I woke up to a pounding headache.

And a pounding door.

I groaned and stretched, my entire body aching all over. I had a splitting headache. I squinted at the fancy hotel digital clock. It was 4 in the afternoon. I groaned. It was late and we were supposed to have been on the road an hour ago.

I stretched again and then realized something; I wasn't wearing any clothes. My eyes widened.

"Wha-" I whispered to myself. I looked to my side, to see Ian stirring awake, too. And then, as if the loud knocking at the door was an initiator, the events of last night poured into my mind. I looked to the ground to see mine and Ian's clothes strewn all over the floor. Ian started next to me, sitting up suddenly.

"What the-?" he began, then glanced at me. "Did we have...?" he trailed off, unable to finish the question. I nodded, not needing him to finish.

"WILL YOU TWO OPEN THE DOOR?!" we heard Mae's voice yell on the other side of the door. With that, Ian reached out and grabbed his pants. He flipped his legs over the side of his bed and pulled them on. I grabbed the sheets around me and ran to the bathroom, picking my clothes up off the ground as I went. Ian pulled his shirt on over his head. As I closed the door to the bathroom, Ian opened the door.

"What the hell took you guys so long?!" I heard Mae snap. I groaned, turning the shower on to drown out Ian's feeble explanation. She would know what happened. Ian had sex hair.

                                                                           ~~~~~~~~~~

"You have A LOT of explaining to do," Mae hissed at me when we were alone. We were both sitting in the back lounge of the bus. The boys were all in the front of the bus.

"There's nothing to explain..." I muttered weakly.

"You had sex with Ian last night, didn't you?" she asked. I bowed my head, not wanting to look her in the eyes. "Vanessa! Answer me!" she cried.

"Why are you asking if you already know?" I asked, still avoiding looking her in the eyes.

"Why are you so embarassed about it? It wasn't your first time. And you two have been dating for over half a year now," she said. I looked up at her finally and blinked.

"Wait, so you're not going to lecture me?" I questioned, confused.

"Of course not!" she exclaimed, grinning slightly. "I am slightly upset that you would make the bad decision of doing it while you both were intoxicated, but at least you two finally did it!" she said. I couldn't help but smile at her.

"I thought you were going to yell at me for being stupid," I said, breathing a sigh of relief.

"No, I'm happy for you," she said. We fell silent for a moment. "Well..." she prodded.

"Well what?" I asked.

"How was it?!" she cried, a little too loudly. I threw my hand over her mouth as she giggled. I lowered my voice a little.

"It was..." I paused. "It was amazing. Given, I haven't had sex since senior year in high school. But it was still great," I said. She laughed.

"Aww! Look at you. Having grown up sex," she said.

"Let's stop saying that. I don't want anyone else to hear," I mumbled.

"Oh please. I'm sure Ian told at least Caleb," Mae said. "You don't feel sick or anything, do you?" she asked. I shook my head.

"I'm not pregnant. Trust me," I said. She let out a deep breath.

"Ok, good. Because that would be an issue," she said. I nodded.

"So...anything interesting happen between you and Caleb?" I asked, smirking. She smiled soflty and shook her head.

"Nope. We went back to the room and we both crashed," she replied. I scrunched up my nose.

"That's no fun," I said.

"Not everyone has crazed hormones like you and your boyfriend," she joked. I rolled my eyes at her. "Have you two talked yet?" she asked. I shook my head.

"It's been a little awkward. But there's not really anything to talk about. We both agreed to do it, so no one's at fault or anything. It was just time, I think," I answered.

"That's good, I guess. No drama that way," she said. I nodded. No drama. Hopefully she was right.

                                                                    ~~~~~~~~~~~

"I think it's safe to start telling people that we're dating," Ian suggested.

It was a few weeks after our wild night in Las Vegas. We had traveled to almost every major city on the West Coast and the middle of the US. We were now in Orlando, in our hotel room. Ian was propped up on one elbow, tracing lines on my bare body.

"Are you sure?" I asked. He nodded.

"We're almost done with the tour. The album's coming out in a month and I think we've established a good fan-base. I think it's time," he said. "And that way, we don't have to resort to making out in private and being awkward after we've had sex," he said, leaning down and kissing my stomach. I sighed, playing with his hair.

