boxer ⋆ luke hemmings ✔️

27. Corrupt.

Jealousy had never been an emotion that Luke fucked with.

Yet a dozen empty bottles of beer later and a crying liver begging him to stop, jealousy seemed to be all he could feel. That, and slight, unadultered resentment.

He tended to stay away from it, choosing to ignore anything and everything that had the slightest potential to trigger the emotion. Yet he wasn't exactly capable of doing that at that exact moment in time; a guy was holding Sophie, and Luke couldn't do anything about it because his shit-stick of a best friend was watching him, surveying his every move.

With Calum Hood's eyes darting suspiciously between the boxer and his little sister, Luke found it excruciatingly difficult to even breathe properly.

"Dude," Calum said, slapping a hand on his shoulder, "You alright?"

"I'm fine," he murmured, sipping from his millionth beer bottle of the night as his gaze stayed fixed on where Sophie and the boy- who he'd first assumed as Chase- stood, just talking.

Breathe in, breathe out. Stop fucking glaring, you idiot.

"You don't look fine. You want another beer?" Calum felt uneasy, shifting the cooler alongside the floor with his foot, "Some of your favourite cans are in there,"

"Hm."

Ashton shot the man a look, frustration evident on his face at the thought of having to cover for Luke again. He was starting to think that his friend was doing this on purpose, though a part of him managed to understand; it wasn't necessarily Luke's fault. He was just in love, his actions far too blinded by the emotion to see that- Ashton, on the other hand, could.

So he sighed, reaching for the bucket of ice with zero hesitance and tipping it's contents right into the bush behind the gazebo.

He then rattled the empty metal back onto the small coffee table, clearing his throat, "Cal?"

"Huh?" Calum spun around, dazed from watching Luke's muscles tense. His eyes landed on Ashton, and the smooth way the man leaned forward and nudged the bucket.

"We're out of ice. Can you go back inside and get us some?"

"What, already?"

"Michael sleep-munches," Ashton replied convincingly, gesturing to the way that their other friend was currently curled up on the patio seat, his head in his hands and his ironed suit creasing. He was out like a light, and all of them knew that he wasn't about to wake up anytime soon.

Calum just raised an eyebrow, though didn't say anything about it.

"Alright," he said, reaching for the bucket. He then did a double-take in Luke's direction, before wincing and leaning towards Ashton, "Watch him while I'm gone, yeah? He's been glaring at the gardener for the past ten minutes,"

Mate, it's not the gardener he's been staring at, Ashton couldn't help but think, though he gave Calum a slight nod of reassurance. He could clearly see where the guy was coming from; Sophie, her friend, and the gardener were all in the same line of vision.

"Yeah, yeah. Don't worry about him," Ashton told him, "I've got it,"

"Cheers." Calum responded, giving him a slight smile before picking the ice bucket up. He glanced quickly at Luke once more, as if expecting his jaw-locked stance to change, before shaking his head and bounding down the gravel path.