Imagination || L.H.

Chapter 18

With promises to orchestrate a get-together soon, Luke and I leave The Scoop and head towards the pier. Cassie is beyond excited that I'm dating Luke, but I made her promise not to go around telling everyone just yet. Today, I just want to spend time with Luke. 

As the door closes behind us, Luke meets my eyes and smiles, reaching for my hand. I give his hand a squeeze as we start down the sidewalk.

It's hard to keep a smile from my face. Being with Blake never felt like this. It never felt like I was high on pure happiness and not any other substance. Holding his hand never sent shivers down my spine. 

There's something different about Luke and I can't say that I don't like it.

As we pass Oliver's cafe, I spot none other than the owner lugging out two bags of trash and depositing them in the dumpster out back. Rushing forward, I drag Luke after me. 

Oliver glances up when we approach, a smile crossing his face. "Kat, Luke, how are you guys?" He perks up significantly at Luke's presence.

"Good," I reply. 

Turning to Luke, I add, "Actually, Luke has a summer job proposition for you."

Shooting a grateful look my way, he steps forward. "Do you have openings for a gig here once a week? I can also wipe down tables if that works for you."

"I have a spot from seven to eight on Fridays that needs to be filled if you're willing to play a couple songs. And I could use another busboy; Collin's off doing a summer semester at Berkeley." Oliver extends his hand out to Luke, who grasps it firmly. "I believe you have yourself a job, Mr. Hemmings. I pay fifteen bucks an hour to musicians and five an hour for busboys. When would you like to come in?"

Luke gives me a sideways glance. "When are you at The Scoop?"

I smile, facing Oliver. "Does 9:45 to 11:45 on Tuesday and Thursday mornings work?"

"That's perfect. See you then!" Waving goodbye at us, he disappears back into the little cafe.

"Thanks," Luke says, throwing an arm across my shoulders as we stroll down the pier. "Now I have a job so I can finally start saving up for a car again. Mom said she was going to meet me halfway, but that was before..." 

He trails off, a broken look on his face. I frown, reaching a hand up to intertwine my fingers with the arm he has around my shoulders. 

"Any way, it doesn't matter anymore," he mumbles.

"But it does." We come to a stop at the end of the pier and I twist to face him. "Luke, she's your mother. You have a right to be upset, to miss her. She probably misses you too. You're both just too proud and stubborn to admit it."

He smiles softly down at me, pulling me even closer. "What did I ever do to make you like me?"

"Be you," I mumble, resting my head against his shoulder.

His smile becomes surprisingly sweet and irresistible. I stretch up onto my toes to kiss him. Just before our lips touch, his phone rings in his back pocket. 

Giving me a rueful look, he accepts the call. "Hello?" 

Something the person on the other end of the line says causes his expression to harden into a mask of cold indifference. I touch his wrist gently, hoping for some way to ease some of his pain. He doesn't look at me, but his long fingers lace through mine tightly like I'm the only thing keeping him grounded. 

"I don't know what you want me to tell you," Luke snaps into the phone, a fire of anger and bitterness igniting in his ocean colored eyes. "What's done is done and there's no undoing it." 

I hear the raised answer from the person on the other end of the line, but it's too muffled for me to make out the words. 

Luke cuts them off sharply with a look that could kill. "Sitting around a table and holding hands and singing kumbaya isn't going to fix anything, Jack. People are not your toys to play with for your amusement." 

With that, he hangs up, leaning heavily on the wooden railing encircling the perimeter of the pier.

I slide my fingers from his and wrap my arms around his waist instead, my cheek pressed against his chest. "What's wrong?"

"Jack's back in town," Luke murmurs, playing with his lip ring. "He and Celeste went up to their friend's lake house with a group for a few weeks as one last big celebration before the wedding. Ben's still in the UK, and apparently Mom and Dad didn't tell him about what was going on here. He... He wanted to ask me why I wasn't home, why I hadn't been home for a while." 

Unshed tears shine in his eyes. "Why does everything have to be so hard?"

"You have people that care about you to lean on, Luke, never forget that. Me, Calum, Michael, Ashton. Joy and Mali. You're not alone."

"I used to have my mom and Celeste. And look how that turned out. How can I rely on anyone when there are people that I've trusted and loved that have betrayed me? That threw me away when they were done with me?" Even in a whisper, his voice cracks.

I loosen my grip to pull back and look him in the eye. "Celeste," I repeat. "You've never mentioned her name before."

He closes his eyes and turns away from me. A torn expression on his face, he steps out of the circle of my arms and my hands fall to my sides. Trying to give him the space he needs, I command myself to remain where I am.

Luke drops his gaze to the boards beneath our feet, his voice sounding defeated and worn. "I know you think you know what I'm going through, but you don't, Kat, not really. You got to yell at them, you got to cast them out of your life and pretend like it never happened. I can't. They don't know that I know. I have to see my brother and act like I don't know that he was fucking over my girlfriend behind my fucking back. I can't scream at them and chuck something across the room. All I can do is drink to take the edge off. But I can't even do that without being thrown out of my house!" 

His eyes are red rimmed when they lock on mine. "Where is the justice? What did I do to deserve this?"

I extend a hand hesitantly out to him, letting him decide whether to push me away or not. He looks at my hand for a minute before sliding his fingers through mine and pulling me close. I reach up to twine my arms behind his neck. 

"You're right; I don't know what that's like. But you're too hard on yourself, Luke. You try to carry the weight of the world and get upset when you can't." I brush the single tear rolling down his cheek with my thumb. "You weren't meant to carry the weight of the world."

Our faces are close enough that if one of us were to shift at all, our noses would brush. With the brokenness playing across his face and the way his startling blue eyes are looking into mine, the way he's fiddling with his lip ring anxiously and holding me to him like he intends on never letting go... 

It's making me crazy. I didn't know anyone could make you feel like this.

"I have to go see my parents; I haven't talked to them in days and they're probably worried. If you want, you can come too. It's been awhile since you've talked to my parents." 

At the look on his face, I hurry to add, "You don't have to. It was just an offer. I can walk you back to Calum's house if you'd rather do that-"

Luke silences me by placing his lips to mine. Drawing back, he says with a slight smile, "I want to go with you."

I smile back up at him, releasing my hands from behind his head and taking his hand in mine as we walk back down the pier.