Faking Feelings (Muke)

Ch. 7 - Maybe We'll Be

"Hey, Mikey!" Luke says with a smile as I open the front door for him.

I give him a smile, much more cheerful than I'd actually intended. I quickly cover my mouth with my hand as I look down at the ground. Great, now I'm blushing.

"You're so cute when you're embarrassed" Luke says with a smile, causing me to blush even more. "I'm serious- oh, hello there" he says, kneeling down as my dog, Federer, runs towards him. "Federer?" He says, reading the tag on his collar before looking up at me.

I smile and nod at him.

"Federer, why did you run off?" My mum asks, walking out from the lounge room. "Oh, Michael, who's your friend?" She asks when she sees Luke.

I look from her to Luke, as if to tell him to introduce himself, and he must of understood the look on my face because he held his hand out for my mum to shake and, with a smile, said "Morning Mrs. Clifford, I'm Luke Hemmings, Michael's-" he glances at me as he says my name and I widen my eyes and shake my head slightly as if to say 'she doesn't know'. "Friend" he finishes, looking back at my mum.

"Nice to meet you, Luke" mum smiles.

"I hope you don't mind that I'm going to take Michael out for a bit" Luke says.

Mum's eyes practically lit up, she's always nagging me to get out of the house for something other than school. "That's okay with me, where are you taking him?" She asks.

"Well, the bookstore first, I have a book to buy him, then it's up to him where we go" Luke says with a smile directed at me.

"You've convinced Michael to read a book?!" My mum asks in amusement.

I glance up at Luke, raise an eyebrow and smirk as if to say 'Another book, actually'.

"Michael's right, it will be the second book, actually" Luke tells her.

"Wow, Michael's not one to read" she says in shock.

"I'm aware" Luke says with a smirk.

I must of been staring at Luke in someway I shouldn't be, because when I looked over at my mum she was staring at me in suspicion.

I step closer to Luke and grab the end of his shirt before gently tugging on it. He looks down at me and I give him a small smile and puppy-dog-eyes as if to say 'Can we leave now?'.

"Yes, we can go now" Luke says with a smile.

"How do you know what he's trying to say? I always have to get him to write down his thoughts for me to understand, same with his father" mum says in amazement. Luke hesitates slightly before smiling down at me.

"I guess I just understand people" Luke replies simply.

I impatiently tug on Luke's shirt again.

"Okay, okay, calm down" Luke chuckles. "It was nice to meet you, but someone's in a hurry to spend time alone with me" Luke says jokingly.

"I can see" mum says in amusement as I frown at Luke with a half suppressed smile across my face. "Come here Federer" she says, he runs straight to her and she holds onto him by the collar while I grab Luke's wrist and pull him outside, giving mum a quick wave before closing the door behind us.

We walk down the driveway and stop at Luke's car, I look up at him in confusion.

"I know what you're thinking, I'm only on my L plates.. So I should have a parent in the car" he says in amusement as he opens the passenger-side door for me.

I raise an eyebrow at him as if to say 'then why did you drive here?!' And Luke laughs in amusement.

"I took the plates off so I could drive you there, do you know how far it is to walk to the bookstore?!" He tells me.

I give him a look to say 'And if you get caught?'.

"I won't get caught, I've done it before" he says with a smirk.

I roll my eyes in amusement and climb into the car.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

Dear Stupid Diary,

So here's that update I mentioned in my last entry..

I accepted Luke's offer to take me on another date... But maybe that was pretty inevitable...

Anyway, that book Luke wanted to buy me was 'The Program' by Suzanne Young. I'm not entirely sure how to explain it without just writing out the whole blurb about it from the back cover... Which I'm too lazy to do...

But here's the first part of it anyway; "Sloane knows better than to cry in front of anyone. With suicide now an international epidemic, one outburst could land her in The Program, the only proven course of treatment."

After the bookstore, Luke just drove me around and took me to any place I excitedly pointed to (which only happened to be the ice-cream shop and the cinema, and he paid for everything).

Mum was so happy to see the smile on my face when I got home, though she was still worried about the fact that I still wasn't talking.

But I came to realise something today, it was right after Luke kissed me again during the movie... I'm not as straight as I thought I was...

I've been enjoying my time with Luke way too more than I should, considering it was meant to just be for a dare...

I have a little crush on Luke Hemmings, I shouldn't, but I do... And I don't really care.

But Ashton & Calum won't like that... I'm sure of it... They probably won't want to be friends with me anymore... Not because I'm not straight, because they aren't, but because it's Luke, the school freak.

And I really don't want everyone to turn against me, I don't want to get bullied again.

Okay, I can feel my anxiety levels rising just thinking about it all, so I think I'm just going to go listen to some music before bed.

- Michael x