I woke up in the morning with a mouth as a dry as the desert and a nauseated feeling in my stomach. I kept my eyes closed for as long as possible, but I knew I had to get up. I had my internship to go to. I slowly sat up, rubbing my eyes and yawning, quickly glancing at Jess to see that she was still asleep. I wished I were still asleep. I was really dreading going to the studio today because I would have to see Luke, and I had no idea how things were going to be between us.

I was about to just shove on some simple pants and a t-shirt, but then I stopped. I was mad at Luke, he was mad at me. I wanted to look cute and make him... I don't know, I just wanted to make him suffer a bit. So I decided to put more effort into choosing my outfit, and in the end I went for a white, skin-tight V-neck dress. It was fairly casual and good for a hot day, which today was. I concentrated more on my makeup, and by the time I was done, Jess was up.

"Jesus Christ, Noelle," she mumbled, yawning widely. "Why do you look so fit?"

I glanced over my shoulder at her, grinning. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"I think you do, you little minx." She squinted at me. "Are you wearing eyeliner?"

I merely gave her a mysterious smile and grabbed my bag, stuffing my phone and other essentials into it before waving goodbye to Jess and setting off.

Although I was hung-over and nervous, I was also kind of in a good mood. I wanted to see Luke's reaction to how I looked, and I knew I looked good. But then I scowled to myself. He would probably get all pissy and tell me to put something on over the top. Well, today I was not going to let him tell me what to do.

As I arrived at the studio, my nerves grew, and so did my headache. I was feeling way too nauseated to eat anything, so all I'd had this morning was about two liters of water. George, Jess and I had partied hard last night, and luckily we didn't run into Nathan at the party. He was probably too busy manipulating some other girl.

The moment I entered the room, I could practically feel the tension in the air. I'd only just arrived, though, so it couldn't be because of me, right? All eyes turned to me, but I was only looking at Luke. His eyes widened at the dress and he quickly looked away, clearing his throat.

Fran quickly got up and came over to me, since no one else was. "Hey Noelle. What's with the sexy dress?" She raised her eyebrow. "I feel like you're a woman on a mission."

I laughed. "Of a sort. What's going on? Why can I sense that everyone is very... stressed?"

She glanced over at Luke and Michael, who were glaring at each other. "Why don't you come and get coffee with me?"

Confused, I agreed and we went to the cafeteria. I noticed an increase in stares, mostly from men in their late twenties. Luke would not be happy if he was with us right now.

"So, what's going on?" I questioned as we stood by the coffee machine, filling up cups.

Fran sighed. "All I know is that something went down between Luke and Michael, and now they can't say one word to each other without arguing. When I arrived, they were basically shouting at each other. And..." She winced. "I caught your name."

I closed my eyes for a second. Why did this have to happen to me? "Did you happen to hear what it was about?"

"Not really. I think there was one part about the week you guys had in San Simeon, but apart from that, I just couldn't really tell. They stopped when I came in."

"Have Ash or Calum said anything about it?"

She shook her head. "I think they're just trying to ignore them. The way they're acting is almost as if it's not even a big deal to them, like it's happened before, or something."

I bit my lip. Fran mentioned Sam Simeon. Something happened in San Simeon that Luke would not like if he found out, and I was wondering if this was what the argument was about.

"Noelle?" She waved a hand in front of my face, and I snapped my gaze back to her.

"Sorry. Was just thinking."

Fran narrowed her eyes at me. "You look like you know what's going on."

I gave a small shrug. "I mean, not really, I just..." She raised an eyebrow at me. "Okay, okay. I have a feeling. When we were in San Simeon, I was in Luke's room, and Michael just thought it was Luke in there so he walked in. Only thing is, I was just in a t-shirt and underwear."

"Ah," she said knowingly. "I'm guessing you didn't tell Luke about this little exchange."

"I didn't," I confirmed. "It wasn't a big deal to me, but both Michael and I knew that Luke would take it badly if he found out. So we kept it to ourselves."

