✔ DRUNK words, SOBER thoughts ✖ hemmings au

29: Ignite Whimsy

[a/n: double update. the next chapter is published as well because i won't be able to update for the next few days]

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LUKE.

You know that weird feeling in the pit of your stomach when the people around you are whispering God knows what, but you got that gut feeling they're all talking about you? You know that churning, acidic sensation when you feel so isolated in a hallway that's brimming with people? Well that, was exactly how I was feeling as I strolled to my locker on that seemingly normal school morning.

It was slow motion, kind of like a movie, the way I sauntered down the hallway, scanning my eyes left to right, noticing my peers whisper to each other as I passed. It didn't resonate with me at first, but when I caught glimpse of a peculiar piece of paper on the floor, I knew something was off. However, it wasn't just any random, glossy sheet of paper.

It was a photograph.

Slicked back hair, buck teeth in braces, acne, and a sweater vest, the old Luke Hemmings gazed up at me like a slap to the face. I bent down, picking up the photograph and examining it as if the replica didn't exist; as if the same exact photo wasn't framed on the wall next to the staircase at home. I ripped up the picture in my hands, crumpling it up before I continued my trek through the hall. As I dumped the photo into the bin, that's when I noticed them.

Photographs.

Hundreds of them and all identical to the one freshly ripped. They hung on the walls, they littered the floor, they were in the hands of cackling classmates-- they were everywhere. I wanted to pretend like everything was okay and that it didn't bother me, but it was far from the truth. I was embarrassed and pissed off and I wanted to disappear on the spot.

"Freak,"

"Asshat,"

"Bitch wipe,"

I walked faster and faster down the hall, attempting to barricade the comments that were rapidly hurling towards me like bullets to the chest. But the more I tried to ignore it all, the more their voices became colossal to the point that it was all I could hear. My power walk turned into a run, trying to escape but before I knew it I was enclosed by snickering with nowhere to go.

"No wonder you were so inclined to befriend Ari and her assfuck punk minions," Jake snickered, draping an arm around me as I unconsciously clenched my fists. "You Hemmings, are a loser and you fit right in with their crew."

"You're a cum guzzling thundercùnt Hansen!" I shoved Jake away from me, glaring at him with so much fury. "Will you stop fùcking with me?! You trash my house, mess with my mum's car and for what? Because I didn't want to be one of your Hollister robots? You're pathetic and a pain in my ass!"

"Firstly, I admit to trashing your shithole of a house and second, I did not fùck with your mom's stupid car. Third, I'm a pain in your ass?" Jake let out an exaggerated chuckle before shooting me a smug, tight-lipped smile. At this point the majority of the school surrounded us, pulling out their phones in our direction. "You've got it all wrong Hemmings."

"Oh do I? Well enlighten me then dickbag and tell me why I'm wrong because I've got an idle car in my garage that tells me otherwise!"

"Because I'm pretty sure your new punkass friends have butt fùcked you just fine, not me. Fàg!"

I hated Jake-- hands down. I couldn't believe that I was actually friends with the douchebag and it pissed me off that I couldn't take back the year and a half I've spent wasting my time with an asshole like him, like Katie and everyone else in the popular crew. Jake made me feel like sticking my head in a microwave half the time and the other half I wanted to throw him into oncoming traffic.