the match (luke hemmings au)

pt. 6

I quickly tucked my fly aways behind my ears, tightened my ponytail, and attempted to wipe the dampness off of my face. I swung the door open and Luke walked right past me.

    "Why did you just run off like that? I was so confused and then you wouldn't reply to my messages. What the fuck Riley, why would you- oh shit, have you been crying?" he rambled.

    "What difference does it make, Luke. Why do you care so much?"

I couldn't even look at him in the eyes. The knot in my stomach tightened as my gaze drifted towards his shoulder, where I knew our shared mark was hiding under his shirt.

    "I'm not heartless you know," he scoffed, "I was trying to apologize to you the other day and you ran off just like you did today,"

    "Not everything is about you, Luke," I rolled my eyes and sat down on the edge of my desk, sniffling a bit.

    He walked over and sat down next to me, "Well then tell me what it is about because I am genuinely so confused by you, Riley Greene."

    I let out a long sigh, "Emma, you know, my roommate?" he nodded, "She found out that we were doing whatever this is, and she got really upset with me,"

    "Oh yikes," he looked away quickly, "I might know a little something about that,"

"What do you mean?" my eyebrows furrowed.

What the hell? Sure, we all went to school together, but Emma has never mentioned Luke to me unless it was us shit talking him for being a major douche. What could Luke know about Em that I didn't?

"Weellllll," he still wasn't looking at me, "she may or may not have come up to me completely plastered at a party a few weeks ago and try to bring me upstairs with her,"

"Oh," I said, my stomach dropping to my feet, " I see,"

Luke and Emma must have slept together. Was I really naive enough to genuinely believe that he would just stop sleeping with other people just because he told me he would? This was all my fault. How stupid could I be? Tears started welling up again, but I refused to cry in front of Luke, so I held them back.

"Yeah. She's probably pissed because I rejected her," he mumbled.

"So you guys didn't sleep together?" I asked, swallowing hard.

"What, no!" Luke looked at me, finally, "I was serious when I told you that I wasn't going to fuck anyone else. Why would I lie about that?"

I felt kinda bad for thinking the worst of Luke, but with his reputation he couldn't blame me.

"I don't know," I mumbled, rubbing my eyes subconsciously, "Most guys don't care about lying, especially in order to have sex,"

"Well, did you lie about it?" he asked me, clearly upset.

"You know I'm not like that," I got defensive.

"Oh and I am?!"

"Luke, don't act innocent," I rolled my eyes, "You know you have a reputation."

"Okay, fine," he got quiet. He almost sounded hurt and I felt bad again. "I just thought- nevermind."

"You thought what?" I asked, rhetorically, "Look, I really appreciate you coming to make sure that I'm alright, most guys wouldn't bother, but I just want to be alone right now and if Emma comes back and you're here, she'll never forgive me,"

"Yeah, I get it," he had stopped looking at me, "A lot of people think that I'm just a manwhore who has no feelings and I guess it's my fault for letting everyone get away with thinking that,"

Luke stood up from his seat next to me and made his way to the door.

"Luke I'm sorry, I didn't mean it that way I-" he cut me off.

"No, Riley, it's not your fault. I'll just have to find a way to prove myself, I guess." he opened the door, "I'll talk to you later,"

And with that he left.

My mind was reeling. I was thoroughly confused by the past few hours. I was so exhausted from crying and just wanted to forget the world for a few hours, so I decided to nap.

-

I was hoping to be asleep when Emma came back, but when I woke up she still wasn't back. The clock said it was nearly 11:30 at night, so I guess I wasn't going to go back to sleep. I rubbed my swollen eyes and walked over to the bathroom to wash my face.

In the middle of brushing my teeth I remembered that I had a paper due at midnight and so I decided that I would just go to the library since it was open 24 hours and a great place to avoid Emma.

I grabbed my laptop and checked my phone for the first time since I had woken up. There wasn't much to see except for one text from Luke, sent an hour and a half ago, that read:

hey you up?

Which I decided to ignore. Seeing his name made my stomach turn and I thought it would be best to just push him out of my mind for at least a few hours while I worked on my homework.

It had gotten a bit colder since I was out earlier and the wind had picked up a bit. I cursed myself for not bringing a coat but I was nearly to the library. I liked that about the campus; everything was close to everything. Though that had its cons sometimes. Like how I had to walk right by Luke's dorm, which he so happened to be standing outside of right now.

"Riles!" he yelled.

I pretended that I didn't hear him, but I heard his footsteps approaching
me as he jogged to meet me.

"Luke I need to write my paper for class, I don't have time to talk," I sighed as he began walking next to me.

"Well so do I, so may as well do it now," he smirked at me.

We walked in silence all the way to the library, up to the third floor and to the computer lab. He just sat there with me as I did my work. I wasn't even completely sure that he actually had any work to do, as it seemed like he was just staring at me most of the time. We didn't say much, but it felt normal.

    I finished everything around 2am and he walked me back to my dorm, letting me wear his corduroy jacket, and actually followed me all the way up to my room.

"Goodnight Riles," he spoke quietly as I handed him back his coat.

"Night Luke," a small smile spread across my face.

He looked down at my lips and for a split second I thought he might kiss me, something we never did, even while hooking up. I could see the thought cross his mind, but he just smiled back and walked towards the elevators.

Just how much had I underestimated Luke Hemmings?