On Wednesday morning, just as I was getting ready to head off to the studio there was a knock on the door. I quickly went to open it, only to see Nathan standing there sheepishly.

"Hey. Can I come in?" he asked, and I stepped aside so he could walk past. I left the door open.

"Look, I really wanted to apologize for being a dick on Monday." He waited for my response, and when I didn't reply, he said quickly, "I shouldn't have stormed out like that, either. Can I make it up to you? What are you doing tomorrow night?"

"The internship," I said tersely.

"Oh, surely you can leave a bit early?" he said dismissively.

"No, I can't. And besides, I enjoy it," I informed him, going back into the bathroom to carry on doing my makeup.

Nathan sighed. "Is this internship going to take up all your time?"

I just shrugged.

"What about the weekend? Surely they don't expect you do work then. I know you can't do Saturday morning because of your music group, but how about the evening?"

I paused in my makeup. "I don't know," I replied honestly. "If they need me, I'll go in, but if they don't... I guess I'm free."

"No need to sound so enthusiastic," he muttered, and I put my makeup back in its box and left the bathroom, grabbing my bag for work.

"Look, I'm sorry. Saturday evening... sounds good." I glanced at the time on my phone. It wasn't quite time to go but I didn't really want to stick around, so I said, "I have to go. I'll be back later." I then exited the dorm very quickly, leaving him behind looking a big confused. I sighed to myself and tried to forget about him.

~ ~ ~

I was the first one at the studio, since I had left earlier than planned when Nathan showed up. I just didn't really want to have to talk to him, so of course I decided to run away from him.

I wandered around, looking at all the guitars and the soundboard. I reached out to touch it then decided I shouldn't in case I broke something, which would most likely happen. I also desperately wanted to pick up one of the guitars but I didn't want to break that, either. Furthermore I didn't want to risk any of the boys showing up early and seeing me play the guitar.

"You're early." Luke's low voice interrupted my admiration of the guitars. I turned around to face him, not being able to meet his gaze since I was still a bit embarrassed from what I said to him about his eyes.

"So are you," I responded. "According to Kate you guys are usually twenty minutes late."

Luke shrugged and came further into the studio. "The others will probably be late. I wanted to come in early so no one would be here."

"Oh, sorry," I said immediately. "You want me to go? I can go–"

"Not what I meant," Luke cut me off. He paused, then said, "I just... I was doing some more stuff on our song, and I kind of wanted to try it out before everyone got here."

"I won't stop you," I said with a smile. I actually really wanted to hear him sing the whole song, if he had managed to finish it.

Luke nodded and walked past me to get one of the guitars. As he picked one up, he looked at me a little strangely. "Are you sure you don't play guitar?"

"No. I mean, yeah, I'm sure I don't play," I rambled slightly.

"Really? Because you were kind of looking at the guitars like you wanted to play one of them," he said disbelievingly.

"You were watching me?" I teased, but also was trying to deflect.

"You're deflecting," he pointed out.

"So are you," I commented with a smile. He rolled his eyes but I could definitely detect a hint of a grin on his lips.

"You sure you don't mind if I..." he rubbed the back of his neck in an admittedly adorable way, making me realize that Luke Hemmings was nervous of singing in front of me.

"Of course not. I can leave, though, if you want," I suggested even though I really didn't want to.

"No, it's fine," he assured me. He sat down on one of the seats and began to play the riff before singing along.

"I, need your love, need your love, the taste of your tongue, the smoke in your lungs, and I, need your love..."

He carried on singing and seemed to relax more as I watched him in admiration. He could actually sing really well, and, I don't know, watching him made me feel really... peaceful. I couldn't help but watch his lips as he sang. It was bad of me, I know, but damn, that lip ring was attractive.

"I don't wanna say goodbye to another night, and watch you walk away, I don't wanna let it burn in the city lights, and make the same mistakes..."

I smiled as I heard my addition to the song being sung. Luke finished the song just as Fran entered the studio with a loud, "Good morning! Or... afternoon, I guess. You guys are early."

I immediately stood up, smiling. "You're in a good mood today."

"I'm always in a good mood. We missed you yesterday, by the way," she told me as she collapsed on the seat I'd originally been sitting on.

I shrugged. "Tuesdays are my days off." At that moment Kate came in and before she could say anything, I immediately offered, "Coffee?"

"Please," she said gratefully, and I smiled before heading to the cafeteria. When I came back with the coffee, everyone had arrived, and Ashton was in the room on the other side of the glass banging away on some drums. He was really talented, actually. I mean, the guy could sing, play drums, play guitar, play keyboard, all of which he was very good at, evidently. If I was honest, all the guys in the band were really talented. I'd always thought they made good music but now I was realizing how much work they actually put into it.

Fran was sitting with Calum and Michael who were trying to teach her how to play the guitar. She was learning pretty quickly.

"Maybe I should teach you," came Luke's voice right by my ear. "If you don't know how to play."

I turned round to face him, and watched as he tugged his lip ring with his teeth. Realizing I was staring very blatantly at his lips, I snapped my gaze back up to his to see him smirking. "No, that's okay," I said quickly.

"Why not?" Luke pressed. I shrugged.

"I don't... I don't have time," I said indifferently.

