The Popularity Project » l.h.

3. Nudes or Not

S T E L L A

"So wait, did he send you his nudes or not?"

"What? No, of course he didn't. Why would he do that?" 

"Well why else would he want your phone number?"

I sat crisscross on my bed with Gracie while I stared at her with my mortified face. About ten seconds before this, I told her how Luke asked for my phone number. I was about to explain how it was for his French class and all that jazz, but Gracie got a little ahead of herself and started assuming her own ideas about what was going on while she was lying down and eating gummy bears. Shocked? Not really, actually.

"He's in my tutoring period and he wanted to have my number incase he needed help at home. He's failing French." I laugh, scribbling down notes for my AP Statistics class off of my computer. Out of all my classes, statistics was probably the one class I'm likely to fail because it's just so stressful.

"Yeah, sure. Luke Hemmings, doing homework." Gracie's sarcasm is at her prime, popping another piece of candy in her mouth. "All he ever works on at home is girls on his bed."

I blinked over dramatically before squinting down at my best friend. "Gracie, you're so-"

"Gross? Disturbing? Amazingly attractive?" She cuts me off, letting out a laugh. "Michael said I'm all of the above."

I just shook my head. "Well no- nevermind." 

"But seriously," Gracie makes weird eye contact with me that made me uncomfortable, "Luke isn't a guy who 'needs help at home', it's just an excuse."

"Well how would you know? Doesn't he have a girlfriend?" I asked, still trying to argue everything I have against Luke having any interest in me, other than helping him graduate.

"Heather? Yeah, so?" Gracie scoffs as she rolls her eyes. "He's bound to see how psychotic she is and break up with her eventually. It's going to happen."

Heather Brooks is basically that girl. The pretty one that's cheer captain and class president. She's the one that you don't want to pass in the hallway because she's with her clique of other girls that are just like her and they all make you feel like shit. Heather is the 'go-getter' and most importantly, Luke Hemmings's crazy girlfriend. It's makes you wonder what they're really like together behind closed doors since their whole relationship is practically televised across school.

"Even so," I sigh shaking my head in disbelief, "I don't even have interest in him. Why would he have any liking toward me."

Gracie shrugs. "Fuck if I know, I'm just a girl making assumptions and shit. Oh, and you can't tell me that you don't even consider Luke Hemmings somewhat interesting." 

I roll my eyes for the hundredth time this afternoon, closing my laptop since I had no hope in doing any school work when Gracie is at my house.  

"He's just a hot popular guy; what's there to be interested in?" 

Gracie face palms herself before looking at me. "Everything, Stel. It's Luke-fucking-hot-guy-Hemmings." 

I just give a small shrug, not knowing how else to reply. Sure, I think Luke is attractive and it doesn't help that he's actually been a decent person to me even though I hear many terrible things about him, but so what? That doesn't make him interesting, nor does it make me think that he's any different than he's made out to be by everyone else. I've survived most of high school without trouble and I'm not going to start now.

A message on my phone breaks me out of my thoughts, causing me to search for it in my pockets. Gracie continues to eat her gummy bears quietly as I bring my phone out. Before I could even glance at the notification on my phone, it begins ringing. My mouth goes dry, slightly agape. 

"Who's calling?" Gracie looks up to me cooly, chewing strangely.

"I-it's Luke."

Gracie's eyes were prepared to fall out of her head but instead, a red gummy bear drops onto my bed covers right out of her mouth. I scrunch my nose, looking at it.

"Ew, Grace, clean that u-"

"Who cares about the candy- answer your fucking phone!" Gracie sits up quickly as she shakes me by the shoulders. "And put that bitch on speaker phone."

"My god, alright." I huffed, looking down at my phone as it vibrates in my hand, hesitating before I slide my finger across the screen. 

"Hello-"

"Stella." Luke's voice was rushed. He sounded like he was running or he got the wind knocked out of him as he panted heavily on the phone. "You didn't check your messages by any chance, did you?"

Gracie and I mirror each other's confused expressions. "No. Should I-"

"No." Luke practically yells. Gracie looked a little scared but amused, wide eyes connecting with mine.

"Um- okay. So what do I do with it exactly?" I asked slowly as I kept eye contact with Gracie the whole time as we tried to figure out what exactly was going on.

"Delete it, please. Just totally disregard it, for the sake of both of us." Luke sounds a little calmer but still on the edge. 

I look to Gracie as her eyes were growing wider by the second, holding a hand over her mouth. She tried mouthing something to me but she was really bad at it so I had no idea what she was trying to tell me. 

"Stella?" Luke's voice sounded worried from my silence. "You still there?"

"Oh yeah, don't worry. I was just deleting it." I say as Gracie smirks, wanting to clap her hands together but she resisted them in the air.

"Oh okay." Luke says, his relief coming through my phone. "Thank you so much, I owe you one."

"Don't sweat it. See you later, Luke." I say, chewing the inside of my cheek as I watch Gracie holding a pillow over her face while swinging her legs in the air.

"Bye, Stella." Shortly after his few words, I hang up my phone and hear Gracie let out an unbearable scream.

"Oh my god, Stella," She exclaims, holding my face between both of her hands, "Luke sent you his nudes."

I shudder, shaking my head violently. "No- there's no way."

"Well how about we see for ourselves." She gives me an evil grin, quickly swiping my phone out of my hand.

"No- Gracie!" I yell, tackling her to the bed as she begins unlocking my phone. I try snatching the phone out of her hand but it was too late. Both of our faces were disturbingly close to the screen and everything happened so quickly, causing both of us to halt all movement.

"Oh my god," Gracie whispers before cracking a laugh, "it's Luke Hemmings's dick."

I don't why, but I felt embarrassed for some reason. Maybe it was the fact that it was on my phone or maybe because we were still looking at it while I was toppled over my best friend. It was obviously something I'd never expect and I didn't even know what to say.

"W-what do we do with it?" I laugh uncomfortably, tearing my eyes away from the screen. 

Gracie laughs, shrugging her shoulders. "Anything you want, Stel."

I roll my eyes, slapping her forehead as I get off of her. "Just delete it, it serves me nothing."

"Whatever you say," Gracie replies, sitting up as she taps a few things on my phone and deleting the picture, throwing my phone onto my bed. 

We sit in a weird silence as I stare at my phone's black screen.

"Fuck- I should've bet money on that one." Gracie breaks our silence. I grabbed my pillow, smacking her with it repeatedly. 

"You shut up, Gracie Williams, and get your damn gummy bear off of my bed."

_

wowza, wasn't that somethinggg 

my chapter titles are usually foreshadowing or just really stupid quotes from the chapter. or both. so enjoy reading those too ;-)))))

xo