"Why are you grinning like the Cheshire cat?" George said as soon as I entered my dorm that same day.

I paused. "George, why are you in here? This isn't your dorm."

"Yeah, it practically is. Now tell us, why are you smiling like you just won the lottery?" he demanded, and I attempted to wipe the smile off my face.

"I'm not."

"Yes, you are," Jess agreed. "What happened?"

I shook my head. "Literally nothing happened. You guys are so suspicious of everything."

"She's lying," George said immediately. "Look at her, she's going all red."

"I am not," I retorted even though I knew I was. When they both continued to stare at me skeptically, I gave in. "Okay, fine, but it was like the smallest thing. Um... well to start with, Luke discovered me playing the guitar and singing, and he told me I was really good."

"Shut up! Luke Hemmings told you that you were good at the guitar and at singing?" George said excitedly.

"Well, yeah..." I said with a slight shrug.

"Wait, is there more?" Jess questioned.

"Uh, I guess. He just kind of said I was 'annoyingly attractive' and that Nathan should start telling me these things or someone else was going to have to," I said, my blush deepening.

Jess and George both stared at me in incredulity, not saying anything. Finally George spoke.

"Pick him over Nathan."

I rolled my eyes. "I know you don't like Nathan but I like him and that's that. Just because Luke Hemmings said I was attractive doesn't mean he likes me or anything. I really haven't known him that long anyway."

"Who cares? I already ship you two," he said candidly.

"You haven't even met him," I said in exasperation.

"Ooh, can I, though?"

"I second that," Jess said quickly.

I shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe, if I become good enough friends with the band."

George raised an eyebrow. "Honey, Luke Hemmings called you attractive. I think you're pretty good friends with them."

"We'll see," I said mysteriously.

Jess regarded me for a second before holding out her hand and saying, "Give me your phone."

"Uh...why?" I said in confusion but since I trusted Jess – most of the time – I handed it to her. She already knew my passcode so she went straight on in and did whatever she wanted to do. "Jess, what are you doing?"

Suddenly she snorted at something. "I'm guessing 'sexy penguin' is Luke Hemmings."

"What?" George shrieked. "You have Luke Hemmings' phone number?"

"'Sexy penguin'?" I said in amusement. "Is that what he saved himself as?"

"Apparently."

"Noelle Lara Torres! Do you mean to tell me that you have Luke Hemmings' phone number saved in your phone?" George said loudly. "How are you so calm about this?"

"You weren't actually supposed to find out," I told them.

"We're your best friends, of course we were going to find out," Jess stated.

"Have you texted him yet? Can I text him?" George said excitedly.

"No and no," I said, grabbing my phone back. "I probably never will, either."

"Why? He gave you his phone number for a reason," George complained. "Come on. Let's call him."

"Let's not," I said firmly. Jess and George exchanged looks and suddenly Jess had pinned me down and George had seized my phone. "No! George, don't you dare, I swear to god–"

"It's ringing," he sang and I made an attempt to get up but Jess was strong.

"George, hang up now or I will murder you in the most awful way possible–"

But Luke answered and I heard since George had put it on speaker. "Hello?"

"Oh my god, Luke Hemmings?" George squealed.

"Uh, who is this?"

"Oh my god your accent is amazing. This is crazy. I can't believe I'm actually talking to you. And this is your friend Noelle's best friend who's really, like really delighted to be talking to you–"

At last I managed to get free and I grabbed the phone, taking it off speaker and going into the bathroom, shutting the door behind me. "Luke? Hey, it's Noelle, I'm so, so sorry about that. They pinned me down and grabbed my phone once they realized I had your number. I told you it was a bad idea."

To my surprise he laughed a little. "It's cool, but how did they know?"

"The name you saved yourself under? Sexy penguin? They guessed," I said in slight exasperation.

"What? That was a great name, though–" Luke was suddenly interrupted by other loud, Australian voices talking in the background.

"Luke, pull your pants up!" That was definitely Michael.

