Long Way Home

5 Seconds of Summer were in an interview and all the while, Caeli and Violet had been sat outside of the room, one either side of the open door to listen in after being kicked out after five minutes as Caeli and Calum were making inappropriate faces at each other.

Only twenty minutes later, both girls suddenly looked into the room upon hearing mention of two girls.

"You have been spotted with two girls on numerous occasions lately." The female interviewer stated before glancing down at her notes. "You look pretty close and cosy with them, are you dating them?"

Almost instantly, Ashton and Michael looked in the direction of the girls who were staring back at them, Violet trying not to giggle at the pink appearing on Michaels cheeks.

"Yeah, we're all dating each other." Luke responded but his answer couldn't be heard over Calum's giggles between his own comment.

"Yeah, Vi's great at cuddling, right Mikey?" The bassist grinned looking at the blue haired guitarist. Michael didn't respond to either question, he didn't have the chance as Ashton spoke up being ever the responsible and serious one in interviews.

"We're just really good friends with them." He drummer answered with a smile looking at the female asking all the wrong questions.

Caeli turned back around and pressed her back to the wall, looking down at her phone in her hands. She had remembered the photo incident and a hole appeared in her stomach.
She didn't feel like listening any more.

***

After the interview was over, five went to lunch while Caeli went back to the bus claiming sleep deprivation but once in her bunk, head on pillow, her eyes didn't close. They just stared at the back wall.

As time passed, the hole in her stomach crept ever so slowly up her torso until it was suddenly in her chest and it felt as if the lump in her throat was the missing piece it had been chasing. Even as the pillow beneath her head became damp and her body shook in silent sobs, the lump didn't return to it's rightful place.

Eventually, her body was still and her face felt hot and horrible from the tears and the lump had escaped through her lips leaving an emptiness she wasn't sure how to fill.

"Shh." The sudden sound startled her, she wasn't sure if the bus had always been so silent up until that point or if in reality she had just been to absorbed in her own misery that she drowned out everything but her thoughts.

"She's been in here for hours, she's got to have caught up on sleep by now." Calum stated. "Let me go wake her up."

Caeli didn't hear anyone respond and panic set in. She really didn't want Calum seeing her post cry, or any of his band mates for that matter. She threw herself out of her bunk and ran to the bathroom and locked herself in briefly catching a glimpse of Calum's surprised face only a foot from her.

"I think something's wrong." She heard Calum announce quietly, with her ear pressed against the door she sighed in annoyance and turned to look at her red blotchy face and swollen eyes in the mirror.

"Great." she mumbled turning the cold tap on to wash her face, ignoring the gentle knock on the door.

"Cae?" She was surprised to her Michael's voice. She expected Calum or Violet. She looked at the door, water dripping from her chin but didn't speak. "Caeli? Are you okay?" Caeli made a vague noise in response that even she didn't know what it was supposed to mean.

"Cae?" It was a new voice, one she expected straight off the bat and the only person she wanted to see or talk to right then. The red head walked over to the door and put her hand on the lock ready.

"Just you." She announced quietly.

"Of course." Violet responded.

"I don't want them even looking at me."

It was quiet for a moment then she heard feet shuffling away before Violet agreed. Caeli opened the door and Violet quickly joined her best friend, closing the door behind her.

The two sat on the floor and for a good few minutes, neither said anything, Caeli just stared at the floor while Violet looked at her friend in concern.

"He said it'd be horrible." Caeli finally spoke still staring at the floor. "Me and him."

Unknown to the girls inside, the four boys were sat outside of the small room in complete silence to listen in. They were just as concerned about the red head's unusual mood as their blonde driver.

As soon as he heard the words slip from Caeli's lips, Ashton's heart dropped into his stomach. He knew Caeli meant him even though part of him doubted it, deep down, he knew he had caused her this pain and he hated himself for it.

"What do you mean?" Violet asked confused.

"Ash, he said it'd be horrible if there was a photo of us and it was put online like I was going to do with the photo of you and Mikey."

"Wait, photo?"

"Yeah, you were cuddling and it was hella cute but Ash wouldn't let me post it but don't worry, he's the only one with a copy."

"I see." Violet nodded slightly. She wasn't sure what to say exactly because every time she mentioned her best friend and Ashton, Caeli didn't believe her and Violet really didn't want to upset her any further.

"Shit." Ashton mumbled getting to his feet and dragging Calum off of the bus, shutting the door after them so they could speak in private. "That's my fault. Caeli is upset because of me." He was pacing while Calum stood near the door, arms crossed over his chest and watching. He didn't want to straight out agree and say it was Ashton's fault because then Ashton would be drowning in his own home-made pool of guilt but Calum also didn't want to disagree because then he'd be lying and he didn't want to lie to his friend, especially not about the particular situation.

When Ashton finally stopped pacing, he walked over and held the bassist at arms length by his shoulders.
"I need your help."

"With what?" Calum asked sceptically.

"The only one that knows her better than you is Violet and I'm pretty sure Vi won't help me."

