Foreign Exchange // Punk Luke Hemmings

Worry

"Then he just....left...." I finished the story off. Tanner had wondered why I'd gotten to the ice cream shop late, so I told her what had happened with Luke. Now she was staring at me, her eyebrows raised and her mouth pressed into a line.

"He seriously kissed you?"

"Well, my forehead, but yeah. I guess he did," I nodded and shrugged before taking another bite of my midnight chocolate ice cream (chocolate ice cream with truffle bits and pieces of chocolate chip cookies).

"I can't believe he actually said all that..." She sighed and looked at the bowl in her hands. "What do you think it means?"

"You're asking me?!" I laughed curtly. "As if I have more of an idea than you do."

"Well you were there. I wasn't. You saw what his expression was, heard the way he spoke, all the stuff that's not spoken but still important, you were there for. So what do you think?" She looked back up at me.

I hesitated for a moment, not sure if I was ready to admit what I was thinking. What I was secretly and silently hoping in the depths of my mind: Luke might like me back.

"I guess it could mean that...maybe he-" I tried to get the words out, but for some reason they stuck in my throat. "Maybe he might have feelings for me..." I finally got out in a mere whisper.

She was quiet for a long time, she just sat there taking small bites of her ice cream. "Well what would you do if that was right?" The last thing I wanted to be asked.

What would I do though? I wouldn't have any idea of what to tell him if he ever admitted he had feelings for me... Would I tell him I wasn't interested? Would I tell the truth and say I was?

"I really don't know T," I groaned, putting my ice cream down and dropping my head against my arms. "I don't know how I feel about him or how he feels about me or anything!"

"Hey, cheer up alright? On the bright side, he's here for a while, right? So you'll have time to figure it all out. I promise."

I looked up at her with a small smile. "Thanks Tan. You always know what to say."

"I mean, I'd hope I do. I'm only one of your best friends..." She laughed, making me roll my eyes. "So. About this record deal..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Delilah Marie! Don't you dare even try it!" Tanner yelled as Del snatched away one of her drum sticks. I could tell T was trying not to laugh as she tried valiantly to protect her drums from the wrath of a drum stick holding Delilah.

"Come get it!" Del laughed, pulling it away from T just before she would have caught it in her hand. I honestly thought at that point Tanner was about to throw her other drum stick at Delilah.

Tonight we decided to have band practice at my house, which I wasn't sure how I felt about. It was nice to not have to go to anyone else's house, but at the same time I had to worry about Luke, who was, at the least, right upstairs.

I tried to ignore the gnawing sensation in my stomach when I thought of him. What did he even mean by what he had said? What were these "reasons" for what he did? Because I'd sure like to hear them...

"Haylee!" Mitch said loudly into his mic, snapping at me as well. I jumped a bit and looked at him quickly. "You okay?" He asked quietly from beside me.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm good. I was just...thinking. That's all," I waved him off swiftly. But he was persistent.

"Let's take a break you guys. I wanna talk about something." He ducked under the strap on his shoulder and set his instrument on a stand. The rest of us did the same and went to sit on the large couch in the corner. I got placed between Del and Mitch, and I had a pretty damn good feeling what this was about.