Red Roses [Luke Hemmings]

Twenty-One

Luke licked his lips after taking another big swig of his beer with one of his ex-"groupies," Carrie Brock. He didn't want to be with her on his free day but it didn't seem like he had a choice. Carrie had contacted Luke the morning before, asking him to spare her a moment whilst he was in LA. In three days, 5 Seconds of Summer was to attend the Grammy's and they were nominated for Best Rock and Best Pop for their previous album which they were now about to tour for. Luke had intentions of asking Rebecca to come and be his date however his time to go and ring her was being taken by his sort-of-not-really ex.

"Just get on with it, will you?" Luke snapped. He had been sitting in the restaurant, across from the redheaded beauty. Carrie really didn't have red hair. She originally was born with jet black hair but she dyed it occasionally just like Michael did. When Luke used to call her up to spend the night, she had purple hair. Now, it was red.

"You have a son," Carrie said in a rush. It was so quick that it took Luke a few moments to register it into his head until he jerked his bed back and furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. He didn't know whether Carrie was asking if he had a son or telling him that she had given birth to his son. But then he knew that he wasn't an idiot and it was most likely the second option.

"What do you mean?" Luke asked anyway. It seemed about right to ask her. What if she truly was asking or something like that. Another reason was that Luke didn't know how to answer that anyway.

"About nine months after we last... slept together, I gave birth to a son and I gave him your name," Carrie said. Luke bit his bottom lip in frustration. How did she know that Carrie was lying? She was the only one that cared to stick around during Luke's busy schedule. All the other girls he slept with came and went. Carrie was kind of like a back-up and he knew she truly didn't mind. A part of Luke knew that Carrie would never betray him and to play him like this. But he had strict rules about birth control and he always used protection. He knew that it didn't always work but the possibilities of that child being his was very slim.

"Were you having sex with anyone else but me?" Luke asked softly. He knew press would always be around, finding dirt about he and his band-mates. The last thing he wanted was Rebecca to open up her Twitter and find people asking her about how she felt that Luke had a child from a previous sort-of-one-night-stand.

When Carrie shook her head slowly, Luke bit more forcefully on his bottom lip, feeling the ripple inside knowing that he had made a rip in his delicate skin. That was the least of his worries right now. He had a child and he had no idea until now! Luke was angry immediately realising this. Why had Carrie come to him now when everything with Rebecca was finally perfect?

"Why didn't you tell me?" Luke asked through gritted teeth.
"I was going to! I really was but then I didn't want you having to worry about us or at least him. Your career is at peak right now and I imagine it always being this hype. The last thing you need is a burden of a baby. But then I saw in the magazines that you were with Rebecca again. I didn't want you two to find out later on and ruin your relationship because of this. I'm telling you this now because I don't want you to ruin what you have with Rebecca," Carrie said quickly but informatively.

Luke couldn't believe her. How was this going to keep things from sailing nicely with Rebecca? He was sure that she was going to leave him now. Rebecca hinted about having children but it was only because she wanted desperately to be with him on tour. If Luke's management found out that he had a child, they'd urge him to keep it private and to do whatever it took to be the best father for that child. Luke was at a loss now.

"Damn it Carrie, why the hell didn't you tell me before? I could've prepared for this, I could've been there for you! Tell me you've got someone helping you with him," Luke prayed.
"No," Carrie said in the quietest voice, "No one's helping us."
"For fuck's sake Carrie what is wrong with you? I'm not a monster! I could've helped you! I would've never walked away from you if you had just told me you were..." Luke lowered his voice before saying pregnant.