No Escape (luke hemmings au)

~part six~

        My heart started racing. I looked at Luke but he was staring at the door. We waited. They knocked again, but this time it was different. This time they used they boys’ knock.

                I instantly thought of Calum, and Luke and I both rushed for the door. We scrambled to move the freezer out of the way. Luke fumbled with the door handle and flung it open without a second thought. I dashed around, anxious to see the boys’ again.

                But it wasn’t them.

                I felt my face fall and my hope instantly melted away. I looked in front of me and saw a girl with red hair pulled into a messy bun atop her head. Her cheeks were badly sunburnt. She was wearing cargo pants and a black tank top. She had a machete in her hand.  She looked just as startled as we were.

                “I didn’t think anyone was actually here, I was just taking a shot in the dark,” she shrugged and pushed past us into the store. I looked at Luke, but he was staring at the girl with his bottom lip between his teeth. He looked at me the same way when I woke up in the back of the truck.

 He let the door fall closed and we followed the mysterious ginger. I felt a stab of jealousy in my stomach. Who did she think she was, barging in here and turning Luke into some lovesick puppy?

I wanted to smack myself. Why did I care what Luke thought of other girls? For all I knew he was just putting on an act to get in my pants. I was so caught up in my inner dilemma that I didn’t notice Luke leave my side.

 The girl wandered around, sifting through the contents of the shelves like there was nothing odd about this situation. She hummed a song that I couldn’t quite name. Luke cleared his throat. The girl turned around with an innocent smile on her face. Her blade had been tucked into a strap hanging from her hip. I couldn’t take my eyes off of it.

                “Hi,” she grinned. She was about to turn back around, but Luke dashed forward and stopped her by her shoulder.

                “’Hi’?” he asked. “I don’t get your name?” he said flirtatiously, putting his hands in his pockets.

The girl turned around to look at me. Her gaze seemed to say Can you believe this guy? She looked a lot like Jess’ first girlfriend, Hannah. It seemed like an entire lifetime ago that Jess was telling me about the cute girl in her science class.

                The girl turned back around to face Luke. “Elisa,” she said. “What about you? You got a name?”

                Luke looked like he couldn’t quite grasp the fact that Elisa existed. He stared at her in disbelief, as if he was unable to speak. Before I could stop myself, I found myself wishing he would look at me like that.

                “Great name,” Elisa mocked. She turned to me and left Luke in his own little bubble. “And you?”

                “Dez,” I muttered. I wasn’t sure she had heard me, but she nodded so I assumed she must have. She was very bubbly. She reminded me of Jess. “The bumbling idiot over there is Luke.”

                She smiled and looked back at Luke who immediately straightened his back and tried to look cool. I almost laughed. Elisa turned back to me and smiled even wider. “I like you, Dez.” She bounced over to me and slapped me on the shoulder.

                She spun back around and clapped her hands excitedly. “Right,” she said. “I came here for a reason. Have any of you seen a dashing young man with brown hair, about six feet tall, wears a bandana around his head?” she asked. “I lost him in the woods. The little bugger always wanders off when we’re hunting.”