Trust

Part 2

You never did find Luke that night. Even after you went downstairs, and searched the party, you couldn’t find him anywhere. You figure that he must have gone off with some girl, someone prettier, and happier than you.

You shouldn’t have banked on that maybe he offered you.

Now you sit in math class, pretending to pay attention, and really just wishing you were home, where you don’t have to pretend. No one cares at home, not your brother, not your workaholic parents, no one. And where no one cares, you don’t have to either.

You sigh and focus down at the math problems in front of you. They’ve been done for the past thirty minutes, while your teacher has been droning on and on. Math comes easy to you. School comes easy to you. Still, it doesn’t mean it’s any less of a painful experience. Socializing with people, it just isn’t your thing.

“Nice of  you to show up, Mr. Hemmings.”

You can almost hear every pair of female eyes snap to the front of the room. You don’t look though, because it can’t be true. Your ears must be playing tricks on you, because he is not in this math class, hasn’t been all year. No there is no way that—

“I was only just told I was being switched to this class an hour ago, give me a break.”

You look up, and meet the blue eyes that haunted you for the past three nights. Apparently, you now have to share an entire period with him.

The teacher shakes his head, but doesn’t comment any further. You’ve heard that the teachers are all pretty lenient with Luke. The proof is staring you in the face.

“Just pick any seat Luke,” he tells him, and then goes back into his lecture about graphing polynomial functions.

You really wish he would have assigned Luke a seat, preferably somewhere far away from you, like the other side of the classroom. Or Antarctica. Yeah shipping Luke off to Antarctica would suit you nicely.

You scowl at your own silly thoughts. This is what I get for actually believing someone cares.

 

While you are berating yourself, Luke sits down in one of the empty desks next to you. The room is only half full, he could have sat anywhere. Why did he have to sit next to you?

It doesn’t matter, you remind yourself. You don’t care what he wants, or why he’s here. He doesn’t care, so neither should you.

 

“Hi Audrey,” he whispers. You ignore him, and stare pointedly at your notebook. It doesn’t stop him though. “Miss me after I left last Friday?”

Your face burns at the reminder of what happened. It may have been all you could think about all weekend, but you don’t need him rubbing that in your face.

“I thought about it a lot last weekend you know,” my god he just doesn’t stop does he? “I was worried, after I left you all alone in your room like that. After what happened I just—“

“My god will you shut up already?” you hiss at him.

He raises an eyebrow and smirks. “She speaks.”

You are so mad, you could breathe fire. You can feel the whole room listening to your conversation. Luke made sure they would be, he knew exactly what he was doing talking like that. Your face burns from the anger and humiliation.

You clench your jaw, and try your best to ignore him again. It’s so hard though, knowing that not only is he watching you now, but so is the entire class. You feel them, and suddenly it’s like that day all over again.

You flash back to your old school, your old class. Everyone is watching you, everyone knows what happened. They didn’t believe you, and they don’t even feel bad. You can’t stay here, because here they will only judge you. You can’t leave though. And you can’t breathe now. You hear the words over and over and over again.

You are nothing, no one cares. Look at yourself. You really think that they will care? You really think that you will matter to them? If they knew what I know, they would be disgusted.

 

“Audrey, hey I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to freak you out,” that voice brings you back to this classroom. You aren’t totally sure this is better, since humiliation and exposure await you here as well.

Luke is still talking. “I meant what I said last weekend, I want to help you.”

“I don’t want your help,” your whisper-yell at him. Normally, you would never talk in that tone to someone who could probably break you in half, but you’re on edge at the moment. You glare at him, hoping that it convinces him to back off.

Nope, if anything, it only encourages him more. “I don’t care if you want it or not, you need someone Audrey. Let me at least try to help you. Let me prove to you that people want to help.”

“Yeah, you said something about that last Friday. Funny thing is, when I went to actually take a chance on you and let you help me, you were gone,” your anger is giving way to hurt, reminding you again why you never let anyone in, not anymore. “You left me.”

He plays with his lip ring, spinning it around and around with his tongue. It seems almost like a nervous gesture, but the infamous bad boy Luke Hemmings doesn’t get nervous. “You have to believe me, I wasn’t going to leave, but something came up. One of my best friends needed me.” He stares into your eyes. They look clear, deep. Beautiful. “Trust me.”

Those two words break the spell. You look away and put your things in your bag. You can barely hear your own voice when you answer him. “Trust has to be earned Luke.”

The bell rings, and you don’t stick around to see if he has anything to say to that. You leave him behind this time, hopefully for good.