stranger ➳ luke hemmings

four

"Earth to Evelyn? Hello?" I'm snapped out of my daze by fingers clicking in front of my face, my friend Calum sits opposite me with a worried look on his face.

"Oh, sorry" I mumble, looking around.

"Are you okay? I mean, okay, okay?" I know what he's implying and I hate it.

"Yes Calum. I'm fine" I say through gritted teeth.

"Woah, okay, you know its a common thing, to care about the wellbeing of a friend" He says.

I ignore him and get back to looking around. My eyes wander across the cafeteria before landing on a tall boy with blonde hair and blue eyes. Luke. He's sitting at a table alone, with work sprawled out on the table and red headphones in his ears. He's chewing his pencil when he looks up and catches my gaze.

"Hi" he mouths from across the room.

I'm about to wave back when I'm interrupted again. "Evelyn fucking parker" I hear a shriek and look over to Katy, who's also sitting with us. As well as my other friends Ashton and Paige.

"What?" I say, looking over to her. "So-"

"Yeah yeah you're sorry for being in your own universe we get it" She bites back.

"Um, we were just wondering, if you're coming to Ashton's party on Saturday? It's gonna be sick" Calum attempts to ease the tension.

Immediately, I answer "No, I'm alright"

"I told you, there was no point in asking her in the first place" Katy is really annoyed right now.

"Katy-" Paige tries to speak.

"No! What did I tell you? Evelyn's not even a human being anymore, all she is is sad and depressed and no one can get through to her! Do you know what thats like for your best friend?" Katy looks hurt as she stares at me.

"No, you know whats worse Katy?-" I'm up from my chair and my hands support me as I lean across the table and stare straight into Katy's face.

I can't bring myself to finish my sentence, so I stand back up and grab my bag off the seat before walking over to Luke's table.

I drop my bag onto the table and take a seat on the chair opposite Luke.

"Hey...." Luke puts down the pen he's holding and looks at me, his eyes scanning my face in all different directions to try and find out what's wrong.

"Hey" I say, biting down so hard on my bottom lip I start to taste blood.

"Whats wrong?" He asks cautiously, as if he's scared I would break. If only he knew.

"Don't say nothing because I know its not true, you wouldn't willingly come over and sit here with me" Luke says, after I didn't reply.

"How would you know that? Maybe I just like sitting with strangers" I say, changing the subject quickly.

Luckily, Luke doesn't take notice. "Okay, listen Parker, I think we're past the point of being strangers by now, do you want me to look up what that means?" He has a grin plastered on his face.

"So what are we then? Friends? Pffft" I laugh at the idea of it.

Luke stays silent and I feel kind of bad, maybe he did think we were friends. But why would anyone want to be friends with me? Even my actual friends were getting sick of me being so 'sad' all the time.

"Maybe I want to be your friend" Luke says after a while, he's looking straight down at the table.

"You don't. Trust me, even my own friends don't" I say to him what I thought only moments ago.

"Then maybe they're not your real friends" The bell rings just as Luke says that so I don't have time to respond. We both get up and out of our seats and walk out of the cafeteria together.

*

The final bell rings for the day and I'm out of my seat in seconds. The only thing that has made this day the least bit bearable is talking to Luke. He isn't so bad, he's kind of funny, in the really stupid kind of way. Maybe we could be friends.

I push my textbooks into my locker and quickly shut the door before it all comes spilling out.

"Evelyn..." I hear a soft voice to my right and look over to see Katy standing there, not meeting my eyes.

"Can we talk tomorrow? I don't really wanna do this right now" I say, before turning around and walking down the hallway, not giving her a chance to reply.

When I turn the corner I see Luke leaning up against one of the taller lockers for the seniors.

"Hey" He says, standing up and walking next to me.

"Hey, did you actually just wait against that locker for me?" I laugh slightly.

"I did, I figured you'd, ya know, need some company on the way home?" He says, like its a question.

"You don't even live near me" I say, chuckling again.

"So?" He says, shrugging.

"You're weird."

"Only for you"

We walk in silence for about ten minutes before Luke speaks up again. "So, you never did actually tell me what was wrong at lunch today"

"It was nothing really, Katy just kind of snapped and got angry for some reason"

I say, as if its no big deal. Which it isnt really, I kind of agreed with her.

"What reason?" He asks, kicking around a rock on the cement ground.

"Well she said I was alway-" I stop in my tracks and gape at the sight in front of my house.

Luke, who's a couple steps ahead of me, turns around. "Whats wrong?" He follows my gaze and turns his head towards the front.

His mouth drops open and he turns back again to look at me. "Wha-" He begins, but I'm too busy running past him to reply.

Four police cars are parked in front of my house, each one's lights flashing wildly. Men are outside, taking pictures all over the vicinity.

I run to the front door, to where my parents are standing, talking to a police officer. Luke has caught up to me and I feel a hand rest on my shoulder from behind.

"Mum, dad, what's-" I can't even form a coherent sentence as I take in the sight before me.

My mom looks at me, face wet with tears before she says what I know exactly is about to come. Hearing her say it makes my heart drop to my feet. "They-They've found her"

hey guys! heres another update..it was pretty short but, f you like it, please vote? it would give me some good feedback to see if people enjoy the story :) im starting it off slow but i have some really good ideas for later on, so stick around xx