"I can taste it, my heart's breakin', please don't say

That you know, when you know

I can't take it, I'm impatient, tell me baby"

✰

Arlo is pretty sure Ashton Irwin is having a nervous breakdown.

When her longtime best friend called her at eleven on Saturday morning, she had no idea what she was in for. Ashton asked her to come over while he got himself ready for the gig and said nothing else.

Arlo thought nothing of it, having no problem getting ready a few hours earlier than planned. She felt a bit out of place walking down the street of their neighborhood in a red leather skirt and a tight black low cut top before noon, but she did it regardless.

Considering Ashton lived less than a five-minute walk away, she got there in no time. Arlo walked through Ashton's front door as she always did, saying hi to his mom who was in the kitchen before bounding up the stairs in search of the boy's room.

As soon as she reaches the top of the stairs, she hears loud music blasting from the end of the hall. It's muffled due to Ashton's door being closed, though as soon as she swings open the door to Ashton's bedroom the loud music practically slaps her in the face.

A gasp nearly leaves her lips at the state of Ashton's room. His entire closet looks to have been looked through, shirts and jeans alike thrown on the floor. The medium-sized box that he kept his collection of bandannas in is thrown open, the contents dumped out on his bed.

Ashton stands shirtless in the middle of the room, a pair of unbuttoned jeans on his body, the band of his boxers peeking out. His hands are on his head, his face reading nothing but stressed.

"What's going on, Ash?" Arlo asks hesitantly.

Ashton quickly pauses his music. "I have no idea what to wear and we have to be at the park by two for soundcheck." He practically whines, panic clear in his voice.

Arlo sneaks a glance at the clock on Ashton's bedside table, her brows furrowing. "It's only just past eleven." The girl points out gently.

She didn't want to make him upset when he was clearly already panicked, but Arlo kind of wanted to point out that it wasn't like he had to do his hair or makeup. He had plenty of time.

"I need time to calm down." Ashton stresses. "But. I can't calm down until I'm dressed and I know what I'm going to wear. That's probably going to take an hour and Calum is going to be here at half-past one!" The boy rambles.

Arlo runs a hand through her freshly curled hair as her best friend's stress radiates off of him in waves, latching to her. Hell, she wasn't even performing but she had a pit in her stomach just thinking about the performance in a few short hours.

"Alright, let's just... go through our options." The girl suggests with a wince, looking around at the tornado of clothes that Ashton had strewn around the room.

After about thirty minutes and twenty different outfits, the two best friends settle on a white muscle tee, black skinny jeans, and Ashton's signature red bandanna. Arlo had gotten it for him at some stand at a farmers market years ago and he considered it to be his luckiest item.

With less than thirty minutes to spare after cleaning up some of the mess he made, Ashton decided that his hair just didn't look right. So, he and Arlo worked together to wash his brown hair in the sink and quickly dry the curls with his mom's blow dryer.

They finish just as Calum pulls up to Ashton's house, the tanner boys mustang echoing loudly in the culdesac of the otherwise quiet neighborhood. The two best friends stumble down the stairs, saying goodbye to Ashton's mom before spilling out of the front door.

"Guys!" Ashton greets as he runs up to the mustang and jumps in the backseat, landing right beside Michael who sat in the middle seat. "You have no idea the stress we just went through."

Luke, who sits in the passenger seat, sneaks a glance back at the girl who had jumped into the car on the other side of Michael. "We?" The blonde asks skeptically.

"It was a team effort." Arlo huffs, doing her best not to dwell on the fact that she could see Luke's eyes trailing down the bare skin of her legs exposed by the short skirt she wears. The girl was already falling apart with nerves for her best friends as is, and she couldn't afford to have those familiar Luke nerves too.

Luke simply nods, his tongue wetting his bottom lip as he sneaks one last glance at her before turning around in his seat. She looked good, too fucking good and he didn't quite know how he was supposed to be expected to perform when she looked like that.

She'd curled her naturally straight hair, he noticed. Luke also took note of the shimmer of what he thinks is glitter on her eyelids and a little bit of black eye shadow smoked into a wing on her outer corner.

Luke swallows thickly, forcing himself to get a grip as Calum pulls up to the park. It was a short drive, definitely too short for him to properly collect himself.

They were instructed to park in the back, behind the stage to make things easier on them to set up. Considering all they had was Calum's mustang, which had a tiny ass trunk, Luke and Calum had already made a few trips to transport most of their equipment before picking up the rest of the band.

Ashton's drum set was the most difficult thing to get out of Calum's basement. Luke was positive he had a bruise the size of fucking Texas on his side from running into the wall with part of the set in his hands.

As the rest of the band piles out of the car and down to the stage to get in position for their soundcheck, Luke lingers behind. He takes notice of the way Arlo takes a moment for herself, leaning against Calum's car and taking a deep breath. She has a box of various items like Ashton's drumsticks, a shit ton of extra guitar picks, and other things the boys might need in her hands.

