smile | cth

5- you're nice

Then Luke's trying to kiss me, for a moment I forget everything and almost allow his lips to meet mine. Luckily, I move my head away from his and push him to the side. "What the hell Luke?" 

"Why won't you kiss me?" He avoids my question and grumbles at me. 

"Because I'm not one of your toys. I'm not here for you to coming running to whenever you're alone and horny. Go call one of the fake bïtches from school." I say, stepping away from him. 

"Why are you convinced that I'm the bad guy?" Luke argues, tugging on his blondish hair. 

"Because you're a player and a fúckboy and you've probably slept with every girl who's ever stepped near a contour kit in our school, because you break girls hearts and because you are so fúcking arrogant."  

"When was the last time I had the chance to break a girl's heart?!" Luke suddenly shouts, moving closer to me again. "When was the last time anyone wanted me for anything more than sex?!" 

I scoff and roll my eyes at him. "Well, Luke, maybe if you weren't such a dìck in the first place you wouldn't have that problem, would you?!" 

I watch his eyes as they darken and he looks around desperately. "You're never gonna give me a chance, are you?" 

Immediately, I shake my head. No, no way. This is Luke, sure, he's handsome and tall, and well, pretty fúcking gorgeous but it's Luke Hemmings, he wouldn't know what a relationship was if it smacked him in the face. 

He wants to know why, so I start my rant about being a player again. 

"You know," he interrupts, pushing my arms backwards very slowly. I watch him carefully, unsure of what he's trying to do. "Every 'player' has one girl who he's always had his eyes on." He pushes me against the wall and leans his head on mine. "That one girl who makes them feel completely different."

I can feel his lips hovering above mine, and I'm completely frozen, waiting for him to move. 

"Calum kissed you, right?" He whispers, and suddenly I remember Calum and why I don't like Luke in the first place. 

"Yeah, he did." I say, pushing Luke out of the way. He looks at me, and he does look sad. How genuine his sadness is, I can't tell. 

"I wanna kiss you too." He pouts and I roll my eyes. 

"Leave me alone Luke." 

"You're so damn rude." He grumbles, storming out of my room and slamming the door after him. 

The next day at school, Calum avoids me, and I'm nervous to talk to him. He sits in different seats in every class and isn't around at lunch, Michael and Violet are so wrapped up in their own world that I feel alone. Without managing to control it, my eyes wander over to Shawn's table, 

Luke's staring  at me, and he sees me looking over there. Before I can do anything about it, he's standing up and running across the cafeteria. He drops his tall body in the seat beside me and throws an arm around my shoulder. 

This gets Violet and Mikey's attention. 

"Jade?" Violet asks, startled. Michael is just glaring at Luke, but Luke is busy watching me. 

"I don't know what he's doing. I told you Luke, leave me alone." I snap at Luke, to which he frowns. 

"Please give me a chance, Jade, please." He whispers, pouting. 

Violet makes a noise and I shoot her a look, because she's squealing like a preteen. "Aww, Jade, give him a shot!" And Michael elbows her. 

"No Jade, don't." He says, and I groan as I push Luke away from me. 

"I'm going to find Calum." 

I find him curled up in a corner of the library, Paper Towns rested on his knees. That's weird, he never reads anything other than The Fault In Our Stars. 

"Hey." I whisper, plopping down onto the floor beside him. He looks up at me and smiles, closing his book. "You're reading something different." I observe and Calum nods. 

"I gave up on the other one. The sad ending was doing nothing for me anymore." He whispers, smiling shyly at me. "But I stuck to the same author, didn't want too much change too fast." 

"What happened?" I ask because I can tell he's not being completely honest. 

Cal stays quiet for a few seconds before sighing and resting his head in his hands. "My mum burned it. She threw it in the fire, and I gave up. I gave up on my parents and I gave up on the book and everything I thought about it. I gave up on the idea that if I read it enough times, eventually there would be a happy ending. Because some endings can't change." 

Neither of us say anything but I do shuffle closer to him. 

"Wanna sleep over at mine?" I whisper to him and he immediately smiles. 

"I thought you'd never ask." He giggles, and it's the first time I've heard him laugh in ages. We end up sitting beside each other beaming for no reason. 

Once we arrive at my house after school, I'm pleased to find that neither Ashton or Luke are round. 

I know that I need to tell Calum about Luke, but I can't bring myself to do it.

 "I want to kiss you again." Calum whispers, as I'm changing out of my clothes and into my pyjamas. We've never bothered hiding to get changed, as long as there's underwear, but having him say this while I'm standing there in a pair of tartan pyjama pants and my bra is a bit random. I blush and turn around to face him, raising an eyebrow. "Just- you know, for practise." 

"Ah yes. And what exactly, are we practising for?" I throw on a baggy t-shirt and sit down beside him. 

"I don't know. The future?" He says shyly and I rest my hand on his shoulder and sheepishly brush my lips over his. He smiles and kisses me again, this time I kiss back. We continue this for a while, until his hands land on my waist and he pulls me into his lap. This time, the kiss lasts longer than all of the others, and it feels different too. 

When he pulls away, he has a smile on his face that makes him look like the happy ball of sunshine I know he really is. 

"You're nice Jade." He says, lying back on my bed. 

"You're nice too, Calum." I laugh, lying down beside him and taking his hand.