Staccato (Luke Hemmings Fan-Fiction)

02

CHAPTER TWO 

Although it had only been one night and one day, being on the same campus as Luke Hemmings terrified me. I saw him from the corner of my eye in the mess hall, but he was with Ashton. He was a pretty sociable guy, so I wasn't too surprised when Brooke Sanders and her posse migrated like hungry birds over to his table. 

How could I possibly make it through the entire year? I wanted so badly to go and find comfort in Alex, but he too petrified me. He was incredibly sweet, but at the most unexpected times and with the most unreasonable reason, he turned into someone else. 

"He did it to me . . . you know . . ." I bite down on my trembling lip, clawing the inside of my arms deeper. He leans against the wall of his bed with his hands resting behind his head. 

"Did what?" Luke chuckles, ripping open another pack of sour candy and popping some more into his mouth. "Did what?" He asks again, deliberately slowly, already knowing the answer. 

"He . . . the drink you gave me, you drugged it and it got me sedated and I couldn't even help myself." At this point, tears are brimming my eyes. It would only be a matter or seconds, more so nanoseconds, until the salty droplets would spill down my face. "He sexually assaulted me." 

Then he laughs. His eyes grow small and a pink strip of candy is hanging out of the corner of his mouth. Why is he laughing? My heart is caught in my throat and I can't breathe. How dare he, how dare he laugh about rape. His laughter doesn't die down; it only grows louder and controlled and obnoxious. 

The sound of his cackling sickens me. "Sucks to suck." He shrugs with the sadistic smile still on his face. "Can you go? I kinda have to do some h-work."  

"Lila, Jesus, will you please listen?" I blinked my eyes rapidly and turned around to face the one and only, Luke Hemmings. I jumped back, only shoving myself into a bookshelf. He was chillingly close to me, and I didn't even know when he got there. It was around noon, and I had barricaded myself in the three floor library on campus. 

My heart started beating and I gripped a few books behind me. He was so tall. And I was horrified. Then he smiled. He had the audacity to smile at me. I licked my lips, debating on whether or not it would be appropriate to knee him, but I ended up mumbling: "Why are attempting to converse with me like a civilized person?" 

"Hi." 

I didn't understand, really, how a word with just one syllable crush me like a rogue wave when it was just merely another sound among the millions I heard everyday. The sound of Alex yelling, the sound of Katie complaining, the sound of Ashton's drumming, the sound of Calum's strumming- why didn't they strike me as hard as a simple 'hi' from Luke? 

"Are you going to say hi or just look at me like I have sixty million heads?" 

I stayed silent as a powerful nostalgic (although it wasn't something I wanted to feel) sense of anixousness washed over me. I was sure I didn't hate Luke; I just thought he was a disgusting human being. "Don't ever talk to me again." I finally managed, pushing through him and walking down the narrow carpeted floor. 

Maybe I was somewhat embarrassed to what happened two days ago at the bakery. I broke down crying and screaming. "I just wanted to know if you're okay . . . because of like, you know, yesterday . . ." He called after me, the sound of his deepened voice uncomfortably close behind me. 

He was being caring, which was a characteristic I never found in him. And with him being like that, I was honestly a bit scared. "Why do you care? Whether I get assaulted or not, why do you care?" I tightened my grasp around my book- The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown- and turned back around.