"It's Not Love If It Hurts" //5sos

/190/

Make sure you read the last few chapters. This is the final one.

  Luke had been doing so, so well. Everyone was excited about his recovery, about how Michael the miracle worker changed everything, how he would be up and running in no time.

  Then twitter got involved.

  The entire world knew what happened. Well, no, not what happened. They didn't know what his parents called him, what they told him. They didn't know why he was on that bridge, or that he didn't really want to jump. All the world knew was that Luke was on the bridge, and he almost jumped.

  The tabloids blew up. You couldn't go through the checkout isle without seeing pictures of Luke on the bridge, with captions like "5SOS SUICIDE???" "Bad Influence on Teen Girls; Boyband Member Attempts Suicide" and "Luke Hemmings Dead??" Each story contridicted the next, one saying he actually jumped and was saved by a fan, one saying this wasn't his first attempt. 'Witness accounts' claimed that they'd seen Luke entering therapy, while others say he was high during the time.

  As soon as Luke found out, he crumpled to the floor and not even Mikey could get him up.

  All of a sudden, Calum was hit like a train with all of these feelings he didn't want to feel. Pain, fear, panic, a shaky feeling in his entire body making him short of breath and worried. He stayed by Luke's side for hours, talking to him, trying to coax him to eat or to take deep breathes or to do something, anything that would signal that he was alive and that he could still hear, but to no avail. Luke was simply gone.

  His chest rose and fell slowly, like he was asleep but if you looked in his eyes it was clear he was awake. He looked like... well, he looked like a dying animal. If he was anything but a person, someone would get a gun to put him out of his misery.

  Finally, Calum couldn't stand it. Ashton was in the room too when he stood up, walked over to Luke, and looked him straight in his cold, dead eyes and said "Get up. Now."

  His voice was low, his tone serious. Calum was shaking horribly, and to anyone else, the command would've made them sit up on their hind legs and beg like puppies. But Luke didn't ever tremble.

  "Calum, I think you should-"

  He wheeled around, turning on Ashton. "No! Leave me alone! Why won't he get up, why won't he get up?"

  He was screaming, and Mikey run upstairs from where he was jokingly flirting with Lauren. "Cal? What's going on?"

  Calum's eyes were watery as he looked down at Luke's broken form. A too tall boy laying heavily on his side, his cheek pressed against the pillow and his arm hanging limply over the edge of the bed. He didn't move, he barely blinked. All he did was breathe, breathe breathe breathe, at the same pace. You could align his breathes with a metronome.

  Calum looked at this broken body that held his broken friend, and lost it. "He's dead."

  "What?" Mikey stumbled forwards, grabbing Luke's wrist, checking for a pulse. "What's going on, what happened?" He found the pulse, finally, and looked to Calum. "His hearts beating."

  "That doesn't matter!" He was screaming, for real this time. "It doesn't matter, he's dead, he's dead! He doesn't do anything, he can't do anything!"

  Mikey kneeled in front of the bed so he could be eye to eye with Luke, holding his limb hand gently. "Luke? Hey, could you lick your lips for me? They look dry."

  For a second, Luke's eyes focused slightly, looking at Mikey with a dull throbbing, and for a second it looked like he was going to lick his lips, like he was going to prove he was alive after all, but then Calum started talking again.