Critical || Luke Hemmings

Chapter Twenty-Five

The sound of my phone’s ring tone pulled me out of my sleep.  Groaning and mumbling to myself, I grabbed my phone off the nightstand and pressed talk, not bothering to look at who was calling me. 

“Hmm?” I choked out, pulling the blankets back up over me as I huddled back into a comfortable position.

“Syd?” The sound of Luke’s voice caused me to perk up a bit quicker than the actual phone call.

Clearing my throat, I sat back up, shifting the phone against my ear.  “Hey.”

“I woke you up,” he chuckled.

“What? No..” I shook my head, stifling a yawn.  “What time is it?” 

“Well it’s eleven here, so there it’s probably...” He paused for a moment, trying to figure out the math in his head.  “It’s uh.. it’s two in the morning..” he mumbled, regret clear in his voice.

The four of them had left to finish up their tour about a week ago.  Since then Luke and I have made it our mission to talk to each other at least once a day until he comes back to start recording.  The only issue with this is that he’s always in a different time zone and he can’t seem to remember what time it is where I am when he decides to call.

Needless to say, this was the fourth time in one week where I had been woken up in the very early stages of morning. 

“I didn’t realize it was that late where you were.”

“You never do,” I giggled, letting out the yawn I had been holding in.

“Go back to sleep babe,” he whispered, sending shivers down my body and causing my cheeks to flush.  I could get used to that nickname.

“Not yet, at least tell me about your day.”

“Well, Ashton got his hand stuck in a jar of vegemite on accident.. Uh Calum decided he needs at least one of every dog breed and Michael is currently debating on dying his hair every shade of blue possible,” he rambled, giggling at his own words.

“So basically a normal day?” I questioned, letting out a small giggle to match his. 

“Basically.”

“What state are you in now?”

“Nevada.. It’s Las Vegas.  If you were here we could get married by Elvis.”

Getting up from my bed and slipping on my slippers, I wrapped the blanket tighly around me and headed down to the kitchen.  “Elvis isn’t really my thing.. Just make sure the boys don’t get all wifed up.”

“Oh trust me, these three couldn’t even get free drinks out of the bar tenders here.”  There were a few shouts of disapproval in the distance from the three boys who I’m sure were busy lounging around doing their own things during their down time.

There was a bit of silence that followed that before Luke finally spoke up again.

“Syd?” he whispered into the receiver.

“Yes?”

“Have I told you how happy I am having you back?”

“Once or twice,” I grinned, sitting down on the stool, resting my chin in my hand. 

“Three more weeks until I get to kiss you again,” he said happily, making my grin grow even more.

“I’m not sure I can wait that long,” I teased, letting out a quiet laugh when I heard him groan.

“You better still want me when I get back or working in the same building with you is going to be SO awkward.” 

“I mean, I don’t know, the guy on the third floor was looking pretty good this morning,” I joked.

“Don’t be rude Sydney,” Luke whined, a pout spread across his face, I’m sure.

From there the conversation died down until I found myself falling asleep at the bar, which caused Luke to laugh one too many times.

“That’s it, I’m going to bed now.  I’m sick of your mocking laughter,” I mumbled, trudging back up the stairs to my bedroom.

“Yeah, I should probably let you rest up so you’re not exhausted tomorrow morning for work.” 

“News flash, Hemmings, it already is tomorrow morning for me,” I groaned, finally coming to terms with the fact that it was now three in the morning and I had to be up in three hours. 

“Hey hey hey now, you’re the one that told me not to hang up before I told you about my day,” he countered, trying to defend himself. 

“I hate time zones,” I grumbled, crawling back into my warm bed. 

“Three weeks?”

“Three weeks,” I confirmed, yawning once again. 

“Sleep tight baby,” he cooed, causing an eruption of butterflies to form in my stomach.

“Goodnight handsome,” I whispered before the line went quiet.

Placing the phone back on the nightstand, I curled back into my comfortable position and let my thoughts slowly linger as I drifted back to sleep.

Luke’s POV

I hung up the phone with Sydney and walked back into the common area where Ashton, Michael and Calum were all still wide awake and talking about god knows what.

“Welcome back,” Michael grinned at me before throwing a piece of popcorn into his mouth. 

“How’s the girlfriend?” Calum questioned with a wink, making me give him the middle finger.

“She’s fine,” I shook my head at them before sitting down on the couch beside Ashton.

“Is it still weird to everyone else that after picking on both of them individually for three years about their feelings for the other and making ‘boyfriend’ and ‘girlfriend’ jokes, that we can now finally say it and mean it?” Michael said glancing around the room at each of us.

“Yes,” we all said in unison, causing a fit of laughter. 

“Real talk though-” Calum said, clearing his throat to get our attention before Ashton cut him off.

“Since when do you say real talk?”

“Shut up Ashton, I’m talking,” Calum groaned, shoving Ashton’s leg before continuing.  “I’m really happy that you two are doing this.”  He gave me a serious expression.  “I haven’t seen you this happy in a while and it’s refreshing.”

“I second that,” Michael said, raising his hand. 

“Yeah, me too.” Ashton nodded, smiling happily over at me.

“Thanks,” I mumbled, embarrassed from the sudden attention I was now getting. 

“Just promise us that you’re not going to do something stupid to fuck this up,” Calum pleaded, clasping his hands together as if he were praying. 

“Will you relax?  I’ve got this all under control,” I scoffed.  There is no way I would ever mess this up with her. No one understood just how badly I had wanted this, not even Sydney, and I would be damned if I let myself do something to jeopardize this.

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This chapter isn't that great, but it's a filler bc I don't want to jump ahead too much idk anyways, here you go.  Hopefully yall are having a good week and whatnot.  Comment and favorite as always, love you guys.  MUAH.