You Can Call Me Luke

Chapter 1 - You Call Me Up

"You call me up"

~~~~~

It all started with a call. But this call; this call must have been the thousandth. Normally, I would be excited to get a call from a pretty girl, but I know this call will always be different. I know that this call would be from my best friend Paige. She's the only one who ever calls me anyways. She almost never texts me. She calls me again and again to talk about guys. Guys who she likes, guys who she thinks likes her, guys who are cute, nerdy, just plain stupid. Guys who broke her heart.

You probably think I'm a girl. But tell me, what girl do you know goes by the name Luke? Well that's me, Luke Hemmings. And because I'm NOT a girl, i'm pretty sure you guessed it. I've been friendzoned. It's a deep dark place that includes hours of gossip and days of guy troubles. It also reeks in here. It smells like girly perfumes and flowers.

Don't get me wrong, Paige can be pretty rad when she wants, but she's such a... girl. I wish she could drop this guy talk. Especially since I kinda have a thing for her. At least I can scope out my competition. I feel like such a creeper. No, I'm not a creeper. More like a spy. Like 007. No? Maybe more like 00Luke. But that's ok, you can call me Luke.

~~~~~

"Luke? You there?" Paige's voice was faint

Well of course her voice was faint, it was like 2-fucking-o'clock in the morning. I was about to pass out.

I sighed. "Yeah, I'm still here"

"Okay..." Her words ended with a little sniff.

"Paige? What's up?" I was alert now.

"It's... Its Mike. Again."

Mike. Mike as in Mike I-don't-even-care-to-know-his-last-name. I just like to call him the douche. He's not even a douche anymore. He's a straight out little fucker. I say this is because he takes Paige's heart and twists it and turns it to a point where you won't even recognize it. He also hurts her. Hurts her in ways I would never even consider. Mentally and physically. But the sad part is, Paige doesn't even see what he's doing to her. She's blinded by her infatuation for him. You see, she tells me about their "good days", where they just sit and daydream together. Then she would tell me about their "bad days" when they fight. I didn't need to be a rocket scientist to figure out that tonight was one of their bad days.

"Paige he didn't hurt you again did he? Because I swear, that fucker will -" She cut me off

"Luke please. Please don't do anything to him ok? I love him."

"I love him"

Those words stung like a bitch. All the guys, all the heart breaks, has she never said those words "I love him". I flinched at those words.

"Luke? Did you hear me?" Her voice was pleading for recognition.

"I did Paige. But please just tell me, what did he do now?" Now I was the one pleading.

"He... He hit me. Luke, he hit me ok?"

This was a blow to the stomach. No, it was a blow to my two boys down under. Mike has bruised her wrists by grabbing on too tight, he's manhandled her, he's been aggressive towards her, but never has he full on hit her.

My first reaction was to find this son of a bitch right now and beat the shit out of him. But my second and more logical reaction was to stay by Paige's side and be there for her. Like a good...friend... would do.

"What did he do?" I asked tentatively.

"He slapped me. Like full on slap. I still have his finger marks on my cheek, I had to run into my room so my mom wouldn't see. We got into this fight. This stupid fight. I just... I can't lose him... I can't -"

Then crying. God I hated it when girls cried. And I mean that in the nicest way possible

When Paige cries she does this creepy little hiccup thing and it's kinda disturbing. She starts to slur her words and her nose gets all runny and it's quite disgusting. Again, I mean this in the nicest way possible.

After a while - or an eternity - Paige stopped crying. This is how it always had been. Her crying, me comforting her, then her falling asleep. This is how it's always been. This is how it will always be.