Destined for Destruction

prologue

"Oh my God, Avery." Delilah interrupted her girlfriend, her eyes following a tall, blond man as he walked past their table.

"What?" Avery followed Delilah's gaze until she saw who she was looking at. She didn't recognize him, he must've been a new student.

"Ray Johnson," Delilah whispered. "Oh my God," her voice got louder as she said the words aloud. All these years, she had been looking for him. Her own, real-life Raymond Johnson. She had finally given up and became her own hero, and now here he was! "That guy looks just like Ray Johnson!"

Delilah looked back to Avery to see how she was reacting. Upon their first time meeting in person after a few weeks of nonstop texting, Delilah gifted Avery with a copy of her book. She understood who Dee was referring to.

And so did the tall man, apparently. Despite being a good distance away, he still heard Delilah's comment. Just a moment ago, he was walking like he had important business to attend to, gracing the college campus like he owned it. And suddenly he turned on his heel and walked back to the two blondes seated at the patio table in front of the cafeteria.

He stuck out his hand towards Delilah as soon as he reached her table, only an arm's length away. "Actually, the name is Luke. Luke Moore."

Delilah instinctively reached out to shake his hand, but as soon as she heard his name, her heart stopped. Her face fell and all the blood in her cheeks vanished. "Luke Moore?" She choked out, repeating him.

The look on this girl's face was priceless and Luke couldn't help himself from cackling. He didn't think the prank would work. At least, not that easily. Who else had read his favorite book? He only knew of it because his friend James Anselmo had recommended it to him. Never in a million years would Luke expect the first person he talked to on his new college campus would also know, and despise — based off the looks of the girl's reaction — the antagonist from the newly published novel.

Once he caught his breath, he explained. "I'm teasing, absolutely kidding. My name is Luke, yes. Luke Hertz."

Delilah looked over at her girlfriend, giving her a look. Avery was too busy, putting her belongings into her backpack. "Delilah," the younger of the two girls choked out. "My name is Delilah."

"Delilah," he repeated, nodding. How ironic, the author of his favorite book was also named Delilah.

"And this is Avery," Delilah gestured to the blonde woman across from her.

At the mention of her name, Avery looked up. "Hi," she smiled. Her eyes shifted back to her belongings.

"And she needs to get to a meeting." Delilah trailed off, letting Avery fill in the gaps.

"Isn't it only move in day?" Luke asked. How could there already be meetings?

"Yeah but I'm the RA." Avery nodded. "Delilah is one of my residents, actually. It's how we met."

"Cool," Luke said. "I think my RA is Justin." It came out more like a question than a matter-of-fact statement.

"Don't worry," Avery began, "We have a meeting tonight and you'll get to know your RA just fine over this next semester. Justin's great."

"A meeting on the first day?" Luke repeated.

"Yeah," Avery nodded, sharing his frustrations. "We'll all meet in the basement lounge and go over the expectations for this coming year. Student handbook, guidelines, guest hours, etc. The usual first-day-of-college BS. Listen, I'll catch you later, okay?" She gave Delilah's hand a squeeze as she stood up. "It was nice to meet you, Luke."

"You too," he flashed her a smile.

"Bye Ave," Delilah waved her girlfriend goodbye. "So you've read Last Line of Defense."

"Yeah, " Luke nodded. "It's my new favorite book. That might not be saying much considering I haven't read a book on my own time since middle school, but I did it. Cover to cover — and I adored it."

Delilah smiled. "Who's your favorite character?"

"That's a tough one. They all feel so real to me, y'know? It's like I actually went to school with the gang."

"You're stalling!" Delilah teased, biting her tongue as she smiled.

"It's gotta be Raymond, man. I don't know how, but I swear the author knows me and wrote about me, just changing my name. I was born in Montgomery County, not Sydney, but shit. Almost every other detail is the same. Even my two younger siblings and dead dad."

"I am so sorry to hear that," Delilah frowned.

Luke waved the thought away. "Eh," he shrugged his shoulders. "It was nice reading that someone like me could be the hero. In high school, I was kinda made out to be the villain."

"The villain?" Delilah repeated.

"Okay, maybe not the villain. But I was captain of the football team, a straight, white man. I felt like the bad guy in a coming of age story. Last Line of Defense made me think it didn't have to be that way."

"Interesting,"

"What?"

"Nothing. Keep going. Tell me more."

"I don't know what else to tell you!" Luke chuckled. "I'm also a tall blond man with blue eyes, a firefighter, and protective of my friends. I've done a lot of growing in this past year, but I'm finally loving who I am."

The two talked for another hour. The conversation flowed easily; there weren't any awkward silences. With a mutual love for the same novel and them both being firefighter-paramedics, they didn't run out of things to talk about. They loved the same characters — Raymond was an easy favorite — and they both preferred engine operations over any other truck. They had everything in common. And they kept talking until Delilah's phone rang, interrupting Luke mid-sentence. Whose phone is ringing? Mine! Mine!

Delilah scrambled to pick it up. "Hey, what's up? No, this isn't my voicemail, it's actually me. I'm still here at the cafeteria talking to Luke. Yeah, I can come. I'll be there soon."

After she hung up, Luke asked, "What's going on?"

"Avery needs my help moving some of her stuff in from the car."

"Do you need a hand?" He offered.

"That's really sweet, but no. I think I'll be okay. Thank you, though."

"Of course."

"I'll catch you later. It was really great getting to know you." Delilah stuck her hand out to shake his again, but immediately retracted it. "Oh my God, I'm so embarrassed to ask this but could you please remind me of your name? I totally just blanked."

"Luke Hertz."

"Delilah Walker." She shook his hand and turned to walk away.

Luke's jaw dropped. "Like...?" His favorite author! 

"See you at 6:30 in the basement!"