Self-Destruction • Luke Hemmings

Chapter 10

So this is the Luke that everyone's been talking about. I can't help but feel a little underwhelmed, the way Michael avoided talking about him made him seem like a badass, but he was just a boy. A pretty boy.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" I ask him, he's looking at me expectantly, what does he want?

"What's your name?" He asks, as if it were obvious that that was the question he was going to ask.

"Faith Smith." I reply simply, we're standing outside of the gate in front of my house, so I just walk through with no further conversation.

I've been home for 3 hours, and Aunt Bess is still not home, I'm not worried or anything. I'm just bored. I walk into the kitchen to get something to eat, and see a piece of paper on the side with a debit card on it.

'Faith,
I'm going to be away for the rest of the week, until Saturday, as an unexpected business opportunity has arisen. None of the staff will be returning, so you'll be home alone for the rest of the week. I've left you your own debit card, the pin is 1223 and there is over 10,000 dollars in there. Hope that's enough.

Bess x'

Why did she put a kiss? I sigh as I grab the card, and put it in my pocket, trying to memorise the numbers. It's a bit strange that I've basically been here for 4 days and she's already trusting me to be home alone, but I don't bother dwelling on it.

"Hey." A voice says, and I turn in alarm, then feel my pulse return to normal when I see Michael standing at the back door.

"Hi." I say back, opening a cupboard and grabbing some crisps. Michael walks towards the side to see the piece of paper that tells me that I'm going to be home alone.

"We're definitely having a party here on Friday." He says, his eyes bright. I shrug, I've thrown parties before, yeah, but I'm still not even used to this house, so having another 100 people in here trashing it isn't going to make life any easier.

"I don't know anyone. Apart from you and Calum." I shrug, again.

"Well you're in luck, I know lots of people which I know won't even try trashing this house." He says, patting my head. I pull a face at this and he laughs, reaching into his pocket for his packet of cigarettes.

"Where's a place I can get cigarettes round here." I mutter, feeling the need to smoke as soon as I see him with a packet of them.

"Follow me, and bring money, I ain't paying for your shit." He laughs, I roll my eyes, and pull out my debit card.

We walk into a small generic corner shop, with the sign 'Jim's convenience store' above the entrance.

"Michael! Looking for cigarettes? Yes!" A man with a heavy accent says, I think he is from Indian descent, and has a noticeably un-groomed moustache. It's kind of off putting.

"Yeah, but not for me, her." Michael says, pointing to me, I smile half heartedly at him and he nods knowingly.

"How many you need?" He says, I think, how many days will it be until I come here again.

"200, Winfield." I reply instantaneously, saying the first brand I see. Jim nods, and turns and grabs about 15 packs of these.

"Jesus Christ I thought I smoked a lot." Michael huffed, his eyes wide.

"You haven't seen nothing yet." I laugh at him.

"Can I have that as well?" I ask, pointing to a black lighter, it was only $2.

"That'll be $102 please." Jim asks, and I hand him 6 crisp $20 notes, which I took out of the bank before coming here, as well as 10 more. Jim hands me my change, which I shove in my pockets and then he hands me a bag which contains the cigarettes.

"Thanks." I say, before leaving the shop.

I hide the bag in my wardrobe, taking out 4 cigarettes from one pack, and shoving them, along with my lighter, into the opposite pocket of where my phone, debit card and change is.

"Pass me your phone." Michael says, and I give it to him, knowing he's going to be putting his number in. He does, saving the contact as 'Mikeyyy' along with a peace sign emoji. He passes me his, and I put my name with an english flag emoji, he smirks when he sees this.

"Let's order pizza." I say, grabbing the phone and the address book next to the landline phone.

"Yes, but we'll order from my favourite pizza place, not some shitty one from this." He says in disgust, waving the book in the air.

"Yeah, hi, Yep, can we have an order for delivery please, 12 Honeyball crescent please, can I have an extra large cheese pizza please, a large portion of chips, and a large bottle of Sprite, yeah thanks." Michael says as though it's his own mantra, luckily I do like cheese pizza, so I don't need to interrupt.

"How much was it?" I ask, digging in my pocket for some more change.

"$26." He says simply, getting out a $20 bill from his pocket, I put change in the pile where he put his money. And then we wait for the pizza to arrive.

"This is all bullshit." I say, pointing to the TV. We're watching Romeo and Juliet as it's the only thing that's on.

"I quite like it." Michael retorts, holding his head high, I can't help but laugh out loud.

"Okay, at the beginning of the movie Romeo is basically smitten with Rosalind, then after a few hours, he's in love with Juliet and after two days he dies for her? You can't fall out and in love that quickly. It's setting unrealistic expectations of love." I say back,

"Love doesn't have a time limit." He says after a moment.

"Quite the romantic Michael." I giggle, and he rolls his eyes.

"Whatever."