Heart It Races

"I've seen a ghost before!" Ashton informed as we sat around the campfire roasting marshmallows.

Camping with the boys had been interesting thus far, seeing how none of them were very outdoorsy, but it was fun, and sitting here around a fire talking about pointless stupid shit made it all the better.

"This is so cliché." Luke mumbled, blowing out the flame that had engulfed the end of his skewer.

"C'mon Luke get in the camping spirit!" Calum blurted.

"So, anyway, I was at my friend's house, and he lived in an older neighborhood. He'd always tell me about how he'd see things and stuff and I didn't believe him obviously, but, then one day we were sitting playing video games, no one was home, just us, and he got up to go to the bathroom, so I was sitting out there alone. So I was just sitting there twiddling my thumbs and out of the corner of my eye I see this blur or like black, so I look up and there's this shadow standing in the door watching me it was so fucking creepy! Then it just disappeared and when I told Jack about it he was like 'oh yeah happens all the time' but I was scared shitless, I've seen those shows, the ones where the angry spirits rip you to shreds, and I was not ready for that, so yeah I never went back."

"That was the worst ghost story I've ever heard." Calum stated blankly.

"Like you could tell a better one!"

"I'm not saying I could, I'm just saying yours sucks!"

"Well I hope you get eaten by a bear."

"Pretty sure there are no bears around here." I piped, raising an eyebrow.

"Either way Calum needs to be disposed of."

"Hey! Don't kill off my lover!" Luke joked wrapping his arms around Cal protectively.

"Remind me again why I'm friends with these people." Michael whispered in my ear from where he was sitting next to me.

"I was just asking myself the same question." I replied, joking, obviously.

He handed me another marshmallow, the fire illuminating his green eyes.

"I've been thinking an-"

"Luke's been thinking?! Someone call the press!" Michael teased.

"Ha. Ha. Very funny. Now, as I was saying, I was thinking and maybe we should post cover videos on YouTube."

"Why?"

"Well if we get a spot at Colton's uncle's, I feel like it would be a good idea to have some of our music out there for anyone who likes it until we get our EP out."

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense." Ashton agreed.

"What song would we do first?" Michael inquired.

"We should do that Taking Back Sunday song Cute Without the E." Luke suggested.

"We should do a Busted song too!" Calum piped, getting into the idea of cover videos.

We stayed by the fire chatting and telling stories for a while, then one by one heading off to the tent.

Once we were all inside, our body heat warmed the already uncomfortable temperature in the fabric structure, so we took off the rain fly and zipped down all the "windows" leaving just a screen over them and allowing a small breeze to blow through. We all laid on top of our sleeping bags, too hot to be in them, lined up like hot dogs in a package.

"I'm so hot." Michael whined turning over on his sleeping bag next to mine.

"We forgot to sing the campfire song." Luke commented randomly.

Even though the heat was stifling, almost unbearable, I couldn't help but smile to myself, stuffed in this tent between the four idiots who had accidentally taken over my life. They were so genuine and simple, honest and hysterical, I was thankful to have met them, to be a part of their American experience. My heart lurched as I thought realizing this wouldn't last forever, and they would in fact, have to go home eventually. I wondered if I would ever see them again once they were gone.

"You're frowning." Michael notes now facing me, pulling me from my mind.

"We can't have a frowning Aspen! What is this? Why is this happening?!" Calum poked at my face causing me to break out into a smile, "Thank God! I thought we lost you!"

"You can never leave us!" Ash hollered, and as if on que, I was being sandwiched between the four of them struggling to breathe, but enjoying it all the same.

"You guys are so weird." I smiled feeling like I'd finally found my place.

***

"What time do we have to be out of here?" Ashton asked, attempting to take over the roll of older and more responsible in the group, as we dined on the oh so healthy breakfast of Oreos and Pop-Tarts.

"One-ish."

"We should probably start packing up soon then."

It was around ten o'clock now.

We finished eating throwing all of the food in the back of the car, then disassembling the tent and putting it away as well. There were still a few hours before we had to leave.

"Is that a trail?" Michael asked pointing across the way to the expanse of thick trees.

I shrugged, "I don't know, I've never been in there."

"We should go explore it." He suggested, already grabbing my hand and pulling me behind him.

"We're going adventuring!" He called over his shoulder.

"I wanna go!" Ashton said, already following, the other two trailing behind him.

Michael muttered something under his breath looking annoyed, but I didn't mind the other three coming along.

"I hope we see a buzzard!" Calum announced excitedly looking toward the sky.

"I hope it pecks your eyes out." Michael joked as we trudged into the thick foliage.

"Don't be sour just because we crashed your alone time with-"

"Shut up Calum!" Mike cut him off quickly.

Our hands were still loosely linked and I don't know if any of the boys noticed of if they were just ignoring it.

The smaller plants thinned out to expose that there was in fact a small trail, it's destination unknown.

"I'll race you to the end." Calum challenged Ashton.

"Dude, I'd beat you even with Luke on my back."

"Fine, you're on."

"Luke get on my back!"

"If you drop my I swear..." He threatened climbing on to Ashton.

"Aspen count us down."

"Okay, on your mark. Get set. Go!"

They jetted off, Calum easily taking the lead.

I leaned my head on Michael's shoulder, he lightly squeezed my hand in his. Up ahead we could make out Luke and Ashton in a pile on the ground.

"So tell me, how do you feel about America so far?" I wondered, thinking again about the fact that he was only visiting and did have a completely separate life back in Australia.

