𝐁𝐑𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑, luke hemmings

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION
— Samantha —

For as long as I can remember, Abby and I have been the best of friends.

It all started in kindergarten, when I knew there was something special about her because she was the only other child who was as quiet and reserved as I had been back then. For this reason, one day during inside recess I had decided to go over and keep her some company. So there we were, in complete silence, the two of us coloring a picture together. Every so often I'd see her look up at me in sort of a half smirk, but no words were spoken.

Then somehow a onetime thing became weekly... and then every day I found myself coloring pictures with Abby. By then she'd become accustomed to me, and began talking to me normally. Not about anything particularly important, as you can imagine, we were just kindergartners... but she'd ask me about morning cartoons and what snack I brought, things along those lines. And now we're best friends.

There was one thing Abby didn't tell me, though... and I found out eventually at her third grade birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese's. A tall, blonde headed boy who closely resembled Abby had entered the building holding a big box, and when he reached our table and removed the lid we all were ecstatic to find out it was a chocolate cake, which was obviously the best gift someone could bring to a seven year old's party.

"Who's that?" I asked Abby, gesturing to the boy as he began cutting slices and sliding them onto plates, passing them around the table along with plastic forks and napkins. "I've never seen him before."

"He's my brother," Abby replied, shrugging and making sure to get the two largest slices of cake for us. "His name's Luke. He's a total idiot."

"Thanks a lot, Abigail," Luke had chuckled, grinning and tousling her hair. He even proceeded to play with my hair afterwards, which made me feel like I was part of their family as well. We all had laughed afterwards about it.

As soon as our eyes had met for the first time, a different feeling boiled in the pit of my stomach. I couldn't identify just what it was, though. I assumed I had eaten too much cake.

After that, I pretty much never had seen Luke again, he was a mysterious guy. Even when I went over to Abby's house, the case would be "Oh, you just missed him! He just went out with his friends" or "He's asleep downstairs, and he has work in a couple hours, so we can't bother him," or just any type of excuse.

And this went on until the sixth grade... the year where I found out he was apparently a part of a band now, 5 Seconds of Summer. I hadn't made the connection just yet, though. "That guy looks vaguely familiar..." I muttered to myself, staring at the album cover. It had four boys, all wearing skinny jeans, and all of them had their hands down by their sides except for the one on the end, where my attention was focused. The blonde haired boy immediately gave me that weird feeling in the pit of my stomach again like I'd seen him before yet I couldn't quite put my finger on it. But then my thoughts were interrupted by my mother hollering up the stairs for me to come take out the trash.

I was still perplexed as to why Luke looked so familiar when I came back, however. And then somehow, I was lying in my bed looking at the chipped pale yellow ceiling of my outdated bedroom when it hit me that he was Abby's brother.

"Abby!" I practically yelled into the phone, the next day after I had pieced the clues together. "Your brother is famous!" I was staring at a magazine that had Luke on it and blowing bubbles through a straw into a bottle of chocolate milk like the child I've always been.

"I know that," Abby laughed. "Anyways, what time are you heading to the library to work on the project? I want to make sure that we arrive at the same time and that I don't miss you, like last time." The previous time Abby and I had made arrangements to study together, we had actually ended up getting the times wrong somehow and I showed up at 7:00 in the morning while she showed up at 7 in the evening.

"What? Abby, how are you being so calm about this! If I were you, I'd be freaking out! He's sharing the money with you, right? We could go on a shopping spree, go throw all of the money down the hallway at school and create a slip and slide, make a money bathtub... Oh, no, I got it! We'll get a money cannon! How much do money cannons cost, anyways? You think they're expensive? Probably not, because if you spend all of your money on the actual money cannon, then what are you going to put in the-"

"Samantha, you seriously need to relax," Abby giggled. "And, yeah... I guess so? He doesn't really have anything else to do with that money, he's a dumb average teenager. With not so average armpit smells. Seriously, Sam... those things are extreme."

"This is so exciting, Abigail!" I cried, sounding like a giddy little toddler.

"I know, I know. It was a big deal for us, too." She paused for a second, as if she wanted to say something else, but decided not to. "Listen, Sammy, I have to go eat dinner so I'll text you when I'm finished and you can tell me the plan for later."

"Okay. Bye, Abby." I hung up on Abigail, slid the phone in its proper place in the back pocket of my jeans and then looked back at the poster.

And that's when I realized that Abby's brother is hot.

I think I might have a crush.

***

hiii guyssss! first chapter down and i'm actually really excited about writing this it's really fun-

anyways i know this book is kinda boring right now (all the first chapters of my books are lol) but i'm hoping it will get better! thanks for reading!

- cassie :)