•Cassidy

Saying goodbye was difficult, but knowing that I was coming back to Sydney in just a few months for Christmas made this whole thing a little easier. My parents didn't even cry this time because they knew they would be seeing me again soon.

I fell asleep for practically the entire flight (after we had taken off, of course) which made the trip back to Los Angeles go smoother than I had originally expected. I think my body just needed to catch up on all of the sleep I had been deprived of, and Calum's shoulder was a fantastic pillow.

A clicking noise echoed through my ears as my eyes started to flutter. I slowly pried them open, revealing a stream of California sunlight blinding my vision. Calum's arm was extended across my body as he attempted to undo my seat belt. "Hi sleepyhead," He cooed, kissing my forehead gently.

I yawned loudly, shooting my hand over my mouth to try and smother it. "Hi," I greeted in a deflated tone, stretching my arms out wide. "Did you sleep?"

"No," Calum explained, shaking his head from side to side. "Actually, I did for a little bit. But not as much as you."

I felt a blush creep its way onto my cheeks, highlighting my face like a red tomato. "Sorry," I muttered in embarrassment, laughing nervously.

Calum just grinned at me, lacing our hands together as we stood up to grab our carry-ons from the compartment above. "It's okay. You're cute when you sleep."

"You're cute all the time," I countered, poking him in the chest as I gripped onto the handle of my carry-on.

"I got it," Calum insisted, taking my bag out of my hands and carrying both of our bags. If I wasn't so exhausted I would have protested, but I decided to enjoy the chivalrous gesture instead. They weren't necessarily heavy, but it did still make his biceps clench, which I had to admit was a glorious sight to see.

I followed him out of the plane and through the make-shift hallway and the airport until we reached the baggage claim section, being greeted by numerous amounts of photographers that were outside that immediately started snapping pictures of us.

I stood a little behind Calum, pressing my face onto his shoulder as I hid from the flashing lights that I hated. I always got uncomfortable when the paparazzi surrounded us, especially when they would call out obscene things to me.

Calum craned his neck to the side to catch a glimpse of me. "You okay, baby?"

"Yeah," I said in a non-persuasive manner. I let out a little groan as the volume of the paparazzi behind us grew louder as the desperately tried to get us to turn around and give them some type of reaction.

We were standing in front of the luggage carousel, and a little girl next to us was clutching onto her mother's leg in fear with her eyes squinted from all of the flashing lights. I smiled sheepishly at her, feeling guilty that she was being exposed to this greasy behavior these men outside were displaying. "I'm sorry," I mumbled to the Mum, but she just simply nodded her head.

I wrapped my arms around Calum's waist and snuggled into his side as if it was some sort of protection for me. The baggage claim was taking forever and I was becoming impatient. I just wanted to get out of here.

"Calum!"

I expected the loud call of my boyfriend's name was going to be from some fan who was going to ask for a picture or something. To my surprise, when we whipped our heads around we saw no other than Luke sprinting towards us, with the rest of our friends trailing slowly behind.

Calum let go of me to give his band mate a hug, and I assume he had missed the three of them immensely during their time apart. They were used to always being together.

"Hi Cass," Luke greeted, stepping forward to give me a terribly awkward hug. I nearly forgot all about Luke during this week in Australia, but now the memories from my birthday were flooding back through my brain.

"Hi Luke," I responded timidly, fully aware of Calum's gaze on the two of us.

He had nothing to worry about though. I had moved on from our brief fling fairly quickly, much quicker than I imagined to, and I was no longer even remotely bitter over the fact that he chose another girl over me. I mean, I basically picked Calum over him too. We also weren't technically exclusive so Luke didn't really commit any crimes and it would be a waste of energy to hold a grudge. It just wasn't meant to be- it's as simple as that. There was no need for me to try and force relationships.

The rest of our friends caught up to us. I couldn't help myself from leaping into Bree's arms, since I had thoroughly missed my best girl friend. "Bree!" I squealed loudly as I clutched her body tightly against my own.

"You guys are the over-dramatic, annoying girls that everyone hates at airports," Michael complained, placing his hand on Bree's shoulder and yanking her away from me. He smiled down at me to assure me that he was only kidding. "How was the trip, Cassidy?"

"Wonderful," I explained, looking up at Calum for him to confirm this, but he was too busy in a conversation with Ashton to even pay attention. At this point I finally noticed the presence of Hannah, who had her hand laced together with Luke's, and I waved at her.

The beep sounded, meaning that the luggage was about to start moving around the conveyor belt and I excused myself to go retrieve ours. Calum was still talking and laughing.

I spotted our suitcases after a few moments and, with only a tiny bit of struggle, wheeled them over towards where our group was huddling together. I'm still in awe that not one person from our flight has approached any of us, even with all of the nearby photographers banging on the window.

"Here, Cal," I called, placing the suitcase by his side.

He jumped instantly, as if I had sneaked up on him. A grin appeared on his face several seconds after. "Oh, I forgot all about this," Calum informed me with a little chuckle. "Thanks, baby."

