High School With Hemmings

Chapter 3

Towards the end of the day I realize that I only have a couple dollars and that I can't afford a lunch at Wendy's. I would feel bad cancelling, but I don't want to make any of the boys to pay for me. The bell rings of my last class and I head over to my locker, which is all the way across the school. I can see Luke leaning up against my locker, waiting for me. I give him a slight wave, and he smiles back. "Hey Marilyn," he says as I get closer.

"Hi Luke," I say as I open my locker and throw my unneeded books in.

"So how was your first day here?" he asks.

"Pretty good, aside from the fact I barely know anybody," I slam my locker shut.

"Well, you have me," he says while blushing. He quickly adds, "And the other guys."

"Yeah, I know. It's still hard though."

"I get it, I get it," he says sympathetically. "So are you ready to go to Wendy's?"

"Luke, I'm really sorry, but I don't have any money to pay. I just realised that."

"Hey, don't worry about it. I got you covered," he says with a smirk.

"Really? You don't have to do that."

"No. It's fine Marilyn. Seriously," he replies softly.

"Thanks, Luke," I say and we walk out of the school.

I see an old, beat-up car pull up to the front steps with Calum riding shotgun and Michael driving. Calum waves at us to get in and Luke and I hop into the backseat. Green Day blares from the speakers and Michael speeds out of the parking lot. I turn to my left and see Luke looking out the window, mouthing the words of the song. Calum and Michael sing at the top of their lungs and I just sit there thinking about how I ended up in a car with all of these goofballs.

We pulled into Wendy's in a couple minutes after we pick up Ashton (who is super nice) at his house, but we had to sit there because Michael wanted to finish listening to the song. When it was over, we all get out of the car and walk into the restaurant.

We order, Luke pays for my lunch, and then find a booth to sit in. I am across from Luke and I am sitting next to Michael. The boys devour their food and I sit there, trying to be as neat as I can, but I realise that they really don't care. The table looks like a warzone after they're done eating.

"So who's going to clean all this up?" Ashton asks.

All the boys call "NOT IT" and touch their noses, and of course I was the last one to catch onto it.

"We can't let Marilyn do it! That would be rude," Luke says, "I'll take care of it." He cleans up the trash, puts it on the tray and throws it into the garbage and then gently places the tray above it. The boys all sit there, with surprised expressions on their faces.

"Thank you Luke," I say and smile. He gives me a little grin back, which makes my heart melt. He was adorable.

We all get back into the car, in the same arrangement as before, where Luke is sitting in between Ashton and I and Calum is shotgun and Michael is driving. Michael drops Calum off first in a small, one story house a couple of miles away from Wendy's. Then, he drops Ashton off at an apartment building towards the inner city. Ashton opens up a spot in the backseat for Luke to move over, but he doesn't. "You can move over if you want," I yell because Michael is blaring his music again. Luke motions that he can't understand me. I roll my eyes and look out the front window. My hands sit in my lap, folded over one another, covering my phone. Luke eyes them and nudges me on the shoulder. I turn to him, making eye contact. He takes my phone out of my hands and gives me his. He leans in close to my ear; I can feel his short breaths against my neck.

"Put your number in my phone and I'll uh put mine in yours," he says, sort of nervously. I quickly add a new contact saved as "Marilyn" and type in my phone number. I hand it back to him, but he doesn't give me mine back easily. He teases me and holds it all the way at the other end of the car, so I have to reach over him completely to grab it. Once I have my phone back, I look in the contacts and see that he put his name in as "Luke<3" I sit back and smile.