the buddy system / lrh 🍒

26:luke

Katherine paced around the waiting room, tugging at her red hair frustratingly as tears ran down her cheeks.

Everything had happened so fast, it was almost as if nothing happened at all, as if Luke was okay, as if he was awake, as if life was how it should be.

But it wasn't.

The news of the crash had hit her especially hard considering that she was the very first one to be called simply because she was the very first one on speed dial.

It was horrifying, to say the least. She could vaguely remember the way she yelled into the phone, lecturing at the blonde haired boy she loved so dearly before a voice cut her off saying foreign words, a story coming together of a boy named Luke Hemmings getting into a car crash.

It was like her worst nightmare being relived over again, but instead of her father, it was Luke.

Luke, the boy that was such a complete asshole in the beginning of it all, Luke, the boy who was obsessed with semi-aquatic animals, the boy who dyed his hair blue in the target bathroom just to make her laugh, and the boy that so openly made her fall absolutely, head over heels, in love with him.

And it destroyed Katherine, to say the least. It destroyed her just as much and maybe even more than it had destroyed her when her father died because she had promised herself not to let this happen again, not to Luke.

But when it did, it was as if she had no control over anything, like she let herself just fall apart at the seams as she screamed and cried and clung onto Calum and even Michael for support, anything to keep her from going absolutely insane.

The car ride to the hospital was silent as they cramped inside of Ben's car, the whole world silent other than the sniffles and sobs escaping Katherine's lips.

She should have fucking followed him, begged him to stop and think, convincing herself bitterly that if she had just done something, maybe Luke wouldn't be one foot in the grave, just ready to fall in, slipping from her every grasp as she attempted to hang on to the point that, eventually, there was nothing to grasp onto.

"It's not you're fault" Michael had said multiple times, shaking his head as his eyes stayed staring out the window, his pale hand squeezing hers comfortably. "It's none of our faults. Some things just happen," he stated, only receiving a curt nod from Katherine as the car slowed to a stop in front of the hospital.

Sirens blared in the redheaded girl's ears as she made her way into the hospital frantically, the police lights and camera's practically blinding her as she walked, Calum and Michael silent by her sides.

"What a fucking idiot," Calum hissed in between remorseful sobs, his words a mixture of anger and sadness as Michael reached over to take his hand, a silent yet comforting gesture as they made their way to the emergency room.

Now, Katherine had seen many horrifying things in her life, such as her appendix after it had been taken out, the scariest horror movie's you could ever imagine, and her grandmother naked even, but that one split second of Luke being dragged into the darkness of the emergency room, covered in cuts and bruises, his usually dorky face completely and utterly lifeless, as if he was already long gone, never to be around her again. 

And then it hit her, Katherine Winona Healy-Irwin, that maybe she would never get the chance to see her Luke anymore, to dye his hair blue in the target bathroom and laugh at his stupid jokes and penguin themed bowls and cups. 

It hit her that she quite possibly could never get the chance to go on an actual date with him or fucking marry him because God knows she wanted to. 

She wanted to spend the rest of her fucking life with that boy, the boy that could be dead, that could never ever be beside her ever again, and it scared her to no end because she didn't want to lose him. 

Not him. 

"Katherine, come on, we have to go," Michael had stated, his voice shaky and uneven, as if he was walking on eggshells with bare feet. "Were not allowed to be with him right now, there's a few chairs over there, we'll just see how he is in a bit okay?" he questioned, slowly, hands still intertwined with Calum's, a sigh that, for the first time in forever, made her sick because she wanted Luke to be there to hold her hand, to tell her that everything would be just fine and that this was all just some sick, fucked up dream that she'll wake up from in a few minutes. 

The redheaded girl stayed silent for a bit before shaking her head, the tears pooling in her eyes pathetically as she spoke. "Did you see him, Michael? What if he doesn't wake up? What then? Michael, i think i'm fucking in love with him and he could already be gone!" she exclaimed, tugging on her hair as she sobbed like a child. 

"I know you love him, okay?" Michael had mumbled, barely audible as he wrapped an arm around her. "You think i didn't see it from the start, how you two looked at each other like your hopes and dreams were painted on your faces? It was pretty fucking obvious and i found it hilarious at first. But you've got to trust that Luke will get through this, alright? Luke might be stubborn and stupid at times, but i know that he will move a fucking mountain just to see you again, so trust me on that, alright?" he asked, a warm, more comforting smile on his face, as if just the other day, he hadn't hated her guts. 

"Don't make me regret trusting you, Clifford," Katherine stated simply, earning a chuckle from the boy as all three of them walked to the waiting room where Luke's dad, his girlfriend, and brothers sat grieving, their heads in their hands as they cried. 

The three friends sat at a reasonable distance away from them, frowning slightly at the whole big picture, the entire fucked up situation in which they dragged themselves into just by loving a stupid blonde boy that liked to make puns and laugh way too much. 

They all sat silent for the longest time, numb and oblivious to everything but each other's existence and the brief knowledge of Luke's family mourning nearby. it was as if time didn't exist to them, as if they barely had lives aside from the one situation they refused to stop living, as if, back at home they didn't have brothers or sisters or parents wondering where on earth they were and why they were gone for so long, without a single word of heads up. 

 They might have sat there for hours, wallowing in their own grief before Ashton arrived, pale from hearing of the news, either from Jack or from the news people shamelessly recording at the highway the blood was possibly spilled. 

It always bothered Katherine how those kind of people paid absolutely no mind to anything but the stupid story considering that the person that could mean the world to everyone else, meant absolutely nothing but a cover story and a paycheck to them. 

But then again, it was probably none of her business anyway. 

Ashton sat beside her, engulfing her small body into his arms as if they were children again, wide eyed and innocent with no other fears but the monsters in Katherine's room, the monsters that, no matter what happened or how old they got, Ashton promised he'd protect her from. Although, this time, he couldn't protect her from the monster of loss, just like he couldn't protect her from the fact that their father had died. 

"You okay?" he questioned, his voice muffled by her hair as he just held her, kept her away from the ghost, kept her safe like any other big brother, a knight in shining armor in his little sister's eyes, even now. 

The red headed girl shook her head, her lips pursed. "I don't want to lose him, Ash," she stated, earning a nod from the older Irwin as he pushed his glasses up nervously, an old nervous habit that he refused to break due to the fact that he claimed it gave him comfort. 

Ashton let out a sigh, nodding at her words. 

"I don't either. I know you loved him," he responded simply, earning no reply back due to the fact that there was nothing left to say, absolutely nothing in that moment in which a boy's life was hanging on a thin string, just waiting to be cut by golden plated scissors. 

So they too waited, waited silently for the news that could quite possibly change their lives. 

The news of Lucas Robert Hemmings' death. 

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:-)