Seniors // Luke Hemmings

15. Home

"Where are we going?" I asked curious. "We're almost there, just wait," Luke answered. We continued walking in silence for a little while longer. It had stopped raining but I was freezing and the sky looked as if a storm was on the way. "Okay. This is it." Luke suddenly said and looked at me nervously. "And where are we exactly?" "At my house," he answered. 

"What? No! I can't meet your family looking like a monster with my wet clothes and my face covered with mascara." I refused. He took my hand and pulled me forward. "You like fine, trust me." "Luke please," I whined while I tried to pull him the other way. "Okay fine," he said and stopped walking, letting go of my hand. I stared confused at him. "So where do you want to go then? Do you have a better idea? I can also walk you back home to your psycho sister or maybe to James' house if that's what you want. Or we can stay outside and experience a lovely storm. Or you can just come inside with me." I sighed: "Sorry, you're right." We stared at each other in silence for a few seconds before Luke cracked a smile and reached his hand out to me. "C'mon, let's get inside."

 He pulled out a key of his pocket and opened the wooden door in front of us. Then he let me walk in first like a gentleman and closed the door back after me. I let my eyes travel through the hallway.  When I was there the last time I didn't really look at the house to be honest because we just headed straight upwards for our project. The house was big and fancy. It maybe was even bigger than our house but it looked a lot cozier and felt more like home to me than my own house.

"Luke? Are you home?" a female voice called from another room and then a blonde woman, who I assumed was Luke's mom, walked into the hallway. "Oh hi, mom. This is Emma," Luke said. I felt really uncomfortable because I didn't quite liked meeting his mom for the first time, looking like this. "Oh hello Emma, I'm Liz," she smiled. "Hello, nice to meet you," I answered. Liz looked like a very sweet woman. "Oh dear, aren't you cold? You're soaking wet," she said worried. "I'm fine," I lied. I felt Luke staring at me and looked at him. "Mom, is it okay if she stays here tonight? She's in this massive fight with her sister and her parents are out of town," Luke explained.

I was surprised at his idea since I barely knew him for a week and now he suggested me to spend the night at his house. "Sure, of course you can. And after all I'm not letting you go back outside, the sky is looking very dark. You can take shower if you want to, Luke will show you the way," she smiled and then walked back to the other room, leaving us alone. I took off Luke's jacket and handed it back to him. He hung it on the rack and then gave me a sign to follow him.

I followed him up to his room, which I did remember. "Okay so that went easy," he smirked. "Now... I don't know what would be weirder? If I gave you underwear from my mom or from me?" He asked awkwardly. I burst into laughter and he awkwardly laughed along. Liz knocked on the door and slowly opened it. "Hi, I thought you could use this, Emma," she smiled and layed some underwear on the bed. "Don't worry, it's never even been worn, we just have some extra clothes for when our niece comes over," she explained. "Thank you," I smiled gratefully. "No problem, sweetie. I'm going to go to bed, it's been a long day for me. If you need anything you can ask Luke," she said. Luke and I smiled at her and said "goodnight," before she left us back alone. "Okay, problem solved," Luke smiled and led me to the bathroom. "Here you go, I'll be in room if you need something," he shifted awkwardly. I nodded and then he left me alone to shower. I took a deep sigh and leaned on the washbasin as I looked at my reflection in the mirror. Only just now I saw how horrible I looked. My clothes were sticking at my body and my hair looked like some sort of dead animal. There were black lines from my mascara all over my cheeks and my eyes were red and swollen from crying.

I jumped in the shower and the warmth of the water on my cold body felt heavenly. I stood in the shower longer than I normally would have and silently hummed a random song. This shower was probably the best thing that happened to me today. I stepped out of it, feeling a lot better than I did a while ago and put the towel around me. I put on the underwear and then looked at the clothes Luke had given me. It were a pair of grey sweatpants and a black shirt, probably from him. I put it on and couldn't hold back my smile when the familiar smell from Luke crossed my noise. I didn't bother to dry my hair and just braided it quickly. I took a last glare at the mirror, that reflected a more decent girl then before, and headed back to Luke's room. 

"Hey," Luke said and jumped up from his bed. "Did you find everything you need?". I nodded and sat down on the bed. "I am so tired," I yawned. "Right, so uhm... you can take my bed. I'll sleep in the spare bedroom." I smiled softly and nodded. "I'm also going to take a quick shower. You can already sleep, if you need something just call me" he said and walked to the door. "Luke?" "Yeah?" He turned around to me with his hand on the door handle. "Thank you." I smiled. He smiled back and then left the room.

I laid down on the bed and pulled the sheets over me. I was so tired but I couldn't seem to actually fall asleep because my thoughts were still with Luke and couldn't stop thinking about him. Awhile later the door opened slowly and Luke popped in. "Oh, I thought you were already sleeping," he whispered. "I was just coming in to get a blanket," he continued and walked into his room. Only just now I saw he was only wearing sweatpants, which looked a lot like the one I was wearing. "Yeah... I can't sleep," I said. He walked over to the bed and looked at me in a way I never saw him looking before. "How are you feeling?" he asked. "To be honest, I've never felt safer."