I Don't Want to Be Wasting My Time Alone

"Hurry up, you've gotta get down to the radio station." I banged on the door to the bathroom as I waited for Michael to finish getting ready.

"It's so stupid, I'm the only one of my band mates. Why do I even have to do this?" He asked, flinging the door open. I obviously checked him out with my eyes, starting from his black converse, to his black skinnies, to his beat up t-shirt and red and black flannel shirt.

I snapped out of it, remembering my job title. "Because they already did their part of the interview. You're doing the interview live then they're going to play the clips of their answers after. We're already 10 minutes behind schedule, come on." I pulled on Michael's hand, but he wasn't budging. "Michael."

"Lydia. A kiss first?" He pouted at me, but I could see him fighting a smirk. I stood on my tiptoes and pecked his lips quickly, and he followed me out of the room, our hands still holding onto each others.

As the elevator dinged that we were at ground floor, our hands separated like two opposite forces and we were greeted by security guards who would escort us through the crowd of girls that had grown. I walked behind Michael, pushing him to only be able to say hi to a few of the fans, promising that we would stop on our way back in. He climbed into the black SUV and offered his hand to pull me up, but I politely declined, being able to climb up myself.

"You two are so late!" Spoke the SUV driver.

"Yeah, yeah, get on with it!" I yelled back at him, as he slowly drove through the crowds of people.

--

Crowds, crowds, crowds. That was the life of being associated with this band. The radio station had let word out that they would be conducting the radio and Skype interview with Michael today and hundreds of girls had been waiting since dawn. Thankfully they had a path blocked off for us to walk in to the station, so we weren't technically late- but right on time. They mic'd Michael up and he took his seat behind a microphone the size of his head.

I watched from behind the glass as he went on with the interview, talking about how losing his passport was the stupidest thing he's ever done, how great of a city NYC was, etc. The typical questions he always answered. I excused myself from the room to find some coffee since we didn't have a chance to stop at Starbucks on the way to the station. I finally found the coffee station and poured myself a cup, adding a packet of sugar and a little bit of cream. I inhaled the scent of the coffee as I sat down in a chair, and checked my phone at the same time.

My best friend had sent me a text earlier in the day saying how she missed me and hoped I was doing okay- I had briefly updated her on the breakup and my brother had filled her in on the rest of it. I replied quickly to her, letting her know I was okay and that I'd call next time I had a chance. I silently wondered to myself if I needed to let her know about everything with Michael... She wasn't one to ever tell any of my secrets, so I really had no reason not to. I just don't want to get ahead of myself by telling her what had happened, or get my hopes up for something more than what we are now to happen between us. Suddenly, someone was kicking my shoe. I looked up to see Michael standing in front of my chair.

"Hey, are you done already?" I took a sip of my now warm coffee.

"No, they're setting up for the skype thing now. The other guys are going to join in on that."

"Oh wow, that's exciting." I placed my phone in my lap and looked anywhere but Michael's face.

"You okay?"

"Fine." I answered before he could finish his question.

"You're off today." Michael squatted to look me in the eyes. "Hey. We're okay, aren't we? You're not regretting it are you?"

"No, no. God, no, I don't regret it. I'm just missing home a little bit more today than usual. I'll be fine."

"Sorry." he said, looking down at his hands that were intertwined.

"Why?"

"I made you stay back."

"If you don't stop apologizing for that, Michael. It's okay, I promise. I'll get to go home soon! Josh told me that I could go home for a week once the rest of the band comes back over here since he'll be with you guys. I'm just looking forward to that."

"You already want to leave me?!" He asked, smiling at me.

"No, I really don't. But I need to go home and see my brother."

"Michael?" Someone called from around the corner, and he flashed me another quick smile.

"I gotta go. Come watch this interview! I saw you skip out early earlier."

I nodded, taking his hand he offered me and he pulled me into the room for the Skype interview.

I observed as Michael giddily answered questions, interacting with his bandmates through the computer screen. It was adorable how happy he was to see their faces (even though he had been Facetiming them the last few days). The interview lasted about 10 minutes, I thanked everyone at the station for being so great, and we walked out of the building, to be greeted with crowds again.

---

I sat on the hotel bed in my comfortable leopard robe as Michael slept beside me. I was answering a few emails and making final scheduling decisions that Josh had sent over to me to review to make sure he wasn't overworking the boys. My phone buzzed beside me, Ashton's name lighting up the screen. It was an odd time for them to be calling, so I knew something must be wrong.

"Hello?" I answered.

"Lydia?" He asked me, dragging out the last syllable of my name. "Why are you answering Michael's phone?"

"Huh?" I asked, and looked at the back of the phone, realizing I had grabbed Michael's scratched up black phone instead of mine. "Oh, we must have accidentally switched phones earlier. We've both got black phones."

"Where's Michael?"

"Taking a nap..."

"Where?" Ashton asked, I knew what he was trying to get at.

"In his hotel room..." I cautiously answered.

"Well, when sleeping beauty wakes up and you switch your phones back, tell him to call me back ASAP."

"I will! Hey, when are you guys coming back again?" I asked, looking at my phone that was now lighting up on the bedside table- Josh was calling.

