released ± [ luke hemmings ]

± e l e v e n

±

The rest of the week went past quickly, as if it didn't even happen at all.

I'd attended school every day, attempting to up my chances of getting an education and scraping through graduation. My grades weren't the best, and the last thing I wanted was to have to repeat another year in that hell hole.

By the weekend, I was fully exhausted. I had two 5 hour shits at the cafe to look forward to over my two 'break' days, and I would have to see Luke again, after the 'incident'.

He had seen me at my most vulnerable, and although he actually behaved like a human being towards me, he could easily turn against me. I swear, his personality changes give me whiplash. Bipolar maybe? No-one knows.

Not really the best combination, but Michael might come and see me, which kept my hopes up of not having a completely awful weekend.

Michael, at this point, really was my only friend. Well, I'd call us friends but I don't know, maybe Michael just feels sorry for me.

I wouldn't blame him.

I'd got to the cafe relatively early, maybe around 40 minutes sooner than I should have. This was simply because I didn't want to be around my parents, I had nothing better to do, and I wanted a little time alone in the shop before anyone else unwanted turned up.

But obviously someone had the same idea...

Only 10 minutes after I'd arrived, a certain tall blonde boy came rushing through the cafe doors out of the winter rain, brushing water droplets off the top of his head as he shivered.

"Hey." He said simply, after drying the majority of himself off. I didn't reply, but went into the back room to set up the kitchen for when Molly arrived.

Obviously, Luke didn't get the message.

"Why are you ignoring me?" Luke sighed, following me through the room as I turned on different machines, listening to the loud buzzing noises that were made as they came to life.

"I'm not." I lied, taking off my own jacket as the place began to heat up. Luke walked in front of me and grabbed my forearms in an attempt to get me to listen.

"Well you're acting pretty damn strange, I actually helped you before; remember?" He said, glaring at me as I glared back. How the hell did he expect me to act?

"Well what do you want me to do, Luke? Thank you?" I asked, ripping myself from his grip as I turned away, just to be pushed up against the kitchen stove.

"I want you to listen to me." He replied, his face a little too close to mine as I wriggled away again.

"Well, no." I stated, smiling a little to myself. He grunted and hit his hand on the counter in frustration. Feeling satisfied, I walked back out of the kitchen and went to greet Molly, knowing of her presence due to that familiar twinkling of the door bell.

~

Luckily, for me, Michael did stop by the cafe. He acted a little strange at first, when he glanced at Luke, but then shook it off as he ordered a tea.

I wasn't actually sure if they'd resolved that fight they had had before, but all I knew is they definitely weren't as good a friends as they were previously. They could barely even look at each other.

"Hi Maddy." Michael grinned, giving me a slightly awkward hug over the counter as he greeted me.

I could tell it was still raining due to the small forms of rain drops dripping off Michael's multi-coloured hair ends. He currently had light violet hair, a very unusual colour but I must say he pulled it off rather well. He certainly was attractive, but I don't know I just couldn't see myself liking him, he deserved someone better.

Blushing slightly, I sent him a hello back and grinned, ignoring the 'subtle' scoffing noises Luke made behind me, as he made Michael's tea.

"Here's your tea." Luke said, placing it forcefully on the counter, causing the hot liquid to come straight back up and over the edge of the cup, and walking straight out into the backroom.

I would have shouted at Luke to come back, but there weren't many customers in. Luckily the tea didn't splash onto me or Michael, it would have been painful.

Luke could go and sulk to himself, it would have been significantly more difficult to talk to Michael anyway, knowing Luke could hear our every word.

"Thanks for taking me home the other day, you didn't have to and I really appreciate it." I said gratefully, leaning against the counter as Michael took a gulp out of his tea.

"No worries, honestly it's fine." Michael smiled, signalling for me to follow as he went and took a seat at the table in the back. Checking around me again, no new customers were in and I'm sure Luke could handle it if someone wanted to order, so I followed Michael, slipping out of my apron and tossing it aside.

I sat down at the table and rested my chin on the backs of my hands as I politely listened to whatever Michael was saying. I say listened, but I was more pretending to listen while I blanked out. Not that Michael was dull or anything, but it was Saturday morning and I was quite tired.

"So is that a yes or no?" Michael asked expectantly, cupping the mug in his hands as a heat source as he looked at me patiently.

"Sorry, what?" I asked, embarrassed.

"I'm not that boring, am I?" Michael laughed, continuing as I shook my head, "I asked if you'd want to come out with me tonight, you need to let loose."

I didn't really know what to say, but I was certainly shocked. Was Michael actually asking me on a date?

"Oh..." I replied, embarrassing myself further. I looked at Michael, and then looked at Luke, who had walked back into the room and sat down a few tables away from us without me noticing. He could clearly hear every word of our conversation and was waiting for my reply, like Michael.

Maybe it was Luke's frozen gaze, or maybe it was my inner screaming for wanting a night out, but the next words that left my lips certainly weren't from a well-thought brain.

"Yes, I'd love to."

-

I LITERALly haven't updated for months I honestly wasn't going to but a few readers have been telling me to update and stuff so I decided to, thank you :-)

i would like to start posting more frequently but to be honest I have so many commitments and exams coming up so it certainly won't be as frequent as I'd like it to, but i do promise not to update once every few months, thats ridiculous ;(

anyways i just saw i have 4k reads now so thank you so much okay i know i haven't said it much but it does mean a lot to me, your votes and follows and comments go right to my heart :~)

thanks ok ilysm keep reading!!!