Internet Friends | Luke Hemmings

Chapter 5

A loud crash woke me from my sleep, I jolted and sat upright in my bed causing multiple cushions to fall to the floor.

I press my phone, blinding me for a second before I could see the time. 5:34 am

The load crash seemed to have come from the kitchen, what if it was a burglar, or a axe murderer? A thousand worse case scenarios, including the possibility of an Alien invasion, though that would be better than a zombie apocalypse , whirled around in my head. My curiosity and definitiveness took a over and I officially decided that I wasn't going to sit here and do nothing.

What if my Ben and Jerry's ice cream is stolen?! I don't think I could live with the fact that someone could be stealing my Nutella right this second.

What would I arm myself with though, if the intruder had a weapon I would be screwed. Looking round my very dimly lit room at the shadows it seemed my hairbrush would just have to do.
I'm sure any axe murderer would be terrified if they were confronted by a teenage girl whose hair was falling out of a messy bun, had a make up free face and was dressed in a pair of blue sweatpants and an oversized Star Wars T-shirt.

I peeled back the covers and without a sound grabbed my hairbrush off my desk and carefully crept down the hall and snuck down the stairs.

Another crash came. This time along with a harsh voice.

"Ouch, for fucks sake."

I should have guessed. I walked in the kitchen and flicked on the lights.

"You'll find that you can see things better when you put a light on." I said

Noah turned around and I gasped in shock.

"Jesus, what the hell did you do?" I walked over to him a inspected his bruised face and busted knuckles.

" You should have seen the other lad." He boasted like he was proud of it.

" I wouldn't want to, thank you very much, now come on, I have a first aid kit in my bathroom." I grabbed his hand leading him upstairs, I was too tired to give him a lecture or even ask what happened.

He should know better by now than to go around picking fights and punching people. I had always had to look after him and he never seemed to look after me despite him being four years older than I was.

I sat him down on the toilet and opened up the first aid kit I had hid under my sink in case of situations like this.

I wet a cotton ball and carefully dabbed at the blood dripping from his knuckles.

"What are you going to tell mum and dad?" I binned the cotton and wet another starting on his other hand which wasn't as bad as the last.

"I could say that I was braking up a fight and I got punched."

"Really? And what about you're hands huh, they punched your hands as well?" I sighed

"I could wear gloves?!" He attempted to make a joke but this was not the time and I was far too tired.

"All done, don't pick at them, just don't touch them okay? Let them heal." I put a bandage over the worst hand and put away my first aid kit.

" Yeah, jeez you're not my mum." He rolled his eyes and got up.

" No but if I was your mum you wouldn't be getting away with this." I opened my room door and waited till he was back in his room before I closed my door.

I ran a hand through my hair, he's such an idiot, what is he going to do with his life, join the Russian mafia?

I snuggled back under my duvet and closed my eyes transporting myself to a world far away from here.

I tossed and turned, I reversed my pillow to the cold side, I even tried counting sheep but no matter how hard I tried to relax and fall asleep some other worry came into my head.

I switched on my bedside lamp and retrieved my laptop from the desk. I flipped up the screen and switched it on.

The machine burst into life making a few beeping noises before powering up my home screen. I opened up YouTube to find that Luke had upload his cover of the song I requested.

I didn't want to wake anyone up so I plugged in my headphone and pressed play.

As he did on his previous video, he played his guitar with ease the words falling out of his mouth like an angel. One thing I did notice about him this time that I didn't in the many times I watch his other cover, he hardly looked into the camera, he always looked down or stared into the distance.

Even though he was only recording it in his house on a laptop, he was clearly nervous, to look at the camera to him would be looking at hundreds of strangers that would make a judgement about him within 3 seconds.

A smile was spread across my lips throughout the video and I hit the like button as soon as it finished.

My eyes glanced at the time in the corner of my screen, 6:13am, I hope Luke hadn't gone to bed yet.

I reached for my phone and began to text him.

Me: hola! Hope you haven't gone to sleep yet

I waited a few minuets before his contact popped up.

Luke: bonjour! No early nighters for me cause I'm a rebel! How come you're up so early? It's like 6am in England.

Me: ooooh Youre is still awake past you're bed time, this is rather daring behaviour! Yeah I thought there was a burglar in the kitchen so I went to protect my ice cream and it was just my brother.

Luke: hahaha did you watch my new vid yet?

Me: It's amazing! I swear if you don't become an internationally famous singer one day I will find Simon Cowell and demand you're signed to his record label.

Luke: haha thanks, but Simon Cowell tends to scare me, he needs to lighten up a bit

Me: Yeah but he did sign One Direction which is the most significant thing that's ever happened or will happen to humanity.

Luke: If you say so, what you up to?

Me: chilling on my bed, rethinking my life choices, not much really, you?

We went on talking for hours until I felt my eyes drooping and before I could do anything to fight it, I was out like a light.