Over (Luke Hemmings)

9

Maria bloodshot eyes opened to the sound of the alarm clock. Her blanket wrapped her around like a burrito which covered her nose, her mouth and everything below. She tied her hair in a ponytail the night before but forgot to take it off and now it's messy. She squeezed her eyes shut and groaned, pulling herself up from bed.

"Remind me again why you decided to work before classes?" Luke rubbed his eyes groggily in attempt to wake himself up. He leaned on the counter, his body barely awake as his mind was.

"Remind me again why you're in here this early?" Maria retorted, hastily wiping the wooden round tables with a dirty white cloth.

"I'm your boyfriend. Well, not really, but I have to act like it." Maria rolled her eyes at his response and continued to wipe the table.

"Why don't you at least help while you're at it?" She knew Luke would never say yes. Besides, it was just "fake" dating. It was worth the shot, though.

Luke raked a hand through his dirty blonde hair and sighed. "I'd better apply to be a barista." He joked.

"Oh, you know we're in need of a replacement for Joseph." Ava, the cafe's manager, came out of the staff room and smiled at Maria when Luke wasn't looking.

"Luke, was it?" She asked, turning to Luke while giving sly looks to Maria. Luke nodded. "Joseph was Maria's pair. They worked the same shift. I think you two would work perfectly together. No interview necessary for you since you often come visit the cafe lately."

Luke turned to Maria who had her temples rubbed by her long, thin fingers. He hid his smile and looked back to Ava. "Alright, ma'am." He breathed, raising both his eyebrows and looking to the ground.

Ava eyed Maria and gave her a toothy grin. She wiggled her eyebrows at her, too, and smiled wider. Maria simply shook her head slowly at Ava as a message to express her feelings. Luke noticed and looked at Ava and she instantly turned her smile upside down to a frown. "Get back to work." She knitted her eyebrows together and shooed the two with her hands before walking back to her office.

"What did she do?" Luke asked, puzzled.

"Nothing that concerns you, Mr. Hemmings." She breathed and took the cloth by my hand and started wiping the table.

"Okay then, what can I do to help?" He sighed, letting go of the topic and sitting on the chair that was beside Maria.

"You might want to start by putting on an apron, which is hung on the rack over there. After that, lightly wet a cloth and start wiping tables like what I'm doing. They're beside the sink." She pointed over the sink and moved to the other table to wipe.

Luke came back with a damp cloth in his hand with his flannel's sleeves folded like how five year olds fold their sleeves. That happened to be one of Maria's eyesores. She left her cloth on the table and walked towards Luke. "Why don't you guys learn how to fold neatly?" She whispered as she unfolded his cuffed sleeves and folded them again daintily.

Luke's arms tensed by even sudden touches of Maria's fingers to his skin. She noticed and looked weirdly at him. "Don't ever wear flannels if you're not going to cuff them properly."

"I've have a theory." Luke said out of the blue as he watched Maria cuff his sleeves for him like how his mom usually did.

"About what?" She tried to occupy her mind on his sleeves more than on his arms. Arm veins fascinated Maria and she thinks it's sexy.

"I'm getting to a theory that you're not a morning person." He said.

Maria had just finished folding both of his sleeves. "Good theory." She walked back to where she left her cloth and started wiping again.

Luke said his thanks sheepishly and started wiping the table beside hers.

Calum stared at the mirror and its reflection, thinking if he'd rather put a beanie on or not. He decided to go with a beanie, so he put his grey coloured one on. "Hey, Ash, you up?" He asked whilst fixing the beanie on his head with the help of the sight of his reflection.

"Yeah." Ashton groggily answered from the couch.

"You told me you were gonna go back to your family today, remember?" Calum turned around to look at Ashton.

He covered his face with a pillow. He replied but his voice was muffled that Calum didn't understand. "I can't hear you, man."

"I am, I am." Ashton lazily replied after taking the pillow off his face. His chestnut brown curly hair was a mess. "What time is it?"

"Like, eight thirty or something." Calum looked at the clock and it was two minutes before eight thirty.

Ashton stood up slowly and raked a hand through his hair. He walked slowly to the bathroom. "Wait, I just remembered but wasn't I going to meet Luke's girlfriend or something?" He turned back to Calum.

"She has work, man. Just go wash up and pack your stuff." Calum said without haste, not eager for them to meet.

Ashton simply headed to the bathroom without saying anything. Once Calum watched the bathroom's door close, he sighed and shut his eyes, thankful Ashton didn't ask to meet Maria still.

Maria headed to the bathroom to check herself in the mirror and when she entered, Ava was there putting on her usual nude lipstick. "Hey, there, you. How's first day working with Luke going for you?" Ava smiled.

"I didn't know I had a partner named Joseph who needs replacement." Maria showed a small smile and ignored Ava's question and washed her hands.

Ava laughed. "Thanks, I'm a pro at pairing people up already." She puckered up her lips and smiled at her reflection on the mirror.

"Whatever gets you through the night." Maria rolled her eyes and smiled at Ava.

Before Maria went to the bathroom, she had told Luke to put up the open sign on the door since it was already nine in the morning. Luke, being new to this, had no choice but to follow orders. Two other baristas also came in for their shift and looked at Luke, though he wasn't a new sight to them, because of the fact that he had an apron on.

Maria came back just in the right time. "Oh, yeah, this giant's working here now." She pointed to Luke and walked to the register's.

One of them smiled at him while the other simply nodded his head to him. Meera, the one who smiled, had long jet black hair tied to a pony tail and was very petite in size. She came from India, hence her accent. The other one is Pat is a friend of Jack and he seemed to notice Luke and Jack's resemblance. He has green eyes and blonde hair that's set in a quiff that's about to fall to the right. He's smaller than Luke but taller than Maria.

"Are you related to Jack Hemmings?" Pat walked over to Luke while putting on his apron.

"He's actually my brother." Luke awkwardly replied. He didn't know his brother was this popular.

"Ahh, no wonder! You two look alike! I knew you were somehow related to him!" Pat nodded his head numerously as he smiled before walking beside Maria to take over the other register.

Luke didn't know what to do and it was more than obvious. Meera walked over to Luke next. "So, giant guy, rumour says you're dating Maria." She couldn't hide her smile.

"Oh, really?" He asked. Keen to not talk about Maria and his relationship, he changed the topic. "So, what do we do if not in the register?"

"We give the customers what they order. I know you're thinking that it's easy but it's not. People come here for coffee runs in the morning and it's so busy. I think you know because I always see you here at this hour." She sighed. "I'm sure you'll be fine, giant guy." She patted his side and walked toward the counter and started brewing coffee.

Luke sighed.

this sucked