boxer ⋆ luke hemmings ✔️

30. Before [Pt. 1]

⋆ FOUR YEARS AGO ⋆
Location: RUA
[Radley's Underground Arena]

"You're kidding, right?"

Luke winced. Her New York-accented voice sounded sharp, like knives and nails and whatever else contained metal scraping slowly against a chalkboard. With her green-eyed glare prominent and piercing, he found himself having to lock his jaw in order to look the least bit as intimidating.

The girl slowly turned to the boy next to her, expecting an immediate answer. He just nodded, a head of neon blue hair shaking no as he gestured towards Luke, "No, I'm not,"

"Tell me this is a joke," she allowed her eyes to rake up and down the blond once more, taking in the littlest, minute details about him; like the way he bit his cheeks, hollowing them out, and the way the messy nest of his untamed hair stayed situated underneath a simple black beanie, tiny strands of it falling into his eyes.

He brushed them away, revealing a set of perfectly mesmerising blue.

"Ashley, come on," the neon boy groaned, sighing a little, "You could be a little nicer,"

"The kid's a stick,"

"Ashley!"

Luke stayed quiet. He had always been the type to stay lowkey; initiating fights were never his forte. Ending them, however, was a different story.

And besides, he could see right through her. She wasn't strong, or careless, and she probably wasn't even as courageous as she was making herself seem. She was just a teen filled with too much angst to let go of, so she put on a brave face whilst choosing to scowl at the rest of the world.

Of course, Luke knew a lot about that. He was the exact same as her, after all.

"I have somewhere to be, Michael," she sighed, shaking her head and attempting to push past them, "They need me down in Brooklyn,"

"In Brooklyn?" Luke's eyebrows furrowed, uttering the first sentence since arriving into the building.

He didn't really know why he asked. But seeing as he was currently looking for an apartment fit for two and a slightly smaller one, a place where the landlord could give less of a fuck about how old he was, his seventeen year old self was better off searching for it in one of the less attended to areas of New York City- in this case, Brooklyn.

He figured it couldn't hurt to ask, even if that meant speaking to the one person in front of him who didn't necessarily enjoy his presence.

"So he does speak," Ashley raised an eyebrow at Michael, who just shrugged his shoulders. Luke's deep voice had actually come as a surprise to her- she had not expected it to sound like that at all, "Why the sudden interest, Blondie?"

"My name's Luke,"

"Right," she turned back to Michael, not really giving a shit about what he had to say anymore. She was running late for something, and the two boneheads in front of her were not about to make her any later than she already was, "Do what you have to do with him. Leave me out of it,"

"No, Ash-" Michael said, stopping her before she could get any closer to the door, "Look, he's not just some kid I picked up off the street, alright? He's one of my best mates-"

"Cute."

"Will you listen?" he frowned, pulling her back, "He's good at fighting, I promise you. Can knock out a guy in seconds,"

"Why are you telling me this?"

"I want to train here," Luke piped up, folding his arms.

"And I want a million dollars and for my parents to still be alive. We don't all get what we want," she said snappily, tone dripping in sarcasm.