Again | Luke Hemmings

Alternate Epilogue

"Congratulations, class of 2017!" The alumni said, making her way down the stage.

Cheers and whistles roared around. Smiles in every face, hugs and kisses, newly grads are jumping around with their dark green togas and leaving their assigned seats.

"Joey!" I heard Bailey yell from behind me.

I turned around and saw her carrying a huge (literally) bouquet and I could barely see her face.

"Got it from a special someone?" I smirked, watching her struggle.

"Yes, and your special someone told me to give it to you."

I almost choked.

"Me?" My eyes widened. "Nice try, but I'm not falling for that."

She glared at me before pulling out small white paper from the flowers. She cleared her throat and put a serious face on.

"Dear Joey, congrats on graduating. I knew you'd make it. I hope you like these flowers, I got all of your favorites in one. Love," she winked before continuing, a stupid smile was on her face. "Luke."

"Nice try." I said, grabbing the paper from her and I mentally punched myself in the face because she wasn't joking.

"Here." She said, handing me the flowers. Damn, it was heavy but it smelled really good.

"How'd he even know? We haven't talked in years!" I knit my eyebrows because I was confused. Ever since that day, Luke and I never bothered with each other ever again. We went on with our lives. There were a few times where I would catch myself thinking about him. Rare times. Even if I did say yes to him that day, I knew we wouldn't last long.

"Maybe you're forgetting that you have a Twitter account and so does he." Bailey shrugged and pulled me through the crowd so we can meet up with our parents.

"Congratulations, girls!" My mum said with a big smile on her face as she hugged us. I wasn't really able to hug her because of what I was holding. Bailey's parents did the same.

"Where did you get that?" Mum asked, pulling out a daisy and smelling it.

"They were giving out to some students." I lied and Bailey elbowed my ribs.

"She got it from he-who-shall-not-be-named." She smiled innocently. I mentally groaned. Bailey has been talking to Michael often, just like before, and I think that they have a thing (she won't admit it) so that's why she isn't mad at Luke or even pissed. In fact, she would even try to trick me into blind dates and I would always end up finding out that she was setting me up with Luke so I always back out.

"How sweet of him." She nodded in approval and excused herself to talk with Bailey's parents and John.

"Wait, who gave these to you?" I asked.

She opened her mouth to say something and looked behind me, a smile made it's way to her glossy lips.

"What?" I asked.

"Maybe you'd find out if you turned around."

So I turned around and saw Luke.

Wow, he has seriously matured by a lot. It was like all the air was sucked out of my system that I felt like collapsing right then and there.

"Luke,"

"Hey."

"I'll meet you in the car." Bailey says before disappearing in the crowd.

"Uh," Oh my god, this is so awkward. "Um, thanks for the flowers."

"You're welcome." He said, smiling and that took my breath away.

"Uh, anyway, I have to get going. My parents are probably waiting for me."

As I was about to walk away, Luke called me.

"Yeah?" I asked, hoping to get this over with.

"Congrats, by the way." He said, giving me another smile. He looked like he was about to cry or maybe he always looked like that and I never noticed.

"Thanks." I said, turning away again.

"Wait!" He called again, holding my arm.

"Yes?" I shot him a bitter smile. Okay, I was dying inside. First of all, this is the same guy who broke my heart and I vowed to never speak to him again. Second, he's literally here, in front of me and gave me flowers like we've been dating for years. Not to mention that no matter how much I tried to forget about him, I still loved him a lot.

"M-may I walk you to your car?" He asked, sounding nervous.

"Sure." I nodded. I'm actually surprised that no one is noticing Luke Hemmings yet.

We reached my mum's car and I see Bailey and her parents inside, talking to each other.

"I guess this is where we part ways, yeah?" I said, hoping that I didn't sound rude.

"Yeah, I guess so." He scratched the back of his neck. I forced myself to look away because his arm muscles are beautiful.

"So, uh, bye." I said. "Thanks for coming."

"No problem." He smiled. "Bye."

Neither of us moved, we just stood in front of each other. If I weren't holding these flowers then it would've looked like a movie scene.

My heart beat sped up as each minute passed. His beautiful blue eyes bore into mine and I could feel myself being taken away to somewhere far from here.

Luke took the flowers from me and gently placed them on the ground, then he hugged me tight, taking me by surprise. He buried his face in my neck. I longed for this to happen again.

Before I could even get a chance to hug him back, he pulled away and I had to stop myself from frowning. His eyes were glossy and red, his cheeks were a little wet from his tears.

I felt my heart snap in two.

"I'm sorry. I'm such a baby," he said, wiping his cheeks with the back of his hand. "I shouldn't be-"

I cut him off by hugging him. I wrapped my arms around his torso and buried my face on his chest. He hugged me back, placing multiple kisses at the top of my head. I really missed this.

We pulled away after a while and I looked up at him.

And then it happened. He kissed me and immediately kissed back. It was a slow and deep kiss and I never want it to stop. I placed my arms behind his neck and pulled him closer to me. One hand went to his hair and tugged at the ends of it.

My stomach was doing backflips and my heart was beating so fast that I was sure that Luke could feel it.

I felt his hand clutch the fabric of my toga and my dress underneath and gently pulled me towards him.

We pulled away after who knows how long, just catching our breaths. I bit my lower lip to stop myself from smiling and Luke just smiled really big, lacing our fingers together.

"I know that it's been a few years but I hope it's not too late and too weird to ask you to be my girlfriend." Luke asked with a hopeful smile.

"Weird, but not too late." Maybe it's a little too late but who am I kidding? I will love this guy until the end of time. He could ask me ten years later and I'd probably say yes. Maybe I did overreact before because it wasn't his fault that she kissed him.

Taking things slow again will not be an option because we tried and obviously failed.

"So will you be my girlfriend?" Luke asked, the corners of his lips were twitching.

"Yes." I say and kissed him again. Luke laughed and pulled me close.

Okay, I wouldn't mind doing this over and over and over again.