The first week of my internship went by pretty quickly. Most days, I was back at the dorm by seven, and I was actually enjoying it. The boys were turning out to all be really cool and I really liked watching them all develop their random riffs and words into songs. By the end of the first week, they had the first song completely recorded and it sounded really good. Nathan and I had talked and he apologized for being irrational over my internship – well, not in those exact words, but close enough.

The weekend came and Kate told me I didn't need to come in and that I could have the weekend off. Saturday morning I had my music group where I didn't actually tell them about my... friendship, I suppose, with the famous band 5 Seconds of Summer. Instead we all just sang some feel good songs together, and I pretended the reason I couldn't come to practices on Monday anymore was because of some boring internship at a publishing place, like the one Nathan wants to do in summer.

In the evening I wore a red dress for my date with Nathan and carefully put on some makeup. Then I pulled on my black heels and waited on my own, since Jess was with Tristan.

After a while of waiting, I checked my phone to see if I had any messages from him, but I didn't. What I did see was that he was now ten minutes late, but I didn't let myself worry.

When he finally showed up, twenty-five minutes late, I pretended like I wasn't pissed at him.

"I'm so, so sorry I'm late, babe," he said, quickly kissing me, taking my hand and pulling me out of my dorm. "Allen wanted to see me about that project. Turns out I kicked ass, even though I wrote a load of bullshit. Looks like I'm all set for that internship this summer."

I smiled a close-mouthed smile at him, not saying anything.

He took me to a restaurant off campus and I had to admit, it was pretty nice. We sat down and began looking through the menu.

"How was your day? Didn't you have your music group this morning?" Nathan asked me, flashing me a grin. I searched for any mocking tones in his voice when he talked about my music group, but surprisingly couldn't find any.

"Yeah, it was good. We actually sang one of your favorite songs, 'Don't Stop Believing'," I told him.

"Really? Maybe I should come and watch one day," he said casually, but I shook my head.

"No, no, you don't have to do that."

"Why not? I've never actually heard you sing properly, and I want to," Nathan pointed out.

"I'm really not that good," I insisted.

"I bet you are. Seriously, I want to hear you sing someday."

I couldn't help but smile. "Maybe, maybe not." One of the waitresses appeared at our table and we quickly ordered our food. "What about you? Still doing that soccer club?"

"Yeah, just for fun though. It's kind of a stress relief thing," he admits.

"Fair enough."

The dinner turned out to be fun and enjoyable. Nathan seemed so much more relaxed than usual and it made me remember why I liked him so much. We talked about random things and we shared jokes, and when we returned back to campus and he walked me back to my door, when I said goodnight with no intentions of inviting him in – I was tired but also Jess was there anyway – he merely kissed me and told me he'd see me tomorrow.

"You look happy," she observed when I shut the door behind me and went to take off my makeup. "Good date, then?"

"Yeah. He's back in the good books." Once I'd removed all my makeup I changed into an oversized t-shirt and crawled into bed, mumbling a 'goodnight' to Jess before falling asleep.

~ ~ ~

Monday came around again and surprisingly, when my alarm went off, I didn't turn it off and try and get back to sleep. I turned it off, of course, but then I stood up, made my bed and went into the bathroom for a quick shower. When I came out in my towel, Jess was sitting up in bed with a look of astonishment on her face.

"Noelle?" she said in disbelief. "You're up?"

I smiled at her and nodded.

"Are you feeling okay?" she said, and she actually sounded concerned. I just laughed.

"I'm in a good mood today, okay?"

"But it's Monday," Jess commented in confusion. "You're never in a good mood in the mornings, especially on a Monday."

I shrugged. "I feel good today."

"Huh." She regarded me for a moment. "I'm going to call George."

I took off my head towel and whacked her with it. "Just let me be in a good mood. I'm even going to choose myself an outfit to wear."

"Yep. Definitely calling George."

I rolled my eyes but picked out a casual outfit for my lectures and pulled it on. I then dried my hair and went down to breakfast with Jess who still seemed to be in shock.

