echo // hemmings [completed]

forty-three | needed

—March 11th—

When she was just a teenager in a hopeless one-sided romance, Rowan found that there was no place safer than by the side of boy she loved the most. Yet as she stood there with Luke's hand clutching her wrist, all she could feel was some sort of ethereal fear. The kind that makes everything around you feel like a dream because the circumstances around you are just so terrible that you refuse to recognize them as true.

The tall blonde loosened his grip on his "girlfriend" and her first instinct was to pull away. And Calum's gut reaction was to protect her, pulling the petite girl behind him as Luke looked at them with a glazed expression.

"How long?" Calum asked hesitantly. "How long have you been able to see?"

"A month," Luke answered monotonously. "I had the operation in California."

"Is that why you..." Rowan began.

"Yeah, that's why I stayed," he admitted. A sullen look crossed his face. "I got the operation a few days after you left and then I came back to see you guys."

"So it was all a trick? The white cane, the eye patches, and the operation in three weeks? None of it was true?" The girl pressed. 

Luke simply shrugged in response.

"Then why haven't you said anything?!" Calum exclaimed. "Why haven't you yelled at us and screamed at us? Why didn't you just tell us that you saw through all of our bullshit?!" His impatience getting the best of him as he kicked the register counter.

"I was," Luke told him. "I was going to cry, yell, and maybe even punch you, but honestly... When I saw you," he turned to Rowan. "I didn't feel that angry anymore." He maneuvered around Calum and looked the girl dead in the eye. "Because I think I have known the truth for a while now."

And before the dark haired duo could even begin to question him, he sadly spilled every single detail and thought that he had for the last few months. He informed them of how close to perfect she was to Riley. How she sounded the same, smelled the same, and even laughed in the same stupid way. And how if he didn't love her as much as he did, he probably would've never known.

"When did you know?" She questioned. "When did you know I wasn't Riley?" At this Luke laughed.

"Two months ago when I kissed you. You didn't pull away in surprise like she always did." Calum furrowed his brows when he heard this surprising fact. He had always considered Luke and Riley as the most affectionate pair that he had ever seen. He was under the impression that they couldn't get enough of each other, but when he thought about it harder, the subtle things he hadn't considered before had become more apparent. 

"Yeah, surprising I know," Luke said after noting the expression on Calum's face. "But behind your backs, she hated physical love. Which makes you wonder how I was with her so long, but what can I say? I was whipped," he informed them with a chuckle.

"Yet you always kissed me back," the boy continued, his blue eyes meeting hers. "You were never afraid to love me and that's when I started to wonder. I kept thinking about what had changed in you and I thought that maybe you just felt bad for me, but then I realized it was more than that. Because I really don't want to admit it, but at some point, you started to love me more than she ever did." Tears began to streak down Rowan's cheeks when he said this.

"I'm not stupid, I know she didn't want me as much as I needed her, but I just couldn't let her go. She was just so great." Calum nodded at this statement as he too couldn't deny that Riley was a magnetic force that seemed to trap people in her influence. 

"But you did. Or at least, to me it felt like you did," Luke said to Rowan, his face inches from hers. "And I confirmed it when I came back." He carefully caressed her face, his fingers tracing the features of the girl that was so hopelessly in love with him. "You needed me as much as I needed her and I guess that's why I kept pretending to be blind. Because being the one that was loved more felt so fucking good. Now I get why she didn't break up with me; it's addictive."

The scared girl began to sob when he told her this because he was right about everything. She needed him and like he said about Riley, she could not let him go.

"And after I found out your real name, I asked this guy that I used to go to school with to read me every news article from August to January as to not tip Calum off about the truth. And I discovered why you needed me so much; Rowan Evergreen needed someone to replace her Drew Kerrington and I just happened to be in a shitty enough position to do it. You were using me just like I was using you. So I guess it was kind of perfect, right?"

Rowan shook her head, trying to deny the facts, but Luke had seen right through her, finding out about things that even she wasn't even aware of. All this time, she thought that she had completely fooled him, but in reality he was the one who had her wrapped around his finger for months.

"So now what?" Calum asked defeatedly.

"Well, I'm still kind of pissed that my best friends betrayed me and I can't exactly get over the fact that my girlfriend is dead, but I have no idea what to do about..." He looked at Rowan. "...you."

"Isn't it obvious?" She sniffled. "This is the moment when you tell me to get out of your life and I leave crying," the short haired girl told him sarcastically, turning away from the two boys as she tried to compose herself.  "So please, tell me to go... and I will, Luke. I will."

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a/n: thank you so much for 18k+ reads, it truly means the world to me :)

next time - probably the last chapter

xx