BAD OMENS ✬ luke hemmings

1.6 | day eight of hell

Luke and Aria are back in the arts courtyard, on opposite sides ignoring the other with music playing in their ears, both holding paint brushes to paint the truffula trees for the set.

They haven't spoken to each other since they arrived, and the tension in the air was palpable. Since Luke's talk with Calum in the bathroom yesterday, he's completely changed. A part of him feels happier in essence, slowly letting go of the girl and leaving her to be a ghost in the halls.

They both have reached an unspoken agreement to end the war.

Now they silently hate each other.

Though, putting the two together three days of the week is not an ideal arrangement. Since, they're both stuck for an hour alone, left to rot in the silence and sizzling hatred that lingers in their hearts.

Still, they paint in silence, each lost in their own thoughts.

Luke dips his brush into the blue paint and begins to fill in a section of sky on the backdrop. He tries not to glance in Aria's direction, but his eyes keep straying over to her. She's painting a tree, her brush moving methodically up and down the trunk. Her head nodding along to the mainstream music playing loudly in her Beats, lips syncing to the lyrics.

She's got a hat on backwards, not any hat, a Bieber hat from the Purpose tour. It was her sisters, until she dug it out of a box in the closet and claimed it as her own. She looks at peace, content. How dare she.

He feels a surge of anger, remembering all the times she had made fun of him in front of their classmates in front of his friends as if it were second nature without a shred of guilt to flash behind her eyes. He can't help but think about her when she's only a few meters away from him. She must think she's better than him. He grits his teeth and tries to focus on the painting.

Aria, on her part, steals a glance of the blond. He's got blue paint on the sleeve of his red flannel, and a clenched jaw. She attempts to focus on her tree, adding in depth and detail to the drab brown. Calum told her that Luke will be icing her out too. No more snide remarks, or scoffs in the middle of class.

Real original, she thinks. Luke always seemed to be trying to one-up her, always trying to make her look foolish... and fail. She wonders what his problem is, why can't he let go and be his own person. She understands that behind every man is a woman, a woman they steal credit from. He must be getting praise for being the bigger person, and leaving the poor girl alone.

It's hard to focus on his painting when he feels her eyes on him. Luke thinks she's planning some grand scheme, a big blowout to claim her power over him, to prove that he can never get rid of her. She loves attention after all, who is to say there's not another trick up her sleeve of knives.

The only sounds between them are the scrape of their brushes against the canvas and the occasional sigh or hum.

Luke works quickly, eager to finish the set so he can go home. He doesn't want to be around her, he wishes she would disappear out of his life and stop trying to swipe his best friend away. Clearly, Calum is part of a long-term plan to make his life miserable. She loves playing mind games.

Aria wishes the same. She wishes he'd walk away, stop showing up to the after school detention. He called her a toxic, manipulative psycho with his entire chest. Even if it was partly true, that didn't make it hurt any less. Not to mention, it derailed her homeroom teacher's entire perception of her.

They work in silence for what seems like hours, every passing minute feeling like ten. There's thirty-minutes left, thirty-minutes, it's doable, but not ideal.