Why'd You Want to Go and Make Me Feel This Way?

"But Michael only told that girl we were on a 'date' so she would leave him alone. He was dumb and didn't think the girl would say anything. I promise there's nothing going on." I had been begging and pleading with Ben for 45 minutes to let me go. "You know me, I'm way more worried about the image of our band than a boy. Michael and I have just bonded quickly and made a new friendship. He's not my type, and even you know that." Not my type? Pff. Too nice and cute to be my type.

Ben sat there, staring me down for a good 15 seconds before speaking, "You're right. Just be careful, alright? I just booked an interview for you guys tomorrow morning bright and early, you can tell everyone else!" I jumped out of my seat and gave Ben a hug. I skipped out of the room and started to head back to our dressing room. As I was walking, I saw Ashton completely oblivious to me walking behind him, so I quickly snuck up behind him and took a running start to hop on his back. He grabbed me under the legs and started laughing, lugging me around.

"Where are we headed today m'lady?"

"Dressing room!" I wrapped my arms around his neck as he carried me the rest of the way. "We have our first big radio interview tomorrow morning!"

"Oh yeah?! Make sure you brush your teeth." I kicked him with my leg and he gripped me to him tighter. "That hurt."

"That hurt." I mocked his accent.

"You sounded more like Forrest Gump than anything else." He let out a goofy laugh at his own insult and I just rolled my eyes.

"You can put me down now." I said as we made it to the dressing room door.

"Nope." He said as he opened the door with me still on his back.

"Put me down!" I kicked his back again and he wasn't budging as I was hauled into the room. "Seriously I'm uncomfortable now." Ashton walked straight over to Michael who was playing Jackson in a video game.

"A delivery for you!" Ashton threw me off of his back and onto Michael's lap. My ass landed right on top of his controller, which in turn slammed into Michael's crotch. "Fuck!" We both yelled out in unison. I hopped up and held onto my butt while Michael keeled over into a ball. Ashton ran out of the room and Michael regained composure and chased after him. Jackson was laughing as he paused the game.

"Hey! Ben got us a radio interview tomorrow morning!"

"Is that what he was talking to you about?" Ryan asked from the other couch.

"Not quite but he mentioned it and told me to tell you guys." I grabbed a water bottle from the refrigerator.

"So what was he talking to you about then?" Sawyer prodded.

"Don't worry about it. We were just clearing some things up for the show tomorrow." I tried lying, but none of the guys believed me.

"You're blowing up all over Twitter right now, by the way." Seth said, looking up from his phone.

"That's great." I said, not caring. I was already bored on our day off. "What are you guys doing the rest of the day?"

"We had planned on playing video games on the bus probably. I think they have a pop up acoustic set at 7 tonight." Ryan answered.

"Oh, okay." I muttered to myself. Why hadn't Michael mentioned that to me? "Is there a gym here?" I knew a lot of the venues had gyms, but I hadn't gotten the layout here yet.

"I think so." I got a shrug from Seth. I slowly walked out of the venue, absentmindedly checking my phone for anything.

Not your type, eh? That's fine. I can just reschedule my date for tonight with someone who I know is in to me.
You sneak. I had to make something up.
No, it really is fine. I'd hate to be the stupid boy who got in the way of your band.

At first I thought he was kidding, but now I don't think he was.

I'm sorry you heard me say that, but I promise I didn't mean it :( Michael read the text but I watched as no typing bubble popped up and he probably wasn't going to respond.
Good luck with your acoustic set tonight. I waited a few moments for a reply, but got nothing so I climbed onto the bus to grab some gym clothes.

I changed into a pair of black capri leggings, a sports bra and a loose tank and made my way back to the venue. I plugged my earphones in as I found the gym, and waved at Calum who was already in there working out.

"Am I bothering you if I'm here?" I asked, only putting one earphone in.

"You're fine! I'm almost done." I gave him a thumbs up and started a slow walk on the treadmill. My phone buzzed on the treadmill, interrupting my song.

It was Michael, again. Where are you?
About to run on the treadmill... why?
Oh. Calum said he saw you.
Yeah, he did.

I put my phone on do not disturb as I increased my pace up to a run. My mind was full of thoughts about what was going on with Michael. Before I knew it, I had been running for 25 minutes and hadn't even thought about stopping. I felt someone tap my arm and I hit the emergency stop to keep myself from falling off. I bent over halfway with my hands on my knees to calm my heart rate down.

