Lines // hemmings

Chapter 26

LUKE

I don’t know what time it is, but the room is getting filled and I’m starting to think Calum won’t show up at all. I should have known he was just joking with me. Why would he even help me? Why would he show up now, after all this time?

Our friendship started thanks to Michael. He’d known Calum for a long time and he invited Calum once when we were playing video games and watching movies. At first he was this really shy guy, didn’t say much. He was mostly by Michael’s side but over time, he started talking more and more and I found out he was genuinely a nice guy and we had lots in common.

I think the two of us bonded more than he did with any of the others but I didn’t call him my best friend. Michael was my best friend. Plus, Calum already had a best friend, who we used to mock him about because it was a girl. We were young and dumb, thought it wasn’t possible to have a best friend of the opposite sex.

I smile back at the memories. 

That’s when it hits me. All this time and Calum was talking about Abby.

My Abby.

And this is when I realize it, a week after. I already knew Abby before she started sending me letters. Not that we ever met, because we never did.

But Calum talked about her. A lot. 

“Sorry I’m a few minutes late,” Calum says when he crashes down in the seat in front of me. His face is red and it looks like he’s been running. 

“Be honest with me now…how long have you and Abby been best friends?” I ask before he can open his mouth again and tell me why he’s all red in his face.

“Since we were just toddlers, why?” He answers with a small shrug.

I close my eyes and remember all the times he mentioned his best friend, trying to recall if he ever said her name. Like the time he told me his best friend got them kicked out of Chemistry after almost burning down the classroom, the time his best friend got dumped and cried nonstop for two weeks, the time they had a pillow fight and broke a lamp…It was all about her. And I realized something else too.

“She was your first crush.”

Calum shifts in his seat, suddenly looking very uncomfortable.

“Yeah, so?”

“You told me you had a crush on her. You kissed her. And then you…ohmygod.” My eyes widen when I realize he had told me what they did one time when they were home alone because they wanted to try and wanted to do it with someone special.

“Luke, that was ages ago. I don’t like her that way. I may love her, but not in that way. I’m not in love with her, she’s just my best friend.”

“She was your first love. You never forget your first love,” is all I can say after all those words from Calum.

“Luke, listen to me,” he starts and reach out for my hands but I pull them away. Why am I even mad? It’s not like I…oh I really do have a crush on her. “Abby and I are never going to be more than friends, do you hear me? When we kissed, yes it was nice but I know she doesn’t feel anything for me and besides, I have a girlfriend. Abby is…she’s a really special person who means a lot to me and she always will do that. But we will never, and I repeat never do any of that stuff again. We have both moved on and I already know her heart is set with someone else.”