"Baby?" Ashton repeated in disgust, his eyes nearly bulging out of their sockets at what he had just heard. He threw his hands up in the air. "Jesus Christ, I'm surrounded by couples. At least you guys aren't as bad as Luke and Hannah over here. I walk in on them making out all the time."

Me too.

An uncomfortable silence fell over us. It was all a bit weird. First Ashton was with Bree, and now she is with Michael. First I was with Calum, and then Luke, and now I'm back where I belong- with Calum.

"Oh, Calum!" Hannah finally spoke up, gnawing away at the tension that had been built within our group of friends. "I just wanted to thank you again for encouraging me to get back in contact with Luke. It has been the best decision I've ever made and it's all thanks to you."

My jaw dropped open slightly. Luke's blue eyes instantly turned to me in confusion. Neither of us clearly had any idea of what was going on.

"What?" I almost shouted, since I was so puzzled by what Hannah had just said.

Calum pursed his lips together, a guilty expression plastering over his entire face. "I, um, I kind of told Hannah that she should try to meet up with Luke while she was in LA again."

"Oh my God," I whined, suddenly becoming overly irritated with him. "You knew the whole time! That's why you weren't even surprised when I told you! You set it up to break us up, didn't you?"

Calum swallowed the lump in his throat apprehensively. He was too scared to even look at me. "Yeah, I did," Calum admitted quietly. Luke and I both let out a grunt of anger at the same time. "But it shouldn't matter! You're both happier now! We're all with the people we are supposed to be with! I did everyone a favor."

I tucked a piece of hair behind my ears as I struggled to find the words I wanted to say. "Well yeah, but now it just feels so wrong."

I thought the whole Luke getting back together with his old girlfriend and me finally realizing that my best friend was, in fact, more than a friend on the same day was some weird coincidence. I thought this was all fate. It restored my belief that everything did happen for a reason and that the universe was able to work its magic in mysterious ways. But now that I found out that it was all fake and set up, I'm sort of disappointed.

Luke stuffed his hands in the pockets of his black skinny jeans. He glimpsed up at Hannah with a face of sadness that mirrored my own. "I thought this was your own idea. Like I thought you just suddenly remembered that you still loved me and that we could make this work. I didn't know it was just Calum convincing you to do something you never even had plans to do."

"Luke-" Hannah began to say, but he just shook his head, walking away from everyone. She followed after him rapidly.

Ashton, Michael and Bree all stood there dumbfounded and completely unaware of what to do. I was growing pissed at Calum for completely sabotaging my almost-relationship, which is what he had done years before with Joey.

"I can't believe you did that," I stated in an icy tone, rolling my eyes at Calum. "Did you even tell Hannah about me when you contacted her? Did you even tell her there was a chance that Luke wasn't going to be available for much longer?"

Calum adjusted the strap of the duffel bag that was around his shoulder. "Well, no," Calum confessed, making me want to walk away as well. He gripped onto my wrist to prevent me from moving. "Cass, look. I knew Luke was going to hurt you. I didn't want it to happen to you so I stepped in! Why does it matter so much? It's not like you and Luke were going to last anyways."

"That's not the point!" I yelled for the first time, despite the fact that the paparazzi was still outside and there were still numerous amounts of people nearby to us.

Bree stepped closer to me, touching her hand to my shoulder. She lowered her voice to a sympathetic whisper. "Do you want Michael and I to drive you home, Cass?"

"No, I can drive her," Calum interrupted. "Cass, let's just go home and forget about this. We're both tired and need to rest. Come on."

"Cal, no," I protested, shaking my head. "I'm mad at you, okay? I'm not even completely sure why yet. I just need to think. Can I just be alone for a little while?"

He sighed heavily, giving in to my request. "Fine, whatever. Ash can you give me a lift back to your house?"

Bree bent down to pick up my luggage for me and tried to usher me away from him before I said something that I didn't mean while I was caught up in the heat of the moment.

"Cassidy," Calum called out from the spot he was frozen in while I was still in hearing distance. Ii turned my head to catch a glance of him while we continued to walk towards the crowded exit. "I'm sorry."

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author's note: ok i dont even know if you guys remember when i sneaked in the part when calum said he encouraged hannah to get back in contact with luke but ya he did & now its causin some drama oops

alright so if youre confused basically calum was all like omg hannah u should go see luke he still loves u & misses u even tho luke didnt say any of that bc he knew hannah would go back to see him and cal knew that luke would pick hannah over cass so then cass would have to run into calums arms like he wanted. but now luke is all pissy cuz hannah didnt come up with the ideas on her own & he was a d!ck to cassidy for no reason & cassidy is upset cuz callie wallie purposely made them break up like a lil sly fox

hey would anyone be interested in doin a one shot competition??

dedicated to ImPunkRockBro for saying that she was doing a happy dance when i updated & that im her fav author on wattpad & that i give her super high expectations for relationships but thats ok bc she can "be in a relationship with my stories" aND IDK THAT WAS JUST SO CUTE THANK U SO MUCH ILYSM AW AW