hood

Chapter 15: We'll Never Be As Young As We Are Now

Calum's POV; Two weeks later

"I think they're listening to the song," Luke mentioned as we approached the girls' dressing room, hearing Girls Talk Boys blasting through whoever's phone they were using.

"This is probably a Snapchat moment," Michael said, "Do we really want to interrupt it?" We all looked at each other for a moment and then he spun around. "Of course we do!" he exclaimed, grabbing the door handle and opening it suddenly.

The girls were all jumping around and singing along, laughing when they realized we were there but continuing to sing anyway. As expected, Kenzie and Vanessa were recording the whole thing, pointing their phones at us as the second verse started.

"When you're talking to your girls, do you talk about me?" we instantly started singing along, coming into the room. As soon as I reached Mari, she grabbed my cheeks and dramatically sang the next line with the straightest face she could.

"Do you tell them I'm your lover? I'm all that you need?" she kissed my nose, making me laugh loudly. I put my hands on her sides and tickled her, causing her to squeal loudly and let go of me. Since the next line was almost over, I just sang along to the last line in the verse.

"Do you tell them that you love me the way that I've been loving you?" I grinned at the sound of Mari's laugh, stopping tickling her so I could kiss her cheek. I felt her smile before pulling away, keeping my arms around her waist and pulling her back against my chest.

"You guys!" Kenzie beamed as Kaylynn paused the song on her phone, "The new song is so good!"

"Thank you," Ashton chuckled, "We're really glad you like it so much."

"How do you guys even know the words already anyway?" Michael asked, "It's only been out for a couple hours."

"It's like you don't know us, Clifford," Kaylynn scoffed, rolling her eyes.

"Just because you guys forget your lyrics all the time doesn't mean other people do too," Mari sassed – which probably wasn't the best choice considering my arms were still wrapped around her.

I immediately started tickling her again, making her squeal even louder than the first time I did it. She tried to force my hands away from her – and although she was putting up quite an impressive fight, I was still a lot stronger than her, so she just resorted to begging.

"C-C-Cal, s-sto-stop!" she giggled breathlessly, making me smile.

"You know what you have to do to stop it," I teased. Silently admitting defeat, Mari turned her head and pressed her lips to mine. I chuckled softly, finally ceasing the attack so she could catch her breath.

"You're insufferable," she tried to tell me without grinning but she still couldn't hide it.

"I know," I smiled, kissing her forehead and bringing her back to me for a hug.

~

Mari's POV; Later that night

"Madison Square Garden!" Kenzie beamed at the crowd, "How are you guys doing tonight?!" The crowd screamed in response as she went on, "We are so lucky to be here with you all!"

"And lucky that you all know our songs as well," Kaylynn shook her head, "It would be really embarrassing if you didn't."

"I mean, everyone knows who they really came to see tonight," I added.

"Yeah," Vanessa giggled, "5 Seconds of Summer who? We all know they're just closing for us." We all laughed as the audience seemingly cheered in agreement.