Limitations || Luke Hemmings

Chapter One

"Alright class, I know how ecstatic you all are to leave school, but there is one last assignment I am giving you to do to over the summer," Mr. Matthews tells us and the whole classroom fills with groaning complaints from irritated teenagers. I just continue to sit in my seat, waiting for the assignment. "You will all be given a journal, and I don't want some immature diary entries, but over the next three months I want you to share with me some wild epiphany you experienced or how you have changed over the time period of three months. As your English teacher next year, I expect these on your first day of senior year. Is that clear?" Mr. Matthews finished saying and the whole class mumbles a quiet response. Journals are being thrown across the room, and one makes it onto my desk. I quickly shove it into my bag and continue to quietly slouch in my seat, watching the clock to see that in a few seconds I will be gone from this hell. I am the first to leave when the bell rings, shoving past the crowd of douche bags and preppy girls, trying to make my way to my locker. A cheerful boy waits for me, practically jumping up and down from excitement.

"How excited are you to leave this place?" Calum asks me while I grab the last of the pile of undesirable papers from my locker and shove them into my bag.

"I'm truly overjoyed, Calum." I tell him while putting on a fake smile. He laughs and pushes me aside, throwing the worn out binders into my bag for me, claiming I was taking too long. Throughout all of high school, Calum was the only human being I could stand being around. Everyone always assumed we were dating, but Calum and I were too close to be intimate.

"To celebrate our release from this burning hell," Calum starts to say as I close my locker, "I've decided to throw a party, but I want you to stay the night since you have nowhere else to go." He sweetly tells me. Calum had cared about me too much, but it was a nice feeling to know someone would care if I dropped off the planet with no explanation one day.

"Thanks, Cal." I say as we walk out the doors caging us in and walk down the stairs. He playfully places his arm around my shoulder, leading me towards his truck. Calum was fairly popular, and every other person we passed in the parking lot said goodbye to him or told him that they will see him tonight. I part from Calum and make my way into the car, slamming the door. He immediately starts the ignition, blasting the air conditioning and turning on the radio. As we drive away from school, Calum and I roll down the windows and stick our middle fingers out, a tradition we has started since we first attended high school. I pull out a pack of cigarettes and bring one to my lips, lighting it with the lighter I had left in Calum's car.

"Who's coming to this fun party of yours?" I sarcastically ask Calum as we make our way to his small home. His parents have been gone for vacation, leaving Calum behind, so his house was left vacant.

"Luke and his girlfriend, Ashton, and Cameron. That's who I invited, but Cameron insisted on inviting fifty more people, and those fifty people probably invited even more people." Calum tells me, a smirk appearing on his face. Cameron was popular, which brought me to the conclusion that there would be more people than there should be, and I was going to hate all of them. I didn't want to complain though, Calum seemed excited and I didn't want to ruin his happiness.

"I heard that Luke's girlfriend cheated on him with almost every guy in the school, and he still hasn't found out. Shouldn't someone tell him?" I ask Calum, truly curious why Luke hadn't left Mary. She was on her knees for a different guy every other month. I could care less about their broken relationship, it's just that Mary doesn't deserve anything good in her life.

"He thinks she's completely innocent, as if she's loyal or something. Relationships are dumb anyway." Calum says, waving his hand in the air as if to push the idiotic idea of a relationship away. That will always be something Calum and I agree on. Relationships were for dumb people who wanted to test the limits of another individual, until they tear each other apart. I was quick to exit Calum's truck as soon as he pulled into the driveway. I threw the unfinished cigarette on the ground and we both make our way into his small house.