The week passed by too quickly, with me spending most but not all nights in Luke's room. The others were definitely noticing but surprisingly none of them said anything about it. But since I'd been having quite a lot of time to myself over this 'vacation' I'd been doing a lot of thinking. I was thinking to myself as I packed the morning of the day we were leaving, and I had no idea what Luke and I were. Not friends with benefits because we both definitely had feelings for each other, but we weren't anything official, which I was fine with and understood that it couldn't exactly be official because of the whole fame thing. I just didn't know what was going to happen in the future, if we would stay in this not-so-secret 'relationship' thing, or if we would just stop seeing each other when the band went on tour or something.

I sighed to myself as all these thoughts went through my head, shoving the rest of my tops into the suitcase, not bothering to fold them. I wasn't that kind of person. I needed to not think about Luke having to go on tour and leaving LA, and me, behind. I needed to enjoy what we had while it lasted.

The last of my clothes went into the bag, and I zipped it shut, falling back on my bed. In a way, I didn't want to leave this place, because although it had no cell service and there was like one bar and restaurant, it was away from everything. There were no paparazzi, and practically no people, which made it a hell of a lot easier for the guys to go out and just have fun like normal teenagers (or twenty-year-olds, in Ash's case). It was kind of a break from reality up here. But now we were going home, back to reality. It had been a good spring break, though.

My door suddenly opened and Luke walked in, collapsing on the bed next to me.

I raised an eyebrow. "Hey, heard of knocking?"

"Sshh." He rubbed his face and then stared at the ceiling, sighing. "I don't want to go back."

I turned so that I was on my side, reaching out and running a finger lightly over Luke's bottom lip. "Me either."

Luke reached up and weaved his fingers through mine, saying, "I thought I'd hate it up here. I mean, it's cold, and basically a ghost town, but it's so... uncomplicated. You know?"

I smiled. "I know. But also, going back means I don't have to worry about one of you walking in on me getting changed. You guys have no sense of privacy."

He turned and frowned at me. "Wait, what?" Luke sat up, so I did too. "Did one of them–"

"No," I quickly interrupted. "No, just the general... worry. Seriously. It was a joke."

He narrowed his eyes at me. "That sounds suspicious."

I merely grinned at him, grabbing his face and pulling it towards mine so I could kiss him. When I pulled away, I squished his cheeks together and said, "You're cute."

"I'm not cute," Luke grumbled. When I started to get up, he caught my hand and dragged me back, pulling me onto him so I was straddling his lap. His nose brushed mine. "Where do you think you're going?"

"Uh..." Right now I couldn't remember. All I could feel was Luke's hands, trailing up my waist, sliding under my shirt, his lips brushing my collarbone. "Something about... packing..."

"Mm." His lips moved up and skimmed my jaw. "You seem to have a hard time remembering."

"I..." Luke's lips finally reached mine and he kissed me, fiercely, as I knotted my fingers in his hair. I could never get tired of this.

"Fuck's sake, you guys."

That, I could get tired of.

Luke and I broke apart to see Ashton standing in the doorway, arms folded. "Honestly, Luke hasn't even packed yet. You're distracting him way too much, Noelle."

I threw a pillow at him.

***

We had a quick and uneventful journey back. Michael was quiet and listening to his music again. I sat next to Luke and we played various stupid games to pass the time. Ashton and Calum seemed to be editing a song a little while John was driving.

They dropped me off at UCLA first. Luke got out with me, insisting on holding my bags until the last possible second. He was ridiculous, but adorable.

"Don't miss me too much," he murmured, his thumb gliding lightly over my cheek.

I raised an eyebrow. "I'm seeing you on Monday."

"Yeah, well." He rested his forehead against mine. "I'll miss you."

I smiled and tilted my head up, pressing my lips to his in a short kiss. "See you soon." I stepped away and Luke got back into the minivan, glancing back at me one last time before they drove away. I sighed to myself in content and ran my finger lightly over my lips. What an amazing week.

I began to wander back to my dorm, getting out my phone to text George and Jess that I was back. I knew that George was going to want to hear all the details of the trip. A few seconds after I'd sent the text I got a reply from George: AHHHH YOU BETTER TELL ME EVERYTHING BETCH OMW TO YOUR DORM

I grinned. I'd missed them.

When I got to my dorm, they were both sitting on Jess's bed patiently, but with an excited look on their face. As soon as I stepped inside, they were both hugging me and shouting at the same time. Jess was saying things like, "We missed you! Tell us everything!" while George was merely saying, "Did you guys finally even kiss? You had sex, I can tell–"

"Okay, George, I'll tell you everything but only if you shut up," I said laughingly, dumping my bags on the floor and sitting opposite Jess and George, who were now both quiet and waiting eagerly. "Well, yeah. We finally kissed. And... slept together." I mumbled the last bit, but they heard me.

"Halle-fucking-lujah!" George shouted.

"It's about fucking time," Jess said in exasperation.

"Did you use protection?"

"Was it good?"

"Were you wearing cute underwear?"

"Does Luke have a big–"

"Jess!" I cut her off. "I am not sharing those kinds of details with you. But anyway. Turns out Luke's the jealous type."

"That's hot," George stated.

I gave him a look. "Yeah, but he got jealous over me sitting and sharing my music with Michael. So I thought it was probably a bad idea to tell Luke that Michael walked in on me in just a t-shirt and underwear."

Jess frowned. "Would that really be a big deal for him?"

"For Luke? Yeah. I didn't care, Michael's a good friend, but Luke would." I sighed.

"Well... never mind. Forget that. How did it all happen?" Jess asked excitedly.

