The Comedown | Luke Hemmings

Five

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By the time the next night rolled around and the clock ticked closer and closer to when Luke would be picking me up for this party, my anxiety really began to kick in.

Staring at myself in the mirror above my bathroom sink, my eyes went down to my chest where a red, splotchy, stress-induced rash was already well formed, but continuing to slowly spread out.

"Ugh, really Anna?" I groaned, turning the faucet on to hopefully calm the rash down with some cold water, not like that has ever worked for me in the past, but I was desperate. While I stood there, lightly dabbing water onto my chest I focused in on my outfit, unsure whether or not it would fit the vibe of this party or not since I had no clue of what to expect.

How crazy could this guy Ashton's parties really be? Maybe Luke was just over exaggerating or maybe I was just overthinking it which was probably the real answer here. My mind was racing a million miles per hour and I couldn't tell if I was nervous, excited, or a heavily saturated mix of both. 

I was wearing black skinny jeans with a maroon, deep cut, v-neck tank top that mostly consisted of lace, paired with black boots and a leather jacket. Proud of the outfit I put together for myself, I was determined to get this stress rash to go away.

Walking out of my bathroom and into my room, I rushed over to my night stand, yanking my top drawer open and rummaging through it in search of my dab pen. I grabbed handfuls of junk from within the drawer, tossing it carelessly onto my bed before eventually finding the pen tucked away in the back corner.

I didn't really plan on showing up to this party high, but I needed something to calm myself down before I talked myself out of going at all due to my incessant nerves. Taking only one hit of the dab pen, I shoved it down into my purse that was already hung over my shoulder. One hit was definitely not enough to get me high, but hopefully was just enough to force my body to calm itself even a little.

I couldn't fully pin point where my anxiety from the night was coming from. I assumed that a big portion of it was stemming from the absence of Maya tonight, but I also recognized that Luke made up the rest of it. Internally, I felt guilty that Luke was causing me to feel this way. I knew I didn't want anything with him, and I was adamant to myself that maybe I just had a small crush that would blow over in just a few weeks— at least, that is what I was hoping for.

Heading out into my living room I found myself pacing back and forth. Would this car ride be awkward? Would this party be awkward? Maybe I should text Maya.

I could tell that I made Luke nervous when we ran into each other the day before. I wasn't sure why I would make him nervous. He struggled to even ask for my number, but why me? This man was clearly out of my league and I was clearly overthinking the situation to a disgusting extent. This wasn't something that should've been eating away at me all day, but I guess in the end it's better to be stressed over a guy I just met than to be thinking about my ex.

From the living room, I heard my phone start ringing from the counter where I left it in the bathroom. I ran to go answer it, assuming it was Luke.

Picking up my phone, I answered the call, hitting the speaker phone button so I could continue to get myself together as we talked.

"Hello?" I spoke while aggressively brushing the curled ends of my hair out.

"Hey Anna! I'm about 5 minutes out from your place," he informed me. The audio was extra staticky coming over the phone so I could tell he was using his cars Bluetooth to call me as he drove.

"Ok cool. Just text me when you get here and I'll head down, I'm pretty much ready anyways."

I placed my hairbrush down on the counter.