"George, there's something wrong with Noelle," she said frantically as we joined him and Tristan for breakfast.

"Go away. She doesn't like the fact that I'm happy today," I told him digging into my food.

"Why are you happy?" Tristan asked me, and I looked at him in slight surprise. Usually he doesn't talk at all in the mornings.

"Do I need a reason to be happy?"

"It's because she's seeing sexy Luke Hemmings today," George whispered loudly and I pinched him. "Ow! Jesus, Noelle, no need to pinch me."

"Luke Hemmings? As in from that band 5 Seconds of Summer?" Tristan questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm literally never telling you anything again," I said to George. "That was supposed to be kept quiet. But yes, Tristan, my internship involves working with the band 5 Seconds of Summer."

"Cool," he said, impressed.

"It is, very. And..." Jess threw me a mischievous look. "Luke Hemmings totally flirted with her."

"Jess, shut up. He didn't," I said quickly. Jess just smirked.

My breakfast hadn't been a huge plate of all the unhealthy things today, which was another weird thing. I ate it all quickly, bid my friends goodbye and went to class.

~ ~ ~

I was early again to the internship, but Luke wasn't there. So I amused myself by running my finger over the guitar strings, enjoying the soft sounds of the notes resonating around me. I smiled to myself, then sat down and waited for everyone else to arrive.

The mornings were just the same as usual. Everything was pretty relaxed; Fran or I would get coffees or food if anyone was feeling hungry – usually Michael – and we would all sit around, throwing out ideas for songs while the boys made up riffs on their guitars and sang along.

We all went for lunch at the usual time and for some reason, I was often sitting next to Luke. The same applied to today. As soon as he took a seat next to me, he said, "So is your boyfriend Norman going to be showing up unannounced today?"

Michael, hearing this, snorted and I rolled my eyes. "His name is Nathan, and that was a one-time thing. We had a fight, so he wanted to apologize."

Luke raised his eyebrows. "In the middle of your work?"

I forced a smile and tried to hide that it had annoyed me, too. "Yeah. He's... spontaneous like that."

"Hey, Noelle, I was just telling Fran that Capitol Records do the best parties," Ashton said to me. "And... I think they're having one soon."

"How come?"

"Who knows. Might be someone's birthday. But anyway, you'll probably be invited, since you work here and all," he said.

"Really? Are you sure? Because that would be pretty cool," I said with a smile.

"Who cares if we're not invited? We're showing up anyway," Fran asserted. "Noelle, you with me on this?"

"Sure. I'm always up for gatecrashing," I said, and she gave me an approving nod.

"No, you guys will be invited," Calum confirmed. "Interns usually are."

The rest of the day went on normally and I volunteered to stay behind to clear up and make sure everything was ready for the next day of work, when really I wanted to be able to be on my own so I could have a look at and play one of the guitars. Fran complained a little but I practically forced her out of the room.

I did all the clearing up first, and then I examined the guitars and picked up one of the acoustic ones, sitting down and placing it on my knee. I glanced at the door making sure no one was going to come in before strumming a few chords and thinking of a song to play. I smiled as I remembered I knew the picking and chords for 'Amnesia' by the band. It was weird – the last time I played this, Michael, Luke, Calum and Ashton had no idea who I was, but here I was now, actually friends with them. I began to play.

"I drove by all the places we used to hang out getting wasted, I thought about our last kiss, how it felt, the way you tasted..."

This had actually always been one of my favorite songs. My smile widened as I carried on singing, all the words coming back to me.

"Tell me this is just a dream... 'cause I'm really not fine at all." I finished the song and just sat there for a moment in the quiet until a certain Australian voice broke it.

"Either I'm a really good teacher, you're a fast learner or you've been able to play the guitar and sing this whole time." I whipped around to see Luke standing there, leaning against the doorframe and looking at me carefully. I blushed and quickly put the guitar to one side. "I would like to think it's the first one but I have a feeling it's the last."

