My Girl✖️Hemmings/Clifford

Chapter 8

Luke watched on in awe as the boys stumbled into him.

"Hey, what're you-"

"Shh!" He said putting one hand over Calum's mouth, using the other to point to Jess and the mystery person at the door.

"Josh...."

All of their mouths fell open in unison.

"Hey Baby." He said, a smirk on his lips as he invited himself in.

He placed his hands on her hips and moved in to kiss her. Thankfully, she put her hands up to his chest and pushed him back.

"What do you think you're doing?!" she asked.

Luke ran up behind her and crossed his arms over his chest, Calum and Ashton following suit.

"Hey now, I'm just tryin' to kiss and make-up here." he said.

"Kiss and make-up?" Luke scoffed, "How dare you! You fucked some blonde skank, probably more than once, and you expect her to just forgive you like that?!?" Luke yelled.

"Step off, Mate. This isn't your business." he said harshly.

"The hell it isn't!" Ashton yelled.

"Yeah!" Cal and Luke agreed.

"Who do you think she came to when all of this shit went on? Who took care of her while she was crying her eyes out because of your unfaithful ass? That's right; us. So don't you dare say this isn't our business."

"No... He's right you guys, you shouldn't fight my battles for me." Jess said.

"Yeah- wait what?" Luke replied, sounding a bit more hurt than he had intended to.

"I'm sorry guys. Could you please excuse us? It'll only be a moment." she said weakly with a smile.

"Whatever." Luke said rudely, storming off. The guys followed close behind him, but with A LOT less sass.

-

"You guys, it's been like 12 minutes.... Should we go check on her?" Ashton said worriedly.

"Bet you they're up there snogging each other's faces off." Luke scoffed. He didn't know why he was being such a little kid about it. He couldn't help it. He knew he didn't want her with Josh because he cheated on her, but Luke felt like there was more to it.

"H-hey guys.... Can I ask you something?" Luke requested timidly.

"You just did." Calum giggled to himself.

"No, I'm serious." Luke said.

"'Course, Mate. What's on your mind?" Ashton replied.

"Well, I-" Luke started, but was interrupted by a loud crash upstairs. They all stared at each other wide-eyed.

"Jess!" Luke yelled before running up the stairs, not delaying for one second, as the boys quickly followed behind him.

-

"Bitch!" Josh yelled at Jess as he raised his hand. It couldn't have been seconds later before she felt a searing pain. The force threw her onto the hard wood floor.

Jess gently put her fingers to the sore spot at the corner of her mouth, hastily removing her touch from the stinging. She barely had time to see the blood on her fingers before Josh quickly grabbed her right arm.

She yelped at the powerful grasp he held.

"Pl- please... don't hurt me...." Jess weakly pleaded

"Shut up!" he shouted before painfully connecting the back of his hand to her face again, the force causing Jess to turn her head just in time to see the boys stumble up the stairs.

They're eyes darted between her and Josh, his hand still hanging in midair.

He dropped Jess's arm, letting her slam to the floor again. She could still feel the harsh sting in her lip and the spot on her cheek just beneath her right eye, and hastily stood back up, stumbling to keep any sort of balance.

She was able to keep on her feet just long enough to see Luke slam his fist to Josh's face, then kick him in the stomach after the force threw him off of his feet.

Jess winced at the violent behaviour that Luke portrayed. She couldn't keep consciousness after that; she tried to fight the urge to just close her eyes, but she couldn't any longer, and slammed straight back to the floor.

-

After the beating Jess had gotten, Calum and Ashton carried her to her room, cleaned up her face and tucked her in.

Once Ashton had seen how Luke reacted to the crash they had heard from down stairs, how he scrambled to his feet to make sure Jess was alright and then the violent behaviour he showed towards Josh, Ashton knew what he was trying to tell them before.

Calum had already called Michael a few hours ago to make sure he could get home on his own, and they decided it'd be best to just wait till Michael got there to tell him why they couldn't come and get him.

Ashton figured since they were all already in there together that they'd try to get Luke to admit his feelings, even if Cal and he already knew.

"Hey Luke, what were you trying to tell us earlier?" Ashton asked.

"Huh?" he said, taking his attention from the television to face his friends.

"You know, earlier. Before... that happened, you were trying to tell us or ask us something." Ashton said, trying to speed up the pace of Luke's memories of earlier that day.

"Oh... um. It was nothing, it doesn't matter." he said apprehensively. Ashton knew he'd do this....

"C'mon Mate! You can tell us." He said trying to convince his friend.

"Well... I was just gonna ask if... do you... do you guys think Michael would hate me if I started to develop feelings for Jess?" he asked quietly.

"You have feelings for Jess?" The 2 older boys cooed, big goofy grins on their faces.

"Shut up...." he mumbled.

"Well what makes you think you like her?" Calum asked more seriously now.

"I don't know, I've always kind of thought I liked her. She just always has the power to make one of my shitty days better...." he said, shy smile grazing his lips.

"Awwww!" Calum and Ashton cooed pinching Luke's cheeks.

Luke pushed their hands away and then continued talking.

"It's just, after I saw what Josh had done to her face... her beautiful face, even after that, she was still breathtakingly beautiful..." he said smiling (they don't think he meant to say that out loud but he just shook it off and continued on), "I just snapped. I could never live with myself knowing something happened to her and I didn't stop it... do you think Michael will hate me for developing feelings for her?" he asked, repeating his original question.

"Well, Mate... I think, if you like her, then it shouldn't matter what Michael thinks. Yeah, I'm sure he might be a tad hurt, but you can't help who you like, besides, it's not like it's his opinion that matters in this situation, it's Jess's." Ashton said reassuringly with a smile.

"It's just... I'm not sure if I want to risk it, we've been friends for a long time Ash, what if my feelings ruin our friendship."

"Then don't do anything, but Mate. This is going to eat at you if you don't do anything about it, that's what's happened to Michael...."

"Ash... I think I might be in love with Jess...."

They were interrupted when they heard the loud thud of a duffel bag hitting the floor and an angry looking Michael.

This couldn't be good.

~

Ohhhh! You guys, HELP ME! WHATS GOING TO HAPPEN?!?

- Morgan