Luke's P.O.V
I wake up to the sound of Paul and my mom fighting. I get out of bed and crack open the door. "We can't afford this Paul!" My mom yells. "I don't care! I want it I bought it! You're never here anyway so why would you care?!" He yells getting up in her face. I open the door wider. "Probably because I'm off at work bringing money into the house unlike your lazy ass who just sits around and complains all day!" She shoves him away from her. He grabs her wrists and pushes her against the door. "Don't touch her!" I shout running downstairs and shoving him away from her. He was going to hit me but then stops. "You're not worth it." He says then goes and watches t.v. I take my mom into the kitchen who was now crying. "Its okay." I say while pouring her a glass of water. I love my mom, yeah she's rarely here but thats because she's trying to make money to take care of me. "Thank you Luke." She says wiping away her tears. "He's just never touched me before so I'm just shocked." She shrugs. Probably because he takes his anger out on me... "Yeah." I sigh and look at the time. "Can I miss school?" I ask. "No. Please go to school Luke, I don't want you to get held back." She looks me in the eyes. "Fine" I run upstairs and get ready.
"I love you mom!" I yell while opening the door. I heard her say I love you then I start walking. I stick in my ear buds and look at the ground while walking. I make it to the gates until I run into someone. "Watch where you're going." I snap. I look up and see Crystal. I take out my ear buds "Sorry." I say. She didnt seem to hear me. She takes out her ear buds and smiles. "Uh sorry." She says brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. "Its fine. Aren't you supposed to be in class?" I ask looking at the time. "I slept in. Aren't you supposed to be in class?" She asks putting her phone in her pocket. "I was late too. I didn't see you walking." I say looking behind me. "I take the long way. But don't tell my mom." She puts her finger to her lips. I pretend to zip my lips and throw away the key. We continue the walk to school together "Ms. Cinclair and Mr. Hemmings to my office now." Mr. Smith says standing in the doorway. Shit.
We both sit down on the chairs while Mr. Smith stares at us. "Are we in trouble sir?" Crystal asks breaking the silence. He scoffs "You were ditching school. You tell me." He says leaning back in his chair. "We weren't ditching." I roll my eyes. "You were outside during class hours. That's considered ditching. So now you guys have detention." He says lacing his fingers together. "For Christ sakes we weren't ditching! We were just getting here." Crystal let's out a frustrated sigh. I was a bit surprised by her outburst. Mr. Smith widens his eyes. "Well when you're late you walk straight to class not stop and talk. Now young lady you guys have detention that's that. "That's bullshit." I mutter. "What was that?" He asks looking at me. "I said. That's. Bullshit." I say looking directly at him. "That's life. Now get to class." We stand up and walk out the door. Crystal starts to laugh while she walks to her locker. "Why are you laughing we just got in trouble." I laugh a bit. "I know but did you see his face when you told him that? Priceless." She shakes her head and opens her locker. "Did you see his face when you yelled at him? That was priceless." I laugh taking out my math book. "Shit." I hear Crystal groan. I look over at her and she leans her head on the locker. "You okay?" I ask closing my locker. "No I forgot my math book." She closes her locker and picks up her bag. "Sit next to me and I'll share mine." I offer. She smiles and thanks me. We walk into Math and sit down. We just talk through the whole session not paying attention at all. It was quite nice actually.
Crystal'sP.O.V
The bell rung and I was quite sad because I was having a nice conversation with Luke. Which was really nice considering I don't have friends here. I tell Luke I'd see him after school and head to my locker. I put in my combo and I take out my history book. I see another note and open it. I've been getting rude notes in my locker since Freshman year. I look down at it and read it. "You're a worthless bitch. Nobody wants you here. Kill yourself already." I rip it up and throw it in my locker. I felt tears in my eyes so I slammed my locker and ran to the girls bathroom. I locked myself in the stall and let the tears run down my face. I was in there all hour. I didn't want to go out there but I had to at some point. The bell rang and I wipe away my tears. I walk out of the stall and to my locker. "Hey." I turn and see a smiley Luke. "Hi." I say trying to sound happy but failed. "Are you okay?" His smiley face turned to worried. I coughed "Yeah I'm fine. Just stuff." I shrug. I didn't want to drag him into my problems. "Well if you need to talk I'm here." He puts on a sympathetic smile. "Thanks. Well lets get to detention. " I smile.
