Enigma <<Luke Hemmings>>

Chapter 3

//Luke's POV//

“SURPRISE!” The large crowd of people occupying our empty house all chorused together in an off-pitched harmony. Huge smiles spread across all of our faces, as we took in the mass amount of old friends and family that were gathered here to welcome us home. Ashton was the first to drop his bags, and take off in a sprint towards his teary eyed family.

“Hey mum!” I sighed happily as she enveloped me in a familiar, warm hug.

“My Rockstar is back,” She chuckled as she smoothed down my hair in an admiring way. That is, until her sharp eyes narrowed towards the metal ring through my lip. “Lucas,” I sighed as I mentally prepared for the chastising I was about to receive. “What in God’s name is that?!” She frowned at me disapprovingly. I sent her a sheepish grin before wrapping my arms around her again tightly.

"Oh I missed you, mum.”

We all made our rounds to each and every person in the room, greeting them with a huge grin, and suffering through the same comments the previous people had told me.

‘Oh my, look how tall you’ve gotten’

‘must be gettin’ all the ladies now, huh champ?’

‘I remember when your dad bought you your first guitar! Now look at you!’

As I moved from person to person, I would take a few seconds to glance around in hopes that Kayla was here, and that she would give me one of her warm smiles that she always did, and be open to forgiving me for the stupid mistake I made. But as people began to shuffle towards the backyard, where our fathers were busy slaving away on the BBQ, my hope began to fade.

“Kayla isn’t here, Luke. Stop searching for her, and actually pay attention to the people who did come to see you.” Mum let out a small sigh as my face drooped out of dejection.

“I shouldn’t be surprised, I mean, after what I said to her, I doubt she would want to see me anyways...” I slumped onto the tan sofa that took up most of our living room, and let my shoulders slump inwards.

“It’s not that, baby...” Her face contorted into a pain-filled expression as she slowly rubbed my back. I could tell she was calculating her next words carefully.  “Kayla’s been...missing for the past four years.”

And just like that, my heart splintered off into a million tiny fragments. It felt as if it had exploded, lodging pieces of itself everywhere it could.

“What?!” I whispered painfully as I stared teary-eyed at her. All she did was nod solemnly in response. I couldn’t suppress the large amount of tears threatening to spill over for more than a solid four seconds, before I collapsed into my moms arms; balling my eyes out. “Y-You didn’t-t bother t-tel-ling me t-this wh-hy?” I choked out through the sobs that continuously wracked my body as I hid my face in the crook of her neck. I felt her arms wrap around me tightly in a means to try to comfort me, but all that was on my mind right now, was how Kayla was probably dead somewhere.

Because of me.

“Lucas Robert Hemmings, this is NOT your fault.” She lightly chastised me, practically reading my mind. I shook my head as I continued to sniffle.

“Y-You don’t understand. If I stayed then she woul-ldn’t be,” The mass amount of guilt pooling inside my gut forbid me from finishing my sentence. I just lay there in a sobbing mess, as the handful of family members still lingering in the house, sent me a pitied look as they shuffled awkwardly into the backyard, leaving my mom and I alone. Suddenly regaining a sliver of dignity, I shakily pushed myself off of my mom’s shoulder, and sat upright on my own; wiping the remnants of a few tears from underneath my no-doubt, swollen and puffy eyes. I heard her draw in a deep breath from beside me.

“You were put in a tricky situation, hun. No one blames you for the choices you made; hell, more than half the people here would have made the same one,” Her soft hands rubbed up and down my back in a rhythmic pattern as she spoke, soothing me almost to the brink of sleep, like she used to when I was a child. “What is meant to happen always happens. There’s no escaping fate. Even if you did stay, there’s no saying whether or not you would have been able to prevent it or not.” I managed to choke down the sobs that began to bubble up inside of me again, as my eyes stared glassily forward, without looking at anything in particular. I made no effort to acknowledge her response; the pain and shock from the news still pounding steadily through my veins. She seemed to pick up on this, as she softly rose from her seated position on the couch, and began to make her way outside, where everyone was no doubt asking millions of questions about the tour, while scarfing down hamburgers that my dad always manages to partially burn. Not to the point where they were inedible, but just enough to make you cringe, yet tell him that they were amazing out of courtesy.

“Come join us when you’re ready.” I nodded blankly, until I heard the sounds of her steady footsteps outside; confirming she was indeed gone. I spent a few minutes, just collecting my thoughts; trying to get used to the idea that Kayla was no longer here, and that I would never see her again. The fact that the last time we saw each other, we ended on practically the worst of terms, you could possibly end on, it was killing me. It had been for the whole tour. And now, the pain was closer to winning than ever before.

I so desperately wanted to stay on that couch; where Kayla and I used to cuddle and watch movies, and just sit there, numb from the rest of the world. But I knew that outside, my friends and family that were in fact, still here were waiting for me expectantly, to try to make the last few years sound glamorous and exciting; how they wanted to hear it. I let one final tear escape from my left eye, and with it, the swarm of emotions that swam around angrily inside. Once it slid from my tear stained cheek and landed silently on my knee, I wiped any remaining water from my face, before swiftly standing up, and trudging outside to where my family awaited my arrival.

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Sorry It's a little short. This is where I changed the story up a bit from last time. In the last version, Luke and Kayla saw each other again at like, 3AM at their old park, and I didn't like how fast it was moving so I changed it to this.

Hope that's ok!

~K