Pink Speakers

Waiting had never really been my favorite thing in the world. Whether it’s waiting for exam results or a McDonald’s delivery to arrive at my house, I was never a big fan of it. Now, waiting for the boys to come out of the arrivals exit, in a van, in the middle of a drizzle, with an aggressively growling stomach was simply a torture.

Yes, by ‘the boys’, I mean the four chatty idiots who collectively go by the name of 5 Seconds of Summer and may or may not be the real-life representation of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

“You can go buy some sandwiches if you want. Subway isn’t too far, I think,” Jack commented after listening to my shameless, hungry rant for the past half hour.

It was two days before the There’s No Place Like Home Tour that the boys were about to go on, and today was their first day back to Sydney after a red-eye flight from the US.

Little did they know, their families had been planning a small welcome-back gathering since a week ago, and they all agreed to have it over at the Hemmings.
We contacted Liz to make sure that she knew what was going on, and after a number of pointless votings and considerations, Jack and I were the ones who were sent to pick them up at the airport.

“Nah, it’s raining; too much trouble. It’s fine, I’m a big girl,” I declined, even though I was pretty sure that the growl was on loudspeaker by now. I think laziness took over my hunger, as it usually did everything else.

“Are you sure? Who knows how much longer the boys are gonna be?” he side-eyed me and spoke in an unbelievably gentle tone.

“You just want me to buy you some food too, you twat.” I slapped him across his arm, triggering a tickled laughter in return.

“The fake concern no longer works with you, does it?” Jack said between his laughs.

I couldn’t help but laugh along with him, but then soon cut myself short when my eyes caught four familiar figures appearing outside the gate. “Shh, they’re coming!” I silenced him when I realised that those were the 5SOS guys, as I prepared myself to hop over to the backseat, mainly because my presence there was supposed to be a surprise and to give their bodyguard, Roy, a place to sit as well later on.

In all urgency and no gracefulness whatsoever, I panically made my way to the back and tried to casually sit down on the seat nearest to the window as if I had been there all along.

The boys’ heads were all ducked down (mostly inside their hoodies) while they were walking because of the rain, but the first one who spotted me through the window was Michael, and his face instantly lit up like a match the second he did.

His five-year old self came out when he aggressively poked the other guys whilst pointing at my direction, even though they were only five feet away from the actual van.

It wasn’t even a minute later when the van door was abruptly pulled open and I was ambushed by four firm, and slightly wet, giants in a massive group hug.

“Charlie!” they all shouted in unison and attacked me without giving me any room to breathe.

While my head was stuck between Calum’s armpit and Ashton’s chest, and my hand was hopefully not on Michael's ass, Jack shouted from the front, “Hey! Where’s my hug? Luke, you’re my little brother, you’re supposed to be more excited to see me!”

“Oh shut up, we knew you were coming. I didn’t know you were coming with Jack, C,” Luke said, directing his comment at me as the boys finally let me breathe again and took their seating spots. Jack rolled his eyes at Luke’s blatant response, but then wasted no time to start the engine again and proceeded to drive home as soon as all of the boys’ luggages were loaded inside.

“I just wanna get my souvenirs sooner, that’s all. Whatcha all got for me from the other side of the globe?” I joked, receiving various kinds of exaggerated frown faces from all of them in response.

“Oh, I see now. So you’re choosing store-bought goodies instead of our cute fac— What the fuck, Cal?” Ashton’s attempt at puppy dog eyes was immediately changed to utter confusion when Calum tried to squeeze himself into the small space on the seat between Ashton and I.

“I wanna sit next to Charlie,” Calum claimed bluntly, with the stretched smile that he always did whenever he was being either sarcastic or completely genuine; I still couldn’t tell the difference.

“God, you’re such a kid,” Ashton grunted as he switched into the seat opposite of myself. “So clingy,” he commented again, not letting it go.

