Meet the Billets [Luke Hemmings]

20. Crushes, Concerts, and Christmas

MILA
"Wait so you've had a thing for Hemmings this entire time?" Michael furrowed his eyebrows, rolling over from his spot beside me on my bed to reach into the bowl of popcorn currently on my nightstand.

He was officially home from college for the holidays so Calum and I have been catching him up on everything that's been going on. It was the twenty-second, which meant that there were three days left until Christmas, and only a few hours until I had to drive Luke to the airport.

"Yeah basically," Calum answered for me, sitting on the floor, mindlessly strumming his guitar.

I picked up the pillow that Michael was currently using, earning an unhappy grunt out of him, before throwing it at my best friend.

"Shut up, Cal, no I don't! I'm—"

"With Ashton," he cut me off, finishing my own thought, "Yeah, yeah, we got it. You can say it as many times as you want, but that doesn't mean you don't have feelings for Luke," he shrugged, "I'm just glad you two idiots finally told each other, it was getting painful to watch," he rolled his eyes.

My jaw dropped open, "Wait, you knew that Luke liked me this whole time and you didn't say anything?"

"He asked me not to," he said simply.

"Yeah, but you're my best friend," I argued.

"Hey!" Michael pouted.

I turned to the frowning boy and put a hand on his shoulder, "You know what I mean."

Michael nodded, content, before Cal spoke again,

"All I'm saying is that I know you, Mills, and even if you don't want to admit it, I can tell that at the very least there's something there with Luke."

"There is absolutely nothing there anymore, Cal. You've got it all wrong this time," I shook my head, denying it all.

The truth was, I didn't know what my feelings were anymore— everything's just gotten so complicated now that I know how Luke feels about me. But I really liked Ashton; he's good to me and he makes me feel safe. Hell, he was my boyfriend. Plus, Luke and I had never really done anything other than flirt with each other, which quickly became one-sided once I started dating Ashton anyway.

Luke was an idea, but Ash was my reality. And I wasn't going to throw all of that away just because I may or may not get some stupid butterflies when Luke's near.

"If I wanted Luke, I would've kissed him back when he came onto me in the kitchen," I pointed out, running a hand through my hair.

"So him coming onto you meant nothing? It was no big deal?" Calum raised his eyebrows.

I didn't speak, but nodded.

"So if it wasn't a big deal, did you tell Ashton that his teammate hit on his girlfriend?" Michael chimed in.

I sighed, "That'll just make everything worse. You said it yourself— they're teammates...and they're friends, and playoffs are coming up soon, so I don't wanna create unnecessary problems. I've got it all under control."

"Are we really gonna make this about not messing up playoffs? You're gonna sit here and tell both of us that you absolutely do not have any feelings for Luke? And you're not telling Ashton because you don't wanna fuck up their friendship? I mean, I love Luke but he's not really being a good friend to Ashton if he's still hitting on you," Calum stood up, setting his guitar down gently.