When Luke finally decided to rejoin us, we were all sitting together in the living room, laughing as we sang stupid songs in stupid voices with Michael playing the guitar.

"Luke! We thought you'd been swept away by the ocean," Calum said dryly and Ashton chuckled, adding, "You missed some epic songwriting."

"Whatever," he said nonchalantly, running a hand through his already disheveled hair. "I'm going to go unpack." Then he disappeared upstairs, lugging his suitcase with him. As soon as he was out of sight, Calum said quietly and in a slightly amused voice, "He's in one of his moods."

"He'll get over it soon," Michael assured me even though I hadn't said anything.

"I never said he wouldn't," I said, sitting back and folding my arms. After a moment, I asked hesitantly, "Any idea what it's about?"

Ashton and Calum shared a look while Michael shrugged before saying, "Who knows. You could always go talk to him if you want to find out."

I sighed and pushed myself off the couch. "I might. Which is his room?"

"Second on the left," replied Ashton with a smile. I nodded in thanks and made my way upstairs.

When I saw that his door was closed, I bit my lip and knocked gently. The door opened slightly as Luke peered round to see who it was. When he saw it was me, he raised his eyebrows questioningly as if to ask what I wanted.

"Don't give me that shit," I said shortly before pushing the door open and stepping past him into his room.

He sighed slightly and turned to face me. "What shit?"

"Where you just don't talk to me and act like I'm the last person you want to see," I replied, stepping forward.

"That's not what I'm doing," Luke said irritably. "Do we really have to do this now? I'm kind of trying to unpack here."

"We are doing this now. Your unpacking can wait," I said stubbornly.

Luke exhaled slowly and pushed his door shut. "Jesus. Fine. What–"

"Why are you being so moody?" I asked immediately with a frown. "You're really reminding me of how you were when I first met you."

He rubbed his face. "What can I say? I guess it's my time of the month."

"You're not funny," I snapped but he smirked. "If this is about me sitting next to and listening to music with Michael, Luke, I swear–"

"Jesus Christ, Noelle. It's not about that. But," he paused, looking down at me intensely; "I can't say I particularly liked you getting all cozy with him."

"Are you serious?" I said in annoyance. "You can't get pissed off with me just because–"

"I just said it wasn't about that," he cut me off heatedly. "You have no idea..."

"I have no idea about what?" I questioned fiercely. "Please enlighten me, because I really hate it when you act like I've done something wrong and I don't even know what it is and now you won't tell me, and you say it's not Michael even though you're acting really jealous right now–"

Suddenly Luke was right in front of me, his hands cupped around my face as he looked down at me with a fierce look in his eyes. "You know what, Noelle? I am fucking jealous." Then he kissed me.

I made a small noise of surprise at the sudden contact as his lips moved with mine, the cool metal of the ring feeling better than I ever thought it would. My hands acted without me even thinking as they moved up Luke's chest and locked around the back of his neck, pulling him as close to me as he could possibly get. We were suddenly moving and my back hit the wall as Luke pressed himself against me, making sure there wasn't an inch of space separating us.

His lips parted, causing mine to part as his tongue slipped into my mouth, running over mine and oh my god, he tasted amazing. Our breaths were mingling and we were both panting. Luke's hands moved from my face and down my stomach before sliding underneath my shirt and splaying across my skin. I liked the feeling of his skin on my skin. I didn't like all the layers of clothes between us. My hands dropped down to the bottom of his shirt and I began to try and tug it up. We broke apart for a second as Luke lifted his shirt over his head and immediately attached his lips to mine again.

I trailed my hands up his bare torso as we continued to kiss passionately before placing them on either side of his face, feeling the rough stubble beneath my palms. Luke suddenly hooked his hands around the backs of my thighs and lifted me so that my legs were wrapped around his hips tightly, and a small smile crept onto my lips as I felt the slight bulge beneath his jeans.

"Shut up," Luke mumbled against my lips and I laughed softly.

"Oi, Luke!" We were interrupted by a loud knock at the door from Ashton. We broke apart, breathing heavily and with swollen lips. "Are you guys having sex or something?"

"Oh my god," I said in embarrassment, slowly untangling myself from Luke so that I could stand on my own two feet.

"No, Ashton, but if you'd have just–" Luke began to reply, but I slapped my hand over his mouth.

"No, we are not," I stated firmly.

"Great, then I can come in." Immediately after he said this Ashton pushed open the door and saw the state we were in. Luke looked pretty flustered, with no shirt on and ridiculously messed up hair from when I'd been running my fingers through it, and I probably looked just as bad.

"Did you need something, Ashton?" Luke questioned, trying to tame his hair.

"Uh..." His eyes flickered between the two of us. "Are you sure you guys weren't having sex?"

I flushed. "We weren't, Ashton."

"Did you want something?" Luke asked again irritably.

"Yeah, Feldy wants you downstairs," Ashton replied, still giving us funny looks. "See you down there in a bit." Just as he was leaving, he said without turning around, "Glad to see you two have resolved whatever problem you were having."

As he exited the room, I realized we hadn't actually resolved the problem. We just put off talking about it by getting into a very heated make out session. I turned to Luke who was pulling his shirt back on.

"You're so annoying," I said, straightening my top.

Luke raised an eyebrow. "And why's that?"

"Because we were supposed to be resolving a problem and then you kissed me! Now I can't even remember what we were arguing about."

"I can't see that as a bad thing," he stated bluntly. "And are you saying you didn't want me to kiss you?" As he said this, a small smirk appeared on his lips and he stepped closer to me.

