Foreign Exchange // Punk Luke Hemmings

Calls

<Luke's POV>

We got in the car, new music in bags placed in the back seat. I decided to be nice and pay for Haylee's things, as she didn't bring her wallet. It felt sort of nice actually.

"Uh, thanks again Luke..." she said softly as she flipped through the small guide at the front of my pride and joy. That album in her lap was possibly my favorite thing in the world, other than my guitars of course. And the band, but that was pretty much a given.

I smiled slightly, pulling out of the parking lot. "For what?" I asked jokingly.

"All of it. For buying me this, which I'll pay you back f-"

"Don't. It was ten dollars. You don't have to," I cut her off and shook my head.

"But the rest of it wasn't. You spent more than thirty dollars on a girl you don't even like. I'm paying you back," she muttered.

I was silent for a moment, letting her words sink in. Did like her, or not? "Well I won't take your money, so good luck," I looked over and smirked. She rolled her eyes before returning to the album.

I looked back at the road, trying to concentrate but failing thanks to my phone. It went off, playing Time-Bomb by All Time Low. I sighed and pulled it out, but not before Haylee commented on the music.

"Nice ringtone, very badass," she smiled. It was my turn to roll my eyes before I picked up the call.

"Hello?" I asked, slowing to a stop at the red light in front of us.

"Lukey!" I instantly knew who it was, as only one person called me that.

"Ashton! Hey mate, how's it going?" I grinned, putting the car back in motion as I got the green light.

"Pretty good. We miss you lad. It's really quiet and boring without you here," he sighed.

"It's pretty interesting here," I returned, glancing at Haylee who had turned to look at me with a look of veiled curiosity. I chuckled and put my eyes back on the road.

"How's that family you're staying with? Is the guy... crap, what's his name? Danny or something?"

"Yeah, Danny. He's a pretty cool lad. I think you and the others would really like him," I nodded to myself. "He's really into music and FIFA and all that stuff. He and Cal would get along really well!"

"We're gonna have to have management get us a gig over there before you have to come back to Aus," he sighed. "I've gotta meet this kid."

"Yeah. You guys would all get along well with him."

There was a commotion on the other end of the line, and it sounded like someone screaming something to him. "Aw crap man. I gotta go. Michael needs me to help him with something or other. Have fun. Make sure you call every few days or whatever."

"You got it mate. Talk to you soon," I smiled and shook my head.

"Bye!"There was a click and the call was cut off. I slid my phone into my back pocket and kept driving.

"So who was that again?" Haylee asked softly after a while.

"The drummer of my band, Ashton. He was just wondering how America was going."

"Turn at this next light," she said suddenly.

"What?" I looked at her.

"It's a shortcut. Just turn left here," she instructed. "Then take the third right you come to."

I did as she said, and after a few more turns through a residential area, we were back at her house. I parked the car and climbed out. No other cars were there, meaning no one else was home. This should be interesting.

I followed Haylee inside, letting the door swing shut behind me. She set her things down on the counter and got out a pitcher of some drink out of the fridge.

"You want some tea?" She asked as she reached up to get down a cup. Her shirt lifted slightly, revealing a thin strip of perfect porcelain skin on her hip.

"I'll just have some water," I shrugged and walked over. She'd gotten out two cups and I smiled as I took one from her. "Thanks," I said before getting water. It suddenly felt about a hundred degrees hotter in here and I was surprised that I was feeling something for once.

"So. While you're being fairly reasonable," she joked as she put away the container of tea once she was done with it. "You said you had thirteen guitars. What kinds?"

I looked at her in surprise. I hadn't expected her to talk to me more than necessary, much less ask about my instruments. "Do you really want to know all thirteen?" I chuckled.

"True. Top five then?" She smiled and took a sip of her drink, leaning against the counter across from me.

"Hmm..." I thought about it for a moment. "In no specific order, there's my Gibson Les Paul Traditional Electric, my Gibson SG Original, my PRS S2 Original, My Fender Standard Telecaster Electric, and then my Ibanez GRG 170DX. Those are probably my favorites if I had to choose."

"Nice. I just have a Fender Special Edition Standard Stratocaster HSS. Pretty mediocre but then again I'm a high schooler so I can't really afford thirteen guitars," she laughed.

"It's a nice guitar though," I assured her.

"Yeah. It's serves me well. I love it more than I love life itself. It lets me make music so I practically worship it," she chuckled and looked down at her hands. "Then there's the acoustic that my parents got me when I was pretty young from some garage sale. It was really cheap too," she smiled.

"See," I said softly after a long silence.

"What?" She looked up at me.

"We don't always have to fight. We're just standing here, having a normal conversation after having what I'd consider to be a pretty good day out together. We don't always have to hate each other," I smiled and shrugged, setting my cup on the counter.

"Well, in my defense, you usually start most of the problems," she smirked.

"True. But there's something about you that... I don't know," I shook my head. "You confuse me Haylee. So much. And I don't know if I like that."

"You confuse me too Luke. So I guess the feeling is mutual. Maybe we should try and, ya know... Get to know each other a bit better..." She spoke softly and looked at her hands again, as if not wanting to anger me. Why would that suggestion anger me?

"I'd like that," I nodded.

Stepping forward, I lifted her chin with my forefinger so she was looking at me. "I'd like that a lot," I smiled yet again. Then, in an act of sheer boldness of the moment, I leaned down and ghosted my lips over her forehead before hurrying up to Danny's room.

Why did I just do that?

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A/N

Sooooooo............ I'm sorry I'm a sucky updated. I've been super super busy lately with summer reading. And next week from the 26th to the 1st I will be at a camp with no access to the Internet or electronics. So I'll try to update again this week if I can, though no promises.

I don't even know what happened here. I just love the ending. The guitars that Luke has in this are actual guitars he has in real life. I got the information from Equipboard and it's a pretty cool site if you're interested in the instruments of band members or whatever.

I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. It wasn't bad. Ashton made a guest appearance so that was nice. I also made a song reference. Let's see who gets it. Hehe ;D I don't have a prize for those who do other than a response in the comments but yeah.

Time to go listen to SKH and spaz out for the millionth time. I've been listening to it non-stop on replay since it came out (I literally didn't sleep on Thursday night and got to hear it at like 4 am on an Australian radio station. Pretty sweet.)

I'm gonna go now. Have a good day and I love you and thank you so much for over three thousand reads!!

~CC