Despite the fact that the band was waiting on him to start soundcheck, he approaches his girl leaning against the car and takes the box from her hands. "What's wrong?"

Arlo startles, too focused on sorting on her own thoughts to have noticed him approaching. She shakes the boy off quickly. "I'm fine, Luke." She assures him. "Are you okay? Soundcheck starts soon, you have to get down there." She takes a frantic glance at the stage down the hill.

Luke frowns at the idea of her worrying about him when she's already clearly stressed enough. "'M fine. Don't worry about me, Lo." He reassures her, the fingertips of his free hand brushing her waist in hopes to provide her with some comfort. "What's going on with you?"

Arlo takes her lip between her teeth, a nervous habit that Luke had picked up on from day one of knowing her. "I just really want you guys to win." The girl rambles, her shoulders relaxing instantly as she begins getting the stressful thoughts off of her chest. "Especially because that guy from the recording company is coming."

"We will." Luke assures her instantly. Maybe it was his naturally cocky nature, but Luke wasn't concerned in the slightest. He knew they were a million times better than every single band that he'd seen last night. "With such a good manager, there's no way we could lose." Luke smirks, teasingly bumping her hip with his own.

Arlo's cheeks flush and she rolls her eyes as they finally begin making their way towards the stage. "I know, but still." Her voice is nearly a whine and the tone makes Luke's stomach stir. "It's my job to worry about you guys."

"The hell it is." Luke scoffs, adjusting the box of equipment on his hip to allow him to wrap a hesitant arm around her waist as they approach the stage. "It's your job to stand here." He gestures to the backstage area. "And watch and look fuckin' pretty like you do best."

"Luke-" Arlo tries to protest, her eyes nervously looking around the backstage area where the other boys are gathering their instruments.

"Can you do that for me, Arlo?" Luke cuts her off, his blue eyes bordering between intense and caring all at once. "Stop worrying for a sec and just enjoy yourself, okay? I'll make it real easy for you, I promise." He says lowly.

"But-" The girl attempts to argue again.

Luke narrows his eyes at her stubbornness, the sudden urge to shut her up with his lips sneaking in the back of his mind like an intrusive thought. "What did I say? Go sit down and look pretty, Lo." He instructs the girl, a hand on her waist. "You'll see after soundcheck. I'll make sure I do good enough that the boys don't even argue."

Arlo blows out a breath, doing her best to ignore the sudden weakness in her knees. "Yeah, I guess I can do that." She nods. "For you."

Luke's eyes darken even in the midday sunlight. "That's right." He smirks, his teeth tugging on his lip ring as he cocked his head towards the backstage area. "Now go sit your pretty ass down for me and watch me play the song I wrote about you."

✰

Soundcheck went exceptionally well.

Even with a few technical hiccups, the boys sounded amazing and the mere act of sound checking seemed to get them hyped up for the actual show. As soon as they were done, they ran off stage a million times more excited than they were when they arrived.

After taking a sneaky round of tequila shots out of the way of any wandering eyes, the group now sits at one of the park tables, watching the other bands. The first performance started at four and they weren't slotted to perform until eight.

"We've got this, easy." Calum declares, a pair of sunglasses resting on the bridge of his nose to combat the setting sun behind the stage. "I mean, that guy looks like he's not even playing. I'm pretty sure his hands are just hovering over the strings."

"Now, let's not get too cocky." Ashton points out, despite the fact that he was thinking the same thing. Someone had to keep them humble.

Michael and Ashton share a large funnel cake, the two boys being the only ones capable of eating. Both Luke and Calum had been too nervous to even try- and Arlo had tried a million times to get them to eat before they had to play.

She wasn't too sure about the logic behind being too nervous to put any food in their stomach, but not being too nervous to down alcohol. The girl didn't argue though, she figured they had their own grooves and how they got into it wasn't going to be up to her.

Luke sits beside Arlo, their thighs bushing due to how close the group is crowded around the circular table. Luke rests his elbows on the table, his hands fiddling with a discarded straw wrapper.

Arlo, on the other hand, had begun to slowly lean her head towards the boy. It was an unconscious move, exhaustion from staying up late the night before and the stress of earlier weighing down on her. Luke doesn't even think she's noticed that she's doing it, she was simply too tired to care.

And well, Arlo couldn't help that Luke was naturally warm, the sun reflecting off of his tan skin. Her eyes had just begun to droop when her head tilts a little too far, brushing Luke's shoulder. As soon as she realizes what she'd done, the girl snaps herself wide awake.

Luke frowns, secretly wishing she'd just give in and rest her head on his shoulder so he could have an excuse to feel her close to him. Additionally, he kind of just needed that selfish reassurance that the girl was comfortable enough with him to do so.

