Again | Luke Hemmings

iv

"I got invited to this party. You wanna come with me?" Bailey asked, plopping herself down beside me on the couch.

Memories of the last party flashed through my mind. "No thanks."

"Alright. I won't go anymore since you aren't." She sighed, stealing my bag of chips and finishing the rest of it.

I pouted and tried to get it back but she moved farther away from me, smiling as she finished the rest of it.

"That's okay. I have more." I stuck my tongue out and got up to the kitchen.

"Let's go out!" She yelled from the living room.

"You beg to come over, steal my food and force me to go out?" I said sarcastically, searching for another bag of chips.

"But you'll say yes anyway because you love me!" She laughed.

"I'm not so sure about that." I joked, grabbing a can of pringles instead.

I walked back to the living room and saw Bailey pouting with big puppy eyes. I chuckled and handed her the can of pringles so she could open it.

We watched an episode of Spongebob that was on Nickelodeon and finished the pringles halfway through the episode. The credits started to roll and we just sat there in silence until Bailey spoke up.

"I heard he's in town." Bailey mentioned, still facing the tv.

"You didn't know?" I asked and stared at the tv, not really focusing on the show.

"Nope." She shook her head.

"You even gave him the address to this place." I told her, trying to get her to remember even if I wasn't there— or conscious.

"Was I really that wasted?" She laughed.

"Yeah, I think so." I laughed, too.

"Wait, he went here?" Her eyes widened.

"Thanks to you." I playfully rolled my eyes at her.

"Sorry." She said and smiled sheepishly.

It's been two days since I last 'talked' to him—not that it bothered me or anything. Besides, what do I care? He left for his career and purposely forgot about me, so what?

"Let's go to that party on Saturday." I changed the subject. Bailey widened her eyes at my sudden change of decision.

"Are you sure?" She asked.

"Yeah. I think I'm pretty old enough to get wasted so," I let my voice tail off, laughing at my sarcasm.

"Okay." She smiled, standing up. "Let's find you a dress."

She stuck her hand out for me to take and headed towards the door.

---

"I like the black one more." Bailey insisted, picking between a white and a black fitted, laced dress.

"Really? I like the white one." I placed the dress on top of me and examined my look on the mirror.

"Why don't you go try each one and we'll decide." She chuckled, pushing me gently into the dressing room behind me.

I shut the door quietly and stripped off my clothes and slipped on the white dress first. I turned around to face the mirror and made a face of disgust with how I looked. My cleavage was showing, it was tight and too short. Definitely not picking this or the black one.

"Are you done?" Bailey called, knocking on the door.

"Uh, um, still trying it on." I lied, pulling the dress out and putting my own clothes back on.

"Come on, lemme see." She whined.

"It . . . doesn't fit me." I lied—not really because it was too tight.

"But can I still see it?" She whined again. I sighed and stripped off my clothes, putting the excuse of a dress back on. I adjusted the dress in attempt to cover half of my thighs without showing more cleavage by pulling it down.

"Come on, Joey!" Bailey called, she probably has a pout on her face right now.

I sighed again and unlocked the door.

"Holy sh-"

"Language." I warned.

"Holy poop. You look hot. The white one definitely." She gasped, eyeing me up and down. She pulled me further out of the small dressing room, looking for someone to assist us.

"Can I go change back now?" I whined, looking around to make sure no one can see me.

"No. We'll ask for a bigger size from someone since that looks too tight." She said, dropping my hand and leaving me alone in the pants section. I looked around again to make sure no one can see me wearing this but stopped once I saw two guys walking in my direction. What the heck are they doing here? They were talking to each other, not noticing me so I could still make a run for it before they look in my direction.

I took a step back, about to run back to dressing room but Bailey calling my name stopped me.

"Joey!" Bailey called again, running towards me but stopped when she saw where I was looking. The two guys stopped walking and the four of us just stood there.

"Hey, Joey," Ashton smiled. "Bailey."

"Oh, shit." I heard Luke say lowly. Yeah, he was definitely looking at my damn chest. Keep your eyes to yourself, Hemmings.

Both of them looked me up and down, especially Luke and I suddenly felt conscious.

"Hi." We responded at the same time making Luke cough softly beside him.

"Hey, Luke." Bailey said quietly, glancing at me for a second.

"Hi." He responded, looking down at his shoes.

I stopped myself from looking at him any longer and I, for a moment, forgot I was wearing a revealing dress so I nudged Bailey on the side and cocked my head a little to the side in the direction of the dressing room.

"You guys coming to the party this Saturday? My friend's throwing it." Ashton asked, looking from me to Bailey and vice versa.

"Yes." "No." Bailey and I said at the same time, looking at each other.

"Oh, would be great if you girls dropped by." He shrugged, tugging on the sleeve of his shirt. Luke just stayed silent, listening to the conversation while keeping his eyes on me.

"I have an appointment that day." I lied and Bailey gave me a weird look.

"Bailey?" Ashton asked, facing her.

"I-I have to go with Joey." She smiled.

He nodded. We stood there in another awkward silence exchanging looks.

"Well, I— we were still hoping you guys could go, somehow." He blushed, a small smile appearing on his face. I doubt Luke was paying any attention but I didn't really care.

"We'll see." I mumbled. We just stood there for who knows how long so Bailey decided to cough quietly and speak.

"We need to go. See you guys around." Bailey said, turning around and I did the same and began walking back to the dressing room, not giving any of the guys a chance to say something.

I could feel Luke staring at me even with my back turned because when Bailey turned leave, I caught him look up before I followed her.

"That was awkward." She whispered once we were out of their sight.

I nodded and closed the door behind me, changing back to my clothes.

Very awkward.

"Change of plans, we're not getting that dress." She laughed.

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Edited!