End Up Here

Chapter Three - part three

I stood up the moment he sat down. "Alana, please let me explain," he said, standing. "I've looked all over Australia to find you-"

"Why are you so obsessed with me?" I hissed.

The corner of his lip lifted into a kind of half-smile. "Mean Girls."

He always knew where my quotes were from.

Crossing my arms, I turned my head, pretending to look at the fireworks, so he couldn't see the effort I was making to not grin. "You have five minutes. Go."

---

"So, you know how we toured with One Direction for their Where We Are tour?" he began. I nodded. "Well, while we were hanging out with them once, they began giving us advice. It was good advice - stuff like how to stay grounded, to always thank everybody who you hire to do something for you, ways to avoid paparazzi without looking like a jerk."

I held my hand up to interrupt him. "How does this have anything to do with you smoking?"

He ignored the question. "Anyway, have you never read The Fault In Our Stars? It doesn't hurt you unless you light it - and I never lit it!" I stayed quiet, and he continued. "Anyway, we were then told something we didn't know before: magazine people can't put pictures with cigarettes in them in their magazines."

It took a moment for realization to hit me.

---

"Ohmygod... Luke." I pulled him closer. "I am so so so so so sorry, ohmygod, I don't know- God, I feel like an idiot. I'm... UGH. I don't know what to say."

Laughing, he leaned in, his smile barely brushing my lips. "Shhh," he murmured. "If you don't know what to say, just don't say anything at all."