Disconnected | Luke Hemmings

chapter seven

            "He did it! He actually did it!" Ashton laughed joyfully, grabbing Luke's shoulders and grinning from ear to ear. Luke was smiling sheepishly down at his feet, trying to hide his embarrassment, but I couldn't help but smile proudly. Calum patted Luke on the shoulder and Michael high-fived Ashton next to me.

"Is this the surprise you almost gave away?" I smirked at Michael, waving my hand in the air to draw attention to the ring in question. It had only been two days since he had given it to me, but I was already confident in the fact that I wasn't going to take it off.

"What? Michael!" Luke grumbled.

Michael raised his hands in mock innocence. "Hey now, she said almost. Besides, I was just as excited as you, bro."

Luke rolled his eyes. "I doubt that," he muttered, but he looked at me with what could only be described as pure happiness. I slipped my arm around his waist and leaned into him. We were all at my house, waiting for Amy to get here so that she and I could get ready, and then we were going out for a night on the town. With my mother's nod of approval, I had slept in my own bed the previous night, though I had brought Luke along with me. We both seemed to have wordlessly agreed not to spend a night apart while he was home, which suited me just fine. I had missed him far too much to let him slip away in even the slightest way.

Amy didn't even knock on the door, but we all knew she had arrived from the approaching sounds of her yelling, "Danielle? Danielle! Where are you, I want to see it!" She burst into the kitchen and almost knocked Calum over as she ran over to me. Silently, I held out my hand for her to examine. Her eyes went wide as she looked at the ring with its sparkling jewels, and then she squealed and gave me a tight hug, which I happily returned. I wasn't the biggest fan of having everyone gawking over me, but I was too happy to let it get to me.

"Girls," Ashton mumbled, shaking his head in bewilderment.

"Well, if it wasn't already obvious, you have the official Best Friend Seal of Approval," Amy said, nudging Luke's arm.

Luke smiled. "Good, because I plan on keeping her around," he replied.

"Okay, okay, enough with the mushy stuff," Calum urged. "Go get ready so we can go out!"

"Come on, Ames, before Calum gets too stressed out from lack of alcohol consumption." I grabbed her hand and dragged her up the stairs. "And don't eat all the cookies!" I yelled down the stairs. My mom had baked us all a fresh batch before heading out to a work meeting, though I knew that the boys would devour them in a flash. She had freaked out just a little upon seeing the ring, but when I explained everything to her she relaxed substantially and actually said the whole thing was pretty sweet. Luke had gained some more points in her book, too.

"Okay, so I want to hear everything," Amy said as soon as my bedroom door was closed. As we both applied our makeup and styled our hair, I recapped the details of the romantic night Luke had planned for me. Amy gushed over everything, but when I had finished, I looked up from the mirror to see her staring at me with an amused expression on her face.

"What?" I asked.

She shook her head. "That boy is so in love with you."

I couldn't help but smile as I put the cap on my eyeliner. "I know. It kind of blows my mind sometimes."

"You're gonna get married!" she exclaimed in a sing-song voice. I laughed it off and rolled my eyes, but in my heart I couldn't push away the thought. I already knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with Luke.