Beside You

Chapter 2: Offering

Chapter 2: Offering

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“Hey can I speak to you?” Luke asked at the end of the class. I nodded and followed him under the stairs; it was a great spot to get some privacy. The only problem was that it was quite a small area and Luke and I were almost nose to nose. He was very tall and hunched over me so not to bump his head. “You like Calum don’t you?”

“Well yeah, he’s always been really nice to me and why shouldn’t I like him?  Like you’re nice to me and I like you, and Ashton is-“

“I meant like a crush.”

“Oh… um what would make you think that?”

“You kept on sneaking glances at him during music and whenever he spoke directly to you, you blushed,” Luke said matter-of-factly.

“Why are you so sure?”

“Apparently I have a knack for reading people’s body language,” Luke shrugged. “So tell me, when did the crush start?” he asked, smirking slightly.

I blushed. “Why do I have to tell you? It’s not like you knowing will help with anything. He’s going out with Maddie.”

“Never say never, they could break up; truthfully I’ll rather Calum go out with you than Maddie and I could help you achieve that.”

“But how-“

I didn’t get time to finish my sentence when we were interrupted by two other people. Luke immediately stood upright but bumped his head on the stairs. He swore and rubbed the top of his head. The two year nines that had interrupted our conversation muttered something along the lines ‘isn’t that Luke Hemmings’ and ‘I think they were kissing’. I glanced fearfully at Luke to see what he thought of this, now that I thought about it, it did look very suspicious at what we were doing. He was basically like the school celebrity and he probably didn’t want rumours going around saying that he was found under the stairs kissing some girl.

“Oh sorry, we didn’t think anyone else would be here. We usually sit here at lunch, but we’ll just go somewhere else.”

Before neither of us could stop them, they’d already scarpered off, no doubt to start spreading rumours.

“Oh shit, this is bad. Rumours spread like a wildfire in this school.”

Luke didn’t seem to think bad of this situation, instead, he had a sense of realisation on his face.

“I have an idea, come on, let’s get out of here before anyone else comes here,” he picked up his books that he dropped when he hit his head and then followed me out. “Just to make sure, how much do you really like Calum?”

I looked at him in surprise and he gave me ‘don’t-lie-to-me’ look. I sighed I defeat. “A lot. Ever since year seven.”

Luke choked. “Holy shit, that long? I am definitely helping you now.”

“What are you going to do?”

“You’ll see, just follow my lead and don’t say anything out of the ordinary.”

“What are doing? Look, I really appreciate you helping me Luke, but Calum’s never gonna go out with me.”

“How do you know? This might be the cliché story where the guy realises he was liked that girl all along. Isn’t that what all girls want?”

“Well… yeah, but I don’t see how you’re really gonna help that much- no offence.”

“None taken. Now listen, just go to lunch and then fifth and sixth period like normal and pretend we never had this talk- don’t even tell your friends. I need to go to the sick bay, my head hurts like a bitch.”