"For god's sake, put on some clothes," came Calum's voice. Ashton just started singing very loudly and I laughed a bit.

"Shut up," Luke said irritably. "Not you," he quickly said to me.

"I guessed."

"Oi Luke, where did you hide the body?"

"You paid how much for the stripper?"

"Give me a second," Luke said and I replied with a 'sure'. There was muffled talking and laughing before the rest of the band went quiet and Luke said, "Okay, they're behaving. Listen, your friends aren't going to tell other people my number or anything?"

"No, they won't. I think they're kind of freaking out though," I replied as I heard some high-pitched noises coming from the bedroom. "They, uh... they want to meet you."

"So bring them along one day," Luke said bluntly.

"I don't think it works like that," I stated. "Plus, they'll be embarrassing. One of them will probably faint."

"Why? We suck."

"No, you don't," I said rolling my eyes.

"Sure we do. Anyway, I told the band you could sing and play guitar–"

"What? Why would you do that?" I protested.

"Why shouldn't I?" Luke challenged.

"Because I... I don't know, I don't want to have to sing in front of them or anything," I confessed.

"Why not? You sang in front of me."

"Yeah, well, you weren't supposed to see that," I mumbled.

There was a quiet on the other line, then Luke said, "I won't make you sing if you don't want to. But you should consider it. I'll... I'll see you on Wednesday." Then he hung up.

I sighed and stared at my phone before going back into the bedroom to see Jess and George waiting expectantly.

"What?" I questioned, putting my phone on the table and folding my arms.

"For the record, I would not faint if I met them," George insisted.

"You were listening. Of course you were," I said plainly.

"Obviously," Jess said with a grin. "So when do we meet them?"

"Nope, not happening. Who's hungry? I am, let's go for supper," I said abruptly and left the dorm without waiting for them to answer.

~ ~ ~

"Boo."

I jumped and nearly spilled the coffee cup I had just finished filling up. "Shit, Luke! Don't do that."

I turned to see him smirking a little. "What? Did I scare you?"

"Uh, yeah, and you nearly made me spill the coffee that Kate asked me to get," I said, brushing past him and making my way back to the studio.

"You know, I noticed you volunteered very quickly when Kate asked for coffee, and you've been offering to run every errand possible. It's like you're avoiding me, or the band, or something, which is weird, right?" he commented, walking alongside me.

"I'm not avoiding you, or anyone. I'm just getting coffee," I said bluntly.

"Oh, sure you are. Except Fran's practically been doing nothing all day since you're doing everything," Luke told me, and I sighed.

"I think you sometimes forget you're famous," I remarked. "Yes, I might be avoiding you because I don't want to sing in front of all of you, because, believe it or not, the thought of it makes me extremely nervous, and not in the good way."

"Okay, what if we all pretended not to watch?" he suggested as we reached the studio.

"Face it, Medusa, it's not happening. Here's your coffee, Kate," I said, handing it over to her.

"If you're going to call me Medusa, then I need a nickname for you," Luke said, following me as I went around the studio, checking for anything that needed to be done.

"No you don't. Medusa was your idea and now you're stuck with it."

"It was not my idea," Luke said indignantly. "You know, since your name is Noelle maybe I should call you something to do with Christmas. Or maybe I should just shorten your name. Do you have any nicknames? How about Ellie?"

I stiffened and turned to face him with my jaw set. "Don't call me that."

"Why? It's not that bad."

"Just don't, Luke. I'm serious," I said firmly.

Luke must have noticed my hard expression and just nodded, seeming to realize this was not something I was going to laugh about. The scar on my temple throbbed.

The rest of the day I was much quieter which Luke seemed to notice, since he kept glancing at me with a slightly concerned expression on his face. As soon as the day ended and Kate dismissed me, I was out of the studio in seconds.

Of course, Luke stopped me. "Noelle, hey. Wait up."

I didn't. I kept walking, straight past the elevator and down the stairs. I couldn't handle the elevator today. Not when memories were being brought back.