"And you think Luke found out?"

I nodded. "If there's tension between just Luke and Michael, then yeah. Michael's been acting kinda weird ever since."

Fran was quiet for a moment. "Noelle, you don't think Michael...likes you, or anything?"

I frowned at her. "Of course not. We're good friends."

"Yeah, but he walks in on you in a skimpy little outfit, and he acts all weird after? Sounds to me like a little crush."

I just snorted. "No. There's no way. I mean, Luke would kill him if–" Comprehension dawned on me. "Oh. You think that's what this is about?"

"Possibly. You're a gorgeous girl, Noelle. Obviously. It would be hard for Michael not to like you." She winked at me and I smiled weakly. "Now help me carry these coffees. Let's go back and try and diffuse the tension."

I grabbed a couple of the cups and we made our way back to the studio. Just before we went into the studio, Fran quickly said, "Sasha's still coming, I'm afraid - just a bit later. Don't let her steal away your Luke just because you guys are in a fight." She grinned at me and slipped inside. Luckily, Ashton was banging away on the drums so the room wasn't quiet anymore, but I could still see Luke and Michael staring daggers at each other. I had to sort this out. Right now. I was sick of this shit. I didn't even have the energy to talk to them separately, to try and do this the peaceful way. I was tired and hung-over and not in a peaceful mood in the slightest.

After putting the coffees down, I marched over to the two of them, stopping in between. They were sitting down opposite each other, doing nothing but looking like they wanted to kill each other. "Right. You two get up, right now. We're going outside."

Luke said and did nothing while Michael said warily, "Noelle, I don't think–"

"I don't care what you think," I snapped. "I am not in the mood for this shit, so us three are going to go outside and have a nice little chat." Neither of them moved. "I swear to god, if you two don't get the fuck up, I will slap both of you so hard you won't have eyes to glare at each other with. Either way, I win."

Ashton started laughing. I hadn't realized he'd stopped playing the drums and had been listening to me pretty much yelling at Michael and Luke like they were two naughty schoolboys. Finally, they got up and I saw the smallest of smirks on Luke's face, but I forced myself to keep a straight face. I turned and stomped out, making my way to the balcony, hoping that Luke and Michael were following me.

When I was outside, I stopped and stood there with my arms folded, a completely unimpressed expression on my face. They reached me and came to a stop, standing a good few feet away from each other.

"One of you two, tell me what the fuck is going on. Right now." I glared at them while they both just stood there. Michael looked uncomfortable and had his hands in his pockets and Luke was mirroring my stance with his arms crossed. He met my gaze and I could see traces of apology in it.

Nope. I was not going to let Luke's pretty blue eyes distract me. "Well?"

Finally Luke spoke. "The fuck's up with you today?"

"I am so done with both of your shit," I snapped. "If you two are fighting over something as petty as what I think it is, then that's just fucking ridiculous. And if you don't start explaining yourselves, I might just throw one of you off this balcony."

Luke snickered. Michael actually looked alarmed. Luke was the one to speak again. "Fine, Jesus." His smile dropped and he shot a look at Michael. "Guess I'll explain." Michael just kept on staring at the ground. "Michael told me about your little moment in San Simeon."

I dropped my hands to my sides in frustration. "How can you even be–"

"That's not what I'm pissed off about," Luke interrupted in irritation. "Well, I was, but then he let something else slip."

Michael was looking more and more awkward, but he quickly cut off Luke. "He found out that I liked you. As more than a friend."

Oh no. Oh god. Fran was right. Michael liked me. I turned to Luke. "And you're mad at him because...?"

Luke just stared at me. "Are you serious? You can't see why I'm mad at him?"

"No, I can see why you're mad at him," I corrected myself, "but you can't be this mad, Luke," I said angrily. "People can't help feelings."

"They can try," he muttered.

I glanced at Michael. "Michael, why – why didn't you tell me?"

