Second Chance || Luke Hemmings

|| 22 ||

"Well, good morning daughter," I hear a cheerful voice echo throughout the kitchen. I rub the sleep out of my eyes, still trying to adjust to the morning light.

I see my mom standing bye the stove, bowls of diced vegetables, egg yolk filled cups, and a stack of what looks like omlets to be rested near my mom.

"Wait, is this real? Is mom actually home for once?" I jokingly say as she walks over to me, setting a plate in front of me. She walks back to grab the stack of omlets and serves one to me on my plate.

"No, you're just dreaming. This food isn't real and you're going to just wake up disappointed," she jokes back, and I pout slightly, but we laugh it off.

"You don't have work?" I asked, still slightly surprised. When I say she works all the time, I really mean she works all the time. She works graveyard shifts, she works morning shifts, afternoon shifts, evening shifts, she's gone for most of the day, at least when I'm home anyways. We somehow always miss each other.

"Not this morning. I have to go in later this afternoon," she shrugs, setting another plate beside me.

"So how was your Halloween?" She asks. She stood on the other side of the counter, happily drinking from the mug that Ashton and I made her at color me mine years ago.

I mentally sigh, remembering last night. I want to cringe and cry and maybe puke a little just thinking about it. I shake my head, snapping my attention back to my mom.

"It's was alright," I shrug.

"Good morning family!" Michael booms as he walks through the door. Giving him a key was honestly a great decision.

"Morning Michael," my mom beams, "made you a plate."

His eyes lit up as soon as she says that. I laughed, "how did you know he was coming?"

"Mothers intuition," she winked and I looked over at Michael who was already stuffing his face. He shrugged.

"Coffee?" She looked between the both of us, and we both nodded.

"So how was you Halloween, Michael?" She continued to make conversation as she poured Michael and I cups of coffee. Half coffee, half creamer, and three spoonfuls of sugar, just the way we like it.

He looked over too me a gave a small smile, "it was alright. I mean I've had better."

"You consider passing out candy to little kids better?" I laugh and he does a little too.

"Yes, but only because you were having a good time too," he purses his lips together and I sigh.

"Did something happen?" My mom asks concerned, handing us our coffee.

I shake my head, "no. The party just wasn't that great."

I took a bite from my omelet and probably died a little inside. I've missed her cooking man.

"So how's you and that boy?" She asked randomly, making me partially choke on my food.

"You mean Luke?" I ask, regaining my breath.

She nods. "Um, I don't know."

My mom stood there quietly, looking between the both of us. "Oh, I get it." She lightly smiled, raised her eyebrows, grabbed her cup of coffee, and exited the room.

"So what happened?" He asked a little too eagerly. I just sighed, not wishing to respond.

"I think we both just realized that it's still not the right time yet." I began to grow anxious at the though of it.

"We?" He said, but it wasn't really a question of confusion, but more of 'are you sure it's just not you.'

"Ok, fine. I did." I said, slightly annoyed at the fact. I don't know what I'm getting myself into, but I'm just getting a bad feeling in my gut about this.

"Speak of the devil," Michael huffed, picking up his phone and looking at it.

"Hey Luke," he chimed. I just sat there quietly, trying to listen in on the mumbling.

"Yes I am actually," he stared past me and out the window. Do you think if I close my eyes it'll help me hear what he's saying?

"Um, sorry. She's in the bathroom right now," Michael looked over at me, a little panicked. I felt my heart sting a little, mainly from panic within myself.

There was a moment of silence, and I watched as Michael looked over at me, unsure of what to do. He finally sighed and took his phone away from his ear, pressing a button. That's when I heard Luke's staticky voice appear through the phone.

"Al," he sighed, "i know your there, and I know you don't want to talk to me, and you don't have to. Just listen to me at least, please. I know what happened yesterday was completely unexpected for the both of us, and I know that you say we're not ready to date again. But as ready as you may be to give up on us, I'm not quite. So, meet me at pioneer park and let me have a shot at it, yeah?"

After all he said, all that was still ringing through my mind was how he said "as ready as you may be to give up on us."

"Luke, I'm not giving up on us. Is that what you think?" I ask, leaning in closer towards the phone.

"So meet me at pioneer park today. 1:30, underneath that large and weird bent out of shape tree," he said, and I can hear how hopeful he was. I can hear how desperately he wanted this, and I couldn't help but give in.

"Ok, fine. 1:30." I say and I hear him cheer a little. "I'll see you later then," he says and the phone call ends.

"You gonna be ok?" Michael asked conceded. I nodded, chuckling a little.

"It's luke, I'm gonna be just fine Michael." I smile. I stand up and begin to walk away, but not before I head Michael mutter, "that's what I'm afraid of."

"I'm gonna take a shower!" I call behind me, pretending I didn't hear his comment.

He's not bad, why is Michael so scared?

---

Wowowow I'm terrible. Hi guys I hope your enjoying this story so far, so please tell me what you think or anything. I love reading the comments that are left behind!

Enjoy your day and remember sgfg is out on Friday !!!!!!!

-k