"You could take the elevator, you know," Luke said, catching up easily and walking alongside me.

"No, I couldn't."

"I'm not going to ask why, because clearly I said something that's upset you, and I'm sorry, okay? Whatever it is, I'm sorry," he said, grabbing my wrist and stopping me. I snatched my wrist out of his grasp, spun around and carried on walking down the stairs.

"Noelle, you may be tall but I'm taller and I'm easily going to catch up with you," Luke said lazily, appearing at my side yet again.

"Luke, just go away," I muttered as we reached the ground floor.

"No, I won't, I'm trying to help here. For god's sake, Noelle, stop walking for one second and look at me," he urged, and I stopped.

"Stop trying to understand, Luke! We barely know each other, you shouldn't be this interested in my life!" I exclaimed, meeting his eyes.

"I'm not trying to understand, I'm trying to apologize and I'm trying to get you to listen," Luke said firmly. "And, well, screw me for trying to be a friend here." His jaw was clenched in annoyance and suddenly I couldn't blame him. I sighed.

"I'm... I'm sorry. I'm being a bitch. I just..." I broke off. There was no way I was ready to share my deepest and darkest secrets with him.

"You don't need to tell me," Luke interrupted. I just nodded and smiled a little.

"Noelle! Hey!" That voice was annoyingly familiar and suddenly Nathan appeared in front of Luke and me and kissed me on the cheek. I'd forgot he was coming to pick me up since he dropped me off this morning. Suddenly he saw Luke. "Whoa, aren't you Luke Hemmings?"

Luke nodded. "Yeah, that would be me. And I'm assuming you're Norman."

Nathan looked at him in confusion. "It's, uh... it's actually Nathan. But you're, like... famous. Noelle, how come you're talking to Luke Hemmings?"

"I work with him," I said shortly.

"Wait, you didn't tell Norman you were working with a famous band?" Luke said in amusement.

"It's Nathan," Nathan corrected him quickly. "And you're working with famous people? Like as in 5 Seconds of Summer?"

"Uh, yeah," I admitted.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he questioned.

"Yeah, Noelle, why didn't you tell him?" Luke said with a smirk. I shot him a look, and then shrugged.

"It never came up. Come on, Nathan, let's go," I said, taking hold of his hand and trying to pull him in the direction of the door, but he pulled me back.

"Hang on one second, Noelle. So are you guys recording or something?" Nathan asked Luke, who threw a sly smile in my direction as if to say, look, your boyfriend loves me. I rolled my eyes. Luke answered Nathan, "Yeah. Our new album."

Nathan looked impressed. "That's cool. Noelle, have you heard any of the songs yet?"

"Uh, yeah," I replied, shifting my weight from one foot to another. For some reason, this situation was making me very uncomfortable.

"Noelle's actually helping us write some of the songs," Luke mentioned, still smirking at me.

"You write songs? How come you never told me?" Nathan said to me, sounding a little put out.

"It never came up," I repeated. "Let's go, Nathan."

Nathan finally nodded and said to Luke, "Nice meeting you, man."

"You too, Norman," Luke said off-handedly and I dragged Nathan away.

"Why did he keep calling me Norman? And why didn't you tell me you were working with a famous band? And don't say it never came up, because I would have thought this would be something you were excited about and you would have wanted to tell your boyfriend about it," Nathan commented with an irritated expression as we got in the car.

"Well, it wasn't that exciting," I muttered. Lie. Of course it was exciting, but for some reason, this was just something I wanted to keep to myself and not have Nathan criticize.

"Of course it is! Why are you keeping so much stuff from me, Noelle?" he said, sounding angry.

"It's just one thing, Nathan. I don't get why you're getting so worked up about it," I huffed, folding my arms.

"It's not just this. You say you sing but I've never even heard you and I'm your boyfriend, and now you write songs?"

"I gave them, like, one line for a song," I grumbled. "It's really not that big a deal."

Nathan just sighed and the rest of the journey was driven in strained silence.