Everything I Ask For » clifford, hemmings, hood, & irwin

8. luke & sarah

luke & sarah // "Girls like guys who take initiative."

Luke sat on what felt like the most uncomfortable bench in the history of benches outside of NCA's Coffee Hut at around 3:30 PM. The sun beat down on his face and he felt his already pale skin burning to a crisp under the intense California sun. It didn't help that Calum had made him wear a leather jacket and black skinny jeans to make him look like a bad boy claiming it would make Luke appear more alluring though Luke protested it was September. He squinted his light blue eyes up to the bright sun and shook his head at the irony. The sun was beating directly down at him, mimicking a sort of spotlight; it was like it knew he had something important to do that afternoon, something he was utterly terrified of.

Students walked around the campus, since classes had just been let out for the day, and were making their ways back to their dorms, to the library, or even practices and rehearsals. It all seemed like what a normal Thursday afternoon looked like for every student on the North Christian Academy Campus, except for the sweaty palmed, bench ridden Luke Hemmings.

His head was practically in his hands and his knees bounced up and down repeatedly, a blatant sign of the distress he was going through internally. Besides being also accompanied by the urgent sense of wanting to empty out the contents of his lunch from his stomach, he was above all ticked off. His best friend since grade 7, Calum, had done what Cal believed best friend's since grade 7 should do and dragged him here against his will to ask Sarah, the gorgeous coffee girl he had unwillingly spilled to his friends he had met, to the ridiculous party they had planned as a means to get her to notice him.

"Look, you're just going to go in there and say it, man," exclaimed a very eager Calum Hood. He had chosen to refrain from sitting on the bench beside Luke and instead pace back and forth as he laid out his brilliant plan of how Luke was going to somehow muster up the courage to valiantly charge into the coffee shop and ask a girl he had barely said a couple words to to attend a stupid dorm party that he didn't even want to happen.

When it came to his best friends, Luke always just did what they said. He let them push him around and make him do stuff because he didn't know how else to go about things. He liked the idea of never having to stand up or think for himself. It was easier that way; it meant less mistakes made on his part since he never even nearly knew what to say. So when they started mustering up this idea of a party, Luke felt powerless. He didn't know how to stop it, so he just agreed like he always did. He was frustrated and upset, but held it all in. He was used to it.

"Say what, Calum! I don't know what to say to her!" Luke finally took his head out of his hands and shook them in Calum's direction. "Oh, 'Hey wanna come to my stupid mates' party tomorrow even though I'm a practically a stranger to you ha!' Is that what you want me to say?!" Luke put on a fake dumb voices and formed his long fingers into quotations marks as he essentially mocked what Calum basically wanted him to do.

"Well, I'll tell you that even that is better than sitting out here on your ass!" Calum put his hands on his hips and widened his eyes at his best friend. Calum sighed and readjusted his backwards cap on his head and looked at Luke like he was a lost case. He stepped toward the bench and finally took a seat next to his friend.

"Look Luke, girls like guys who take initiative. Show interest. That kind of shit gets them going. And as your best friend for 5 years now, I am obligated to help you get this girl. So, I get off your ass, stop being a pussy, go in there, and ask her to the damn party. Alright?" Calum placed his hand on his best mate's shoulder and lifted his eyebrows at him. Luke sighed, rolled his eyes, and fiddled with his thumbs a bit before taking a pause and deciding to just be done with it and make Calum happy. And maybe himself along with it.