you'll never fade to me. - a Luke Hemmings story

2.

Okay, I admit. With his tousled blonde hair and skinny jeans that fit just right, Bev's fianceé was clearly a looker. I realised my mouth was slightly open and I had started staring. With embarassment, I stood up to face him and shake his hand.

'I'm Val, Bev's sister. Pleasure to meet you.', I said as he wrapped his elegantly long hand around mine. Making direct eye contact with him was a real skill, considering I was already red in the cheeks from this interaction.

'Don't worry Luke, she's not usually like this, she's had a very long flight.', said Bev, defending my dumb actions. He was strangely tall, around 6"4 and No. I thought. No, I'm totally not checking out my sister's fianceé, that's definitely not happening. Bringing out of my thoughts was Luke's laugh, or more like a giggle. Why is this grown ass man giggling? I wasn't sure whether I found it endearing or annoying. While I continued with my internal babble, I realised that Bev was planning what we're going to do today; despite her excited and quick voice, I managed to hear that today was my first day as her maid of honour, meaning I was going to go the venue and check whether everything was in place for our rehearsal dinner in a week and a half.

'Hey, slow down or you'll give yourself a stroke, Bev! What time do we have to leave? I'm pretty tired and I literally just arrived, can't we do this tomorrow?', I said, which earned me a look of horror on Bev's face. She run a hand through her long brown hair and rolled her eyes.

'Absolutely not, Val! I've been busy since we've gotten engaged and now you're finally here to help me and I'm not letting you get away that easy. I am going to order the cake that Lukey and I tested and you have to go to Stanford Gardens to see whether they've fucked it up or not. Pleaseeeeee?', she dragged out the word and I instantly knew that if I didn't do what she wanted right now, I'd never get her off my back. Plus, I felt pretty bad for rarely coming to visit and I knew I had to make it up to my family somehow.

'Wait, what? Why aren't you coming with me? I don't even know the way there!', I said. I've had enough of this day already and the thought of driving in the car all day alone to some countryside made me want to sleep for the rest of the 3 weeks.

'Apparently, I'm coming along with you, I think it had something to do with bonding with my girlfriend's sister?', Luke smiled at me while Bev just rolled her eyes at his blatant honesty. Hang on, what the fuck? Does this mean I'm going to have to spend the whole day with Luke instead of sleeping? I mumbled something about needing to change before we go and I headed upstairs.

My old room was just as I had left it when I was 18 and got accepted to Oxford University in the UK; from the start, I knew I had to go no matter how much I loved Australia. In our little suburbs in Sydney, you had to work 5 times as hard to make a name for yourself and I certainly wasn't going to pass up an offer from one of the most prestigious universities in the world just to stick around here and end up as a school technician or something even more depressing. After my first year at uni, it became apparent that I was made to be a manager; I kept calm in panic and I was organised enough to deal with bratty boybands from London (cough, cough Harry Styles, I'm looking at you) and snotty singers from LA.

My room was painted white, and my drawers were kept neat with all my old school notes that I guess my mum didn't have the heart to throw away. Looking back at it now, I tried to keep things organised even before I knew what job I wanted. I flung myself on the bed and then instantly groaned; I have to get up anyway and change. Looking through the clothes I brought with me, I got changed into a white tank and some blue shorts that would suffice in the terrible Australian heat outside. I ran a hand through my straight, brown hair and put on some mascara so I wouldn't look like a zombie. Heading downstairs, I saw Luke smile at me and grab the car keys from the shelf, saying a quick 'Bye honey!' to my sister.

-------------------------------------------------------

Only after 10 mins of dreadful silence in the car with Luke, I realised that we still had 3h to go to the venue. Who's idea was it to have a wedding this far away? I sighed, exasperated. Luke looked at me and laughed lightly.

'At least you don't have to be the one driving', he said, as he turned right on the road. I looked up at him and studied his appearance for a second longer than I originally allowed myself. He looked about 23 (bit young to be getting married, isn't he?), was wearing all black with the exception of a silver necklace that had a little guitar on it.

'You play?', I said, trying to make conversation as I pointed towards his necklace.

'Yeah, I'm sort of in a band? I mean, we're kinda shit but they're my best mates so it's quite fun.', he said, giving me that little laugh again.

'Oh really? I have to tour with some bands and it's not as much fun as people make it out to be', I said. He stared at me, as if questioning what I just said.

'Oh, I'm not a groupie or anything!-' I quickly exclaimed, '-I'm a manager, I take care of musicians while they're on tour and do all the stuff no-one else wants to do'. I mentally slapped myself, not only was I sounding like a complete idiot, but I also wasn't supposed to be talking about my job. I made sort of a promise to myself before I left London that this was my time away and I wouldn't spend all of it thinking or stressing about my job. However, Luke seemed to have a different idea.

'Really? That's so cool! Who have you toured with?', he asked.

The rest of the journey was spent with him asking me all kinds of questions about my job. I think he even looked quite impressed when I told him I had toured with Selena Gomez before; it made me wonder why he was so interested about music and what I do. Surprisingly quickly, the hours flew by as we spent the awkward silences in the middle of conversations listening to music. Turns out, he had pretty good taste and I could see why my sister liked him; he seemed like a polite suburban boy.

When we finally arrived at Stanford Gardens, the sun was setting and it made the venue look so much more beautiful. The building looked like a small castle, surrounded by a field with a few trees and perfectly green grass. When we walked inside, I felt Luke stiffen beside me. The chairs and round tables were laid out perfectly; I wasn't aware that this many people would be coming. I could imagine where the cake and flowers would be, and it filled me with longing; I wondered whether I'd ever be loved enough to have someone go through all this trouble for me.

Luke took some pictures and I sat at one of the tables while he talked to a guy who worked there, asking a million questions a minute. He seemed really nervous about this whole wedding, but then again what did I know? I've only known the guy a day. He appeared before me quickly, snapping me out of my thoughts as he threw the car keys towards me.

'You're driving this time.'