The Deal || Luke Hemmings

Deal, Discovered

"You're stalling," writhed Calum even when he was up. Is it because of," he paused to point at Ashton. "Fine, I understand that you wouldn't want to be in the same room as him. You want intelligent company," he paused again to point to himself. "But really, I gotta get out."

Calum was gone, making Ashton magically feel like he didn't want to listen to music because he took off his headphones.

Then the door opened again, making me turn to see if Calum had returned from his miraculous five second bathroom break.

But no, it wasn't him nor was it Cara.

It was Michael.

The second person I wanted to see today aside from the one I was with now.

But I've got to hand it to him, the only thing I liked about Michael during band practice was that he stayed away from everyone. He isolated himself. So I didn't need to worry about him going any closer to me.

The moment he sat down, he pulled out a phone from his pocket. This scene was really nothing new. He began to tap on the screen several times. Another one of his games, I thought.

When he caught me staring, he mouthed something and lifted his head to Ashton's direction. I have never been good at mouth reading, so I just nodded, pretending to understand what he was rambling about.

I found it cowardly how Ashton would pick on me, but when Michael came, he wouldn't say a word about him. Maybe I was slightly on top of Michael in the chart of hatred.

"Hi, Michael!" Ashton said.

Perplexed, Michael looked at Ashton uncomfortably, seeing the new, happy aura he had towards him, but Cara's brother knew better.

"Hey," he replied, eyes still glued to his phone.

"How's Cara?" Ashton asked. "Where do you think she went?"

Michael now stopped whatever he was doing just to look at Ashton, who had a treacherous tone to his voice.

"I don't know where she went," Michael answered. "Why? Do you want to see her?"

"I'll wait for her to come back,"
Ashton said, avoiding the question that was being thrown at him.

It was funny how Michael didn't mind being irked with questions about himself, yet if someone asked one, even one question about his sister, it was like he'd defend her with his life.

"While waiting for her to come back, why don't we play a song or something?" This was the perfect way to distract all of us. "Maybe my song?"

"So you've finally picked something?" Michael raised his eyebrow and I said I did.

"But you don't want Cara to hear it?" Ashton challenged. "How come?"

"What does it matter to you, Ashton?" Michael spoke for me instead (which I was really okay with since I didn't know how to tell Ashton how I wanted it to be a surprise for her. But then again, Michael could tell Cara or even Ashton could do it too. Darn. Maybe I didn't plan this so well after all). "She'll hear it eventually."

Ashton shrugged. "I'm in."

"What's the title of the song?" Michael asked. "I'll check out the chords online and maybe Ashton can pick up the beat while I'm at it."

The two listened as I licked my sore lips before I made the big reveal.

"The song is...

-

Ashton got the beat as usual, but Michael said he wasn't some magician so he couldn't just learn the guitar chords in a short span of time. He did strum a few chords correctly, while Ashton played on a beatbox and I awkwardly sang. I told them to make it as soft as possible, with my excuse being that we might bother the neighbors; but the last thing I wanted was for Cara to hear us.

Calum was there to catch up on parts of it and he looked like the proudest mother who watched her child being handed a trophy.

"Why," said Cara entering when we were all doing something. "You guys have been productive while I was gone."

Calum laughed mischievously and rubbed his hands together like an evil scientist. "It's true, right Luke?" I looked away like I heard nothing. "And now that Cara's here, I'm going to tell all of you about my plan for the third song."

"Luke told me about it already," Cara replied. "I think it's disastrous."

"Disastrous...ly amazing," Calum corrected. He began to tell his little plan excitedly, and two looked at him doubtfully. By two, I meant Michael and Ashton.

"It might turn out messy," Calum admitted, and all of us nodded. "But let's just give it a try. It'll be fun!"

"Fine, who's writing first?" said Michael.

"Want to draw lots?"

"Oh," Cara groaned, presumably getting flashbacks of when she had to choose between two chaotic bands. "Just like what happened the first time."

"We've got more than a month anyway," Calum said, grabbing a paper and a pen from the desk on the side, which was left there only so we could write songs and not numbers. Calum began ripping each paper terribly. Any perfectionist would have fainted with the looks of the torn papers. He scrambled them, then presented it to each one of us.

"This is awful," I heard Ashton mutter repeatedly from afar.

It was my turn to pick a number, but when I saw what I got, I felt at ease.

Michael, on the other hand, grumbled, "Who wants to exchange?"

And of course, Calum shushed him right after.

"Guess I'm first," Cara sighed.

"Don't forget the rebellious vibe!" Calum warned, almost shaking her shoulders, which I knew were her tickle spot, back and forth.

"I get it," Cara frowned but started giggling. She got the paper and pen from Calum as she began to scribble down something.

She would write something long and everyone would try to peek, but then she crossed everything out. She shook her head, obviously displeased with what she wrote, then said, "I'm not liking it. So who's the second one to write?"

There was a short, dead silence, then I spoke.

"Me."

-

Back at school, they all thought I was an outcast car crash. A hopeless fool they said to me. (Is this any good? I'm not a rebel. Maybe you can make it sound the way Cal wants it?)

Reading what Cara wrote made me pity her. If she really felt that way in school, I shouldn't have aggravated it.

Then again, she could've written it for the sake of writing something.

Whatever it was, she told Ashton about our deal and I knew I was going to be in huge trouble. Not right now, but possibly later.

Or maybe soon.

Or maybe even now.

Why did I even have to make that deal? It was, to be blunt, terrible. Looking back, I actually want to laugh at it.

"Ashton!"

I saw him from a close distance. It was dark, but I could see that he was about to put on his earphones to close any means of communication.

"Yes?" he had a smile that suggested he would grab me by the collar and throttle me if I said anything else.

"You knew about the deal," I said. My voice was soft because we were still near the Clifford's residence and who knew? Someone could be watching. "How?"

He yawned like it didn't matter to him. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Then make it sound believable," I demanded.

"Sure." He looked me in the eye only once and unveiled the truth--which I knew already.

"Cara told me everything."

Wth is going on

-God Bless!-