He Was P(L)uke

18

"Are you okay, Charlie?" Stacy asked approaching me and the coffin. I nodded cleaning my tears with the sleeve of my coat.

"Yeah yeah." I sobbed. "I'm alright."

"Do you want us to take you home?" Michael asked me. Stacy smiled sympathetically at me, then glanced at Michael with heart in her honey coloured eyes. Her eyes looked just like Kiera's and Calum's -soft and with little crinkles to the sides-. I shook my head after awhile of just cleaning my tears. 

"It's fine. I need some time." I muttered walking away. I walked down the hall with the letter folded in my hands. So she had told everyone about how awful of a person I was. She had made everyone at school hate me. And it was all to build 'courage and character'? Who the hell was she to do that? If she was at least closer to me, I'd take that. But she never went to my house nor spoke to me ever. I bumped into someone, them quickly apologizing.

"Charlie." Luke said and I turned to him. His eyes were the most beautiful sea I had ever seen. You could get lost in them by just looking at him. His hair was scooped to the side, curly hairs popping by his ears. And I looked at him and fell in love all over again.

"Luke." I sighed. He looked at me with sad eyes, and then I noticed the crutches from a week ago. "What's wrong?"

Silence. "I don't love her." He mumbled quietly. I shook my head confused.

"Yah your mom can be annoying, but you have to love her, dude." A smile slipped. More likely than not, I was regaining his friendship. After all, I never was the Charlie I thought I was.

"You know what I'm speaking about." He sighed. Nothing was crueler than letting him wait for an answer. "I don't lover her. I never did. I'll never love her." I gulped looking at him. His eyes lowered and he looked at my feet. "I always loved someone who never loved me back. And now I have to marry someone who I'll never love back."

"Tell her all that you're saying to me." I answered. His sight now was casted on me. I looked away with pain in my heart. He had always loved another person. Always. ALWAYS! I bit my lip, and walked away.

"Hey." He yelled. I stopped walking, but did not turn around. I did not even dare to look at his eyes again. I was soon to leave this place. California awaited me in what seemed to be only a week. Summer was ending, vacations were over in a few days, and after eighteen years... I was going to make my own life. I didn't wanted anything to do with anyone but my family.

"Please just stop, Luke." I begged crying. "Just shut up with your problems. Everything revolves around you, I know. But we all have problems on our own."

"I wanted to say you look beautiful."

"I know I do." I said with a smile and finally turned around. "But you have a baby- two I forgot-"

"You don't seem to understand, Charlotte." First time in my whole life existence Luke Hemmings calls me Charlotte. Alright the teachers called me Charlotte sometimes, but even the janitors used to scream and say 'Charles what the hell have you been eating? The puke is already turning another color'. Not even my parents or my brother. They all called me 'Charlie'. That's life. But he was the sole exception, and it was that day I realised it. "I don't like Kiera."

"You still had sex with her."

"I can't remember." He groaned. "Believe me on this one. I don't like to sleep with girls."

"I can't really believe you, Luke. You're a fuckboy."

"No, I'm not. That's how people paint me to be. I'm not that Luke you're talking about. You're not the Charlie everyone thinks you are."

"I've had enough of that. I'm just Charlie."

"Yeah the Charlie I fell in love with." Oh fuck no. I puked there, looking at the void. He threw the crutches down, ran to me quickly and embraced me. I was covered in this thick slime called puke. My eyes were hurting because I couldn't sleep at night, and my hair was now sticky. But he still hugged me. "I don't care if you're covered with puke, with dog saliva, or octopus ink. I love you like that."

-/-

"Charlie, I'm talking." Ashton groaned passing his hand on my eyesight.

"Excuse me. I got carried away." I mumbled, shaking my head.

Ashton coughed, speaking up again. "Alright, so if Kiera is almost five months pregnant, and Luke was not here five months ago, it means that Luke is not the father."

"Right." I nodded, Stacy and Calum sitting in front of us at the booth of the restaurant. "And Ben is not the father either-"

"Guys, Luke is the father. I know that." Stacy chirped in. Ashton and I both turned to each other with stressed out faces. 

"Luke was not here for January when the first pregnancy control was done." Calum added. "And I know that since we travelled together to America for the championship."

"Maybe they did it before he left." She said rolling her eyes and taking a bite of her already cold sandwich.

"I spoke to Luke yesterday." I began, Calum smiled widely at me. "And well he told me he cannot remember having slept with Kiera."

"This makes no sense." Stacy said confused. "Kiera had the pregnancy control about two weeks ago, right?" We all nodded. "If the woman had noted that Kiera has been pregnant for five months, then she would speak."

"Right. But your sister is really fat, and her tummy is bigger than just two months pregnant." Calum said reaching for ketchup. "I agree with them. Luke is not the father."

"I know he is." She groaned frustrated. "Why would Kiera lie?"

"You once told me your mother was someone who wanted all of her kids married before they reached their thirties. That explains much." Ashton added. Stacy placed her sandwich on her plate, straightened her back, and ran away.

"I still think Luke is not the father." Calum said shrugging. I nodded with a smile.

"He is not. I'm sure." Was I?