"Your body is a work of art

and honestly I'm hopeless, and I'm asking,

you will just protect my heart

'cause it's yours"

✰

The tension in the room was so thick that Arlo was struggling to breathe.

As soon as she called, Luke was there. He dropped everything he was doing- which wasn't much to be fair- and made his way to Calum's house.

Luke Hemmings had been in Calum's basement countless times over the years, but never had he been this uncomfortable. A circular table had been drug downstairs, a whiteboard filled with information he assumed to be pertaining to the band nearby. He sits in a chair at the head of the table, all eyes on him.

Well, except for Arlo's. The poor girl was far too nervous to watch as the four boys gathered together for the first time. Although she didn't know the cause of it, there were some residual negative feelings between some of them.

She was really hoping that they managed to work it out- she had a good feeling about this band for the first time since she'd been aware of Calum's plan.

"Alright let's settle this." Calum speaks, breaking the awkward silence in the room. "We all have pasts of some sort. We were all probably dicks to one another at one time. But every single one of us is fucking talented and we are going to make this work." Calum takes a deep breath. "We will win this Battle of the Bands competition, or god so help me I will kick every single one of you in the dick for shattering my dreams."

The room goes silent, every single person's eyes wide- except for Luke, for he had expected nothing less out of Calum.

So, the blonde boy takes a glance at Arlo. He frowns as he sees the nervousness written on her face. The trepidation in the room was swallowing his poor girl alive and she hadn't even done anything to deserve it.

"I'm sorry I fucked your girlfriend." Luke shrugs simply. "I didn't know she had a boyfriend."

A gasp leaves Arlo's lips and Ashton chokes on his own breath, doubling over the table. Somehow, through her shock, Arlo manages to raise a hand to pat Ashton on the back in an attempt to help her poor best friend.

Michael sets his jaw. "It's alright. She was a bitch anyway and I'm pretty sure that wasn't the only time she cheated on me."

The red-haired boy kind of wanted to laugh at the situation. He couldn't believe he had held on to that malice towards Luke for so long when he should have been mad at the girl that cheated on him. Hell, he really only cared about the band as of now. What happened between Luke and his ex was old news.

"Now that we've got that settled." Calum clears his throat. "Let's find a song that we all know to start practicing with until we come up with an original. I'm thinking we play a few covers and maybe one original at the party and then at the actual competition-"

Calum continued to ramble on, but Luke wasn't listening in the slightest. He was far more concerned with the girl on the other end of the table, her usually giving face, offering nothing for him to determine how she was feeling.

Luke didn't want her to know about his past habits, for he feared that if she saw him as the rest of the world did, she might lose hope for him too. Just as his parents had, just as his past friends had, just as his teachers had.

Really, all he wanted to do was stand from the table, take her hand and drag her upstairs and out the door. He wanted to ask her how she felt- if her feelings had changed after knowing just the surface of what he'd done.

He just wanted to know if she was okay.

"Luke had a really good idea."

Her voice breaks him out of his trance and his eyes snap up to meet hers. The entire table is looking at him, but Luke only focuses on one pair of eyes. "I did?"

"Welcome back." Ashton laughs under his breath. It was obvious Luke had zoned out and Arlo had just had to stop the rest of the boys from throwing something at him to get his attention.

"Yeah, fuck off." Luke rolls his eyes. "What did I miss?"

"While you were staring at the table we agreed on two cover songs and an original for the party on Friday and Arlo said you might have something for that last one." Calum explains, unable to fight the pleased smirk on his face as he sees the way Luke had been staring at Arlo.

It was obvious to everyone at the table- excluding Arlo and Luke of course- that they were in deep for each other already. They had no fucking idea just how perfect they were for each other, and somehow the three boys were thinking the same thing.

Luke and Arlo had to be together. Being with Arlo would pull Luke away from the edge of the self-destructive cliff he had been dangling off of for the past few years. And as for Arlo, she had spent her whole life isolating herself from people and she could use a little love.

"What songs are we covering?" Luke asks, his brows furrowed. He picks up a pen, twirling the object between his fingers as he leans back in his chair, legs spread under the table. He didn't even know there was a party, but he figured if he voiced that he might get yelled at.

