now or never (LUKE PATTERSON)

9

The boys stood outside of the school waiting for a certain someone.

"Look, she's cool and all but she's making us miss our opportunity to practice, my mom wants me home by six, my grandparents are coming over." Bobby complained, he wasn't excited for dinner with his grandparents either, but he still wanted to be respectful and be on time.

"Look, she can walk out of the door at anytime, just wait." Luke tried vouching for her even though his point made wasn't something Bobby wanted to hear. "I'm going to the car..Reggie can I have the keys?" Bobby asked and Reggie nodded slightly handing him the keys. They watched as Bobby walked off angrily. He was always moody.

Soon their heads turned back to the doors. "Where is she?" Alex asked, growing worried. Lydia had never been in school for this long. She usually leave within the first few minutes they were out of school. But it had been at least ten minutes.

"I'll go find her, you guys head to the car." Luke said, they and walked over to the car.

Luke walked back into the school instantly getting stopped by someone.

"Hey." A girl spoke happily, her voice was cheerful. Luke smiled back lightly, not wanting to be rude. "Hey." Luke said but you could hear the confusion in his voice. "So I was wondering if you wanted to got to the dance with me?" She boldly asked. Luke laughed awkwardly since his nerves started to kick in. "I'm sorry, I'm not interested since I'll be playing with my band. You can always look out for that..?" He tried to let her down easily but he noticed all the hope in the girls eyes drop. Now he felt bad. But he wasn't ready to be in a relationship, let alone worry about a date to the dance when he wanted to focus on his music and performing.

He then walked past the girl awkwardly and started his mission to find the missing girl. He had no idea where Lydia could be.

Maybe in English class?

He though. He had remembered her complaining about English class two days ago, so he decided to give that class a shot.

As he turned the corner, he bumped into a smaller figure.

"I'm so sorry-wait, Luke? I thought you were supposed to be at practice." Lydia was shocked seeing the boy in the halls after school hours. Practicing up until they perform at the dance was
their normal schedule so it was weird because he was the most persistent about practice and yet here he was.

"About that, the boys and I were wondering if you would want to come to practice with us..if you don't have anything to do after school." Luke cut to the chase and invited her. Lydia smiled happily, she knew that Riley and Justin weren't coming over, which was starting to rub off on her, sadly, and on top of that she had nothing better to do. In this moment, she was glad. She was honestly was dreading to be alone at home.

"I'd love to." She replied, Luke was now happy to hear the answer. "Okay, well we're in Reggie's car. Come on." Luke said as he began to walk, she walked beside him. "So you're telling me that you guys let me hold you up from practice?" Lydia asked and Luke laughed as if it meant nothing. "Yeah, kind of."Luke replied as he rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm so sorry. I didn't even think you guys would even invite me." Lydia said and he shrugged it off. "It's fine, it's our fault for not telling you. It was honestly just a last minute decision." Luke said and Lydia smiled. At least they still thought about her.

Once they finally got into the car, Lydia sat in between Alex and Luke in the back, as Reggie drove and Bobby sat in the passenger seat. The boys just listened to music, harmonizing to the sound as Lydia admire them.

She sang, but only her dad, mom, Riley, and Justin knew. She just didn't sing anymore after her dad's absence because it reminded her so much of him. She would sometimes hum songs here and there. But that was the closest she'd get to singing around others.

And whenever she would sing, it was usually when she was alone in her room. But it was nothing serious, it was all fun in games.

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Lydia followed behind the boys as they walked into a garage. She was completely in awe at this place, she loved the vibe. Everything looked welcoming and comfortable.

"You can sit in the couch. Make yourself at home." Reggie spoke and she smiled as she went to sit on the couch. Her eyes drifted around the place admiring everything about it.

The boys instantly threw their backpacks down and went to their instruments. They all had their own mics and they started right away.

Lydia was very intrigued. She had never seen them perform this close. It was like she got a private performance, they were amazing.

She smiled over to Luke as he smiled back at her as he sang. His smile was so comforting, it made Lydia feel safe. She loved being around these boys. They brought her comfort.

Lydia was grateful that they were bringing her comfort because she could feel and see her best friends fading away from her. It didn't feel as bad only because she had the boys. She couldn't imagine what it would feel like if she didn't have them by her side at a time like this.

edited