"Come on, Noelle," he said in annoyance. "You think I would tell anyone, with how overprotective Luke is?"

"Careful, Michael," Luke said in a low voice, taking a threatening step towards him.

"Hey, hey," I snapped. "You guys cannot be in a fight about this. Luke, you've got to stop getting jealous, and Michael, you should have told me. But if you don't sort this out right now, I'll–"

"You can stop with the death threats," Michael said, his voice tense. "I've apologized to Luke about a hundred times, but he's not exactly reciprocating."

Luke raised an eyebrow. "I'm sorry, is there something I need to apologize for?"

Michael threw his hands up in innocence. "I just mean that I'm over this. He's not. So I'm done here." Without another word he turned and walked back inside, leaving Luke and I alone.

We both just stared at each other for a while, not speaking. I opened my mouth to say something when suddenly Luke's lips on mine cut me off. His hands cupped my face, holding me close to him. I made a noise of complaint, taking hold of his wrists but not pulling away. I'd missed this, I'd missed Luke, so how could I pull away? Instead I kissed him back, locking my hands around his neck and knotting my fingers in his hair as he kissed me fiercely.

I soon came to my senses and quickly pulled away, taking a step back and glaring at Luke. "Why the hell did you do that?"

He shrugged. "I wanted to."

"You–" I gave him a look. "You wanted to?"

"That's what I said. That dress..." Luke's eyes roamed over my body. "It's doing things to me."

"Well, you shouldn't have done it," I said sharply, ignoring the comment about the dress. "I'm still pissed off with you. You can't just kiss me whenever we argue."

"Personally," Luke started, stepping closer to me and tucking a strand of hair behind my ear before running a finger over my bottom lip, "I think it's always a great way to resolve things."

I slapped his hand away. Not because I didn't want it there, but because it shouldn't be there. It was distracting me from my annoyance towards Luke. "You need to not be angry at Michael."

The smirk vanished from Luke's face, and his expression hardened. "You don't get to decide who I'm angry at, Noelle."

"He's done nothing wrong!" I said in exasperation, throwing my hands up. "You can't–"

"I can, and I will," he said shortly. "And I'm mad at you, too. You should have told me about San Simeon."

"I didn't tell you because I knew this was how you'd react!" I exclaimed. "I didn't care about it, and neither should you. It's not a big deal, at all."

"It is to me, Noelle!" Luke said loudly. "Michael knows how important you are to me, and he knows how I feel about you."

My heart melted slightly at his words. I found it difficult to be mad at him when he said shit like that. And maybe he was right – we should have told him, because now we'd kept it from him, it looked much worse. "I... okay, fine. I should have told you. I'm sorry I didn't."

Luke just stared at me for a second before shaking his head slightly. "I wasn't really expecting that."

"But–" I held my finger up. "I'm not sorry for thinking you need to make up with Michael. And you know that you can't tell me not to see him or something, right?"

His jaw tensed. "I'm just worried–"

"About what? It's not like Michael would make a move, or anything. You know that, right?"

Luke bit his lip. "I don't know that for sure."

"Yes you do, or at least you should!" I said angrily. I couldn't believe how little trust he had in his band mate. "He's your best friend, Luke. You should trust him."

He just glowered at me. "Okay, fine, I'll think about it."

I stared. "You'll think about–"

"Did you go to Nathan's last night?" Luke interrupted me, his voice taut.

I blinked, and then crossed my arms defensively. "So what if I did?"

He looked away, clearly trying to keep his temper. "Why?"

"He wanted to give me a necklace," I muttered. I didn't mention the fact that I regretted going to Nathan's because I just ended up being annoyed at him. "I didn't take it, and he shouldn't have offered it to me."

Luke exhaled slowly. "I – I don't get you, Noelle. He was awful to you. Why would you even bother?"

I didn't answer, I just pressed my lips together and kept a neutral expression on my face. Luke watched me for a moment before simply walking away and leaving me. And really, it was my own damn fault.