"Jesus Christ you scared the shit out of me!" I watched as sweat dripped from my face onto the black treadmill. I followed the black shoe clad feet of who scared me up to their face to realize it was Michael. "You could have like, warned me you were behind me." I paused my music and started stretching.

"I tried, but you were ignorning me." He simply stated. He looked adorable. He had on a backwards black hat, an old black and white baseball tee, and his signature tight skinny jeans. "What are you doing?"

"Something called stretching."

"No, I mean like-" He started laughing, "I'm not an idiot. What are you doing like, after this? Want to go with us or something? I know everyone else is playing video games and you're not really into that. We leave in an hour so I figured that would give you some time to get ready if you wanted to come. They all wanted you to come anyway."

"Hmm." I thought about what Ben had said, about needing to lay low with hanging out with Michael. "Sure. I guess I can fit that into my busy schedule."

"Good. I'll see you in an hour." Michael awkwardly gave me a thumbs up then left me to be by myself as I finished my stretching.

I sent a quick text to Jackson to let him know I'd be going with 5SOS, he replied telling me that he and the rest of the band were going to dinner with the rest of the crew and management team, but I'd be fine not going along. It was mostly guys, and even though I'd be with guys going with 5SOS, it just felt different.

I showered quickly, and let my hair air dry so it would be wavy. I changed into a more comfortable outfit than I wore to lunch. I was putting my red lipstick on as Michael's name popped up on the screen. "Hello?"

"Hey, we're leaving in 10. Are you ready yet?"

"Yeah, I just finished up." I stuffed all of my makeup into my makeup bag and started walking back out of the bathroom.

"You can just come over to our bus. Calum is finishing up his hair now."

"Okay, I'll be over there in a minute, I just need to drop all of my stuff off in the dressing room."

"'Kay, see you soon." Michael hung up the phone and I shoved my phone into my purse and walked to their bus. Luke opened the door for me before I had a chance to and welcomed me onto their bus. There were clothes strewn about, empty cups everywhere and empty food containers.

"Does anyone know what a trash can is?" I asked Ashton who was sitting at the table.

"That's all Luke." He shrugged.

"Is not! It's all Calum."

"Come on, we all know Michael is the pig of the group." Calum yelled from the back. Why he chose to do his hair on the bus instead of in an actual bathroom was weird to me.

"I'm the only one on the bus who makes their bed. It's not me, must be Ashton." Michael's voice boomed as he walked to greet me at the front where I was still awkwardly standing. He shot me a cute smirk and I knew he wanted to say something but he refrained. He was still wearing the same outfit, but he smelled a lot nicer. I looked over at Ashton who was shaking his head and smirking to himself. I leaned over and slapped him on the side of the head.

"CAB'S HERE!" Luke yelled and he stomped off the bus. I followed after him, then Michael, Ashton and finally Calum. We climbed into the SUV with dark tinted windows that was waiting for us. It was 5:45, so they must have been expecting a pretty large crowd to have to fight through. Their acoustic show was at the same radio station that we were doing the interview at tomorrow morning. 5SOS tour manager, Adam, was seated in the front, but they must have told him that I was coming along because he didn't seem surprised when I stepped foot in the car. Michael shooed me to the back row of the SUV while Luke, Ashton and Calum sat in the row in front of us. Their manager was going over the details with them of how the set was going to go, none of them seemed like they were paying any attention whatsoever, until Ashton asked a question. Michael slid his arm around me and squeezed my side, and I relaxed into his body.

"Cute shirt. Wrong band, though." He whispered.

"Oh, whatever! A fan gave it to me once. I like it. I like One Direction too."

"I'll excuse it this once, just because it looks cute on you. It would look better on the floor of this van though." He muttered into my ear. I elbowed him in the chest, then dropped my arm in his lap, squeezing his thigh. "No."

"What?" I looked at him and he was straight faced.

"Don't do that."

"What?" I looked up at him as innocently as I could and he just looked away, biting his lip.

I chuckled to myself and released my grip on his thigh, but left my hand there. We sat content in the backseat, listening to the 3 guys bicker in front of us. I saw Adam looking at the two of us as he remembered something else to tell them, but Michael didn't seem bothered, so I pretended to not feel uncomfortable either.

"Can Ben and Adam please switch bands? Ben would have chopped your arm off by now."

"He's super chill. Besides, I'm not your type anyway." He said trying not to smirk, but I saw one forming on his face.

"HEY, we're doing a video!" Ashton yelled. Michael removed his arm from around my waist, which was probably a smart thing to do. I scooted over so I wouldn't be in the selfie video, but Luke protested.