Luke'sP.O.V
I couldn't stop wondering why Crystal was crying. Did someone mess with her? We walk into the class room and see Patrick sitting in the back. His lip was still split open and his eye still bruised. I smile and sit down. Crystal sits next to me and looks at Patrick. "What happened to him?" She asks looking at me. "Me." I laugh. She just stares at me "Wait are you serious?" She asks sounding surprised. "Hey, he hit me first." I raise my hands up in defense. She just laughs and lays her head down.
****
We walk out of the room and head to the gates. "Shit I forgot to tutor you." She says resting her head on her hand. "It's fine." I shrug. I don't like learning anyway. "No it's not. You're coming to my house and I am tutoring you." She is demanding. "Okay. Okay." I laugh and we start walking to her house.
We sit in her room working on science while her mom brings us a bowl of chips. "Thanks mom."
"Thank you Ma'am." I say. "Oh please call me Isabelle. Ma'am makes me sound old." She laughs. I nod as she walks out of the room. I stand up and head to her stereo. "No Luke we need to work." she says looking up from the book. "But we've been working for almost an hour." I say. "Fine." she sighs. I smile and put on Losing to You by The Electric Sons. "Yes!" Crystal jumps up and starts dancing. I laugh and join in.
I begin hear my phone ringing. I look at the contact that says Ashton. I ignore it and start singing along to the song. "Wow Luke you're really good at singing." she stops dancing. "Oh thank you. My mates I are starting a band."
"Really? Since when?" She asks surprised. "A few days ago. We're called 5 Seconds Of Summer don't ask why it was Michael's idea." I laugh. "That's awesome."I continue my horrible dancing while Crystal takes a breather. "Are you going to answer that?" She asks pointing to my phone that was blowing up with messages. "Ugh. Ashton won't stop." I roll my eyes and tell him I'm with Crystal. Then he starts complaining that I'm ditching him for a girl. I ignore him and sit down. Crystal turns down the music some and we continue to work.
"Do you mind me asking what happened earlier? At school?" I ask out of the blue. I'm sorry but it's killing me not knowing. "Just people putting rude notes in my locker. I'm used to it I mean it's been going on since Freshman year." She shrugs. "What? That's fucked up. Do you know who it is?" I glare. "Probably Jess and her piece of shit friends." she says looking up from her book. "I'm not a big fan of her." Crystal smiles and shuts her book. "Yeah, anyways that's it for today." She says checking her phone. "Time went by fast." I say putting my books in my bag. "Right. Don't forget to do those problems tonight." She reminds me. "Can I just do those tomorrow?" I ask. "No. Tonight."
She smiles proudly and stands up. "I'll walk you too the door." she says. I open her door and walk out. I turn around her and see her stand at her doorway. "I thought you were going to walk me to the door." I say confused. "Oh, I meant this one. But I'll walk you to that one too." she chuckles.
I just laugh and continue to walk downstairs. "I'll see you later." She says at the doorway. "See ya." I wave and start to walk. "Wait!" She shouts. I turn around and she walks towards me "You forgot your phone." She hands it to me and I stick it in my pocket. "Thanks." I say.
"No problem. Well Goodnight Luke." She says and starts to walk off.
"Goodnight Crystal." I say and start walking towards my house.
Crystals P.O.V
I watch out the window as he walks home, making sure he makes it there. I head to my room and begin putting away my books. Once I turn off my light I hear faint yelling from outside. I look out my window that was cracked open. The yelling was coming from Luke's house. What's going on? I decide to go over there. It's none of my buisness but I want to make sure Liz and him are okay. I don't know about Paul he's probably the cause of all this. I put on my shoes and walk out the front door towards his house.
