BAD OMENS ✬ luke hemmings

6.1 | honey

In moments like these, Aria realizes how nice it is to have and be with someone else—someone relatively new who is probably just as confused as her but unbelievably comfortable around. She's unfamiliar with the intricacies of a relationship, the unspoken cues and expectations, but those thoughts are blissfully absent in these moments.

At this moment, Aria is liberated from the self-consciousness that often plagues her. She's not concerned about appearing corny or cliché, nor is she preoccupied with the opinions of her friends if they were to witness her current state.

For once, she's completely and entirely content and calm.

The sunset shining through the window in his room, her back pressing against a mountain of thin pillows. At the edge of the bed, the laptop sits its screen on full brightness as a plotless movie – the kind of niche cult classics that go on for an hour and a half, following a character's life – plays, acting as ambient noise.

Ambient noise for her.

It feels like her mind has gone on auto-pilot, not focusing on anything—let alone the movie in front of her. Her thoughts have entirely disappeared, leaving a lost calm in place of unstoppable questions and statements, allowing her to enjoy having Luke lean back against her, with his head on her chest, positioned between her legs as she can absentmindedly play with his hair as if it were an instinct.

She likes this, being here.

She likes having him in her arms and that relentless urge to never let him go. Even if she overheats, gets uncomfortable, or needs to get up, she doesn't want to – she doesn't want to be the one to break this much-needed contact between them. She likes having his head rest against her and using him as a cushion to wrap her arms around.

Aria also likes how he wears the cologne that she bought for him. She likes how he always tries to be near her in public and finds every excuse to talk to her at school. She likes feeling him at her back, always hovering or gracing his hand against hers.

She likes his facial expressions whenever someone says something ridiculous and how he can never stand still for more than a few seconds. She likes how focused he always is when working on an assignment or studying in the library and when he pulls his lip ring between his teeth. Oh! And she likes how he wears that crystal bracelet every day.

But the worst part is that she can't ever bring herself to say any of those things in front of him because it's different; he's different! The words carry more weight, and if she were to say any of those things to Luke, it would feel as if she's confessing her undying love to him. Maybe if he were anyone else, or if this were any other circumstance, complimenting the blond wouldn't feel like the end of the world.

Or, this is a consequence of having genuine feelings for someone instead of the standard limerence. Then again, Aria thought she had a crush on Ashton and went about that shamelessly, but again, Luke is different! In all the best and worst ways possible, she's comfortable but painfully nervous around him. She can't even risk blatantly flirting with him out of the embarrassment that will plague her afterward.

Aria feels like a complete idiot around Luke! One look at him, and she's humiliatingly starstruck and taken aback, rendered to silence or a series of incoherent words that lack substance.

"Wait, that's the guy!" Luke says, snapping his fingers, hoping it'll help him figure out the name, "That guy! What the fuck is his name? Gaby's obsessed with him, um..." He pauses, "Timothee! That's it," shifting in his position, he reaches behind him for Aria's hand, which drops to her side, bringing it to rest on his chest with the other. "Can't believe I hadn't clocked that."

Right, the date, they're technically still on it.

Neither one wanted to part ways. Once Luke parked in his house's driveway, the two sat in uncomfortable silence for two minutes, trying to figure out how to keep the 'date' from ending. Luckily, Luke invited her inside, though there was nothing else much to say about that, as it seemed that the main attraction that supposedly constitutes a 'date' had ended.