"We're coming back a day and a half early! That's what I was calling to tell him. We'll be back tomorrow afternoon." I could hear Ashton smiling through the phone. I was excited for the band, but also saddened because our rendezvous would be cut short.

"I'll tell him to call you back as soon as he wakes up." I felt Michael stir from beside me as I switched phone calls.

"Yeah, Josh?"

"Would you hate me if you had to stay through the week I promised you could go home? We've got too much scheduled for them next week for me to be able to handle it by myself..."

I was honestly torn. I really wanted to go see my brother, but staying over with Michael could be fun too. Sneaking around the hotel, and backstage... "Yeah, I can stay." I felt Michael's arms wrap around my waist as he cuddled into my side.

"Perfect. You're the best, Lydia. We're coming back tomorrow, so we'll see you at the hotel. I think the boys wanted to tell him themselves, so next time you see him don't act like you already know, alright? You two doing okay? The interview went great today!"

"Yeah, we're fine. And I won't tell him, they're probably blowing his phone up already." I joked to Josh as Michael started to untie my robe. "Well, I've got a few more things to look at so I'll see you tomorrow. Call me if anything changes!" I rushed off the phone just as Michael started placing kisses on my bare torso.

"What aren't you going to tell me?" His kisses got lower and lower until they reached my black cotton boyshorts. He took the waistband in between his teeth and snapped the band against my hip.

"T-the guys are coming back early. They'll be here tomorrow." I muttered out, trying to make my voice not so evident of my weakness.

"What?!" Michael sat up, his voice still heavy with sleep. "Fuck, that means I'll have to share this room with someone who isn't you."

"But its your band, Michael! They're coming back."

"But it'll be impossible to sneak around with you." He pouted. I sat up and got on my knees in front of him, taking his face in my hands.

"All the more fun it'll be for us." I placed a kiss on his lips and he pulled me into his lap, making me straddle him. "We don't have much time and didn't you want to sight see some before they got here?"

"I've got plenty to see in this room..." He said, biting down my neck to my collarbone.

---

My alarm went off the next morning at 9 o'clock. I groaned, the boys would be arriving around noon. I had three more hours left with just the two of us, and Michael was not waking up anytime soon. I sighed as I watched his angelic face peacefully sleeping beside me. His lips were a little more plump than usual from the night before, a bruise on his neck from two nights ago was almost faded away, pretty much invisible on his pale skin. His red hair had faded even more, desperately needing color on its ends, and quiet snores were escaping from deep in his throat. He had one hand wrapped around the soft white sheets and the other was clutching my bare hip. I had gotten cold in the middle of the night, so I had grabbed one of the random black shirts Michael had thrown on the ground.

"Hey... Hey." I poked Michael in the cheek, but he wasn't waking up. He picked his head up and turned it the other way, turning on his side away from me. At least now I could get up and pack my stuff. I walked around the chilly room and quietly packed my bags. I slid on a pair of leggings before leaving the room, took the elevator to my room, changed into some actual clothes, keeping Michael's to sleep in, then made my way back down to Michael's. It was now almost 10, and he was still sound asleep. His phone was blowing up with notifications from the boys having wifi service on the plane and I felt bad for him having to play catch up when he woke up. I sighed, and turned on the TV quietly, trying to entertain myself before Michael woke up. We had stayed up all night, going to bed at 4 AM, so I really didn't expect him to wake up anytime soon.

Josh called me around 11, letting me know that they had landed and were making their way to the hotel.

"Michael, wake up. They're going to be here soon."

"No."

"Yes, Josh just called and their plane just landed. They're on a cab over here soon."

"But I don't want you to leave." He grumbled into the pillow. I laid down and faced him, pushing the hair away from his beautiful face.

"I'm not leaving, babe. I'm staying this week. He asked me if I could stay and help out." I smiled and placed a quick kiss on Michael's tempting lips, still slightly smelling like me from the previous night/early morning's activities.

"You're going to not go home to stay with me?"

I nodded, "Any little bit of time that I can have with you, I want. We've just gotta be really careful. Ashton already suspects us, I think."

"I think so too." He flipped over on his back and stretched from his toes to his fingertips and let out a loud yawn. "When will they be here?"

"Less than an hour. Probably 30 minutes. Josh said Ashton's sharing a room with you, Calum and Luke wanted to bunk together."

"Oh great. Now he'll figure it out. He's literally the worst sleeper ever. If I try to sneak out, he'll wake up immediately."

"We can figure it out. Stop worrying about it." I placed a kiss on his lips again, and he pulled my body closer to his. "You've got to get showered before they get here. I can smell myself on you." I blushed at making the statement out loud, but he wasn't bothered.

"I can still smell you too." He smirked, and placed a kiss on my cheek, then my ear, tugging my earlobe between his two teeth. "And God, how could I forget how you taste." My eyes rolled back in my head at his statement.

"Michael, we don't have time." I tried pushing him away but it wasn't working. "Please, I really can't get caught.

"You said thirty minutes is all we have at the least. I think I've proven this week that I only need about 10 minutes."