Attention Seeker // Luke Hemmings au

Chapter Eighteen // Diana

When Luke said he was on his way, I wasn't expecting him to pull up in the passenger seat of a pickup truck with some other boy. Well, at least it wasn't his father again. I had already embarrassed myself enough in front of him.

"Hi," I say, walking up to the vehicle. "You must be..." Luke hasn't actually spoken to me much about his friends, so I'm not entirely sure who this boy is.

"Calum," the boy says, his smile faltering for a second. He runs a hand through his dark hair, then turns back to me. "Come on, then. Get in the car."

"Okay, thank you." I glance at Luke and then open the door and climb into the back seat. "It's nice to meet you, Calum. I'm Diana."

"The pleasure's all mine."

All three of us are silent for a few minutes. I'm not really sure what to say to Calum, and I'm sure Ashton has said enough about me to him to make him dislike me. I don't blame Ashton for disliking me, honestly. I'd be more surprised if he didn't.

"So, that's a nice dress. What were you doing?" Calum asks me, glancing at me in the mirror.

"Calum," Luke hisses, giving him a look.

"It's fine, Luke." I laugh, but it sounds hollow even to me. "I was at a funeral."

"Oh, family?" Calum eases the car to a halt at a red light and looks at me over his shoulder.

"No. It was... my, uh, friend. Maybe you knew him. Ciel Winters? He was my best friend." There's something about the word was that leaves a sour taste in my mouth. "Still is, I suppose."

"I'm sorry, Diana."

We're quiet again for the longest time, and finally Calum just reaches over and turns on the radio. Classic rock.

"Hey, are you cool with coming with us to Michael's?" Luke whispers to me, turning in his seat.

"Is it cool with Michael?"

"Don't worry about him," Calum says, so I guess we aren't being as quiet as we thought. "He's too preoccupied with Ashton's friend, Haruhi. She introduced him to some band called X-O or something."

"EXO?" I lean forward in my seat. "I love that band."

"You like K-Pop?"

"Who doesn't?" A real, genuine laugh escapes my lips. "My bias is Kim Jongin--"

"Kim Jong Un?" Luke looks at me in alarm.

"Kim Jongin, stupid. He goes by Kai?" I flick him in the back of the head.

"Oh. Michael likes that one guy... what was his name?" Calum glances over at Luke for help.