boxer ⋆ luke hemmings ✔️

42. A Song.

The best news that Sophie had received on the morning of her eighteenth birthday was that Rick Morane- the scumbag who deserved nothing short of a restraining order from the young girl- was put behind bars the very night prior to her waking up. The worst news she received was that Calum had lost the keys to their father's yellow hummer again, meaning that she had to get to work by hounding Chase for a lift and making him late for his own shift.

"Well good morning, Miss Birthday Girl," he greeted her chirpily, unlocking the doors to his Bentley and leaning back as she slid in, "How's this fine day treating you so far?"

"You're acting weird again," Sophie hummed, gently closing the door behind her. She then quickly reached over, enveloping him in a short hug, "What's with the formality?"

"No reason," Chase shrugged, though he knew exactly what he was doing. He couldn't help it; whenever he knew about something that his best friend didn't, a part of him felt giddy inside and it was hard for the guy to control himself.

The 'secret' this time was that she had two surprises coming up; one from Luke, and one from everybody else (though it was mostly pre-mediated by Calum). Chase wasn't so sure what Luke's surprise consisted of, but he was all too aware of what Calum's did- fancy crackers, caviar, imported cheese and all.

"She'll like this, right?" he could remember the older Hood asking, frantically running back and forth between cheese platters, eyebrows knitted together in worry. "She loves cheese. Right, Chase?"

"Uh..."

"And sushi. She's into all that raw food shit," Calum exhaled, panicked as he ran a shaking hand through his hair. Chase had to give him props; for a guy who was falling apart, at least he was successful in barely keeping himself together. "How's the music, Benji?"

Benji the soundtech manager gave him two thumbs up, a small grin on his face as some jazz soundtrack Chase couldn't name played busily in the background, "It's all ready, boss!"

"Martha, how's the cake?"

"Eighteen tiers huge," the woman on the other end of the hall called, and Chase's eyes widened in bewilderment. The cake had thin layers, but that didn't mean anything in terms of how big it was; if anything, Sophie would be more awed by the height than the actual fancy decoration embedded in the fondant.

"Okay. Okay, so, cake's good, music's good, decoration's good-" Chase winced. The actual hall looked something straight out of a fairytale picture book, but it also seemed empty; something was missing. "Anything else?"

"Where's Luke?" the young boy asked suddenly, eyebrows furrowing. His gaze then landed on Calum, "Isn't he supposed to be here helping you?"

"What?" the man murmured absentmindedly, own eyes trained on the clipboard clutched between his fingers.

"Luke. I thought he wanted to help you out with all the planning?"

"Yeah, well-" Calum started, flipping the page over, "He stayed, for a little bit-"

"What did you do?" Chase sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. He couldn't help but take notice of how Calum pursed his lips, nothing but guilt pulled between the skin, "Calum,"

"What?!" he asked defensively.

"Did you take over again?" Chase sighed once more, knowing his best friend's older brother enough to be aware of how he worked. Calum liked to be in control and, in many more ways than one, it proved to be a good thing; however, it also had it's setbacks. There was a good chance that Calum had been controlling to the point where Luke just gave up trying to contribute altogether, and that was what Chase wordlessly assumed had happened.