boxer ⋆ luke hemmings ✔️

41. Innuendo.

If there was anything Luke hated more, it was planning things.

When the ideas first entered his brain, it wasn't so bad. He knew what he wanted done and he knew how to carry it out. The only problem was the boxer's laziness; his procrastination when it came to organising an event overtook absolutely everything.

The last (and final) time Luke was put in charge of planning something, it was Ashley's birthday. The girl had just turned eighteen and although it wasn't premeditated, he attempted to do it anyway; even if it meant coming out the other end beaten up and bruised.

"How big should the cake be?"

"How big does she want the cake to be?"

"Dude, I don't fucking know. She's your little sister," Michael groaned.

Ashton shot him a glare, "Language,"

"Language," the man mocked tiredly.

Calum raised an amused eyebrow, entertained by his best friend's voice, "Alright, Mr Outdated Spongebob meme,"

"Ew."

"I could try calling her?" Chase piped up, holding his phone against the light, "She's working her shift at the Workshop right now, but I can ask Chloe to put her on the thing-"

"No, you prepubescent bonemuffin. You'll ruin the surprise," Ashley scoffed, slapping the phone out of the young man's hand. It landed on the soft rug of the living room with a small thud, making Chase sigh sadly.

"Behave," Luke ordered her sternly, the word being the first thing he'd said since stepping into the unplanned planning session for Sophie's eighteenth birthday.

He hadn't meant to stay, but after finding out what everybody else was talking about, a part of him actually wanted to. He wasn't good at it but that didn't mean he wasn't willing to try- if it made Sophie happy in the end, then it was worth it.

And besides, she wasn't like Ashley. The blond probably wouldn't have to try and get a live tiger in his van to take to the R as a 'pet' for the birthday girl this time.

Ashley scowled, obviously not happy about being scolded, "Yes, Daddy."

"Hm?" unexpectedly, Ashton's head shot up, eyebrows raised in acknowledgement from the text on his phone. And once again, Michael stared at him in nothing but absolute horror.

"Seriously," he said, bewildered, "Tone the kink down, Irwin. Jesus Christ,"

"How many people are coming?" Luke asked, reverting the conversation topic back to what was truly important.

Calum sighed, swivelling the A4 notebook placed in front of him on the table around for the other man to see, "More than I can count,"

"Does she know all these people?" the boxer carried on, shifting through the pages quickly, double-checking to make sure that the 'M' section was clear of any 'Morane's (though he doubted Calum would have done that, he checked anyway).

The names on the list rung no bells in his mind, forcing him to draw up the blind conclusion that Sophie didn't know them, either. And some reason, that bothered Luke. Sticking his girl in a large hall filled with a bunch of people she had probably never talked to in her life didn't seem like the most appealing idea- especially for her 18th birthday.

She wasn't like that. She liked picnics and beaches and movie dates to films (her absolute favourites, Luke noted) she'd seen before, trips to theme parks and piers and haunted houses. He knew all of this because in the long span of knowing the girl, they'd done it all together at some point- second dates, third dates, and so on.