Monday rolled around and the boys were late. But then again, I was early. When I arrived at the studio there was no one there, and I had to admit I was slightly hoping Luke would be there so we could talk. At that thought I shook my head to myself. He probably didn't want to talk.

I needed to stop thinking about this.

When Kate arrived, I immediately stood up, prepared to do the coffee run. However she just said to me, "Just so you know, Fran's bringing along her... cousin, I think it was, today, just to see how things work around here. I think her name was Sasha. If you ever wanted to bring someone along it wouldn't be a problem," she told me, and I nodded.

A couple of minutes later Fran arrived with a very pretty blonde trailing behind her, looking around herself in interest. As soon as Fran saw me, she smiled and came over.

"Noelle, hey! How was your weekend?" she said with a twinkle in her eye. Oh, she'd seen the pictures. I mean, I assumed she had. I hadn't seen them myself but I guessed they were on the Internet.

"Uh, okay. You know. Is this your cousin?" I asked, glancing at the other girl.

"Yeah. Noelle, meet Sasha. Sasha, meet Noelle."

I smiled politely at Sasha. Her eyes had been wandering around the studio with interest but now they were looking me up and down. Clearly she didn't think much of what she saw because she wrinkled her nose slightly before going back to examining the studio. I raised my eyebrows at Fran who shot me a wry smile and shrugged her shoulders slightly.

"Anyway. The boys are late again?" Fran guessed, sitting herself down on the couch while Sasha walked around, running her hands over everything. I sat down next to Fran, crossing one leg over the other.

"Of course." I didn't mention how Luke and I had had an argument. "Probably hung-over."

She laughed slightly. "As usual."

After a moment Sasha sat down next to her cousin and started questioning her about the band while completely ignoring me. I just ignored her and bit my nails as I thought of the tension that was bound to be between Luke and me. Finally Ashton appeared in the doorway, looking surprisingly cheerful as Michael, Calum and then Luke followed him in. At the sight of the guys, Sasha sat up straight and plastered a smile onto her face and Fran chuckled softly.

"Morning," Ashton said brightly, glancing at the clock on the wall. "Or... afternoon. Whatever. Who's this?"

As Fran introduced Sasha, Luke's eyes wandered over to me, only looking at me for a second before drifting over to Sasha. I noticed the way her gaze widened in appreciation as she looked Luke up and down, a small smile curling onto her lips. She stood up and said slightly breathlessly, "Hi Luke. I'm Sasha. It's really nice to meet you."

He raised an eyebrow. "Uh, hi. What–"

"I've always been really interested in the music industry so my cousin Fran said I could come along today to just, you know, see how things work. I love your music by the way." She fluttered her eyelashes at him – something which I have never been able to do ­­– and he nodded.

"Thanks."

A weight settled next to me as Sasha started up some conversation with Luke about god knows what, and Michael said quietly in slight amusement, "Do you know her?"

I looked over at him and half smiled. "Nope, but I don't like her."

"Me neither," he whispered and we both started laughing. At that, Luke looked over but I ignored him as Michael spoke again. "What happened with you and Luke? Trouble in paradise?"

I rolled my eyes. "What paradise?"

"The one where you and Luke pretend to not have anything going on when in reality everyone knows you just want to rip each other's clothes off–"

I slapped his shoulder. "Shut up. That's not true."

Michael snorted. "Sure. Just so you know, he's been grumpy too."

I shot him a look. "What do you mean, 'too'?"

"I mean you seem kinda grumpy, Luke has definitely been grumpy since Saturday night so clearly something–"

"I am not grumpy," I protested. "I'm... tired." I glanced at Luke. "He's been grumpy?"

Michael smirked at me. "Yeah. What did you do?"

I frowned at him. "I did nothing. He was the one being a dick."

"Ah. So something did happen."

"Quit trying to go all detective on my ass and go make music," I muttered and he chuckled before getting up and picking up a guitar. Sasha suddenly laughed loudly at something and one glance showed Luke looking slightly confused, clearly not realizing that according to her he was extremely funny. He suddenly looked over at me as if he knew I was looking at him, and I heard him excuse himself.

Oh shit. He was coming over here.

