Arabella || Luke Hemmings

frankfurt

July 6, 1984 - Frankfurt - 10 AM

With some luck, Luke pulled Haze away from Ashton and brought her out to breakfast to talk to her some more. I guess you could say he was still in route to cracking Haze. Luke might've forgotten his original strategy because he had gotten caught in the semi-having Arabella for his own. He had gotten lost in the publicity of all things between himself and Arabella. He knew for a fact that was where he messed up.

There were a large amount of paparazzi capturing Luke and Haze's every movement, just waiting for one of them to fuck up so they could go back and report the fuck up to their manager. The breakfast itself already looked bad, and Luke could already hear Mason and Ian yelling at him for going out in public with someone who wasn't Arabella.

"I'm sick of being kept on my toes when it comes to her. She's so damn confusing." Luke furiously stirred his orange juice with his straw. One couldn't tell if he was upset with Arabella, himself, or the fact that his orange juice was full of pulp.

He sat across from Haze, observing her going to town on the bagel she ordered. Haze was the annoying friend who ate like a pig but never gained weight.

"I'm not sure why the hell I'm still trying with her."

"She's like a mystery book you start an hour before your set bed time; you get so caught up in it and you're left on edge with every chapter that passes and you check the time, seeing it's 3 o'clock in the morning and you tell yourself 'just one more chapter and I'll be done' because you're tired. But you can't put the book down until you've finally figured out the mystery. In the end, you're sure it's worth being exhausted over because everything that didn't make sense in the beginning, finally makes sense."

"Haze!" Luke groaned, slapping a hand to his face.

She smiled, amused by Luke's terrible lack of understanding. "She's the book you can't put down because you need to figure her out and the drug you refuse to quit because you love the high she gives you. That's Arabella for you."

So it began again. Ashton needed to sit down with the pair, he could easily decode what Haze was saying. He would be so useful in the world of anyone that wanted to get to know anything Haze spoke about.

"She's the song stuck in your head that you find annoying but you can't help but love because it's catchy."

"Haze, please!"

"So, you keep the song on repeat until you either find a new obsession or you run yourself tired of it, but with Arabella, you keep her on repeat because there's no one that can compare and she always keeps you guessing."

"Okay, now you're just doing that to be annoying." Luke huffed, rolling his eyes, hitting his back on the chair as he crossed my arms.

"I enjoy annoying you, Hemmings. It's certainly a pleasure to do so."

-

11:20 PM

Before Haze and Luke left the restaurant they agreed to tell Ian and Mason that they were discussing possible birthday gifts Haze could give Ashton as his birthday was tomorrow and Haze was asking about gifts Arabella could give him for his upcoming birthday. Surely they lied but it was worth it because Mason and Ian believed it.

Tonight's show was great, Luke's mind was else where so he couldn't remember much. He remembered getting on stage then he just went blank. A fan threw a thong on stage, that he did remember. He threw it in the trash because really, what would he do with a thong? Possibly, he could lie in Arabella's hotel room in the thong, you know, in a seductive pose. Wouldn't that be something? He wouldn't actually do that, Michael might do it though.

"Lucas?" Arabella exhaled a cloud of smoke while they sat on the balcony of our hotel room, overlooking the Frankfurt nightlife. He never understood the deal of cigarettes until he asked for one of Arabella's organic cigarettes that she smoked.

"Arabella?"

"I lied to you."

All he could see were question marks in the air.

"About?"

"The S."

More question marks.

"The one that's on my necklace." She held the silver pendant in her pointer finger and thumb, looking down at it.

That S.

"It doesn't stand for my mom's name, her name doesn't even begin with an S." She dropped the pendant back down, it landed perfectly on her chest again. "Her name is Aurora."

"Then what does the 'S' stand for?"

"You know how my last name is some sort of mystery to everyone?"

God, just get to the point, Arabella. Luke nodded.

"Sarot."

She looked at Luke and Luke raised an eyebrow.

"Arabella Sarot."