Self-Destruction • Luke Hemmings

Chapter 29

"I came up with a name for our band." Calum tells me and Michael while I strum a rhythmic tune on the acoustic guitar and Michael tunes his electric guitar.

"Shoot." I tell him, and Michael nods in agreement.

"3 seasons." He smiles and I involuntarily turn my lip up.

"No offence, but it sounds like a classical group." I laugh, and he frowns slightly.

"I don't like the number 3." Michael tells him, and Calum continues frowning for a moment but then lightens up.

"It doesn't matter, it was just an idea, I wrote a song as well." He smiles, holding out a crumpled piece of paper that has multiple crossings out.

"It's called unpredictable." He adds and I read through, Michael peers over my shoulder.

"This is amazing C-Dizzle!" Michael exclaims and I nod in agreement. Calum blushes with pride, and takes back the piece of paper.

"I know a few words could change and stuff..." Calum mumbles,

"No! It's perfect!" I interrupt, and I'm speaking the truth, the song is really good.

I realise a moment after I say it that I spoke a bit too loud and everyone is looking at me. Usually I would feel fine under the eyes of everyone, but now I feel self-conscious knowing he is looking. At the thought of him, I turn to the direction I know he is sitting, and truth be told, he is looking right at me.

"Talk to him." Michael whispers, and I gasp in surprise and also at the fact he noticed me looking.

"I don't know...he kinda told me he thinks he likes me." I sigh, and Michael's eyes widen.

"Your kidding?" He asks. I shrug.

"He didn't even tell Imogen he loved her." He remarks, and the name Imogen reminds me of Luke telling me that he met his old girlfriend Imogen at the park, it must be the same person.

"So Imogen is the girl that Luke kicked out of his house and she broke her arm and then her dad moved her away?" I clarify.

"Yeah..." Michael mumbles and I definitely hear reluctance in his voice.

"What should I say." I sigh, and Michael just shrugs.

"Say something to Ashton; you sit next to him next lesson so..." Michael tells me, and I nod in agreement.

"Yeah, I'll get Ashton to get him to meet me." I say and Michael nods in approval.

The first 10 minutes of science was silent copying, so I couldn't talk to Ashton then, but as soon as our teacher announced that we could just revise for the remainder of the lesson, I pounced.

"We had a bit of an awkward introduction, so I would like to start afresh. Hello, I'm Faith Smith." I say immediately, Ashton raises one eyebrow and smirks slightly.

"Just because your friends with Luke doesn't mean you have to be friends with me." He tells me, he raises a hand though, and I shake it.

"Wow your hands are big....sorry anyway, I need you to talk to Luke for me." I say and Ashton genuinely smiles and starts laughing.

"What's funny?" I frown. I knew I came on too strongly, I should have just eased into the conversation instead of just demanding something from him.

"No it's not you. Luke said the exact same thing to me." He giggles. He just fucking giggled.

"Oh." I say, surprise evident in my tone.

"He talks about you a lot." Ashton muses, pretending to be reading one of the revision books.

"What does he say?" I ask suddenly. I'm usually not one to care if people talk about me, but with Luke it just seems different.

"I don't know...he hasn't talked about anyone in anyway like that since..." He wonders.

"Imogen." I interrupt, and Ashton nods before glancing around the room.

"You can't fall for him. He's my best friend, yeah, but he's bad. Calum and Michael and Luke lie and say her dad moved her away but they didn't. Imogen was Calum's girlfriend first. We were all friends." Ashton says hurriedly, and I blink, taking in all this information. I was supposed to make Luke fall for me to get revenge for Calum because he slept with Luke's girlfriend...which was Imogen? This is all so confusing.

"So where's Imogen now?" I frown, Ashton shakes his head sadly.

"No one knows. She's been missing for over a year now." He says simply and I feel myself at a loss for words. All of this drama happened over a year ago?

"Her dad didn't move her away?" I clarify.

"Her dad died when she was born." He replies.

"How do you know all of this?" I wonder.

"Imogen was my best friend." He sighs.

"I loved her, but Calum got to her first, and then Luke, then she became missing." He adds, and I feel my heart go out to Ashton and the sincere look on his face. I may have only started talking to him properly 20 minutes ago, but something tells me he isn't lying.

"Why are you telling me this?" I ask after a few moments of silence.

Ashton waits a moment before replying.

"Because it might happen to you too."

***
Shits getting realllll