“Aww, of course I missed my little assholes too,” I assured, messing Calum’s fluffy hair up while he rubbed his head on mine like a puppy, “Why did you think I let you suffocate me like that before?!” I added a joking tone of anger at the end. “But to be fair it’s not like I haven’t seen you in weeks. Your faces are literally everywhere now, it’s uncanny. Plus the fact that we FaceTimed at least once a week.”

“Must you add the comments, C? Just admit that you simply miss us.” Luke drummed using his fingers on my thigh, which was odd because it was usually Ashton’s thing.
I huffed a mocking scoff and plainly replied, “Sure, Hemmings, Sure. Now where my gifts at?”

+++

Being in a small, closed space with these dorks for thirty minutes straight was easily comparable to babysitting a room full of toddlers; it was noisy yet nothing that came out of their mouths really meant anything.

“No, you noob, waffles are obviously better.” Mikey leaned forward to the edge of his seat, his veins on his head showed how deeply into this argument he was.

“Dude, pancakes are way smoother. Sometimes you don’t even have to chew it, the batter is that smooth,” argued Ashton.

Before Mikey could throw a comeback, Luke suddenly butted in, “Ash, that’s… Waffles and pancakes come from the same batter, so that’s invalid.”

“My side or no side at all, Luke,” Ashton gnarled at him, and the poor boy then decided to keep quiet.

“See. And waffles are generally pancakes with like little cups that hold the maple syrup in. They’re the best. The only thing that’s better than waffles is waffle fries,” Mikey grinned in satisfaction over Ashton’s defeat.

I didn’t even bother to include myself in the idiotic debate, even though I’d personally be on Mikey’s side with the waffles. It is hands down one of the most important human inventions in my opinion; I'll elaborate on that later.

But nope, I learned it the hard way to always pick my fights with the boys carefully. Once, Ashton and I legitimately stopped talking for a week after a silly debate about iced tea. Iced. Tea. I don’t know how I got my life to turn out this way, but I’m kind of loving it.

The solid reason why I was particularly irritated by this one argument, was because each time the word ‘waffle’ or ‘pancake’ was mentioned, my stomach growled a volume louder.

Thankfully, a moment later, Calum put his lovely, lovely voice to good use. “Guys. Gu— GUYS. They’re both just the fried version of a mixture of eggs, flour, and milk, and will more likely than not end up as your poo-poo. Now shush, we’re here.”

The two boys that had been interrupted pinched their eyebrows and looked each other intensely, probably continuing their debate internally.

As Jack pulled up in front of the Hemmings’ yard, I gathered the holographic skull sunglasses, a small tin of slimeys, an Obama bobblehead, and a pink cowboy hat (only God knows why) that I got from these nutbags so I could bring them inside the house with me.

When the van was fully parked, I gestured Luke to open the door since my hands were full, and I quickly stepped out of it to make room for the boys to do the same.

Luke followed me closely behind with a few bags in hand, but the other boys seemed perfectly content to be where they were. “Malum and Ashton, you’re coming too,” I commanded while nodding my head towards the house.

When they still weren’t moving, I walked back to the van to tug on Mikey’s plaid shirt, “Dudes, come on,” I encouraged, emphasizing my words by nodding my head a little harder.

I then continued walking inside the house as a gesture of ‘come follow me,’ hoping that I could be reunited with food soon. As I struggled to balance the odd objects in my grip, I heard Ashton catching up to me from behind with his rushed steps and then walked beside me. “Why did you use their bromance name and not me?!” he protested with a slight tap on my shoulder.

“Really, Ash?” I raised one of my eyebrows at him without slowing my pace down. “I can’t believe you’re turning twenty this year.”

“But our names sound cooler when—“ Before he could finish his sentence, we reached the backyard entrance and were greeted by a handful of our family members, which startled the four boys behind me.

No, they didn’t jump from the back of a couch or something. But the second that we walked past the wooden doors from the living room and onto the concrete patio tiles, every pair of eyes was looking at our direction and a loud collective roar of “Hiii!” was shouted.

