Arabella || Luke Hemmings

luke's birthday

July 16, 1984 - Amsterdam - Luke's birthday

Who would've guessed that buying a boy a birthday was so difficult? Finding the perfect gift was something Arabella wanted to do on her own but she ultimately gave in and asked his friends and her friends for help. They helped her decide on three gifts.

"Lucas." She poked at his face. He was still asleep, it was only 6 o'clock in the morning but he couldn't hate her for waking him up. Luke couldn't hate her, ever. "Wake up!"

He groaned, putting a pillow over his face.

"It's your birthday!" She began jumping on the bed a good distance from Luke so she didn't step on him. "I want to give you your first gift!"

The tossed the pillow at her before yanking her down to lie next to him.

"You didn't have to get me anything." His blue eyes were only slit open slightly.

"Shut up." She rolled her eyes, hopping off the bed to get the first gift. She put her arm through the strap of the gig bag and walked over to the bed, placing it down next to Luke who was sitting up now.

"Arabella, you didn't..." His eyes shifted the bag, unzipping it to reveal a black acoustic guitar. "A Fender DG-60. Everywhere I've looked this has been sold out, how did you manage to get this?" He pulled the guitar onto his lap and adjusting the tuners.

"Haze's dad may or may not know someone in Amsterdam who had one in stock."

"This is amazing!" He looked at the instrument as if it was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. Had he ever looked at her like that? She felt slightly insecure at the thought that he never had before.

"So you like it?"

"Like it? I'm absolutely in love with it! This is the best gift I've received, well, besides the trip to the zoo to meet real life penguins when I was 8."

-

"This better be the last gift I get tonight!" Luke whined as we seated in the center of an empty restaurant.

Arabella reserved a whole restaurant just to give Luke a nice one-on-one birthday dinner. Haesje Claes was the name of the place. It had a cozy feeling to it with the brick walls and different shades of browns that painted the room.

"What happens if this isn't the last gift?"

"I refuse to accept anymore gifts! I think I'll be okay with a guitar and a romantic-ish dinner with you in Amsterdam."

The waitress settled a plate of cheese croquettes on the table.

"Main entrees will be here shortly, enjoy your starters." She smiled, refilling their wine glasses.

"Why are you doing all of this for me?" She noticed Luke hadn't touched the delicious cheese filled food. He sat with his hands folded together and placed in front of him like he was interrogating me for a murder she had not committed.

"I can't do nice things for a nice person?"

"It's just a bit bizarre. I wasn't expecting you to do all of this."

She wasn't even expecting herself to do all of this, it just felt right. She wouldn't have done this for anyone else, not Jax, not Ricky, not Loch, not Haze, not even Andy.

Luke took his attention off of Arabella and began to eat the appetizer. Luke ate every second of every day and never ended up getting full.

Since Luke wasn't watching her, she decided to watch him, and that was a huge decision she regretted minutes later because she saw him in a different light. She wanted to swim in his baby blue eyes, they remind her of the color of the water in those exotic beaches you saw in pictures in those travel books. The way his hair permanently curled without an effort, almost made her jealous. He had the most gorgeous profile, his jaw line was sculpted to perfection, like Donatello sculpted Luke's jaw line, his nose poked out just enough to make it adorable, he had the highest of cheekbones, cheekbones that would beat Angelina Jolie's any day.

She saw his mouth moving as he spoke to her but she didn't exactly hear any sound, she was spellbound. He had an obsession with taking his lip ring in his teeth when he'd try to bite back a smile, it made her heart flutter. Every emotion a human could feel were mixed together inside of her and birthing an uncountable amount of butterflies in her stomach.

She heard someone clear their throat, snapping her out of the daydream she was lost in.

"Your fillet of beef, ma'am." The waitress set Arabella's plate in front of her, she silently thanked her ahead of her walking off.

"Were you listening to anything I was saying?" Luke mixed the liquid of his beef stew, looking up at me.

She wished he wouldn't look at her with that 'slightly amused and slight attempt of remaining cool and collected' look, for it designated a certain heat in her core that made her want to knock everything off this dinner table and have her way with him.

"I just got caught up in my thoughts. I'm sorry." I cut into the piece of beef that lied on a rather fancy square plate. "What were you saying?"

"Nothing important." He gave a reassuring smile and started his food.

Nothing important?

"How's your food?" He asked before placing a spoon full of stew in his mouth, cringing as the warm of the solution burned his tongue and throat.

"It's good."

They finished dinner making small talk about diverse subjects. Paparazzi seemed to be nowhere in sight in Amsterdam, they were an extinct species here. The brisk air swept past Arabella as she walked hand in hand with Luke.

"Right!" She dug through the pocket of my cheetah print coat, pulling out a crisp white envelope. "This is the last gift, I promise." She handed him the envelope as they came to halt.

"What is it?"

"Open it and you'll find out." She encouraged.

She'd anticipated Luke's reaction to this last gift, her conscious was telling her he would love it but she was still worried he'd be upset.

"TICKETS TO SEE LIVERPOOL?!" Luke shrieked.

"Yeah." She nodded her head, kind of put off-guard by his reaction.

"Okay, this definitely tops the penguin present. That can't even compete with Liverpool tickets." Luke shoved the tickets back into the packet then pulled her into a hug. His height compared to her was perfect, She could rest her head on his chest and listen to that heartbeat full of love and happiness. "Thank you so much for everything. This has been the most amazing birthday ever, and I mean that."

SUCCESS!

-

"I'm gonna go hang out with the guys for the rest of the night if you don't mind." Luke checked his pockets for all his belongings; technology and money. "I spent most of the day with you so..."

"Oh, I understand. Go spend time with your friends. They matter too."

Suddenly, Arabella was feeling like Alex Turner in Do I Wanna Know? as she watched Luke walk to the door

Sad to see you go, was sort of hoping that you'd stay.

"Lucas?" She was almost pleading for him to stay just by her pitch.

"Yes?"

Here goes nothing. She swiftly padded over to him, she yanked him to her body, crashing her lips on his and surprising herself at the unexpected dose of confidence injected into her system. His lips were softer than she remembered them being back in Tokyo, maybe he'd invested in chapstick since then. He tasted of the dull spearmint gum he chomped away on during the walk back to the hotel. His tongue swiped across her bottom lip and she pulled away before things were taken to another level that she knew neither of them were ready for. "Happy birthday Lucas."