"You're right. Maybe we should start telling people. Does Paul know?" I asked. He shrugged.

"Who cares? It's our decision to go public," Ian said.

"Yeah, but Paul won't like it," I said.

"Like I said, it's not up to him," he told me, his dark brown eyes intense. I ran my hand through his messy hair.

"Ok, let's do it. But how? We can't just be like, 'Oh hey, we're dating'," I said. He pursed his lips and laid on his back, putting an arm around me. I snuggled against his bare chest.

"Why don't we just go out on a date? We're in Florida for three days. We can go out on a date, just you and me, and then kiss or something in public," he said.

"Make sure it's a very public place," I added. He nodded.

"That should do it. We've already made some magazines. And you're going to be featured in Seventeen after the tour's over. We've got paparazzi following us. It's sure to make the news. And when it does and we're asked about it, we'll tell the truth," Ian said.

"Ok, sounds like a plan," I said, smiling. Finally, we wouldn't have to hide anymore.

"We should let the other guys know, too," Ian said. I nodded.

"Yeah, it'll affect them, too," I agreed.

Later that afternoon, we called a band meeting in our room and told them our decision.

"You guys are sure about this?" Caleb asked, a worry line between his brows.

"Yeah, is it the best thing for the band right now?" Liam added.

"Paul did say that he wanted us all to look like we're single. For some reason, girls would think they have a shot with us," Cameron said. Mae frowned at them.

"Oh hush all of you! Why can't you be happy for them? They've been hiding their relationship for almost a year now. I think it's time they finally come clean," Mae said. I smiled at her support.

"It's about publicity for the band, though. Why don't we wait until after the album comes out? That way, when people call us to interview us, you could go public through them," Caleb suggested. I bit my lip. Caleb's idea did sound smarter. I looked at Ian, whose face showed that he was frustrated. On one hand, we had both made told ourselves that it was time. But now Caleb's idea sounded like the better thing to do. At the same time, it had been almost a year now and we were tired of waiting.

"I like Caleb's idea," Liam said. I sighed in frustration.

"I do, too. But I'm so tired of hiding our relationship," I said.

"Just wait it out a little longer. What's another 3 weeks?" Cameron asked.

"Fine. We'll wait," Ian agreed, furrowing his brows. I could tell he wasn't happy about this.

                                                                  ~~~~~~~~~~

"Caleb was right, though. It does make more sense the way he's telling us to do it," I told Ian after the others left.

"I know," Ian said.

"Then why are you so angry right now?" I asked.

"Just drop it, Vanessa," he said, his eyes flashing with emotions. I placed a hand on his cheek, forcing him to look directly at me.

"What's wrong?" I asked, trying to read the different emotions flitting through his eyes. 

"Nothing," he said, pushing my hand away and turning around.

"Something's bothering you," I said.

"Just drop it," he said again.

"What is your problem?" I asked. He turned around, his face angry now.

"Vanessa, please, just be quiet. I don't want to talk right now," he said in a frustrated voice. I narrowed my eyes at him. He did the same at me. "I have to go," he said suddenly, grabbing his jacket.

"Where?" I asked.

"None of your business," he said, closing the door behind him. I glared at the door. What the hell was his problem?

                                                                 ~~~~~~~~~~~

"He's probably just mad he didn't get his way," Mae said. I shook my head.

"I don't think so. I think he agreed with Caleb's idea. Something else is bothering him," I said.

"What could be bothering him? The band is doing great. You guys are gaining a lot of fans. Your album is coming out in less than a month. You and him have a pretty good relationship going, that's not lacking in anything. His life is perfect right now," Mae said. I frowned. She was right. But I knew something was wrong.

"Remember how before I told you how sometimes when Ian looks at me, I see something different in his eyes, but I don't quite know what?" I asked her. She nodded. "It was that same something that I saw in his eyes last night when we were talking. I can't place what the emotion is, but for some reason, I know it's not a good one," I said.

"Don't stress about it. I'm sure it's nothing," Mae said. I slumped in the beach chair I was sitting in. No matter what anyone said, I still had that feeling of dread in my stomach. Something wasn't right.

_______________________________________________________________________________

A/N: Sorry it's kind of short. Next part will be about their album release and some more interviews! I'm going to have Ellen DeGeneres in the next one woooooo! So stay tuned for that!

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