Needless to say, the looks on the boys’ faces were priceless. They were truly the perfect definition of pure joy. The boys then immediately dropped everything in their hands (which included a few guitar cases and that worried me a little, but they turned out to be alright), and went straight ahead to hug their mums, or in Luke’s case, dad.

Siblings and close friends were there too; all complete from Ben, Jack (who, yes, we met earlier), Mali-Koa, Lauren, and Harry.

This would be the one special quality that I had always adored from these muppets; their love for home. It genuinely made me happy to see the excitement in Ashton’s face when he told tour stories to Lauren and Harry, or the cheeky grin on Mikey’s face when his dad made snark remarks about his hair, or the blushing look on Calum and Luke’s faces when their older siblings teased them about being famous. That’s one of the reasons why I feel very honored to be a part of this family.

I was about to reach for Ann Marie’s sexy-looking spaghettis when I felt a wet, cold glass cup touching my right cheek. When I turned around, I found out that the cup was linked to the hand of Luke Hemmings.

“You know, there are more socially acceptable ways to get someone’s attention, like tapping on their shoulder or poking their arm,” I pointed out while I wiped the water residue on my face.

“That’s too mainstream,” Luke replied with the sneakiest grin on his face. “Come with me to my room, I have another thing that I wanna give you,” he added, putting the cup down and tugging on my arm instead.

“Whaaat? I’m happy with the slimeys already,” I dragged my words while I resisted against his pull and headed towards the food table instead.

“That one’s a coy. This one’s the real deal,” he argued while towing my arm even stronger.

“I’m hungryyy, and don’t you wanna catch up with your family?”

“That can take ages. Come ooon,” he teasingly mimicked my word-dragging, “let’s just do it quickly before I forget about it.” Luke then dragged me outside the gathering area, ignoring my complains.

I frowned my eyebrows at him, because I swear to God that last line didn’t sound convincing at all.

“No, I’m not asking you for a quickie you pervert. Just—come with me, okay?” Luke flicked me by my ear and continued on tugging me up the stairs.
I let out a small chuckle, tickled by my own thoughts, before I eventually came to oblige.

When we got there, Luke immediately went to dig inside his suitcase that was stranded beside his door, and I slammed myself against his bed while I waited for him.

Not a moment later, I found myself being mesmerized by his profile, and a moment of realisation that I hadn’t seen him in awhile just hit me. Yeah, I did mention that their faces were on magazines, and TV, and everywhere on social medias, but nothing beats the raw image of his physical being right in front of me.

I knew Luke ever since primary school, or more specifically that was when became friends. Our mums are such close friends themselves even before we were both born, but neither Luke nor I had the nerves to talk to each other until we were at least ten, I’m not even sure why. I had been there way before 5SOS even crossed their minds, and I’m glad that I’m still here.

Now, watching him with the same pair of eyes that saw the chubby ten year-old back then, felt quite surreal. With the infamous quiff and the micro stubble that apparently had started to grow, I was almost convinced that this couldn’t be the same person. Except that he was.

The smile on his face was still equally as wide and the dimples on his cheeks were equally as deep, it probably even made him look more enticing.

But the second that he stuck his tongue out while he went through a humongous pile of dirty band shirts, I knew that this charming lead singer was still the same dork that once tried to lick facepaint (because it says child-safe and non-toxic on the label) at heart.

After awhile, Luke came up with this small lilac box that matched the current color of my hair; it was probably not bigger than the size of a ring box.

“All that trouble for this little thing, huh? Why didn’t you give this to me earlier?” I smirked, but was actually pretty damn excited on the inside.

“Reasons,” Luke answered lazily, “Just open it.”

I had my eyes still set on him when he bit his lip ring lightly in anticipation of my opening his gift. I could tell that he was getting giddy, so I put him out of his misery and lifted the lid altogether.

To be honest, a part of me was freaking out that Luke might have gotten me a sappy friendship ring of some sort, but I had to admit that what was inside completely blew any of my guesses out the window.

