$3.49 ♦ luke hemmings au

Chapter 11: Calculus

a/n -- this is a little bit of a filler, hope it doesn’t suck

Kristine’s POV

I woke up late Sunday, and the date from last night replayed in my head. I smiled to myself remembering how Luke carried me up the stairs and how he kissed my cheek.

I was surprised to see Sierra in our room. She was looking intensly at her phone.

“Hey, goodmorning,” she said.

“Hey, Sierra. What are you doing?”

“Uh… Reading fan fiction,” she replied hesitantly.

I was going to ask her which fic but she claimed she had somewhere to be.

Well, okay then.

I called Mariah to see what she was up to. I dialed and only got her voicemail. I could’ve called some of my other friends, but most of them would take me to the bar. I wasn’t feeling that today.

I called Luke. He picked up on the first ring.

“Hey Kris!” he enthusiastically greeted me.

“Hey, so what are you doing?” I asked.

“Studying for my stupid calculus test. Oh! That reminds me, are you any good at calculus?”

“I guess I could try to help. We might get distracted though,” I joked.

Luke laughed, “yeah, we might. I could invite Calum and Ashton to meet us at the library. They might keep us on track, and they want to meet you.”

“Okay, yeah. I could be at the library in, like, 40 minutes,” I offered.

“Cool, see you then Kris.”

♦♦♦♦

I walked into the library and saw Luke sitting at a table (it was in the corner by a window, typical Luke). I sat down in the seat next to him. I smiled and looked down at the textbook that was sitting in front of him.

“So what are we working on?” I asked.

“Sketching curves,” Luke sighed.

"Fuck," I whispered, "I took calculus last year but I don't remember any of this."

"It's okay," Luke smiled, "I still got to see you."

I blushed and started tapping my fingers on the desk. Who I assumed to be Calum and Ashton, sat at our table.

"Hey, Kristine," she dark haired boy said shaking my hand, "I'm Calum."

I looked to the boy with longer, and lighter hair. He didn't say anything, he only stared.

"Hi," he choked out.

"Hey, you're Ashton I assume?"

"Yeahhh... You can call me Ash if you want," he said slowly.

I smiled awkwardly at him and looked over at Luke. He shrugged.

"Hey Kris," Ashton said, "are you from Kentu-- I mean, Tennessee, because you're the only ten I see."

"Thanks," I said highly confused. How was I supposed to react to this?

Calum smiled and stared at Ashton, clearly amused.

"Did you... When you fell from heaven did it hurt cuz... Cuz... It's pavement, uh... Fuck..." he muttered.

To be honest, this was the funniest, most pathetic thing I've ever seen. I wanted to stop him and put him out of his misery, but I was enjoying it way too much.

"Tell me another," I coaxed.

"Ummm... I think my phones broken, it doesn't have your number in it."

Calum was laughing so hard he was banging his fist on the table. Luke looked uncomfortable but highly entertained.

"If you were a burger--"

Luke cut him off, "Ash, snap out of it. She's taken."

A look of horror came across his face as he realized how many pick up lines he had just said.

Calum was laughing so hard he was crying.

"Bathroom," Ashton mumbled and he stood up quickly (he banged his knee on the table by accident).

Ashton limped off toward the bathrooms, and I doubted he would return. We all looked at each other and burst our laughing.

"SHHHHHHHHHHH CHILDREN," a librarian scolded.

We whispered an apology and looked at each other.

"Um, sorry about that Kristine," Calum said, "Ashton gets really nervous around girls."

"It's okay. That was awesome," I laughed.

We giggled for a few more minutes. Surprisingly, Ashton returned.

We were silent.

"So... Calculus? How the hell do you do this, again?" I said quickly changing the subject.

Cal and Luke started talking math, but Ashton turned to me and mouthed, "thank you."

I winked letting him know I was cool with it, and that he should just forget about it. He blushed, then looked relieved.

"No no no, Luke. You're doing it all out of order," Calum corrected him.

"This is so hard! And the test is in a few days, I'm going to fail," Luke whined.

I excused myself, "I'm not going to be much help here. I'll be looking for some books."

Luke squeezed my hand before I got up. I squeezed it back and left the table.

♦♦♦♦

I was looking through the fiction section. I wanted to check out Eleanor & Park and a couple other Rainbow Rowell books.

My search was interrupted by Ashton coming over. He crouched down next to me.

"What are you looking for?" he asked.

"The author Rainbow Rowell. Tell me if you see her."

He nodded but stayed quiet.

"Sorry about earlier. I really don't know what came over me. I just... you're really pretty," he said looking over at me.

"Thanks. Hey, it's okay. Just forget it."

"Thanks."

"Have any more pick up lines?" I asked hoping he had more.

"Well... I have a really nerdy one."

I got really excited.

"It's a little dirty though," he warned.

I told him that I didn't care.

"if I were a particle and you were a quantum potential, would you let me penetrate your classically forbidden regions?" He said smirking (and blushing).

I laughed and held onto the bookshelf for support.

"I love it!"

He looked down, and smiled weakly. He was so terrible at talking to girls.

"So do those actually work?" I asked already knowing the answer.

"Never."

Thought so.

Ashton found Rainbow Rowell for me. I thanked him and he left. I checked out by books and made my way back to the table. When I returned Calum smiled politely, but Luke whipped his head around and stared at me with big eyes.

“Guess what?” Luke said.

“What?”

“I’m not going to fail Calculus,” Luke exclaimed.

He honestly looked like a 5 year old when he did.