The rest of the group is too distracted by the band on stage to notice the way Luke leans down, his lips inches away from her cheek. "It's okay." He says gently. "If you wanna rest you can."

Arlo looks up at the boy, a slight pout on her lips. "I need to stay up." She argues. "There's less than four hours until you guys go on."

Luke shakes his head. "Trust me, we've got a long night ahead of us, Arlo. You're gonna want to rest while you can."

The blonde boy hadn't meant for his words to sound so... suggestive. But, neither of them could deny the way Arlo's eyes went wide as Luke's blue eyes looked into her own, his lips inches away as he lowly muttered that they had a long night ahead of them.

Rather than face that, and the way Luke's words had made her stomach turn, Arlo merely nods before cautiously resting her head on Luke's shoulder. He adjusts himself to make her more comfortable, deciding to snake his arm around her waist, his fingertips brushing her opposite thigh as he pulls her into his side.

A small smile tugs at the girl's lips as she settles into his side, his body seeming to mold perfectly with her own. Arlo really hadn't planned on sleeping, just closing her eyes for a moment, but Luke was so comfortable she wasn't so sure about that anymore.

Her eyes flutter shut, a small hum of content leaving her lips as Luke's fingertips begin drumming unconsciously against the bare skin of her thigh. Arlo thought it was pretty cute how he was tapping against her skin to the beat of the song the band on stage was playing- it just seemed like such a Luke thing to do.

She feels as though she's just closed her eyes when a coordinator from the event comes up to their table and informs the band that it's time for them to get ready. The nerves are back in Arlo's stomach as soon as the words leave his lips.

The band makes their way to the backstage area and they begin getting themselves ready. When one of the workers gives Arlo a side-eye, Luke had no problem taking a moment to tell him that she belonged backstage and if she wasn't there when he was done performing he'd be pissed.

While the boys stand in a circle pep-talking themselves, Arlo looks out into the larger crowd of a couple of thousand people, trying to spot the record company official. She knew vaguely what he looked like from the google search she did, but she was hoping to find him and talk to him sometime.

"Are you handling the sponsorship for 5 Seconds of Summer?" A man with a clipboard approaches Arlo suddenly. "I have the name Arlo Abbott down."

She startles, spinning on her heel to face him. "Yes, that's me." She says, keeping her voice low. The last thing she needed was Luke hearing what they were talking about and finding out what she'd done.

In fact, Arlo had forgotten she'd even done it. The girl had been so filled with stress about the actual performance that the fact she's submitted Luke's bookstore as their sponsor completely slipped her mind, causing her stomach to drop.

"We need a picture of the band in front of the banner before they go on." The man says simply, causing Arlo's blood to run cold as he gestures over his shoulder to where a sign was just finished being hung up beside the stage in clear sight of the crowd.

It reads "Hemmings Bookstore" in giant letters.

"A picture?" Arlo gapes, her throat feeling as though it's closing in on itself.

"Yeah, it'll only be a second." The guy reassures, seeming to want to get this out of the way. Arlo had no doubt he had a million other things to do.

The boy's timing is sickeningly on point as they approach, slightly sweaty with nerves and a mixture of adrenaline and tequila running through their veins. The man with the clipboard turns to them, wanting to move things along as fast as possible.

"5 Seconds of Summer?" He addresses them. "I'm gonna need you boys to stand in front of your sponsorship banner for a picture."

Michael's brows furrow as he looks around in search of the banner. "We have a sponsor?"

Ashton shrugs, following behind the man with the clipboard as he begins leading them to the side of the stage. "Ask Arlo, she's the one who handled that stuff."

Arlo isn't even capable of speaking as all four of the boys approach the banner. It's almost comical how the four of them freeze in their spots at the same time. The girl freezes too, her heart beating in her ears as she watches Luke's entire body go rigid.

The anger on his face is clear as day, even as the official hurriedly rushes them into place and snaps a rushed photo. Arlo watches helplessly as Luke's blue eyes shine with rage and betrayal and the other boys look wary.

As soon as the picture is taken, Luke begins striding towards her. Arlo's breath catches in her throat as Luke stands in front of her in an instant, his expression stone cold and so giving all at once.

"Luke-"

"Don't." He cuts her off swiftly, his voice lethal as his guitar is handed to him by a stagehand. The blonde swings the strap over his body angrily, his jaw flexed.

The band is called on stage, leaving virtually no time for Arlo's mind to catch up with the downhill rollercoaster she's suddenly riding on. The rest of the band watches nervously, hesitantly going on stage and hoping Luke will follow.

Luke gives Arlo one last harsh glance, his fists clutching his guitar so tightly that his knuckles turn white. "Stay the fuck here and wait for me to get back." The boy grits out lowly before striding out on stage.

As the beginning chords of She's Kinda Hot play, Arlo can't help the sick feeling in her stomach. What comes as even more of a shock is that even though she feels horrible, she doesn't regret her decision in the slightest.