Room 206 - Luke Hemmings

thirty-five

I knew that as soon as our first time of just speaking to each other was over, I was going to hear from Eleanor that I had to tell her everything and how it was going. The thing was that it was too early to tell if this was actually working or not, especially considering I left abruptly after telling him about my ex-boyfriends. That didn't stop her from asking though.

"It's too early to tell," I told her, trying to brush it off.

That Friday afternoon, Luke finally opened up to me about his own life.

"You can probably tell by my accent that I'm not from England," he said, handing me the cup of tea he'd just made me. "I was born and raised in Australia but I always loved England and wanted to move here eventually."

"And you did."

"I did," he smiled, sitting down with me. "I started out by just going to college there. I had one girlfriend in high school, her name was Alecia but we were going in two completely different directions with our lives so we broke up right after graduation. I loved her and I was sad about it but it just wasn't meant to be."

"I'm sorry," I said, though I couldn't lie and say that I wasn't glad.

"It's okay," he shrugged. "Anyways, I started college there and everything was alright, it was actually great until I dated Arzaylea." He stopped and stared at his hands for a moment, laughing a little. "I thought I loved her and that we'd be together forever."

"What happened?" I asked.

He laughed a little and blushed, and my thoughts ran wild wondering what he was about to tell me.

"I need to inform you on some background knowledge first," he said. "I was always kind of a loser and girls always avoided me and kinda stayed away from me."

"But you're so attractive?" I said, not entirely meaning to say it out loud.

He smiled a little at me and looked down. "Well, I guess no one else thought so. Anyways, I was a loser and no girls really liked me, so I was surprised when Arzaylea and her friend Sydney were both flirting with me and trying to get with me at the same time. It caught me off guard quite a bit considering these two really cute girls were both trying to date someone like me. Well, obviously I picked Arzaylea. I'd met her at a party I went to with some of my friends and she approached me before Sydney and I thought she seemed nicer than Sydney anyways. It was weird though, because the entire time that Arzaylea and I were dating, Sydney was still trying to get me to go out with her too. She kept asking me on dates and I had to keep rejecting her. The weird thing was that she only seemed to get annoyed when I rejected her, like it didn't hurt her at all that I didn't want to date her."

"I don't like where this is going," I said.

"You haven't even heard the whole thing," he said. "So I finally got the courage to ask Arzaylea to be my girlfriend, and she said yes. I was so happy, I thought we were perfect for each other. I bought her flowers and I'd come to her apartment that she shared with Sydney and I would cook for her and make her dinner. I even bought her this beautiful promise ring, and I gave it to her one night and that same night I lost my virginity to her. I thought everything was perfect. I'd never been so emotionally invested in someone before. I was in love with her."

"What went wrong?" I asked quietly, scared to find out what his answer would be.

He chuckled a little, then started outright laughing. I stared at him for a minute, a little worried. He was being serious just a minute ago and then he started laughing.

"It was all a lie," he shook his head. "What my entire life revolved around turned out to be a joke. A cruel, sick, fucked up joke."

I stared expectantly, shocked because I'd only heard Luke swear a few times before that one and it was always when we were fucking. Whatever he was about to say could not possibly be good.

He turned to face me more. "Arzaylea and Sydney made this bet that same night that Arzaylea had approached me to talk to me. This whole bet was revolved around who could get the dorky guy's virginity first. I was a pawn in a game they were playing and my feelings and morals and everything I stood for I threw away for Arzaylea just to see her laugh in my face when she handed me back the promise ring and told me about the bet the morning after."

"Oh my god." My mouth dropped open, unable to believe that anyone could be so cruel. I thought that what Alex did was awful but that was nothing compared to this.

"I mean, needless to say I was devastated. She was also cheating on me the entire time we were 'together.' She and her friends were also betting on top of the bet to see how long it would take her to do it. I was so mortified that I transferred colleges to get away from them and make sure I'd never see them again. I transferred to a university here in England and finished college out here. I got the hell away from all of that and decided to go after my real goals and dreams in life."

"Luke, I cannot believe that someone would do such a thing," I said, standing from my chair to be closer to him, wrapping my around around his body and holding him close to me. "I would never do something so terrible and evil to you, ever. I promise."

"I know," he sighed. "There's something I need to also tell you, Daisy."

"What is it?" I asked. He pulled away enough so he could look at me.

"I didn't turn you down because you're a student," he said. "I wasn't worried about that at all, I know how to keep a relationship like this with you and not have anyone find out about it. In fact, ever since the day you walked into my classroom and mouthed off to me and made a comment about me bending you over my desk, I had thoughts about doing that to you. I accepted the job here thinking that I'd be away from women for a while before I could figure out how to trust someone again after what Arzaylea put me through. Telling you that what was happening was inappropriate was all a way to cover my insecurities."

"Insecurities about what?" I asked.

"I was afraid that another beautiful girl would come and act like an angel and then take advantage of me and break my heart again," he said. "Especially with high school girls, who could fuck the new young teacher first."

"No, Luke," I shook my head. "This is all real. I want to be with you and I'm not just doing this as a joke or some petty bet. My feelings for you are real and I don't ever want you to think otherwise."

"I know," he said, taking my face in his hand. "I see that now, after everything I've put you through and I can't tell you how sorry I am for all the times that I brushed you aside."

"This isn't about me," I said. "Luke I'm so sorry that you had to go through that. I promise I want something real with you."

He brushed my hair from my face and leaned forward to kiss me. Everything was clear to me now, and this changed the entire game--no awfully fucked up pun intended.

-

A/N: okay disclaimer, I don't hate Arzaylea and I don't think she's anything like that and I don't think she'd ever do anything like that to Luke. You're all entitled to your own opinions but if you comment anything hateful about her I will delete your comment, she's a human being just like the rest of us and if you don't like her that's fine but I won't tolerate you hating on her just because you don't like her okay that's all

ANYWAYS I felt really bad for all my late updates so I'm going to try and write another one tomorrow AND Thursday so you'll have 4 updates in a row hopefully. No promises but I'll try my best and I hope this chapter was good! x