girls like you // luke hemmings

07

Luke's P.O.V

"We've been in the car for three hours now," Grace whines. "Will you tell me where we're going now, please?"

"We're almost there," Michael laughs from the driver's seat.

I see Grace huff and slouch back in her seat and find myself chuckling. She blows a hair out of her face before rolling her eyes at the boys' singing.

"Hey, I found this book that I thought you might like." I lean over and whisper. She sits up and smiles.

"Really? What is it?" She seems excited.

"It's your basic romance novel, but it's one of my favorites." I smile.

"It's about a girl who is terminally ill and she meets a boy in the hospital. He seems fine, so the whole time, she assumes he's visiting someone. He ends up not showing up for a few days and she eventually finds out that he-" I stop myself from giving away the ending.

"He what?" She pushes, intrigued.

"I guess you'll have to find out." I smirk and she groans. "I'll give it to you when we get to where we're going."

"How much longer?" Grace asks.

"20 minutes," Ashton responds.

+++

Grace's P.O.V

"Grace, wake up." I open my eyes to find all four boys looking back at me.

"Sorry, I dozed off. Are we here?"

"You tell me," Calum laughs and points out the window.

I look over through the glass and see the two story, sky blue townhouse that's all too familiar. My eyes light up when I look to the other side of the car and see the beautiful, cloudy beach. It's not crowded at all since it's not during some sort of school break.

"Michael," I exclaim.

"Surprised?" He questions.

"I haven't been here in years! You know since..." I trail off. "Never mind that. Let's get inside."

I bust out of the car and bolt into the house. I hear the boys calling to me, but I ignore them and run upstairs to my favorite room in the house. I stop in the doorway and take in my surroundings. I look to the queen bed with the beautiful flower print comforter, then to the white wardrobe and desk lining the lavender walls. I walk over to the bay window and sit down, looking out over the ocean.

Luke's P.O.V

I find Grace in a room with three light purple walls and one white. She's sitting at the window, staring at the view. I set her bags down, causing her to jump. She gives a soft smile and a thank you before turning back around. She looks at peace, or as if she's reminiscing about something.

"What's on your mind?" I sit by her on the big seat. She doesn't look at me.

"I used to come here when I was younger," she says quietly, almost as a whisper. "Me, my mom, Lacey, and our dad. Every Spring break, and sometimes in the summer, my parents would pack us up and we'd leave everything behind. We had no worries, my mother wasn't a drunken fool." She chuckles. "We were happy. We were together and happy."

"You never really talk about your dad. Where is he?" As soon as I ask, I regret it. She looks down at her crossed legs and plays with her fingers in her lap.

"Grace, Luke," Michael says from the doorway. We look to him. "We're making dinner if you wanna come downstairs."

"Uh, yeah," Grace sniffs and wipes her nose before standing and walking past Michael.

"Lay off," he snaps before walking away. Once he's out of sight, I let out the breath I didn't even know I was holding in.

Grace's P.O.V

"What are we having, boys?" I smile widely, lifting myself to sit on the counter. "Please don't let it be Cal's 'special' lasagna."

"Hey, it's not that bad!" Calum exclaims.

"Come on, Cal. It doesn't even qualify as lasagna." Ashton laughs.

"How bad can it possibly be?" Luke questions, making everyone stop and look at him.

"You don't want to know." I shiver.

After what feels like an hour, the food is ready. As we all sit at the table, I feel eyes on me. I look across from me and see Luke staring at me. Our eyes meet for a minute until I feel a hand tap my thigh. I snap out of it and look to the owner of the hand, Mikey. He smiles at me and I give a soft one back before looking back to my food and listening to my friends laugh and tell stories.

I'm doing the dishes when Michael comes over to me. 

"You barely touched your dinner," he says lowly, placing his hand on my lower back.

"I just wasn't all that hungry." I reply honestly.

"Why don't you go up and get some rest? I'll finish up here." He kisses my cheek and I look up to see Luke staring at us out of the corner of his eye. I clear my throat and head upstairs.

After hours of tossing and turning, I look over to the clock and see it says 1:03 AM. I sigh and get up. I pull on a jacket over my pajama shorts and tank top before heading downstairs and out to the beach. I sit on the sand near the water and feel at peace.