Hate/Luke Hemmings Fanfiction

12

'You know when you came over and gave me my dress? Right before you walked in, we were ... yeah." I explained.

Luke nodded and sipped his soda. His face was blank; I couldn't read him.

His lack of emotion made my cheeks flush. I wanted to cry; I felt so stupid. "I'm just going to go," I slid out of the sticky leather booth and hurried outside.

My tears took no time in falling from my eyes once I reached the parking lot. I didn't know what I expected to do once I got outside; Luke was my ride here. I awkwardly leaned against his car and quietly let the tears run down my cheeks and sniffles shake through my body.

"What's the matter, love?" a voice asked me. 

I wiped my eyes and blinked to focus my vision on the figure in front of me. It was a teenage boy, around my age. He was nice looking; shaggy, curly hair pushed back by a red bandana, wearing all black. I smiled at him. "Nothing," I said to dismiss him.

"You wouldn't be out here crying for nothing, would you?" the boy asked after taking a drag from a cigarette. 

I shrugged.

"You know, these," he raised his cigarette. "always help me."

"I don't smoke." I smiled politely.

"Neither do I." he laughed. I laughed with him, although I didn't get his joke.

He took another drag, and I looked around for Luke. I expected him to chase after me and wipe away my tears, but that didn't happen. Here I was, with this boy I didn't know, in a Denny's parking lot.

"Can you teach me?" I asked.

The boy looked back at me, confused at first, but understood what I was asking of him a few seconds later. He stood up and took a cigarette pack and a lighter out of his back pocket, handing me the cigarette. I placed it between my pointer and middle finger, like I had seen in the movies.

"So, basically you just suck in, then blow out." he explained. "Like this," he demonstrated on the last of his, and threw it on the ground, stomping it out.

"Put it to your lips, I'll light it for you."

I did as he said; he nodded when it was lit. I sucked in, and it tasted as if I was drinking black coffee. I coughed the smoke out and was left with a bitter taste on my tongue and a light head.

He chuckled and leaned against Luke's car next to me. "It gets better, trust me."

"But he's not your boyfriend?" the boy whose name I learned to be Ashton asked me. We were sitting on the asphalt of the parking lot, talking.

"No, neither of them are." I explained, covering my hands in the sweatshirt Ashton let me borrow. 

"Then why was Luke mad?"

"He wasn't mad, he was just," I huffed. Trying to put words to things was harder than just thinking them. "I don't know, he was, nothing. He looked like he didn't care, and I didn't know what to think, so I just ran out here."

Ashton nodded. "Do you want to date either of them?"

"I had a crush on Luke, but ... now I'm kinda over it. Honestly, I had no place to be this involved in either of them this early, I moved here a week ago." I sighed, embarrassed. 

"From ... Australia?"

"Yeah."

Ashton smiled and looked up at the night sky. It was close to ten o'clock; I would ideally be getting ready for bed since I have school tomorrow, but here I was.