Disconnected | Luke Hemmings

chapter two

When I blinked my eyes open, the digital clock on the bedside table next to me told me that it was 12:43pm. The glow of the red numbers was far too bright for my tired eyes. I groaned quietly; this was definitely not enough sleep for my liking considering the hour I had gone to bed. I gathered the covers up underneath my chin and rolled over to find a pair of beautiful blue eyes looking at me.

I smiled. "Hi," I said simply, giving him a quick kiss.

"Good morning, beautiful," Luke said groggily, sliding an arm across my waist. I nestled in closer to him and leaned my head on his bare chest. Even after all the time we had been together, it still gave me butterflies to hear him call me "beautiful." I allowed myself a private grin. It was nice to hear it in person, too.

We laid together for a minute in silence, both of us struggling to fully wake up. Neither of us were morning people, and I was pretty sure that a large part of our relationship was spent lying around in bed. As tired as I felt, I was sure that it paled in comparison to how sleepy Luke must feel. I worried that I had woken him up when I stirred.

"Did I wake you up?" I asked him with concern. I knew how much he needed to rest after such an exhausting tour. I propped myself up on my elbows to look at him.

Luke shook his head and yawned. It was adorable. "No, no. I only woke up a couple minutes before you rolled over. God, I wish I was still sleeping though."

I nodded sympathetically. "Me, too. But you know what?" He looked at me with raised eyebrows, waiting. "I missed this," I continued. "Waking up next to you." I drew invisible shapes on his chest with my fingertips as I spoke.

Luke smiled down at me and gently rubbed my back underneath the baggy Nirvana shirt. "I missed it, too. Plus, you're much better to cuddle with than Calum."

"I wasn't aware that I had any competition," I giggled into his chest, only to be interrupted by the sudden buzzing vibrations of his phone. Luke reached across me and grabbed his phone off the bedside table. "Speak of the devil," he muttered before putting the phone to his ear. "Dude, shouldn't you still be sleeping? You know, like I wish I was?"

Since he was on the phone, I could only hear his half of the conversation.

"Calum, we literally got home, like, eight hours ago."

"Of course she's here."

"Bro, I'm not putting it on speaker phone."

"Oh, my God. No, we are not naked!"

I blushed involuntarily, though I had grown quite used to the frequent teasing from Calum, Michael, and Ashton. Still, Calum wasn't too far from the truth at the present moment. I glanced down at Luke's bare chest and became hyperaware of the fact that I was wearing only his t-shirt and my underwear. My legs felt hot against his own.

Luke rolled his eyes and momentarily put the phone aside to say, "Calum says hi."

I laughed. "Tell him I said hi, too. And to leave you alone!"

"If only it were that simple," Luke grumbled and then resumed his conversation.

I waited patiently for him to finish talking—or, rather, for Calum to finish talking—but eventually I got tired of waiting. One of my favorite parts of my relationship with Luke was that we were entirely comfortable joking around with each other. I felt an evil grin spread across my lips as a familiar plan hatched in my mind, and Luke clearly caught sight of it when he turned to look at me suspiciously.