Arabella || Luke Hemmings

barcelona

July 20, 1984 - Barcelona

Things with Arabella had been...magical, to say the least. In 4 days, she went from pretending to be involved with Luke to full-blown being involved with Luke. He had woken up every morning so far, thinking that this a sick joke.

"So," Haze used her hand as a visor as she looked up in the direction of the building they stopped in front of. No one else was down to do some cliché tourist things in Barcelona today, so Luke brought Haze out while everyone slept. "You and Arabella?"

"What about us?" He shot a skeptic look after capturing a picture with his camera of the church they were admiring.

"She's fond of you these days." She started to the next destination. "I'm surprised."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Luke would probably shove Haze into one of these Cathedrals and make her confess her sins, per-marital sex with Ashton, if she talked in code.

"She didn't want to get engrossed in you because of Andy. But I think she's letting it come about now, she looks at you differently than she did last month ago."

Luke took the last sentence in.

"Just promise me you won't hurt her." Haze walked with her hands shoved in the pockets of her leather jacket. "She's likely very timid about jumping into something with you...Andy..." She drifted off into a sigh. "Andy was her first everything. First boyfriend, first love, first kiss, first person she had sex with...She'll talk as if she's experienced and confident but in reality, she's a little girl trapped in an 18-year-old's body, who's frightened of being alone and terrified of everything immoral in this world."

Arabella seemed so secure with everything though, or was it just a façade?

"Your task is to keep her safe, protect her unlike Andy. Don't let her fall if you don't plan on catching her."

Luke could do that, at least that was what he convinced himself. "So, you and Ashton...?" He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"Yuck, Luke." Haze shoved him off, just about pushing him into an elderly lady.

I adjusted my sunglasses. "Is it because you're in denial?"

"No."

"He likes you, you know?"

There was a sharp muteness between them, the only thing sounding was the busy city around them.

"I'll only break his heart, Luke..."

"Are you confirming what everyone says? That you're a heart breaker?"

Luke had the idea that Haze had spent the last two years building up her reputation to something other than being a heart breaker, perhaps he was inaccurate. There was as well a possibility she was only saying she'd break his heart to persuade herself that there was nothing she felt towards Ashton. Whatever reasoning she had, it better damn be worth possibly hurting one of his best friends.

-

It was horrible seeing Jax lie in the hospital bed attached to so many different machines Luke had no clue of their purpose. The doctor said Jax had alcohol poisoning and was lucky enough to be found passed out on his hotel room's floor so quickly or else he wouldn't have survived. None of them were exactly surprised at the cause of the random occurrence because Jax had been binge drinking since Cologne, his partying habits had also increased since they reached the European leg of the tour.

Luke looked around the hospital room, observing the faces of the distraught Kosmic members. Arabella had just calmed down from crying while Haze held her in her arms, whispering positive things. Loch was biting back tears the moment we stepped in here and Ricky stared blankly at the heart rate monitor, seeming as if he was still trying to process his friend's self-destructive accident.

Ashton, Michael, and Calum didn't come, saying it wasn't really their place to be but Luke knew that was some bullshit lie because they were terrified of invading Loch's space.

Luke forever amazed at how one minute things could be okay and they could all be in happy spirits and the next minute everything went downhill. Life had a sucky way of surprising us all and keeping us all on our toes, even if we couldn't keep up. So, certainly, life was a bitch.