Arlo was definitely not looking at his hands. Not even a glance.

"So we're going to open with Teenage Dirtbag. It's a song everybody knows, it'll get people hyped up." Michael explains, running a hand through his red hair. "Then we'll move to Sex on Fire-"

"And do that whiney thing with your voice for that song, Luke." Calum butts in. "They'll eat that up and we need as much sex appeal as we can get." The boy shrugs simply despite the bewildered look Luke gives him. "Hot people get record deals."

"Woah." Luke presses his fingertips to his temples. "Who the hell said anything about a record deal? I thought we were just playing in that Battle of the Bands shit?"

Ashton purses his lips, shaking his head in disappointment. "It's the bigger picture, Luke."

Luke fights the urge to roll his eyes, simply exhaling before gesturing for Calum to continue on explaining the setlist for the party that was a mere three days away.

"And then we'll end with an original." Calum says, looking around the table as if making sure everyone agreed. "Everyone will remember the song we end with, it only makes sense that it's an original. But we don't have one yet."

"Which brings us back to what we were saying before." Michael says, his eyes darting over to the girl at the end of the table. "Arlo said you were helping her out with something the other day- something about girls bitching."

Luke's lips part in surprise, his eyes instantly finding the girl who had begun to nervously chew on her bottom lip. Arlo didn't want Luke to think she had thrown him under the bus, but he had a real talent for songwriting and she felt even more guilty letting it go to waste.

"You don't have to share it." Arlo's quiet voice echoes through the room. "I should have asked you first, I'm sorry." She says guilty, her eyes on Luke.

"Arlo." His voice is stern. "Calm down. You're good, yeah?" Luke couldn't stand the anxiousness in her tone, all because of worry for him.

"Just making sure." Arlo blows out a breath, her chest aching at the way his words had begun to make her feel.

Luke takes a moment to shoot her a close-lipped grin, just so she knew that everything was, in fact, alright. She mirrors his expression, causing his heart to thump unnaturally quick in his chest.

The rest of the table was in shock. What the actual fuck was that? Ashton, Michael, and Calum all share the same expression, communicating with their eyes to one another. One thing was clear to all of them- Luke had it bad already.

"I mean, I had an idea." Luke shrugs, trying his damndest to not let heat flood his cheeks. Arlo really thought what he said was good enough? He'd all but forgotten about helping her out with that song up until now.

"It's a sick idea." Michael says honesty, surprising Luke.

It was rare for Luke to receive praise like this when he'd never had it previously. He wasn't used to people complimenting him. His parents certainly hadn't and the only time he truly felt like he was good at something was when he was fucking the shit out of some girl.

Luke didn't spend his teenage years sleeping with half of the town because he really liked it all that much- he just liked being good at something. And well, fucking was something he excelled at.

"Thanks." Luke says uncomfortably, his eyes darting around the room.

Ashton stands from the table and makes his way over to the couch where his bookbag sits. He digs around in it for a second before producing a notebook and a couple of pens. He throws the pens in the middle of the table and slaps the notebook down in front of Luke. "Write down that line." He instructs.

Luke scrawls 'My girlfriend's bitchin' 'cause I always sleep in.' at the top of the page. He twists his lips to the side in thought. "Shouldn't we come up with a melody first?" He asks.

"Shit." Calum blows out a harsh breath "You're right, Luke." The tan boy folds his arms across his chest, a serious expression on his face. "Alright let's think of one."

The room goes silent, everyone doing their best to focus on the task at hand. Arlo honestly was looking at Luke, who was trying not to look at her. Michael was playing a guitar riff in his head and Ashton was thinking of what he was planning on making for dinner.

It only takes about five minutes of silence for the boys to get bored.

It starts with Ashton tapping the end of his pen on the table, which then encourages Michael to hum an imaginary guitar riff. Arlo's ears perk up and she can tell that they're getting somewhere, but without the baseline, the melody isn't quite complete.

Almost as if Calum had read her mind, he begins humming a baseline under his breath, matching perfectly with the rhythm of Ashton's tapping. "Dun, dun, dun, dun dun." Calum purses his lips, pitching his voice lower.

