To the moon || Luke Hemmings

Chapter 56

'You guys ready?' Michael asked enthusiastically.
He jumped out of the car and started walking to the entrance of the zoo.
Ashton and Calum followed behind him, as happy as the 5 year olds around them.
Luke and I were the last to show up at the entrance, just walking behind the other guys, not saying anything or doing anything.
Surprisingly, I had had about 6 hours of sleep last night. Although it wasn't that surprising seeing that I was starting to get a little sleep deprived and my body just couldn't keep me awake anymore.
We paid for our tickets and walked inside the zoo.
'Where do we go first?' Calum asked, looking at us.
'Whatever you want' Luke said, pushing his hands inside his pockets as he waited for the guys to decide.
I looked at him, drowning out the voices of the other guys when my mind took over again. Luke wanted to tell me something yesterday, but we had been stuck in traffic so it was pretty late when we got to our hotel.
I had been too tired to remind him about it and even though the look on his face told me he didn't forget, he decided to just let me go to sleep instead.
'How about we go that way and walk around for a bit?' Ashton suggested, pointing to our left.
We all nodded and slowly started walking.
'You sure we don't have to go see the penguins first?' Calum asked when Ashton and Michael ran off.
'Just because you've changed your name on Insta doesn't mean your love for penguins has faded'
Luke smiled at Calum but nodded his head. 'We don't have to go there first it's fine'
Calum looked at his friend before focussing on me, his eyes trailing down to my hands that were hanging beside my body and he looked at Luke's hands that were still in his pockets.
He frowned slightly, clearly getting a little worried about us.
'Alright then,' he said, placing his hand on Luke's shoulder.
'I'll make sure we walk passed the penguins somewhere today'
Luke just nodded, not seeming to care about the penguins at all.
We walked around the zoo for a couple hours, going passed the lions and the bears.
I started feeling a little calmer throughout the day. I wasn't sure why but it was like I found a piece of my shattered heart back.
The guys had been very excited all day and they could tell it was starting to rub off on Luke and me a little bit.
If they would be doing something really strange, there would be a very small smile on our lips, something they wouldn't have gotten a few days ago.
'So how about finding those penguins now?' Michael said, walking in between Luke and I as we continued walking.
Luke nodded, following the sign with the silhouette of a penguin on it.
'How many penguins do you think they'll have?' Ashton asked. He was walking in front of us but turned around and started walking backwards as he waited for Luke to reply.
'Probably 2' Luke replied.
'2?' Michael frowned.
'Yeah, 2'
'Why do you think they only have 2 penguins?' Calum asked.
'I'm not saying that,' Luke said. 'I'm saying they have 2 penguins, because no matter how small the zoo, there's always more than 2 so you'll never be able to tell me I'm wrong'
I smiled, looking down at our feet.
The guys bickered on like this for a few more minutes before we reached the penguins.
Luke looked up as the penguins did their usual thing. They either swam around in the water or they were standing on the land, doing absolutely nothing.
Luke smiled, it was a small one but it was genuine.
He didn't say a word, he didn't freak out like a fangirl but a smile was something.
Luke looked at me, the same small smile still on his face but it faded quickly as he stared at me and the guilt, pain and regret filled his eyes again.
I looked down at my feet, silently beating myself up over the fact that I made the small smile disappear by only just standing beside him.
Looking around, I saw a little bench and walked over to it, not wanting to disturb Luke from his staring into the water.
When I sat down, I looked at him as he kept staring, Ashton noticed me sitting down on the bench and wanted to say something but I shook my head, telling him not to say anything about it.
A few minutes passed as we all looked into the water.
I was lost in my thoughts, thinking about how I would never witness Luke teaching Lilly how to swim, when I felt the bench beside me sink down a little.
I looked to my right to see Luke sitting down beside me.
Luke was looking at me with the sad, small smile on his face as he placed his hand on my knee and patted it shortly before letting go again and looking at the penguins.
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A/N:
Merry second Christmas day to all the Dutchies amongst my readers! :)