Wasted Time

Chapter 20

Luke's POV

"That's it," I sighed, throwing my phone down on the bed next to me as I listened to Emily's voice telling me she was currently unavailable for the thousandth time. She hadn't answered a single one of my calls, or replied to any of my texts, and I was beginning to get desperate to talk to her. I would have tried to find her at Chris's house, but unfortunately I had no idea where he lived. I had tried waiting outside some of the university buildings I knew she studied in, but I never saw her amongst the crowds of people, despite how noticeable her hair made her. I desperately wanted, more than anything, to tell her that I still loved her, and the break-up was a mistake, but it was getting harder to do it subtly now that I was spending so much time with Ashton, and it seemed sort of pointless, because she clearly didn't want to hear from me.

I needed a distraction. Worrying about Emily was taking over my life and as clearly nothing was going to happen yet, I needed to leave it alone and find something else to do. I scrolled through the contacts on my phone listlessly, searching for someone who might be free to meet this afternoon and who I was actually still allowed to see. My thumb hovered over a name hesitantly, before pressing it and holding the phone to my ear.

"Hey, Luke?" a happy, female voice sounded.

"Megan, hey," I said, her familiar Australian accent soothing me instantly and making me feel like I had made the right decision. "Do you want to hang out today?"

"Sure," she said cheerfully. We made arrangements to meet in town, and I hung up feeling a lot more positive. I had only met up with Megan once since I had encountered her on my date with Emily, when I saw her with Ashton and Calum.

***

"Luke!" she called, giving me a hug as soon as she saw me.

"Hi," I smiled, feeling immediately comfortable. Being around Megan made me feel at home, because it reminded me of a time before my life was so fast-moving and stressful.

"How's life?" she asked, casually. "How are the boys? Your girlfriend?"

"Well, actually..." I couldn't help myself, and I ended up pouring out everything to her. She listened patiently, although I could've sworn I saw her eyes narrow as I gushed about how wonderful Emily was, and how much I missed her, but I was probably imagining that.

"You really liked her," she said softly, placing an arm around my shoulders as we sat down on the nearest bench.

"Yeah, I did," I sighed. "I mean, I still do. I'm not giving up on her." My voice took on a certain ferocity as I remembered how I had resolved that I wouldn't let this be the end of us.

"Of course not," she said, but she sounded as if she was saying it to comfort me rather than because she actually believed it.

"Sorry, I've talked about me the whole time," I said, forcing a weak smile. "How's your life going? Have you got a boyfriend?"

"Not at the moment," she said, shaking her head. "I've dated a few guys since you, but none of them were right for me." She mirrored my feeble attempt at a cheerful expression.

"Look at us both," I sighed. "Do you want to go and see a film, or something?"

After going to the cinema, we decided to go to Nando's, and spent most of the meal reminiscing about adventures back home, and catching up on what had happened since. I filled her in on all the events of last year, and how we had met Maddy and Emily. I found myself automatically smiling when I spoke to her about all the awkward things that had happened before we both knew we liked each other, and the smile fading when I talked about how distant we were now.