It was a pair of tiny pink speakers attached on a simple silver keychain.

“Holy shit. Luke, what—How did you get this?” My mouth was reactively wide open as I touched the keychain with more delicacy than I had when I touched a baby.

This little thing right here was probably even more sentimental and sappier than a friendship ring, but I absolutely loved it, and with that I mentally rewarded Luke the title of best gift.

And, mind you, it wasn’t made of plastic. It was made of light metal, sort of looked like one of the charms you usually cling onto bracelets. It certainly didn’t look like something you’d pick up at the airport’s gift store, and the resemblance to the actual pink speakers that were sitting there in Luke’s room was scarily accurate.

“Found it in a thrift store in Connecticut when Mikey wanted to look for more games for his Game Boy. Pretty cool, huh?” Luke’s Chesire smile never left his face as he explained proudly.

“Very, very cool, Luke. Oh my, I just—This is perfect, thank you. I haven’t said that, sorry. Thank you,” I rambled, when I was ironically lost of words.

“So consider us even then. You bought me the real one years ago, and this one’s for you, so we both have a pair. Though you might not be able to blast out McFly with that one.” Luke chuckled, and by the way he was playing with his lips I could tell that he was probably happier than I was about this. And I was ecstatic.

“Meh, that’s alright. I’ll find other ways to make use of this one. You think putting it on a suitcase would be cool?” I hinted, smirking to myself when I realised that this was the perfect opportunity to deliver the good news.

“Suitcase? Why not your room or car key? They’re closer?” he asked as I saw the light on his expression dimmed.

Hearing the slight tone of disappointment in his voice, I tried my best to keep my lips from smiling so widely, because by then I knew that what I was about to say would send him back over the moon.

“Oh? Liz didn’t tell you?” I bit my lip so hard that I thought I might rip it apart, but I was trying really hard to keep my cool before I blurted anything out.

“Tell me what?” Luke moved in closer to me and grabbed me by my arms as I thought he would.

“She really didn’t?” I purposely teased, frowning my eyebrows in the hopes of getting into character better.

“No, C. What?!” he panically asked as he shook my upper body once or twice.

“I’m replacing her as your photographer. Well, not yours per se, but your ba—“

Luke completely went wide eyed and if his smile wasn’t wide enough before, it was now. “Are you serious?”

“Yup,” I said, popping the ‘p’.

“So that means that you’re going to go with—“

“Uh-huh,” I nodded.

“SHIT, THAT’S AWESOME!” Luke shouted so loudly that I was pretty sure that it could be heard from the patio. “C, why didn’t you tell me this earlier? This is very very very very very exciting!”

“I wanted to tell you in person! I haven’t even told the other guys yet,” I explained in all honesty.

“You sneaky little bastard.” Luke then quickly pinned my head under his arm and messed my hair up before I could even react, the typical Hemmings attack that I might have gotten used to after years of being Ben and Jack’s victim. But that doesn’t mean that I was any more okay with it.

“Ey! Dude, let me go! Luke—Luuuuke!” I whined while I was struggling to let myself out of his firm grip. Apparently, the little Hemmings that I once knew wasn’t so little anymore.

“This is great! You’re gonna be on the road with us!” he squealed yet again, this time while letting me go so I could go back to sitting straight. “More people to borrow undies from,” Luke casually said with a sly smirk.

Without even asking for my permission, my hand landed firmly on his chest, hitting it quite hardly, but I wasn’t even sorry. “Oh, I’m regretting this already,” I muttered under my breath with an eye-roll.

“I’m kidding, stupid,” Luke booped my nose and laughed way harder than he should have.

“Idiot,” I snarled at his still-beaming face as I tucked the keychain back inside the box and kept it in the back pocket of my jeans. “Now let’s go back downstairs, don’t be rude,” I finally said as lightly slapped his face in the hopes of slapping his cheeky little grin off too.