"Right?"

Ashton sighed and rolled his eyes, dropping his arms to his sides. "Cae likes candles, I know that much but otherwise, I don't know what she likes." Calum was still confused. "I'm talking romantic sense here." The penny dropped and Calum's eyes widened slightly before he smiled and nodded.

"She doesn't like big public places, you know that much about her and she won't under any circumstances want you to spend loads of money on her."

"Okay." Ashton nodded madly, taking mental notes. "What's her favourite food?"

"Can't go wrong with Italian with Cae. Pasta would be her first choice but if not you could always split a cheese pizza and garlic bread but either way, she loves garlic bread so make sure you state you want some so she won't worry about garlic breath."

"It's not like she's never had garlic bread with me before." Ashton scoffed.

"Yeah but she's never thought that you might want to kiss her."

"Oh, yeah." It was only then that Ashton clicked onto the usual awkward end of first date kiss and he looked worried. "Shit, I hadn't even thought of the kiss."

"You're worried?" Calum almost laughed at the expression on his friend's face but knew it was serious so held back. "Dude, you've kissed plenty of girls, and so has she."

"What, kissed plenty of girls?" Ashton tried to joke but then he remembered about the fact Caeli had in fact had at least one female ex and put his palm to his face while Calum laughed. "Okay, that was my bad."

"Yeah."

"Do you think she will expect a kiss?" Ashton looked back at Calum.

"I dunno, depends how well it goes."

"Will she want to kiss me?"

"Yeah." Calum had no doubt Caeli would want to kiss Ashton at the end of their date, he even considered that she might want to kiss him from the start but didn't voice that thought.

"Okay." Ashton smiled. "And like how should I-?" He trailed off feeling weird about asking about kissing advice.

"Cae may say a lot of sexual shit but she won't be happy if you try and fuck her."

"That's not what I said!" Ashton blushed.

"Just be gentle with her man, no tongues."

"Okay, thanks." The drummer mumbled looking down.

By this point, Caeli and Violet had finished talking and Caeli had been cheered up slightly by the jokes Violet had told to her after looking up dad jokes on the internet.

"Want to watch some movies?" Violet asked smiling at her friend who nodded before the pair got up and leaving the bathroom to go to the back lounge.

Both Michael and Luke had already retreated to the front lounge once Ashton and Calum left them alone, they had originally planned to eavesdrop on their band mates but the boys outside were talking too quietly to hear anything they said.

Just as Violet was about to press play on Ice Age, Caeli got up and walked tot he front lounge wordlessly. She gathered some snacks then stood in front of Luke with her hand out. He was confused but took it and got up to allow Caeli to take him into the back lounge where he was shut in with the two girls and cuddled up to on the sofa.

Michael stared after the scene angrily. Why did Caeli chose Luke and not him? Why was Luke allowed private time in the back with them? Most importantly, what the hell was Luke doing back their with his Violet.

"What's up?" Calum asked as he spotted Michael's expression when he returned onto the bus with Ashton.

"Why the fuck is it always Luke?" Michael didn't feel like skirting around his annoyance, he just wanted to vent. "Every fucking time they go back there it's Luke I find her cuddling. What the hell are they doing? Why does she always fucking chose him?!"

"She doesn't actually." Ashton announced from the sofa opposite the guitarist.

"How are you so fucking calm right now? He's back there alone with Cae too you know."

"I know." Ashton stated. "I just don't feel threatened by it." He shrugged. "I know she wouldn't do anything with him because he's younger than her by like half a year."

"He's practically the same age as Vi, though!"

"She's not interested in him, trust me mate." Calum laughed knowing that Violet liked Michael, Caeli accidentally let it slip a couple nights back but Calum thought it was obvious anyway.

"Then what the hell are they doing back there?!"

"It's probably because Cae is so upset." Ashton spoke, guilt laced in his words. Then, he went on to explain what had happened, why Caeli was really upset and how he was going to solve it.

"Oh." Michael suddenly felt like a bit of a dick for reacting the way he did. He then knew that Violet and Luke were there for Caeli's comfort because as fine Caeli was with cuddling her best friend, she had always liked how Luke smelt and how he was never too hot or never to cold to cuddle, he was always the perfect temperature for cuddling. When Caeli was so sleep deprived that she couldn't get to sleep on her own, she would cuddle up to Luke and them minutes later, she'd be fast asleep.

"Yeah so let's just leave them alone for today." Ashton suggested and both boys nodded.

"This is nice." Luke mumbled from his position between the girls, his eyes on the TV, the same place as Violet's but Caeli's had finally closed after the tiring cry session.

"Yeah." Violet agreed softly. "Thanks for not being weird about this, for just going with it like that."

"It's fine, I actually really needed this, the guys have been weird and tense lately so it feels good to just chill with you two."

"And cuddles are great."

"And cuddles are great." Luke confirmed.

That was the last thing they said for a while. They were content watching kids films and pigging out for the rest of their day.