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

11.

Hey, it's Ashton (the muffin guy)

My phone pinged at the message and my mood cleared slowly. Everyone was downstairs eating while I was in bed, trying to sleep.

Hey, what's up? I texted back.

Not much, I'm waiting for a mate to come over so we can play, how about you? :)

Might watch a movie or something. What are you guys gonna play?

I'm in a band lmao we're super lame but I play drums for them

Sounds great, I'd love to hear it someday :)

I replied and put my phone away, grabbing some fresh new clothes and headed to shower. I needed to clear my thoughts after everything with Luke today. But before I could, I heard my phone ping again and thinking it was Ashton I picked it up to send a quick reply.

Sorry - Luke

I froze. I had completely forgotten he had my number but what can I reply to that? My heart skipped a beat knowing that he was downstairs having dinner with Bev and my parents but thinking of me enough to text me. It hurt me knowing how nice he was, I didn't want him to apologise and hold doors and buy slushies for me, I wanted him to tell me I was being crazy and that there was no chemistry between us. Staring at my phone, I realised my fingers typing a reply before I could stop myself.

For what?

Almost instantly, he texted back.

For upsetting you today, sorry

you didn't upset me, it's not a big deal I was just in a bad mood

do you feel better now?

yeah i think

Inside, I could feel my stomach churning and I pretended it's because I haven't eaten today. Why did he have to care and be so sweet?

come downstairs and have dinner with us then

nah it's alright i think I'm just gonna shower then sleep, night

goodnight

He texted back and truth is, I didn't want to stop talking to him but it felt odd to know he was texting me while sitting next to Bev downstairs. Surely this isn't a normal interaction between the groom and the bride's sister?

My mind kept trying to push back all thoughts of Luke and I decided that it was probably just the excitement of having a guy be nice to me. I haven't had any free time for guys to take me out or even really talk to me because of my work, so maybe I was just enjoying the attention. Sighing, more content with my thoughts, I quickly pulled on a pair of denim shorts and a low neck top. I decided that heading downstairs would be the most mature thing to do; wouldn't hiding in my room give Luke the impression that I was thinking about him?

Downstairs, the whole family was seated at the dinner table and as I walked in, they all turned to stare at me. After a few murmurs of 'hi' and 'hello', I sat down across from Luke, not making eye contact with him at all while Bev continued to talk to, or rather at him.

'We still have so many things to do and you're on your ass all the time!' Bev exclaimed, clearly not being able to shut off her attitude even during dinner. Luke just sighed and gave her a quick apologetic look before turning back to his food. I felt really bad that this whole wedding was on his shoulders and I had a sinking feeling in my stomach that maybe he didn't even want to go through with it sometimes, especially when Bev was acting like this. So before I could make a comprehensive decision and actually think how stupid I was being, I spoke up.

'I'll help out, what do you want me to do?'

'You spent hours picking out one suit with him yesterday so I don't know what you'd be able to do today considering you take your time with everything.' Bev said. Anyone else, much like my parents, would probably think of this as normal sister bickering but I couldn't shake this annoyed feeling I had every time Bev spoke. It bothered me the way she bossed everyone around and wasn't even grateful for how much Luke and I have been doing for this wedding.

'Calm down, sis or you'll give yourself a nosebleed', I said. Luke snorted from his side of the table, quickly pulling himself together but not before Bev managed to give him a dirty look.

'Fine, whatever. You two can work out the seating plan, I'm going out with mum today.'

'Us two?' I asked, confused.

'Yeah, you and Luke.'

That's just great. Another day of being alone with him.