Michael's point of view

"Here." Luke handed me an envelope and I thanked him as I grabbed it. "What's that on your arm?"

"A rash. I borrowed Ashton's soap and I'm allergic to something in it. I need to go and buy more of the kind I use." I told him and he nodded, buying the bullshit lie I gave him.

I shoved my sleeve down a bit more and then ripped the envelope open. I began reading them all, going through a train wreck of emotions.

"Why are you reading letters in the middle of our kitchen?" Calum asked me and I looked at him. "You couldn't sit down and do it?"

I set my hands on the edges of our counter and then hoisted myself up, sitting on top of the tile surface. "That's not-That's not what I meant." He said and laughed.

"Oh well." I said and he motioned for me to move. I tilted my body to the left so he could open the cabinet and then I sat up straight as I continued reading the letters.

My heart was hammering in my chest when I finished, and Calum even noticed how distraught I was. "Is everything alright? What did she say?" He asked me.

"Nothing it's just... I hope she's okay." I said and then pulled my phone out of my pocket. I opened twitter and then tweeted out an indirect.

'Hoping nothing bad is going on right now, you can pull through, love you ✌'

I quickly sent it out and then put my phone away before he grabbed the envelope himself. He looked at it and then opened it up, pulling out thirty dollars. "What's this?" He asked and I sighed.

"Long story."

"We don't have a concert until four, it's ten, what's up?" He asked and I swung my legs a bit as I hummed.

"Luke dragged me to the mall last week yeah? Well, I hate Arzaylea so I tried staying away from them when we went inside of stores, and I accidentally bumped into one of her friends, Krystal." I said and he cut me off.

"Krystal... Krystal Jamison?"

"I don't know her last name." I said and rolled my eyes as he bit his lip. "But I bumped into her, and when we left the store, I went to Hot Topic to stay away from the couple, who went into Victoria Secret."

"Classic."

"Will you stop interrupting me?" I asked and he nodded as he crossed his arms. "Well, there was this girl, and she was absolutely beautiful. She had this grey beanie on and a misfits t-shirt and she was looking at shirts, so I talked to her." I told him.

"She said she loved our band and was eyeballing a shirt, so I told her try it on after picking one in her size out. She didn't have the money to buy it, so when she went to change out of it, I grabbed another and bought it for her quickly." I told him and he shifted a bit.

"So you met your dream girl." He teased and I rolled my eyes. "You didn't get her number? You're still stuck in the letter zone?"

"Luke dragged me out and wouldn't let me go back to talk to her. Groups of fans were surrounding us and when we got out of the mob, the girls were gone." I told him and sighed.

"Aw man, that sucks." He said and I nodded and he looked at the money. "She paid you back?"

"Said that she would but I don't want it." I said and he just put it back in the envelope, setting it down on the counter. "I had such a perfect opportunity to get her number, her Instagram, her Snapchat, literally anything, but I didn't know it was her until too late." I told him and he pulled his phone out.

"What's Aleigha's last name?" He asked and I furrowed my eyebrows together in confusion.

"Vasquez." I answered and he nodded. "Why?" I asked and he told me to give him a second.

"I still need to know, Krystal, what did she look like?" He asked me as he scrolled through his phone.

"Um... kind of short, not exactly skinny but not like chubby, hazel eyes, um... ombre brown and blonde hair." I said and shook my head. "I don't know."

"No tits?"

"Jesus," I said and we laughed as I shook my head. "Why does it matter Calum?"

"Doesn't." He said and shook his head, suddenly dismissing the topic. Ashton walked in and he looked st me.

"Get your ass off of the counter, we cook food there!" He said and I shook my head.

"We get take out half the time anyways." I said and he rolled his eyes. "Pass me a beer, please?" I asked and he nodded as he grabbed two. He tossed me one and I caught it, nearly dropping the glass on the floor.

"Jesus Michael." He said and I shook my head and I grabbed a bottle opener from the drawer between my legs. I closed it and then set my legs back down before popping the bottle open.

I took a drink of it and then set it down as Calum showed me his phone screen. Ashton took the bottle opener and then glanced at the screen. "Cal, you really downgraded buddy-"

"She's not mine. She's Michael's, isn't she?" He asked and my eyes were glued to the screen.

"She's... She's not mine." I said and then looked at Calum. "How do you have her account?" I asked and he said it wasn't hers as he scrolled to the top, revealing Krystal's name and picture.

"Wait, that's the girl who sends you letters?" Ashton asked me and I nodded. "Dude!" He yanked the phone out of Calum's hand and then ran out of the kitchen.

"What the hell? If you accidentally like a picture, you're fucking dead Irwin!" Calum yelled and ran after him. I pulled my own phone out and then opened Instagram.

