ace // luke hemmings {slow updates}

v

Vee was actually kind of surprised that Luke had held up his end of the bargain so far. In the week since he'd convinced her to work with him on the stupid history project they had to do he'd kept his promise not to bother her other than when they needed to do some work, and he'd tried to make sure most of the conversation stayed on topic when they were together – he did slip up occasionally but Vee couldn't exactly hold it against him.

Perhaps the most surprising part though was that the more they worked together, the more Vee actually started to enjoy his company – by the end of the first week she almost didn't mind when he said hi to her at school or when their conversation strayed from world history to music or TV shows. It had caused a few issues with Amy and Lisa, but only because they wouldn't stop asking her to introduce them to Luke and his friends which was something that Vee vehemently refused to do.

Vee was brought back to the real world at the sound of her name being called and turned to see Luke sitting beside her at their lunch table. Despite growing to be more comfortable around Luke when they were alone, she was still wary of people from school seeing them hanging out together so she quickly glanced around the cafeteria to make sure no one was paying any attention to them. She was in luck, except for Amy and Lisa who had just walked into the room and caught sight of the tall blonde seated beside her, no one seemed to be paying them any notice.

"What's up Hemmings, make it fast." She told him, folding her arms and resting them on the table in front of her.

Luke rolled his eyes. "Are you still worried about people seeing us together? C'mon Vee, I thought we were over this."

"It's got less to do with us and more to do with the fact that the people I call friends are absolutely crazy and I don't want to have to deal with that, and I'm a nice enough person that I wouldn't even wish that on you. So start talking."

He held up his hands in surrender, a small laugh passing through his lips before he began to speak. "Okay so I know we're supposed to work on our project this afternoon but my parents are doing this afternoon tea thing – I'm not really sure what it is because I sort of stopped listening – but long story short we can't do it at my place."

Vee hoped he didn't notice the slightly panicked look that passed across her face at the thought of having to go to her place, especially when Lainey was supposed to be home. Apparently he did though because he held up his hands in surrender before continuing.

"Now, I know you have this aversion to me being at your place – and honestly I'm a little offended you won't tell me why, but I digress. So, what I was going to suggest is that we got to that place we went on the night of the party and we can get something to eat and do the work there. Does that work for you?" He raised his eyebrows and Vee noticed Amy and Lisa approaching the table with borderline creepy smiles on their faces.

"Um, yeah – I guess that's cool." She nodded, uncrossing her arms and picking up her fork again.

"Alright, sweet as. I'll meet you at your locker so we can just go straight after school." He shot Vee a smile when she nodded again and tapped on the table as he stood up. "I've got to go before I'm late for practice, I'll see you later Vee."

He waved quickly before turning on his heel and heading out to the sports field. Vee shook her head, and turned back just in time to see Lisa and Amy sit down, their eyes wide and filled with questions they were just begging to ask. The only held it together for a couple of minutes before they started hurling question after question at her; Vee rolled her eyes made a point of ignoring both of them, hoping that eventually they'd get that she didn't want to talk about it and leave her alone.

***

Vee and Luke had been trying to work on the project for a little more than half an hour and Vee felt kind of bad for Luke because she was in a really shitty mood. Her phone had been ringing non-stop since they'd arrived and the name that was flashing across the screen combined with the verbal assault from her friends at lunch had rung her patience thin and she'd kind of snapped a little bit at him in the car on the way to the diner.