city lights. luke hemmings. laurelei.

first night. 2007.

i woke up to a rapid knocking on my bedroom window. the clock read one am. squinting my eyes, i saw a thin shadow behind my curtains beside what looked like a guitar. realising who it was, i nearly jumped out of bed and ran straight to the window.

i opened up the curtains in a hurried fashion and a wide grin spread upon my face as luke shared the same expression. i swung the window open and decided to bring luke inside so that he wouldn't die of hypothermia in front of my bedroom window.

he passed up his guitar for me to look after while he awkwardly lifted one leg in front of another to get inside my room. i set his guitar to the side and helped him get all of his body out of the freezing weather. once he was inside i shut my window to keep the sharp cold air out of my room.

luke picked up his guitar and sat himself on my bed. "hey, delly. i thought that maybe instead of playing games all night cooped up in your room, we could go up to your roof and we'll sing some songs, yeah? so that we don't disturb your mum and dad...or worse! the beast!" i laughed at his nickname for my sister, lexi. the only reason he even called her that was because for the school play of beauty and the beast, she had to play the beast.

"okay. just let me put some shoes and a jacket on," i said, realising that all i was wearing was a thin singlet and some flimsy shorts, while luke looked like he had wrapped himself up in ten layers.

luke beamed up at me and flashed me a toothy grin. "but hurry up mum said she's going to be home at five so we've only got a few hours," he prompted, which made me rush towards my shoe rack and pull on the first pair of winter boots i could find. i pulled my matching winter jacket on and luke and i raced to the back door, trying not to make a sound.

i was suddenly thankful for the massive oak tree in our backyard for us to climb to get the roof. luke and i both decided to take different ways up the tree and not long after it turned in a competition for the winner to get to the roof first.

i grinned at my advantage - luke had his guitar tightly strung onto his back which made him struggle to get through the smaller gaps in between the branches. i laughed in excitement while luke did the same.

only minutes later, both of us were sitting on the roof and luke was strumming his guitar softly while we both gazed up at the city lights.

"i could stay here forever, you know," he breathed in awe.

"why?"

"because everything here, including you, is amazing."