I sighed. "Okay, yes, I've always been able to play the guitar."

"Then why did you say you couldn't?" Luke questioned, still observing me with those blue eyes of his. I shrugged and looked away. "You don't always have to look away, you know. I know my eyes are pretty and blue as you so nicely put it, but it's not like I'm going to go all Medusa on you and turn you to stone."

My blush deepened but I laughed. When I didn't say anything, however, Luke came and sat next to me. "Why did you keep it quiet?"

"I just... I don't know, I felt kind of intimidated by you guys," I muttered.

"Intimidated. Of us?" Luke snickered. "We're really not very intimidating."

"Come on, you're this world famous band who produce great music. It's hard not to be intimidated," I insisted.

Luke was quiet for a moment. "You like our music?"

I frowned a little. "Yeah, why wouldn't I?"

Luke shrugged. "I don't know. It's just cool to hear you say it. Well, now you actually know us and realize we're really not that intimidating, surely you can let everyone know that you can sing and play guitar? By the way, you're actually really good," Luke told me.

"Um, thanks. And, I don't know. I mean, I guess I could," I said reluctantly.

"Good. And now I kind of feel like an idiot for teaching you those chords when you clearly already knew them," Luke said, glancing at me.

"No, you were actually a good teacher," I said with a laugh. "Sorry I... kept it quiet."

"Do you think you're not good?" he asked me.

I shrugged. "I'm not great."

"Does Norman tell you that?"

"Nathan," I corrected, then furrowed my eyebrows. "And why?"

"I figured someone must have been telling you that if you think you're no good. And since you said you'd been fighting with him I thought maybe he was kind of a bonehead," Luke said bluntly.

"He's not a bonehead. Usually. You haven't even met him, you can't just say that about him," I persisted. "And, no, he hasn't been saying that. He's never even heard me sing. Why so interested?"

"I'm not interested, I just think you're really good and you shouldn't put yourself down," he said matter-of-factly.

"Well, thank you," I said quietly. "I hope you know that means a lot coming from you." I paused, then said, "So, Medusa, what were you doing back here?"

"I really hope that's not going to be my nickname now. And when you volunteered so eagerly to stay behind, I got kind of suspicious and I came back," Luke said simply.

"It kind of caught on. And why? What did you think I would do?" I asked with a grin.

"I don't know. Break something."

"You have so much faith in me. But won't the rest of the band have left?" I questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"I hope not. But it looks like you're finished, so we should probably head down," he said to me. I nodded and followed Luke out of the studio, turning off the lights and locking it as I went out.

We went and waited for the elevator to arrive. While we were waiting, I couldn't help but subtly admire just Luke in general. Well, I thought it was subtle but clearly not because Luke said, "So you're okay to stare at me when I'm not looking at you?"

"What? I wasn't... I wasn't staring..." I trailed off as Luke turned to look at me, tugging at his lip ring with his teeth. Now I really was staring. "Alright, Medusa, now you're doing that on purpose."

"I'm not doing anything," Luke said innocently as the elevator arrived and we stepped in. "And please, not with the Medusa. I said to you that I wasn't Medusa."

"Sorry, but you're stuck with it now," I said with a shrug. "You can call me Bambi or something since you think I'm so shy."

Luke shook his head slowly before glancing down at me. "Can I be honest?" Without waiting for me to answer, he continued. "I don't think you're shy. I think you're uncomfortable with too much attention on you, and I think you don't put yourself out there enough." I was about to protest but he shot me a look and carried on. "Before you... complain, let me finish. I think you think too lowly of yourself when really you have a great voice, and you're, like, annoyingly attractive. I think Norman needs to start telling you these things or someone else is going to have to." We reached the bottom floor and the doors opened. I was in shock, but Luke just grinned. That smile. "I'll see you on Wednesday, Noelle." Then he walked away and I was left still processing all those compliments Luke Hemmings had just given me. And when I finally comprehended all the things he said, I could not get the smile off my face.