Tall l.h.

11.

I tried to keep going, but Ashton and Calum were just watching us. I wanted to get out of that room. I headed for the sliding door, but Luke grabbed my hand and pulled me back. I may have been tall, but I was still thin and Luke was much bigger than me. I stumbled back and he caught me easily.

"Sydney please," he said as I pushed against him, "will you just-"

"No!" I said loudly, "Let go of me. I'm not just gonna let you cheat on your girlfriend with me, you jerk!" And then he let go. We looked at each other for a long silent minute.

And then he said: "Can I please just tell you about our situation?" He asked. I looked at the other two and they nodded. So I nodded for him to go on. He blinked at me and I raised my eyebrows at him. "Oh right here?" I crossed my arms over my chest and sighed. "Okay...um so Arzaylea isn't my girlfriend. Well...she is but she isn't."

I frowned at him and felt rather insulted. "What the hell does that even mean?"

"Like....she's just this girl that management stuck me with for publicity reasons." He said trying to explain, "so she not my real girlfriend. She's just someone that I have to act like is my girlfriend when there's people around."

"So.....you're single?" I asked still not really sure what exactly he meant.

"Yeah!" Ashton said trying to help, "So you can stop pretending you don't like him."

"How do you know I was pretending?" I asked quickly. Was I really that obvious?

"Oh come on, Syd." Calum rolled his eyes and I sighed. "Why do you think Arzaylea didn't like you?"

"Oh she didn't like you because She likes Luke." Ashton said. Luke's eyes got wide like Ashton wasn't supposed to be saying it. "And Luke doesn't like her. So she's jealous because he actually-"

"Ashton!" Luke said loudly. They looked at each other for a second and Ashton just groaned.

"Oh come on Luke it's not like you'd be telling her if you didn't-"

"Did I miss something?" Honey asked walking down the stairs. She looked better than she had that morning.

"Oh yeah Luke was just telling Sydney about...." Luke suddenly grabbed my hand and pulled me outside. I didn't hear the rest of whatever Cal was saying.

I was about to say something to Luke, maybe ask him why exactly he was telling me this but he answered the questions I had before I could even ask them.

As soon as he closed the door behind us he turned around and he kissed me. His hands were on my hips so I didn't move move away.

When he pulled away he looked at me for a long minute before he started talking.

"You have to believe me that I don't feel that way toward her." He said. He didn't say her name. He didn't want to. I didn't want him to. I pursed my lips and stepped away from him.

"You kissed her last night." I said, wanting very badly to believe him. He looked confused for a brief second before he seemed to remember.

"Okay, that was because there are these guys that hang out around our property and-" he stopped when I rolled my eyes at him. "I'm serious! Which....is why we should either take a step away from each other or go inside." He looked around quickly before he opened the screen door. And then we didn't talk about it anymore. It was odd to me that he just dropped the whole thing. I didn't know what he expected now. I liked him a lot, and maybe he told me so I didn't feel bad when he flirted with me? Or maybe he was expecting me to be his actual girlfriend? I really had no idea. I didn't have a chance to find out either. Before I could sit down on the couch my phone rang. It was Roger, Honey's brother. He was wondering where his sister was and since I was the last person to see her it was my fault she was gone all night and all day. Which it kinda was.

"Alright ya bum." I said kicking Honey's leg, "We gotta go. Roger is having a duck."

"No! I didn't even get to have any fun!" She whined wrapping both her arms around Calum. He pouted and leaned his head against hers.

"Are you kidding me? You got so drunk you don't even remember what happened last night." I said crossing my arms, "Besides I gotta go home and feed Butter." She moaned and got up off the couch.

"Stupid cat...." She grumbled grabbing her bag. "Let's go then."

"You're leaving?" Ashton said appearing with a plate of chips. He gave a small pout as well and I sighed.

"Yes," I said, "I have to feed my cat, and Honey's brother is getting worried about her." She gave that annoying scoff thing again and waved before she walked out the door without me.

"Oh well then see you later then." Luke said, looking somewhat down at us leaving. I nodded and headed through the door.

"Tell Mikey is was nice not seeing him." I waved and heard them laugh as I walked to the car. Honey was extremely angry we were leaving and didn't talk to me the entire drive home. This was turning into a weird day.