Home// Luke Hemmings

Chapter 20

The rest of the day had gone by more slow than any other day of my life. Most of the time it was hard for me to focus on anything in class. A couple of times I was purposely called on for not paying attention, which didn't help my situation. Luke and I were seperated in class for talking instead of paying attention as well, so this day was just not my day. I felt like the entire world was against me.

Lunch was also nothing exciting. Ella sat with us today instead of her friends. I guess they were just shrugging off the situation? Something like that. Anyway, I let her sit with us, but no one had much to say. I didn't blame them, I wouldn't know what the hell to say either, and I didn't.

After what felt like many hours of silence Luke speaks up and asks the question I was dreading asking myself. "Are you going to go home?" He says hesitantly while placing my hand in his.

"I don't know." I say as I stare blankly at my untouched food. He doesn't say anything more and just looks down at our hands.

Liv comes over to my side of the table. "Al, look at me." She says in a demanding but also calm way. "You know that no matter what happens you have a place to stay. And that's with any of us." She gives me a small smile and gives me a hug.

I rested my head on her shoulder. "Thank you guys. But Ella wants to see if her and I can stay with my grandmother..."

"That's good Al, hopefully you'll feel safe there." Michael says reaching for my hand.

"It's in Florida." I say blankly to the group. They all look at me in shock. I didn't want to go as much as they wouldn't want me to go. But I had no other family left.

Luke looks at me with a shocked expression and lets go of my hand. "Florida?" He asks.

Once again I start to tear up. "I don't want to go, but I have no family here."

Luke's expression goes from shocked to angry. "You can't just leave, what about all of us? What about you and me? The life you have here now? This is crazy!" He shakes his head and gets up and walks out of the cafeteria.

"Luke come on!" Ashton yells as he gets up and runs towards Luke.

I put my head in my hands and begin to cry again. I'm so tired of crying. When was this just going to be over? "Come on, you don't need to be at school right now. I'm taking you and Ella back to my house." Crystal says putting a hand on my shoulder. "I'll have my mom call the school saying she's allowing us to be dismissed."

We stayed at school for about halfway through the second period when Crystal's mom finally arrived. Luke wasn't in my next class and I started to worry as to where he had gone. I went into the hall a couple of times to find him but I had no luck. Liv knew I must have been looking for him because she gave me a look as if she was sorry for me. "Al, Ashton will take care of this. Luke is just upset about the fact you might be leaving, we all are. But we'll all be there for you. Distance won't change the friendship we had." I give a fake smile and look back down at the ground.

"This is the hardest decision I've ever had to make." I whisper.

"Then take your time. But do what's important for you." Crystal says giving me a small smile.

*****

I sat on Crystal's bed holding my knees against my chest. All I wanted right now was Luke. I felt the most comfortable when I was with him. I felt like all my anxiety would just go away if he was here. But he wasn't. I still didn't know where he was or what he was doing. I had texted both him and Ashton multiple times and didn't get a response from either.

Crystal and Liv were downstairs because I told them earlier that I was taking a nap. I lied, I really just wanted to be alone and I knew this was as much alone time as I was going to get. Meanwhile my sister was downstairs with the girls.