in the crowd • luke hemmings

17. white knee socks

"so you guys slept together?" michael asked, his eyebrows furrowed together to keep the sweat from falling into his eyes.

"only slept. we haven't done anything like that yet." luke sent a final few punches to the bag before taking a short breather.

"dude this means a lot. she's only ever shared a bed with nate before - and bella obviously. she's so private." ashton said, sitting shoulder to shoulder with calum and swigging from a water bottle. "she's really shy - it took her so long to warm up to us!"

calum nodded, still slightly out of breath from their training session. "she goes really pink when we mentioned you before. it's been ages since we've seen her properly so we're relying on you at this point luke."

luke pauses for a moment, his face screwing up slightly in confusion.

"what?"

"you got to tell us about you and lola man. you're two of our best friends, we need to know this shit."

all three boys grinned at him, the childish smiles covering their faces making luke feel like he was fifteen all over again.

"we've kissed, that's as far as we've gone."

"with tongue?" calum couldn't resist asking, his grin extending more somehow as the rest of the boys laughed.

"calum shut the fuck up you're not fourteen." luke scoffed, unable to refrain from the tiny smirk that spread across his face. "but yeah, obviously."

"dude this is fucking great. two more of our best friends getting together, it's just me and cal now."

"exactly baby." calum draped himself over ashton who began to giggle uncontrollably and weakly push him off.

"no but seriously luke. how's it all going?" michael asked, shoving ashton and calum away when their play-fight landed on him.

"it's going well. i think. i hope it's going well - i think it is." luke could hear his voice stumble slightly with uncertainty and swallowed. "i really like her and i'm pretty sure she likes me - she let me stay in her bed and i literally want to spend every single night in there."

he paused and looked over at the three boys, who all sat in silence, gazing up at him, waiting for him to continue.

"we haven't like - said that we like each other, it just doesn't feel necessary - it's pretty obvious."

"you're so cute man." ashton smiled.

"so you really like her then?" calum said, a knowing smirk on his face.

"how could i not?" luke couldn't stop the overflowing fondness he had for the small girl and looked down at his feet for a moment. "she's so fucking pretty and she's nice and i like her house and - i like that she does ballet because she understands about training and stuff? i don't feel like i need to justify it or anything. she gives me these pink plasters man, i wear gloves just to make sure they stay on."

luke took his glove off to show the boys the pink plasters covering his knuckles and they all let out a collective "awhhh" at the sight.

"dude you need to ask her on another date and ask her to be your proper girlfriend. it's pretty much official anyway, but still." calum encouraged, finally finding the courage to stand up on his tired legs and open his locker.

"i don't think i've ever seen you like a girl before! i feel like a proud jedi master." michael's reference elicited a chuckle from luke, his cheeks turning a bashful red.

"go anakin. use the tools that we have given you and acquire your woman." ashton's half hearted yoda impression earned him a "shut up" in between calum's laughter.