Singers and Secrets

Chapter 10

Erika's POV

Luke wore shorts to school. Oh. My. Gosh. Everyone saw his prosthetic leg. Basically meaning that it was a whole day of people staring at us. And whispering. By lunch everyone was gossiping about us.

"Wow, there's the robot boy and his brain-dead girlfriend," one girl whispered to her friend. I felt my eyes burning with tears. Now Luke was a robot and I was brain-dead? This comment hurt me a lot.

"Erika, you okay?" Asked Luke. I shook my head, choking back a sob. Be strong, I told myself. Be strong for Luke. But a tear slid down my cheek. Luke wiped it away with his thumb. "Why are you crying?"

"Everyone hates us," I sobbed. "We're just a big joke."

"No, no, no," said Luke, reaching across the table to hold my hand. "Oh Eri, don't listen to them. They don't know anything. Look at me, Erika." I gazed into his blue-grey eyes, which to my surprise seemed to have tears in them too. "I love you. And you love me. And that's all that matters." Luke's words stayed with me for the rest of the day. But they did not prevent the taunting and jeering and pointing and whispering. After school, I was ready to just give up. Luke wasn't. He met me in my room after school. "Look!" He said, holding a flier in my face. "Here's the answer to out problems!"

"What?" I said, grabbing the paper. "It's a flier for the talent show. How does this solve our problems?"

"Remember when we were singing together? We sounded amazing! If we preform for the talent show, maybe people would stop gossiping about us. You know, because we're so good."

"I don't know. I haven't really sung in front of many people."

"Trust me, Erika. We can do this."

"Oh alright! But what song?"

"How about 'I - " Luke stopped himself.

"'I' what?" I asked. Maybe he meant "I Want"! But no, he was a guy, he didn't go for that sort of thing.

"Nothing," he replied sheepishly.

"Tell me," I demanded.

"Ok, I was going to say 'I Want'. Go ahead, laugh. It's my favorite song." I couldn't believe my ears.

"The One Direction song?" I asked, bewildered. What?

"Yeah. It's totally a girl song."

"That's my favorite song!" I exclaimed. "Let's do it!"

"You sure?" He asked.

"Positive."