"No, lady, you're in this too!" I groaned and scooted back to my seat. Ashton started the video off as usual and showed the rest of us in the car. I waved and laughed as Calum blocked the camera with his hand for a few seconds. Ashton finished the video, thanking the fans as always and tweeted the link to it. I quickly pulled my phone out to retweet it, then decided to check my mentions. They were full of paparazzi pictures from Michael and I's outing earlier in the day. Hashtags of #Rokey were everywhere. I nudged Michael and he looked at a few of them with me.

"We look cute." He muttered and I admired the blush forming on his cheeks. My mention number quickly grew as I was reading old mentions and I looked at a few more tweets, fans were assuming since I was in the backseat with Michael that something was going on.

"Ben's going to have my ass." I said as I looked at more and more accusations.

"Not if I can have it first." Michael said back to me.

"Calm it down, you two." Calum yelled at us.

"It's all him, it's not me!" I held my hands up in defense.

"Everyone just loves blaming me for everything!"

"You're the perv!" I pushed his arm but he just bounced back and wrapped his arms around me and pulled me in a hug, kissing my temple. My face was squished against him. Ashton and Luke were watching us, shooting each other looks.

"Y'all are going to get me in so much trouble." I pushed away from Michael as they all mocked me.

"Y'all. Y'allllllllll. Y'all. Is that even a word?" They sounded like birds mocking me and repeating the word.

"Yes it is. If you're from Georgia."

"Geooooooorgiaaaaa." They mocked again and I scoffed, crossing my arms and looking out the window at the crowd of people who we had to drive through.

My phone started ringing in my lap, it was Ben. Of fucking course. Already.

"Don't get it, please." Michael pleaded with me and I obliged to his request. It went to voicemail and my screen went black.

A few seconds later my phone screen lit up again. "He's going to keep on if I don't answer." I spoke, then slid my finger across the lit screen. "What? We're about to go in and I can't talk."

"What was that video?"

"What?"

"You, just you, in the back seat with Michael. How do you think that looks? And you're going there without any of your band? If you two are trying to not be obvious you're doing a really shitty job of it."

Michael was listening in and he mouthed the words "Just tell him."

"What?" I mouthed back.

"You there?" Ben asked when he heard nothing.

"Yeah I'm here, the service must not be good. Can we not talk about this now?"

"No, we're talking about it. I'm supposed to be looking after you. I'm your manager, and you lied to me. How do you think I feel about that?"

"Pretty shitty, I guess. I just didn't want to get in trouble."

"Oh, you're in trouble. Leaving twice in one day without telling me where you're going, and who you're with, and your intentions with said person."

"I didn't know you were a fucking overbearing parent." I felt my anger rising up through my body. I didn't want to start yelling on the phone in the car so I took a deep breath before speaking calmly. "Ben, I can make my own decisions."

"Are you sure about that? How long have you known Michael for? And you're already off gallivanting with him?"

"I'm not gallivanting with him, I literally came with the BAND to see them play an acoustic set. Not just him."

"But that video, those pictures from today."

"What? They can see it as what they want. Just friends or something more. Listen, Ben-"

"Don't cut me off, I'm in charge of you." I sighed. "This just seems extremely quick, Rosie."

"No it doesn't. We met months ago when tour was announced!"

"But you've not even played 5 shows."

"But we aren't even anything official, okay? We just like each other. Let us be."

I felt all eyes on me as I admitted to liking Michael already. He looked at me and started giggling.

"We're having a talk about this when you get back tonight."

"Okay, bye." I hung the phone up and ignored the "ooooh's" and "awww's" from everyone in the car. I propped my elbow up on the window sill and looked out, not wanting to look at anyone. I felt horribly embarrassed, like my parents had just yelled at me in front of my friends.

"I ship it." Luke said, and I laughed at his comment, still not wanting to look at Michael.

"Hey. Hey. Hey." he poked my side.

"What?" I snapped my head at him and he was staring at me.

"We're here." He grinned at me.

Luke, Calum and Ashton filed out of the car, then Michael did and I followed. Michael held his hand out for me to climb out so I took it, but he didn't let go as we walked into the radio station. Flashes were going off left and right and I knew the "rumors" would be flying quickly, but I really didn't care anymore. We hadn't even had a chance to talk about what we wanted, what we were doing, or anything, but I felt comfort as he ushered me into the radio station and held me close with his arm around my side.