"Don't do that," I warned him, taking a step back. "You can't just kiss me when you don't want to talk about something."

"Why not?"

"Because that just creates more problems," I said in frustration. "It doesn't solve anything."

"Sure it does," Luke said, taking another step towards me. "I've been having this problem where I've been wanting to kiss you for a hell of a long time but first I couldn't because you were with Norman, and then I couldn't because you guys had just broken up and it would be wrong, so you can't blame me for kissing you as soon as it felt okay. So yes. It did solve a problem." With that he ran a thumb over my bottom lip before stepping past me and heading downstairs. I stared at the spot where he'd been standing for a moment. Finally I breathed out slowly and went downstairs as well.

The rest of the band were still sitting but with John with them now, and Luke was perched on the edge of the couch. I stayed in the doorway, leaning against the wall since I wasn't sure if I was needed or not, but when John saw me he beckoned me in.

"Come join us, Noelle. I just wanted to talk to you guys about the plan for the next two weeks."

I pushed myself off the wall and sat myself on a hard wooden chair, making a point to not look at Luke. I was worried that if our eyes met he would be able to tell that I was still very much thinking about our make out session.

"So this week is just about getting away from a busy city and clearing our minds, right," John started, and the boys nodded. "You don't have to be songwriting and recording everyday, like today I just want you all to relax, maybe go to the beach and just have a bit of fun. There's not much to do, I'm not going to lie, it's a small ass town, but there might be a restaurant or two. Assuming you all are unpacked you can just go off." At this the band started to get up, and I followed suit. "But," he suddenly continued, "Just to warn you, there's no cell service."

They all groaned and I smiled.

***

While the band had gone into the small town, I went towards the beach, happy to have a bit of time to myself. There was a long pier stretching out from the shore, and I wandered along it, taking out my phone and seeing that John was right – there was absolutely no service whatsoever. I put my phone back into my pocket and continued to walk up the pier. There was no one around. The only sounds were the waves breaking gently onto the sand and the wind swirling around me and whistling in my ears. I reached the end and leaned against the fencing, closing my eyes and just listening and breathing in the fresh air. It was kind of cold but I didn't really mind. For a while I just stood there, and after a moment I started humming to myself random little tunes, feeling inspired by the rhythm of the sea and breeze.

"Cute singing."

I spun around to see Luke standing with his hands in his pockets, looking past me at the ocean spread before us. I frowned slightly. "I thought you were with the others."

He shrugged and came to stand next to me, leaning on the fence. "I was. Then I thought I should come and talk to you."

"Oh." I turned and faced the sea again. We were both quiet for a bit, and then Luke spoke.

"You're probably right," he said quietly, and I looked at him in confusion.

"Right about what?"

He sighed and dropped his gaze down to his hands. "I probably shouldn't have kissed you. But I have this habit of not dealing with my problems, and, you know, trying to find ways to put them aside."

I laughed softly. "You're not the only one."

Luke bit his lip and furrowed his eyebrows in slight concentration. After a moment he said, "I don't know if you heard what Calum said in the minivan. That I should be careful."

I pressed my lips together. "Um, I did."

He looked out across the water again, squinting slightly. "I just..." He groaned, and muttered, "I fucking hate this. Dealing with problems."

I shook my head in amusement but didn't say anything, trying to encourage him to keep going.

"I've been thinking about what Calum said. And I really, really don't want have to worry about that right now." Luke rubbed a hand over his face.

"So don't," I murmured, turning my body to face him. "Just... don't think about it."

"But I fucking am, Noelle," he said urgently, now looking at me. "You're in college. You're building a life for yourself. This internship only lasts another, what, couple of months? Then we go on tour. What happens then?"

"Luke," I said quietly. "You don't need to be thinking about that. This trip was supposed to be to clear our heads. It was supposed to be relaxing. It was not supposed to be spent worrying about the future."

"I can't help it," he said, exhaling slowly.

"Please, just try," I said, smiling sort of sadly up at him. Luke met my gaze, an unreadable expression on his face.

"You can't tell me you haven't thought about it at all," he muttered, dipping his head and resting his forehead against mine.

I bit my lip. "I mean, I guess I have, but... I'm trying not to. I'm happy. I want to keep it that way."

Luke sighed and slowly nodded. "Okay." His nose brushed mine, his lips ghosting over my lips. "Okay." Then he stepped away and rested his hands on the fencing. It was quiet for some time, while we both watched the waves breaking on the shore. I broke the silence.

"It's nice up here," I commented, brushing the hair back from my face.

Luke shrugged. "It's cold."

"It's refreshing," I corrected him. "It's different to LA. Don't you like how it's not busy?"

"Noelle, there is absolutely no one around," he stated in slight amusement. "It's like a ghost town."

"I like it," I murmured, glancing up at him, thinking for a moment. "Luke," I started, slowly, deciding on what exactly to say. "You don't– there's no reason, at all, for you to be jealous of Michael. I hope you know that."

Luke carried on looking at the sea, but he tensed up slightly. He didn't say anything.

"You want to know why?" I swallowed and continued. "Because I don't like Michael. I mean, as a friend, I like him, obviously, but... I like you, Luke, if you didn't guess from the... kissing. And everything before that."

A small smirk was creeping onto Luke's lips, and he turned his head, looking down at me. "Well, snowflake, I like you too. If you didn't guess from... everything."

I smiled at the use of my nickname. "No, I had no idea, I mean, all the innuendos and shit totally gave nothing away."

"Yeah, well, subtlety isn't exactly my strong suit."

"Who knew?"