MiseryOmens_
Luke Hemmings was the reason you hated going to school.
To everyone else, he was funny. Popular. Confident. The boy who could make an entire classroom laugh without even trying.
To you, he was cruel.
It started with stupid nicknames and comments whispered just loud enough for you to hear. Then came the stolen pencils, the laughter from across the classroom, the jokes about your clothes, and the constant feeling that whenever Luke was nearby, you were about to become the punchline.
Luke always had the same excuse.
It was just a joke.
Maybe that's all it was to him.
But somewhere along the way, you stopped raising your hand in class. You started eating lunch alone. You learned which hallways to take so you wouldn't run into him.
And eventually, you learned something else.
How to pretend Luke Hemmings didn't exist.
That's when everything changes.
Because Luke was prepared for you to hate him.
He wasn't prepared for you to stop caring.
And when the loud, irritating boy you've spent years avoiding turns out to be the nervous kid secretly sitting alone with a guitar and dreams he's too afraid to tell anyone about, you're forced to realize Luke isn't quite the person you thought he was.
The problem?
Neither are you.
Luke might be ready to change.
But forgiveness is something he'll have to earn.
After all, you hated him first.