Disconnected | Luke Hemmings

chapter thirteen

"It's just a month, right? That won't be that bad. We'll be fine. Everything is going to be just fine."

The more I said it out loud, the harder it was to convince myself that I truly did feel okay, but I still found myself saying the words as I paced around my kitchen eating an apple while Amy sat at my kitchen table eating a bowl of cereal. She had spent the night at my place—we hadn't had a classic girls' night in a while—and we had stayed up long into the night talking about Luke and Michael and our favorite parts of our relationships. Her and Michael hadn't really made anything official or put a label on it, but it was a generally known and accepted thing among our circle of friends. Only once we had gotten the giggly girl talk out of our systems did the conversation really turn on a serious angle. The bottom line was that neither of us wanted to see our boys head off for a month while we were here. After some somber moments and a couple of tears, we had gone to bed. But when we rolled out of bed around noon this morning, clearly it was still a very present subject in both of our minds.

"I mean, you might not be that worried, but I'm worried," Amy confessed. She poured herself a second helping of cereal with a frown. "I don't really know what Michael and I are right now, but I guess we're kind of dating. Are we really going to want to pick up where we left off in a month's time? Who knows?"

"Michael's pretty low-key, though," I pointed out. "He'll text you non-stop and stay in to FaceTime or something while the guys go out. I know it. He's not big on the social aspect of things."

Amy nodded distractedly. "Yeah, I guess. I don't know. I'm starting to wonder if maybe it was a dumb time to get involved with something like this if he's leaving in like, two days."

I almost flinched at that but instead just took a deep breath and bit my lip as I nodded. Two days. It had crept up so fast since Luke had told me the news only a week ago, which wasn't a long time to begin with. He was busy with his family tonight, but tomorrow night we were spending one last night together before I drove him to the airport and sent him off to Los Angeles. Amy had plans with Michael tomorrow afternoon, and then he was spending one last evening with his family, too. I marveled at how all four of them could just live such back and forth lives, always moving from one place to the next without much consistency. Then again, sometimes I marveled at myself for dating someone who lived that kind of life, too.

"What's this about someone leaving?"

I closed my eyes in defeat as the voice of my mother came from behind me. I hadn't told her that Luke and the boys were leaving for a month yet, based on the last conversation we had had about my relationship. She stood in the kitchen doorway, leaning against the doorframe with a curious expression on her face and her arms folded across her chest. She had probably already figured it out, but I still didn't want to mention anything. At this point, though, I didn't have much of a choice. Amy and I exchanged fearful glances from across the room before I decided to just say it.

"The guys have to go to Los Angeles for a month. Nothing crazy. Just some promo stuff for the new album, since it's getting released soon. Record label meetings, talk shows, interviews, that kind of thing." I tried to sound as nonchalant about the ordeal as possible.

"I thought you said they were going to be working on stuff here?" my mom asked.

I shrugged. "They thought so, too. But, you know, business is business I guess. Duty calls."

"And you're okay with this." She worded it like a statement, but I knew that it was a question.

I nodded and forced a tight smile. "Yeah. I mean, I'll miss Luke lots, but a month isn't that long when you think about it. We've been through worse. The guys will be back in no time."