Afraid • l.h

Chapter 20 • "Hope."

Enjoy!!

Luke's POV

As I sat across from Tilly I realised that I had found confidence, courage but most importantly hope. She was my only chance and I couldn't ruin that. I wanted a friendship, a strong friendship but I knew I wanted more. I'm yet to find out if she feels the same but that's most probably not true. Sitting here and thinking about all of these things makes me wonder what Tilly is thinking about right now.

"Luke?" She breaks my thoughts.

"Yeah." I reply.

"I think we should get to know each other better." She starts. "You know so we know more about each other."

"Sure. Do you want to take a walk?" I suggest.

"That sounds great." She smiles.

"I'm just going to go to the toilet. I'll be back." I say.

Tilly's POV

I took this opportunity as the chance to pay for our breakfast as I suggested going out. Luke comes out as soon as I finish paying.

"Why didn't you wait I would have paid or we could have at least split it half and half." He says walking up to where I'm standing.

"It's fine. It was my suggestion so I paid. You can pay for something another time."

"Fine." He sighs and we exit the shop.

"So, tell me all about yourself Luke."

"Well I'm 18, my birthday is on the 16th of July. I have two brothers, my mum, my dad and my dog called Molly. I love playing the guitar and I hope one day 5 Seconds of Summer are a big band touring the world. Oh and I'm originally from Australia. You?" He finishes but I had questions before I was going to tell him anything.

"Wait. You're from Australia? When did you move?" I ask.

"I came to California when I was two." He answers.

"Wow. How many people know this because you don't have the accent or anything?"

"A few people know but it wasn't really a big part of my life so I don't talk about it much mainly because I don't remember anything as I was so young. I'd love to be able to go back." He says. "Your turn."

"Okay, well, I'm 18 my birthday is the 12th of September. I'm an only child and I live with my mum who is originally from England. I'm gonna say the next bit fast because it's a little upsetting. About two years ago my dad was killed in a terrible car crash on the way to pick me up from somewhere. He was taken straight to hospital but didn't make it and from that day onwards I have never forgiven myself." I said whilst realising I had tears running down my cheeks.

"I'm so sorry." Luke says.

"Thank you. It's hard to talk about sometimes, the memories just come flooding back." I say. "You wasn't here but a couple of weeks ago when we went to the beach we came through the little ally to get to the sea front and the sun was setting. I just burst out in tears because it reminded me of my dad so much as he used to take me to see the sun go down almost every night."

"That must have been hard."

"It was but I'm going to have to deal with it somehow."

"Do you wanna head home now?"

"Yeah. Let's go."

"I actually feel like a know you a lot better now." He says.

"Me too." I say. "Actually before we go could we go to the record shop down here. It looks really good."