in the crowd • luke hemmings

14. pretty girl

it had been a week and luke still hadn't lost the warmth in his stomach from being in lola's house.

his knuckles had healed underneath the pink plasters, and they had all fallen off - and he was missing them again.

lola was coming to his boxing match that night. luke knew, because he'd asked her himself this time.

luke had called her the day after he made her tea to comfort her. the sight of lola looking so sad and so not like herself was still burned into his brain, and he'd just wanted to make sure she was okay.

hearing her voice sounding so bright and happy again, and then hearing it say it was because he had gone to see her made his heart sing. luke needed to see her again; he needed to know for sure he would see her again soon. as soon as possible. so, sheepishly, he brought up his match, and asked her if she would come to watch.

he'd never asked anyone to come to one of his matches before.

the immediate offer to clean up his bloodied hands afterwards made luke smile so wide he was scared his cheek would press against the end call button, and he was almost sad this match would be one with gloves.

***

"isn't dressing up to go to boxing a bit -weird? it's not really a dressy thing, is it?" lola watched with slightly anxious eyes as bella rifled through her clothes.

"anything you go to that luke will be at is now a dressy thing lola. we need to get you that kiss!" bella's voice was muffled from inside wardrobe, but the determination in her tone was clear.

"besides, you don't want to have to wait as long as i waited for michael." she pointed out, throwing a blue skirt at lola and giving her a pointed look.

"but that's different." lola whined, catching the skirt and falling back into her bed. "you two were just too nervous to tell the other how you felt - luke and i aren't even there yet."

"but you're headed that way. and all i am trying to do is speed up the journey." bella insisted, sitting beside where lola was laying. "it's painfully obvious how much you like each other, and it's also painfully obvious how shy you both are."

"we're not shy we've just - only had one date."

"he came to your house to cheer you up when you had a bad day. he knows how you like your tea." lola sat up with flushed cheeks.

she held the skirt up against herself, smiling at the mirror as she turned from side to side.

"see. i knew it would look cute. wear that with the tops you're wearing now and you're set." bella smiled triumphantly from the bed, catching her friend's eye in the mirror.

lola looked down at her layered tops; a plain white t shirt under a black vest edged with lace. then she looked back down at the skirt hanging in front of her pyjama-pants clad legs and bit her lower lip in excitement.

"yeah." she agreed, her heart fluttering slightly at the thought of seeing luke in an hour. "yeah, okay."

***

lola hugged her oversized blazer slightly tighter around herself as the group rounded the corner to luke's gym.

she still wasn't used to it not being the summer.

there were already cheers echoing from the downstairs of the gym, and the excitement of seeing luke wasn't entirely covering the growing feeling of nervousness in lola's stomach.

the darker it got the more scared she felt, and although she couldn't deny how beautiful luke looked while he was boxing, it hurt her heart a little to have to watch the fights that made his knuckles so bloody all the time.