And when Luke comes in, his raspy voice barely able to be heard, Arlo's stomach gets that roller coaster-drop feeling- his voice is perfect and he's not even singing to his full potential.

"My girlfriend's bitchin' 'cause I always sleep in." The words leave his lips with a bit of a cocky-sounding attitude that matches perfectly. Luke's fingertips keep the same beat as the melody on the tabletop.

"She's always uh..." Calum jumps in, his lips twisting to the side in thought.

"Leaving her clothes on the floor!" Ashton jumps in.

"Fucking my best friend." Michael adds, shooting Luke a sorry look right after.

Arlo shakes her head, furrowing her brows. "No, not quite." She says honestly. "Keep trying."

"She's always..." Calum stands up from the table, pacing the room as he always does when he really needs to think hard. "Screaming when uh-"

"I'm trying to sleep?" Ashton offers.

"She's always screaming when she's calling her friends!" Michael says excitably.

The entire table shares a look. They were getting somewhere, finally. "Write that down." Ashton slides the notebook away from Luke and over to Arlo, wanting the boy to focus on thinking of lyrics rather than the page in front of him.

Luke was pleasantly surprised with how much he was beginning to enjoy songwriting. Words seemed to swirl through his brain endlessly, just like they did when he wrote his poems. But, this was different and new, and most importantly- it was a challenge.

"Okay, think of something douchey to really attract attention." Luke instructs. "We need a chorus that will make people think this song is about a girl even though it's not." He'd recalled Arlo's dilemma of the boys wanting to write about two different things and he had a plan on how to bring the ideas together.

The room goes silent once more, the only sound echoing through the room being the rhythmic tapping of Ashton's pen and Calum whispering to himself under his breath as he tested the way lyrics sounded on his tongue.

"She's kinda hot!" Michael says out of nowhere, his voice rising in volume and starling the group.

Luke begins humming the lyrics under his breath. "Calum can you hum that baseline again?" Luke asks, his brows furrowed in concentration. "My girlfriends bitchin' 'cause I always sleep in, she's always screaming when she's calling her friend's, she's kinda hot... though."

As soon as the lyrics leave Luke's lips the whole table bursts into excited laughs, their eyes wide with pure jot at what they'd created. Although, Luke's eyes were on her. Even as Calum patted him on the back and congratulated him, Luke's eyes were looking for Arlo's reaction.

She looked proud of him.

The apples of her cheeks were flushed with excitement and she bit back a grin with her teeth as she scribbled down the mess of lyrics as fast as she could. As soon as the last word was written, she glanced up at Luke.

"You're amazing." She mouthed, causing his stomach to twist in the best of ways.

Luke bit his lip, looking down at the table to hide the wide smile fighting to spread across his face, He merely shakes his head in denial, not able to hold the girl's gaze due to the sheer amount of unfamiliar emotions she caused him to feel.

Calum and Michael are dancing around the room, their arms looped together as they spin in circles, wide grins on their faces. "We wrote a song! We wrote a song!" Arlo can't help but let a giggle slip from her lips at the sight, especially not when Ashton jumped in, twirling around the room in excitement.

Luke thought that sound was really fucking pretty. So, even though he wanted to inform his idiot friends that they had not written a song- but three lines and a potential chorus- he chose to stay silent.

Arlo stands from her chair, waltzing over to the whiteboard Ashton had stolen from his mother's classroom. She scribbles the word "Setlist" at the top following it with three bullet points. "Teenage Dirtbag, Sex on Fire, She's Kinda Hot."

Just as she finishes writing the words down, Ashton bounds over to his best friend. "Arlo, we have to go to the mall tomorrow! What am I going to wear?"

Ashton's voice halts the entire room, causing the other three boys to simultaneously come to the realization that they also, in fact, had no idea what they would be wearing for their first-ever show. Hell, Luke was planning on wearing his usual house party attire of ripped black jeans and a t-shirt, but if it meant spending more time with Arlo, he suddenly needed to go to the mall as well.

Calum clears his throat, his sock-covered feet clambering to stand on the couch in the middle of the room. "Mandatory band shopping trip tomorrow after practice!"

not much lulo content but we do have a band and our first song now!