𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥 → 𝐥𝐮𝐤𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 [COMING SOON]

prologue

ETHEREAL - "PROLOGUE"

The boy's slender fingers of one hand tug on his fluffy quiff, a black inked pen clutched in the other as he frantically conveys the whirlwind that is his mind through scribbling on a page.

"Why do you look so stressed?"

Luke Hemmings sends Calum Hood a deathly glare.

The tanned of the two challenges the blonde with a quirk of his brow. Calum leans his tattooed arms across the wooden counter of the front desk, eyeing up the way his lanky friend in the corner is moving a mile a minute, drawing as if to save his own life.

The tattoo parlour has been quiet today.

There's only been a handful of customers, much to Luke's delight. Sure, he loves what he does and his customers pay his bills. However, he's never really been a people person.

He much prefers aimlessly stringing lines across a page to create something tragically beautiful, alone.

Luke Hemmings has never, and probably will never, truly acknowledge his talent.

Of course he knows he's a good tattoo artist. That's what makes his pay checks roll in and that's what keeps a roof over the boy's head.

However, after an adolescence full of degrading words, bad results in everything other than art and music and an evident lack of affection from his filthy rich parents, he's almost conditioned to believe he can't really do great in this world.

That's where Calum Hood comes in.

Unlike his moody friend there, Calum is actually quite a friendly guy. And he tries his best to get it through Luke's thick skull that he's the most talented artist he's ever even heard of.

The blond brushes him off every damn time.

As the front door creaks open, Luke rolls his stark blue eyes.

When redhead Michael Clifford stumbles through with a girl under his arm, Luke sets his jaw.

"Tat me up, boys!" Mike giggles, earning an exasperated sigh from the blonde whose neck is being practically strangled by her friend's arm.

It isn't a rare occurrence for Mike to show up shitfaced on his days off and demand a fresh tattoo.

With a scoff, Luke stands up from the leather chair in the corner of the room and shuts his notebook. He tucks it beneath the back waistband of his black skinny jeans, adjusting his striped t-shirt to cover it.

"You're drunk as shit, Mike," Cal observes with a goofy grin, sending a wink to the petite blonde beside his fucking crazy friend.

Luke doesn't recognise the blonde girl. He barely allows himself to glance at her, but the one look he does get enables him to see her pretty fucking eyes.

"And?" Michael whines, leaning most of his body weight on to his friend slash neighbour, "That's never stopped you before." He looks over at Luke, bottom lip jutted out even when Luke narrows his eyes at him.

"Let's go then," Luke growls, earning a cheer from his red haired friend.

When the brooding boy notices that Michael is dragging the shorter blonde towards the back room where Luke works, he interjects.

"Um—" His clenched jaw gives Arden Kingsley the impression that he isn't happy with her presence. "Leave your shag of the night here, yeah?"

"I am not—"

Arden strongly starts off, yet when Luke so much as tugs on the black ring hooked into the corner of his lip, her words fall shallow in her throat.

At the striking effect he has on the girl with the freckled nose and piercing green eyes, Luke smirks. Right at her.