I very quickly got up, brushing past Luke – who snorted quietly at my attempt to ignore him – and offered to do the coffee run for Kate. She nodded while talking to John and I exited the room, brushing my hair out of my face. I heard footsteps behind me and knew Luke was following me. I'd kind of assumed he would. Nevertheless, I continued to the cafeteria and only stopped when we were just outside it. I turned around to face him and he stopped a few feet away from me, putting his hands in his pockets.

"So I know that you're mad at me and everything," Luke began. I didn't say anything. "But, uh...can you, like, not be?"

I raised an eyebrow.

"Please," he implored, stepping forward. "I don't like it when you're mad at me."

I rolled my eyes and hid my small smile. "This is the first time I've been mad at you."

"Yeah, and I don't like it." Luke stepped forward again, resulting in us being now very close together. His nose brushed the top of my head. "What I said was a dick move. I know that."

I exhaled deeply. "So why'd you say it?"

"I didn't say I didn't mean it. I just know it was a dick move."

I pushed him away and glared. "You– ugh, you're so annoying. And frustrating."

"Frustrating? Like sexually frustrating?"

"No," I stated firmly. Or lied. "Frustrating. Period. Now I need to get coffee."

Luke shrugged. "Okay, but I'll just follow you. If I apologize will you stop being mad at me?"

"No, because you're never going to go out in public with me, because you think I can't handle the paparazzi-"

"That's not what I said," he argued. "I said I didn't want you to have to be seen with me."

"Shouldn't it be the other way round?" I said pointedly. "You know, you shouldn't want to be seen with someone like me."

Luke paused, and said in a low voice, "That's not how it is at all. You should know that."

I winced as I realized I'd sort of pissed him off by saying that. "Okay, maybe not, but still–"

Luke cut me off by sighing loudly. "Ssh for a second."

I shot him a look but stayed quiet. He ran a hand through his hair, messing it up slightly. I kinda liked it like that. He bit on his lip ring before saying, "Fuck. You're right."

"I– what?" I said in confusion.

"You're right. You're my best friend. We should get to do stuff together that's not in the studio."

I hadn't really expected him to agree with me but I tried to keep my stubborn face on as I folded my arms. "I am... I am right. I know that."

He grinned slightly at me. "Do I still have to apologize?"

I nodded.

Luke rolled his eyes but said anyway, "Sorry for saying what I said. Happy?"

I snorted. "I guess. Now I really do need to go and get coffee."

"Yeah, whatever." I turned around and went into the cafeteria, grabbing a couple of coffees from the machine. When I exited it, Luke was still standing there, watching me.

"You didn't have to wait for me," I said, moving past him. He turned and caught up to me.

"I know. But I did anyway. Is one of those for me?"

I shook my head. "Nope. If you want one, go get it yourself."

"So mean," Luke muttered. "Also, what is up with that Sophie girl?"

"Sasha," I corrected him.

"Yeah, her. Why did she laugh so loudly? All I said was I could really do with some pizza and she–"

I cut him off, laughing. "I heard her. And, I don't know, maybe she finds you really attractive – can't imagine why – and wants to impress you–"

"What do you mean, 'can't imagine why'? I know for a fact you find me very attractive. Remember when you told me how pretty and blue my eyes were?" Luke reminded me with a smirk. "So don't pretend–"

"Here are your coffees, Kate and John," I very quickly said to them as we reached the studio. Kate took hers from me with a smile, John with a nod of thanks. I heard Luke laughing softly and knew he was once again following me as I went over to the laptop to check up on things. However he was also followed. By Sasha.

"So Luke, how many songs have you guys recorded?" she asked, flashing him a coy smile as she stood opposite him.

"Uh, only a couple. We have more written, though."

"Oh really? What are they called?"

Luke glanced at me before answering Sasha. "We wrote 'Safety Pin' and 'Invisible' while we were on tour with one direction, and we've recorded a song called 'Waste The Night'. Noelle really helped with that one." He smirked over at me, and I smiled back. I liked to think that was our song.

"Well you're a really great songwriter," Sasha complimented, still ignoring me. "I love all your songs from your other album."