"You're not doing anything at the moment," he pointed out, stepping a little closer to me. Why did he have to be so goddamn tall and broad? I felt tiny next to him, which was saying something since I was pretty tall myself. "Sure I am. I'm... watching Ashton play the drums."

"No you're not. You're looking at my lip ring," he commented, and I blushed.

"No I wasn't," I mumbled. I was such a liar. Of course I was. Who wouldn't?

"If you say so," he said, still observing me closely.

"Hey, Luke? Can you go into the vocal booth? We're going to start recording," John said suddenly, making me quickly step away from Luke.

"Sure." A slow smile pulled at his lips, and he went through to the other room. I sat down on one of the seats and watched through the window as he put on the headphones and sang parts of the song.

After Luke did his bit we all went to the cafeteria and had lunch. I wound up next to Luke, whose leg kept brushing mine.

"I think I'm getting good at the guitar," Fran said proudly.

"Mikey and I are just really good teachers," Calum stated with a smile.

"I would be better," Luke said to me quietly.

"Why is it that you want to teach me guitar so bad?" I muttered.

He shrugged. "Why not? I figured you were gonna be here a while, so you may as well learn something. Speaking of, give me your phone."

"What? Why?"

He didn't reply but leaned over me to grab my bag and searched in it until he found my phone. I scoffed.

"You can't just search through people's bags," I pointed out, but he ignored me.

"What's your password?"

"Luke, I'm not telling you my passcode," I huffed, and he looked at me in amusement.

"Why? Is there something on your phone you want to hide?" he questioned.

"No, but–"

"So what's the problem?" Luke queried.

I frowned but gave in and told him my passcode. "I don't understand why you need my phone."

He didn't reply but after a few seconds of tapping on the screen he locked it and gave it back to me. "There was something wrong with it, but I fixed it."

"Something wrong with it? What did you do?" I frantically unlocked my phone and searched through everything but couldn't find anything different.

"My number wasn't in it. But it is now." He gave me a satisfied smirk and I rolled my eyes but smiled.

"Wow. What a great pickup line," I said sarcastically and tried to ignore the fact that I now had Luke Hemmings' number in my phone. I shoved my phone back in my bag.

"Wasn't meant to be. I just thought since we're going to be spending time together you may as well have it."

"And if someone goes through my phone and sees I have Luke Hemmings' number?" I challenged. "Someone might go through my phone like you just did and tell the whole world your number. You'll probably have groupies calling you and freaking out over the fact that they are talking to Luke Hemmings."

He merely smiled slightly. "That won't be a problem."

"What? Why?" I said in confusion, but he didn't answer and got up since he'd finished his lunch.

"You coming?" He indicated to my empty plate, and I sighed but followed suit.

When we went back to the studio there was no one there since everyone else was still on their lunch break.

"Sit," Luke instructed.

"Why?"

"Because," he said, picking up a guitar, "I am going to teach you how to play the guitar."

I groaned. "You really don't need to–"

"I do. Take this," he handed me the guitar which I took, automatically placing it in the right position.

"Luke–"

"Okay, those metal things are frets. Put your index finger on the second fret of the second string from the top." Sighing, I obliged. "Put your middle finger on the third fret of the first string from the top, and your ring finger on the last string on the third fret. That's a G chord."

I smiled and strummed, the chord ringing out. Luke carried on telling me different chords, and if I didn't already know how to play, I would have said he was a really good teacher.

Lunch break ended and I hastily put the guitar back in its place as everyone returned. Along with all the other people coming back into the room, one of the receptionists from downstairs arrived.

"Noelle Torres?" she said, and I looked over at her.

"Yeah?"

"There's a Nathan Foster here to see you. He's down in the lobby," she told me with a smile and I groaned.

"You have got to be kidding me," I muttered, mainly to myself but Luke heard.

"Who's Nathan?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

I blushed slightly. "Uh... my, um...boyfriend?"

"Are you sure? Because you don't sound it," Luke commented.

"I'm sure," I said firmly and he nodded with an unreadable expression on his face and turned away. "Kate, do you mind if I...?"

"Sure. Just be quick."

"Yeah, of course." I followed the receptionist down to see Nathan waiting with a bunch of flowers. I cringed inwardly.

"Nathan, what the hell are you doing here?" I hissed.

"I came to surprise you. You know that I feel really bad about upsetting you, and you had to rush off this morning so we couldn't talk properly–"

"Why now? In the middle of my work? Can't you see this is a bad time?" I demanded.

Nathan took a step back. "Whoa, are you actually pissed at me? I'm trying to do something nice for my girlfriend here, and you're getting mad at me?"

"You can't just show up like this, Nathan! Look," I said, exhaling deeply. "I admire the gesture, but now is not the time. We can talk later, okay?"

"You say that, but we won't!" Nathan insisted. "This internship is taking up your whole life and you've only been at it for two days!"

"Nathan, you're being so overdramatic. I was free all yesterday, you could have come to talk to me then but you didn't. I need to – I need to get back to work," I said resolutely. He looked pissed. I sighed, and said, "Let's go out on Saturday evening, yeah?"

Nathan looked away. "Fine." He quickly kissed me on the cheek and handed me the flowers, which I took. Then he left, and I went back up to the studio.

Luke was the first person I looked at when I went into the room, and his eyes immediately went to the flowers in my hand. I swiftly put them down on one of the tables before shutting the door after me and getting back to work.