Run (Punk Luke Hemmings)

Chapter 11

Monday morning comes quick and I am not ready to go back to school. This weekend was full of stress and my mind running all over the place. My anxiety was going through the roof and it only got worse the more I thought about having to talk to Luke. I also didn't want to see Tate at all today and the boys promised me that they would try to keep me away from him as much as possible.

As much as I wanted to wear sweats and not care about my appearance today, Linley told me that I needed to look hot for Luke to see. Unfortunately she was right. I had to fight with my own body in order to get out of bed. I pull on a pair of jeans and an All Time Low crewneck. It was raining out today and as much as I liked the rain, it just made me more tired and definitely didn't help my mood. Luckily I liked my natural hair, so I just left it how it was. I put on as much makeup as I could until I gave up.

My mother can sense that something is wrong, so the whole car ride to school is her repeatedly asking me what's going on. I keep telling her it's nothing, but she doesn't believe me. I wouldn't believe me either.

When we finally arrive, I meet Calum outside. He throws his arm around my shoulder as we run inside to get out of the rain. As we walk to my locker, I see Michael and Lin waiting for us. They all bombard me with questions such as if I'm okay and when I plan on talking to Luke. I can't answer either of those questions because I still don't know the answers myself.

The day goes by very slow and it doesn't stop raining once. The boys take turns trying to make me feel better throughout the day and I have to throw on a fake smile to make them believe that I'm okay. When lunch finally comes around, Linley and I get our food with Michael and wait for Ashton and Calum to get to the table. My stomach does a complete flip when I see them walk over from the food line, all three of them.

Calum and Ash take their usual spots next to me as Luke sits on the other side of Michael. His eyes are locked on mine as mine stay on him. He doesn't say anything rude to me and he doesn't have any girls with him. Two very unusual things. I force myself to break my gaze at him and turn to talk to Ashton and Cal.

Throughout lunch I catch Luke staring at me and I try not to look at him too much, even though it's very hard when he looks the way he does. At one point I catch myself staring at him while he's talking to Michael. For the first time since I've met him, I see him smile at something that Michael says. A laugh escapes his mouth and it is one of the most beautiful sounds I have ever heard. My stomach feels like it's going to cave in on itself and I think my heart skips a beat. I didn't think it was possible for Luke to smile, or for me to smile because of something that he did. But I couldn't help it. Seeing Luke have joy on his face for once, even for a split second, made me feel better than I had for the past few days.

Still smiling, he turns and we make eye contact. His smile slowly fades and I quickly turn my head away from him. Luckily the bell rings and I immediately walk out of the lunch room. Ashton quickly catches up to me and I look behind me to see the other four walking together.

"Something wrong, Allis?" He asks.

"No, I'm fine," I say and put on my best fake smile.

"Luke wants to talk to you," he blurts out. I'm surprised that I don't break my neck at how fast I turn to look at him.

"What did you just say?" I shoot back.

"He wants to talk to you, just like you wanted to talk to him. He's coming to your house after school," he says slowly and looks as if he thinks I am going to hit him.

I sigh and try to think about this. All day I had tried to avoid the thought of talking to Luke and now I was going to be worrying about it for the rest of the day. Good thing I had no exams today. "Okay," I finally say. "I'm guessing one of you gave him my address?"

He nods, looking guilty. "I'm sorry, Allis, but maybe this will help."

I put on a small smile. "It's alright Ash, I had to talk to him eventually anyways. I just hope it goes okay."

"It will all be okay," he says as he puts his arm around my shoulder and pulls me tight.

As we continue walking to our class, I see the one person I didn't want to see the most down the hallway. Tate is walking towards us and I feel as if I am going to throw up. When he gets closer, I see that his left eye is very noticeably bruised. The closer he gets, my breathing picks up. Luckily, there are many people in between us and he walks right past, not even noticing me. I sigh with relief and turn to Ashton.

"Did you see that?"

"See what?" He looks down at me and laughs.

"Tate just walked past us, he had a black eye," I say and he just smiles and continues to look ahead. "Wait a second, did you give him that?"

"I wish," he says with a smile.

"Well who did?" I ask expecting an answer.

"I'm sure you'll find out at some point today."