I raised an eyebrow. "Which part?"

"First of all, first kiss," Jess said and George nodded in agreement. They both leant forward slightly in anticipation. I couldn't help but laugh at them, but told them anyway.

"Well, it actually kind of happened in the middle of an argument. Luke was being jealous and annoying, so I got mad at him, he got mad at me, and then he just sorta... kissed me. It was getting pretty heated until Ashton interrupted us."

"Shut up," George said immediately. "Ashton walked in on you guys about to rip each other's clothes off?"

"Luke's shirt was already off," I mumbled, and Jess burst out laughing. "But Ashton didn't, like, walk in on us. He knocked. But then was very suspicious."

George snorted. "No shit. But okay, moving on. I'm guessing it was pretty soon after that you guys had sex?" He wiggled his eyebrows at me. "I mean, all that sexual tension, I'm surprised it didn't happen in the first ten minutes– " I shut him up by throwing a cushion at him. I seemed to be doing that a lot today.

"It was not in the first ten minutes–"

"No, it probably only took five," Jess whispered to George, and they laughed loudly together. I couldn't help but join in. I'd missed them and their normalcy – they reminded me of why I loved college and LA, and how happy I was here. I wouldn't change it for the world.

"It was actually on the second day, I'll have you know. I do have a bit of self restraint," I told them in a superior sort of way.

"So on the second day, then every day after that?" George said with a sly smile and Jess sniggered.

"Not every day," I muttered.

"But seriously, Noelle, were you wearing cute underwear?" Jess asked in a very serious way. "This is a very important question."

I gave a mysterious smile. "I was wearing very cute underwear. I wore that red bra and matching panties once."

"Sexy," George said approvingly.

"But anyway, it was fun, I'm sad I'm back, and that's all you're getting out of me."

"Fine, fine." George paused, glancing at Jess. "So... what exactly are you and Luke?" he asked carefully, voicing exactly what I'd been thinking this morning.

"I..." I thought for a moment. "I don't really know."

"What do you want to be?" Jess questioned, leaning forward and resting her chin on her hands.

I pressed my lips together. "I mean, obviously I want us to be together, but... that kind of seems impossible. Luke's leaving soon, to go on tour again. We were talking about that this week and he got kind of down about it. Calum said something to him about being careful, but I just sort of told him to stop thinking about it. But now I'm thinking about it and... ugh." I ran a hand through my hair. "It's stressing me out."

"Don't stress," George said wisely. "Look, you're not even halfway through your internship, right? I mean, how long have you got left?"

I did the math in my head. "Like, seven weeks."

"That's loads of time," he said in a dismissive sort of way. "You'll figure something out."

I shrugged but gave a smile to them both in an effort to reassure them even though I was still feeling a bit disheartened. That week had definitely been a break from real life, but now we were back, and real life sucked.

Despite seven weeks seeming like a long time, the next couple of weeks passed way too quickly. Luke and I got closer and closer, sharing everything with each other, but I still didn't know what we were. I'd noticed and increase of furtive looks from John and Kate towards Luke and me, but if Luke had noticed them, he was ignoring them. Michael was still acting slightly distant but I was really hoping that would change.

What I didn't expect was continuous messages from Nathan. The one text he'd sent to me when I was in San Simeon had opened a floodgate of apologies, messages begging for me to talk to him, and I was seriously at the point of agreeing to talk to him just to shut him up.

We were at the studio on a warm Friday afternoon, the boys lazily strumming their guitars while trying to edit a chorus of a song they were trying to finish. Everyone was sprawled over all the sofas, sipping on cold drinks while a balmy breeze drifted through the open windows.

"All my life, I've been waiting for moments to come, when I..." Michael was saying the lyrics to himself, trying to find something that fit. "When I..."

"When you shut up?" Ashton suggested, and I laughed with Fran.

"Fuck off, Ashton," Michael grumbled. "Why am I the only one working on this song? You're all lazy shits."

"It's too hot to be thinking about lyrics," Luke muttered. He was sitting upright while I was lying with my head in his lap, my eyes closed. Neither Kate nor John were around so they weren't able to nag us to actually work.

"When I... run away? When I...escape? Find you? Ugh." Michael finally put the guitar down and joined us all in lying down and doing absolutely nothing.

"Today is just not a writing day," mumbled Calum, who seemed to be sitting rather close to Fran. I'd been noticing them become more... familiar with each other, and I was wondering if there was anything going on there.

"It's so hot I feel like I'm gonna catch fire or something," I said with a sigh. "Isn't there some sort of air conditioning in this building?"

"Apparently not," Luke answered, one hand playing with my hair and the other holding my own hand.

There was quiet for a moment before Michael broke it. "Wait, Noelle, what did you just say?"

"Uh..." I opened my eyes and glanced over at Michael, confused. "Is there air conditioning...?"

"No, no, before that." Michael picked up the guitar again. "When I... catch fire." He sang the whole line with the chords, and it fit. "Nice one, Noelle." He winked at me.

I smiled at him, but Luke's grip tightened on my hand. My smile dropped. Was he serious? I gave his hand a squeeze back, warning him not to say anything. I couldn't believe he got jealous over a wink. He may have been jealous, but I was relieved – the wink showed that the gap between Michael and I was closing, and I was happy about that.

"Noelle Torres?" The receptionist suddenly appeared at the door, and I quickly sat up.

"Yes?"

"There's someone here to see you."

I frowned. Who could possibly be coming to see me? I wondered if George had somehow snuck in just so he could meet the band, seeing as he was still sulking over Jess's encounter with Luke. "Uh, who is it?"

"He said his name was Nathan Foster."