I typed in her account quickly and then groaned when I realized it was on private. I put my phone on the counter and practically slammed my head against the cabinets.

Nothing ever goes my way.

"Michael! What is with your taste in women?" Luke asked and I closed my eyes. "Abigail and now this chick?"

"At least I don't date fame hungry gold diggers." I said and peeked an eye open, just as he crossed his arms. "Aleigha is beautiful, why don't you fuck off?"

"You're in 5 Seconds of Summer! Ashton dated Bryana! I've got Arzaylea! Calum's had tons of very hot girls in his room! And now that you're actually into a girl she's not..."

"I will actually punch you if you so much as attempt to finish your sentence." I told him and got off of the counter, grabbing my phone and beer bottle. "Maybe she's not your definition of beautiful, slim with pounds of make-up on and a fake personality, but she's beautiful to me."

"Don't you dare insult my girlfriend." He told me and pushed me a bit. "I'm just telling you that you can get supermodels, why settle for anything less?"

"Ask yourself that." I said and drank my beer before pushing past him. "Don't insult people you don't know. Besides, watch your pronouns, it's anyone, not anything. Girls are not things."

"You don't know her either!"

"Funny because I swear to god that I know more than all of her friends and family combined." I told him and then went up to my room. "Judgemental assholes, all of them... well, besides Calum." I sighed and then closed my bedroom door.

"I heard that!"

"Good!" I yelled at Ashton and Calum walked in, closing the door behind him. "What?" I asked and he handed me his phone.

"Her account is on private and... and there's pictures and stuff of Aleigha on here." He told me I rose an eyebrow. "Dude, I know you tried to go on her account. Just take the phone."

I nodded and took it from him as he sat beside me. "You like her?" He asked me as I scrolled through the girl's account.

"Well like, I don't know her well enough to really be crushing but I'd like to get to know her more, if that's what you're asking." I said and he nodded, leaning his head on my shoulder.

"She's pretty," he said ans I nodded as we passed a couple of pictures of Aleigha and another girl, Krystal's twin maybe because she didn't have ombre hair but did look exactly like her. "All three of them are."

"Yeah..." I said and then realized something. "Wait, why do you have her friend's Instagram?" I asked and he sat up some more.

"She was in a bar I was at last year around summer and we got closer than either of us would admit to." He told me and I nodded. "She won't text me back and when she does its mostly 'wow now you have time for me'."

'What happened between you two?"

"Like I said, we got close and then when we left LA, I couldn't text her. We met up a few times around November and December but after that, she won't return any calls or texts." He told me and I nodded.

"Ouch." I said and he nodded himself. "She seemed like the type to never reply to a text."

"Now who's the judgemental asshole?" He asked and we both laughed. I clicked on her tagged photos and then saw an account that could have totally been Aleigha's.

And it was.

I clicked it and surprisingly, it wasn't private. I took and screenshot of it and then looked through her pictures, like the stalker that I am. "Text her. Tell her you want to meet up." Calum said and I looked at him.

"I don't... I'm nervous." I said and he looked at me. "What if she doesn't want to?" I asked and he said that I'll never know unless I ask her.

"I'll do it when I have post concert hype." I said and he laughed. "So I don't end up fucking up the concert because I'm nervous."

"You can't fuck up an entire concert Mikey." He told me and I said that I totally could, and I have. "Name three times when you messed up a concert." He challenged me.

"When I forgot my passport, when I got burned by the pyrotechnics, when I fell off stage, when my voice kept cracking, when my mic stand fell and I had to stop playing and singing to pic it up, when-"

"Those weren't that bad." He told me and I rolled my eyes. "Seriously Mikey, they aren't. I promise. The only major ones were when you got burned and fell off, but even then, that wasn't entirely your fault. I promise."

"Yes it is. I should have known where they'd fire at and I should have been focused. I'm a dumbass." I said and turned his phone of, setting it down on the bed. "I've fucked up so much."

"No you haven't, don't do that Mikey." He said and hugged me. "Don't bring yourself down, you're an amazing performer and fans absolutely love you because if they didn't, why would they come to the show?"

Because the other three members are actual gods who are good at everything they do and can never do no wrong because they're perfect. Where as I'm bad at everything and everything I do is wrong and held against me, no matter how long ago it was or how much I've shown that I've changed.

"I don't know." I said and shrugged. I wrapped my arms around him and yawned. "Cuddle?"

"I actually gotta piss, but when I come back, totally." He said and I smiled. "Also, we're gonna have a nice long chat about how being rude to Luke's girlfriend to his face isn't okay. You do it behind his back."

I laughed loudly and he patted my stomach before standing up. "This is why we're best friends." I told him and he nodded as he went to use my bathroom.