baby | lrh

chapter 16

Penelope Rhodes

It's been a strange month to say the least: Malum have become official, Ash bought Hay a motorcycle which she never stops riding, everyone is still staying in the apartment, Luke has been trying to make me forgive him and he's changed, Hay and I are in my room while Laston has Hay's, and I currently have a 4.0 GPA. Things have been good lately!

School was going to end in about 2 weeks and everyone was so stressed about exams but I was more stressed about what happens after school ends. I mean, I live off of school and studying and homework and once school ends, so does that NOT TO MENTION! Once summer starts, the boys don't have access to the frat house anymore so they will be staying with us... the whole summer...

"Goodbye my friends!" I yelled to the sleeping house as I walked out to the door off to my morning class. My professor dragged on and on about the most pointless stuff that I've already learned because we were studying for our finals but it was just so boring.

By the time my second class was over, all I wanted to do was go home and just sleep. I was walking across campus before I ran into a pole- oh wait it was a person, I think. I looked up and I was immediately lost in the sea of blue.

Luke.

"What are you doing here?!" I whisper shouted as I grabbed his arm, pulling him into a corner where no one would see us.

"I came to see you," he smiled and I melted.

Penelope. Stop it. He's hurt you.

"You shouldn't be here" I told him.

"C'mon baby, lighten up. When have you known me to follow the rules?" He got closer to me taking my face in his hands. I couldn't breathe and I felt like somebody set my body on fire. I was panting under his grip and I knew I couldn't hold my guard up for much longer. Luke Hemmings just makes me feel some type of way and I hate it. He used me. He hurt me. He left me.

But he apologized. He's trying to make it up to you because he hurting you. Oh! And guess who hasn't left your house since he came out of jail? I think Luke!

"Luke," I barely whispered out before his lips were barely on mine. I could feel the closeness and before I knew it, his lips were softly on mine but were pulled away too fast.

"I gotta go, P. But I'll see you later," He winked at me before he put on his shades and walked off campus, leaving me a flustered and hot mess. Screw you, Luke Hemmings. You're the worst.

I hate that he's changed but still knows exactly which strings to pull to get that type of reaction out of me: the one where I'm left with confusing thoughts of him swirling around in my head and my body aching for him. Yeah, it sucks that he has that effect on me after all of this time and after all of the things he's done to hurt me.

With my thoughts still swarming and my subconscious in a daze, I skipped my last class of the day because the teacher said attendance was no longer necessary as long as we showed up for the final. I drove back to the apartment where I was met with Hayden painting her nails and reading in the kitchen, Michael and Calum shouting at each other while they fought in video games, and Luke strumming softly on a guitar in the corner.

"Do any of you go to school?!?!?" I yelled as I walked in, flabbergasted at the fact that I leave them like this most days and come back to them like this.

"Eh," Mike shrugged honestly.

"Want something to eat, Hay?" I asked her while I made myself a sandwich.

"Can you actually just warm up that blueberry scone in the Starbuck's bag on the counter?" she asked, not looking up from her book. I did as she asked and put it on a plate next to her and left without another word trying not to bother her.

I went in my room and threw myself on my bed. I snuggled up in my throw blanket and started scrolling down twitter. I saw that Cal had posted a picture of him and Mike playing FIFA and Luke had tweeted something super deep.

'You never know what you have until it's gone.'

What the hell? Was that about me???

I walked out of my room and was about to confront him about the tweet but before I could, the door slammed open revealing Ashton.

"HEY GUYS! I BOUGHT A HOUSE!!!" He screeched as he started happy dancing in the living room holding up 6 sets of keys.

"What the actual fuck" I finally spit out after the initial shock wore off. We were all used to Ashton bringing random things like the coffee machine, dishwasher, shower, toaster, and the extremely ridiculous soup maker but A HOUSE?! We were not expecting that.