"Um, thanks–" Luke was interrupted by Matt telling him to go record his part in the latest song they were writing. Luke nodded and smiled at Sasha before going to the booth. After he'd gone, Sasha dropped onto the couch right next to me, sparing me an almost judgmental glance.

"Who are you again?" she asked, not sounding like she really cared.

"Noelle," I said shortly. "I'm doing the internship with your cousin."

"Oh. So do you know Luke well?" She looked over at Luke who was now singing into the microphone.

"I guess," I answered.

"Is he single? Or are you guys a thing or something?" Sasha questioned, still watching Luke in interest.

As much as I wanted to lie and tell her we were, just because she was annoying me, I didn't. I wasn't a liar. "No, we're not a thing."

"Good. Because he's hot as fuck and I want some of that. Can you ask him if he likes blondes?"

I rolled my eyes. "No, I'm not asking him that."

"Why not? Help a girl out here. Plus, he's famous," she stated with an almost condescending look.

"So?" I said a little coldly.

"So, he's famous," she said as if I was stupid. "Who doesn't want to date a famous guy?"

"You can't just use him for his fame," I told her through gritted teeth.

"Why not? You are."

I raised my eyebrows. "Excuse me?"

"Oh come on. You say you aren't a thing but you totally want to be with him. And why else would you want to be with him apart from his fame?" Sasha rolled her eyes at me.

I narrowed my eyes. "You don't fucking know him. I do. Give him some respect."

She just laughed. "Whatever, Nora. And you haven't denied wanting to be with him."

My eyes narrowed even further. "That's none of your business. Why are you even here? You're not really interested in the music industry at all, are you? You just wanted to meet someone famous."

"Sure I'm interested in the music business. I'm also interested in fucking hot famous guys like Luke." She smirked at me and I glared back.

"Just leave him alone," I said in a low voice. Sasha grinned at me.

The rest of the day passed by with me remaining quite quiet and Sasha being annoying. I could see Fran was getting irritated by her cousin but I supposed she couldn't really say anything about it. I held back from contributing any ideas to the song the band were writing, and Luke noticed. So did Michael. He kept looking between Luke and Sasha and me. Sasha was trying everything to get Luke's attention, so much so that him and me barely talked.

As the day drew to a close, I assured Fran I would stay behind to clear up and sort out some last minute things for the band. She thanked me and dragged Sasha away, at long last. When everyone had gone I cleared everything up before sitting back down on the couch, closing my eyes for a moment. A weight settled next to me and a head rested on my lap, causing me to look down to see Luke lying there with his eyes shut.

"Hi," I said, and he opened one eye.

"Hi," he mumbled, closing his eyes again.

"You alright?"

"Mm," Luke murmured. "Tired. That Sally chick was exhausting."

I laughed softly. "You're really bad at remembering people's names, you know that, right?"

"Whatever." He yawned. "We're good, right?"

I smiled slightly. "Yeah, we're good."

We were both quiet for a moment and I almost thought Luke had drifted off, but then he spoke. "Tell me something."

I furrowed my eyebrows. "Like what?"

"I don't know. Where you've been. Where you want to go. Where you want to end up."

"Hmm." My fingers found Luke's hair as I thought. They weaved themselves amongst the soft strands and a lazy smile caressed Luke's lips. "I've been to California. Obviously. I've been to New York. I've ... I've never gone outside the States, actually. I want to go to London, Australia..."

"Australia's pretty awesome," Luke told me as I moved my hand from his hair and traced a finger down his nose and lips. He sighed softly. "I miss it."

"We should go there," I said absentmindedly, taking my hand away and running it through my hair.

"Mm."

Luke was quiet again, for longer this time. I really did think he'd fallen asleep, so I dipped my head slightly and whispered, "Luke?"

"Yeah."

"Just checking you're awake."

"Let me sleep. Your legs are really comfy."

"I'm sure, but don't you need to go back to your apartment?" I raised an eyebrow and two blue eyes were suddenly looking up at me.

"Probably. But... ugh. The guys are so loud. I want some quiet. Sing me a lullaby."

I laughed. "I'm not going to sing you a lullaby."

"Fine, but stay here." He closed his eyes again. "Stay with me."

I smiled. "Okay."

"Maybe okay will be our always."

"Shut the fuck up."