|Damage||cth| -au- DISCONTINUED

|Five|

Aria:

I sat down at my usual table in the back of the school. It was facing a wall and right next to a trash bin. The only time people came by was to throw away their trash and to give me dirty looks.

 I caught Dakota's gaze. Her soft eyes returned and she smiled. She gave me a thumbs up and mouthed 'You can do it. The day is almost over'. 

I returned a weak smile and suddenly remembered that I didn't bring food. I sighed and rolled my eyes. Suddenly, a shadow came over me, followed by a loud thud. Across from me, Luke sat with a huge smile and two paper bags in his hands. He handed me one and I smiled back.

"So...who did it?" he asked.

"Who did what?" I asked.

"Who raped you?"

"Way to be blunt."

"It was Calum, wasn't it?" 

"How do you know?" 

He pointed behind me and I turned around. A few tables away Calum had been staring at the two of us. Luke pulled out a pack of cigarettes followed by a lighter. He pulled out a cigarette and burned himself trying to light it. 

"Fuck, that was painful. Anyway, don't worry about it. The only people who know is me, Ashton, Michael, and Dakota," he started laughing.

He blew smoke into my face. I coughed loudly while Luke laughed back at me.

"I told Dakota not to force you to sit with me."

"Dakota didn't tell me anything for once. Every year since primary school, she's asked me to sit with you and I said no every single year. This year was the first year where she didn't ask me and I felt bad. Also, no one wants to sit with me because everyone thinks I'm a psycho just because Calum can't handle a concussion."

He continued to smoke and started eating.

"Every year that I've known you, I've noticed that you always forget your lunch on the first day, so eat up because I had to explain to my mum why I needed her to make another lunch."

I blushed at his words. I thought that no one ever noticed me. That's because no one ever did. Everyone just ignored me but I guess except Luke. 

I opened the bag he gave me and the first thing I noticed was a small plastic bag of strawberries. It was the strange little things.  

How did he know I liked strawberries? 

"The first thing you always eat out of your lunch is strawberries, Aria." he said. 

He was reading my mind.

"You're a creep."

"If being observant makes me a creep than so be it. I'm Luke Hemmings, the creepy psycho," he blushed.

"Are you sure that your mum made this?"

"What makes you ask that?"

"You're blushing. The badass act only works for so long."

His lips tugged into a tiny smirk that he didn't think I noticed.

"You're a creep," he mocked.

"If being observant makes me a creep than so be it," I repeated.

"Shut up and eat, Aria."

I began to eat the strawberries and Luke stomped his cigarette into the ground. He reached into my bag and stole a strawberry. I gave him a look of disapproval and sighed.