"It's pretty great, the people are great," he glanced down at me "there's this one girl in particular, she's really strange, she likes weird stuff, and she asks weird questions, she's interesting though."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, everything she just...She's just intriguing."

I couldn't help but blush knowing his words were aimed at me, thinking about him noticing these things about me. Things other people hadn't.

"You're weird."

"You're weird."

"What's Australia like?"

"It's like here but people have accents and it's void of strange question asking beauties," I smiled up at him, his green eyes starring back at me, "which is definitely a deal breaker."

***

"This song sucks." Luke groaned to Calum who was sitting next to me controlling the radio, some sensual R&B song playing.

"Sucks." He shrugged continuing to sing along to it.

"Are you gonna stay and hang out with us when we get home?" Michael asked form the backseat.

"I suppose I could for a little while."

"Let's make a YouTube video today." Luke suggested.

They agreed to it, immediately discussing what song should be covered.

"I'm standing by Chris Brown." Calum was firm in his vote.

"We can't do Chris Brown for our first cover!"

"Why not?"

"Because I don't want people to get the wrong idea about our style."

"What style?!" Ashton laughed.

"We're punk rock."

"You keep thinking that, Luke."

"I still think we should do Cute Without the E."

"I'd be down with that."

So it was decided.

***

"Play something." I said sitting next to Michael on the couch as Luke and Cal discussed vocals.

"Like what?"

"Anything."

His finger began to dance quickly across the strings creating a tune I'd never heard before.

"What song is this?"

"The one we wrote with your dad the other day. You're the first to hear it."

I smiled, enjoying the feeling that came with the idea of being the only one, "I like it."

He continued strumming and I found myself watching him intently, his multi-colored hair unstyled fro having been in nature, green eyes focusing on his hands, his lips moving slightly, mouthing the lyrics most likely.

He made me feel light and I couldn't describe it any other way. The way he talked, and the things he said, his entire state of being sent me into a state of floating, altering me like drugs, bringing me bliss but not the bad stuff. He was funny and sweet, sometimes quiet, but also loud, he was just him and I was lucky.

He stopped playing when Luke came over to go over music stuff.

I didn't pay much attention to what he was saying though.

"Okay guys, let's do this."

They piled in front of the coffee table, which the camera sat on, me behind it. My job was to push record.

"Is it going?"

"Yeah."

"Hi, we're 5 Seconds of Summer, and we're gonna cover Cute Without the E by Taking Back Sunday."

Ashton counted them off and they began the song. I'd never heard them play live all together as a band, just the separate sessions they did with my dad in the studio. They were great though and would definitely make it somewhere.

They finished the song and I couldn't help the small butterflies that fluttered in my stomach when Michael sang his part.

Luke excused himself to upload the video calling over his shoulder that he would come back when he was done.

"I'm hungry." Mike whined putting a hand on his stomach.

"Same." I agreed.

"Let's make food." He stood motioning for me to follow.

"Make me something." Calum called tuning on the TV and flipping through the channels as we entered the kitchen.

"What's on the menu for the today Mr. Five Star Chef?"

"Hmm... I'm feelin' Pizza Rolls." He turned to look at me for confirmation.

"Sounds good." I hopped up on the counter ready to watch him do all the work.

He grabbed a cookie sheet from one of the cupboards spilling the frozen squares onto it.

My phone vibrated on the counter. A message from my dad.

She's all moved in! When will u be home?

At the boys' right now, not sure, a few hours maybe.

Ok. V wants to have a movie night and would like it if u would join us.

Will do.

"My dad's girlfriend is moving in." I spoke, just putting the information out there.

"Is that a good thing or...?" He leaned on the counter space next to me, waiting for the over to preheat.

"Yeah, I think so, I like her and everything so I don't see why not."

"What about your mom?" He asked suddenly, not something I had expected.

I shrugged, "What about her?"

"I mean, do you feel weird, like she's replacing her?"

"Not really, but if she did I wouldn't mind."

He looked confused, "You don't like your mom?"

"It's sort of a long story I guess, we just weren't and still aren't on the same page with a lot of things, I wanted to be me, but she wanted a prefect daughter and it all came on at a weird time, and I guess she just couldn't deal with it so she got rid of me or whatever. I haven't talked to her in months, and when I did talk to her it was through email which ridiculous, so if she doesn't treat me like her child I won't treat her like my mother."

I hadn't realized I had been staring at my hands the whole time until I finished talking. For some reason I felt embarrassed by my story, but only slightly saddened, mostly worried it would make things awkward between us.

"Well, her loss, because you're pretty damn great." He pulled me into a hug and my head leaned perfectly on his chest as my arms went around his middle, and we stayed that way until the oven beeped.

When we entered back into the living room, food in hand the only one downstairs was Luke an episode of Spongebob playing.

"I love this episode!" I sat down next to him watching as Sandy sang her sad song about Texas.

"I will admit when I met you I was slightly disappointed that you didn't have an accent." Luke said, stealing a Pizza Roll off my plate.

"I'm sorry Luke would it make you happy if I talked like this?" I joked, dawning a thick country accent.

"Yeah, I kinda like it. I may as well call you Sandy Cheeks."

"Oh God, please no."

"Sandy Cheeks... Sandy Cheeks..." He began to softly repeat the name to himself.

"You okay bud?" Mike asked sarcastically.

"Cheeks like butt cheeks?" He asked a look of horror on his face.

"I'm pretty sure, dude."

"Okay, I'm not calling you that."