Rejects // Punk Luke Hemmings

>Chapter Twenty-One<

"I beat you," he said smugly.

"Great for you," I rolled my eyes and leaned back and forth to start moving.

He climbed up on the swing next to me, having to bend his knees slightly so he didn't hit his head on the bar above us. I laughed a bit at how innocent he was acting. It contrasted greatly with his appearance, the kiddish nature contained in a tattooed, pierced body.

"Luke?" I asked after a moment of almost pure silence that was only broken by the birds and the squeak of the swings.

"Yeah Kara?" he looked at me with a smile.

"Tell me about your tattoos," I said quietly. "I already know about the skull, but what about the others? Do they have stories too?"

He jumped of his swing, grabbing a chain to stop it as he sat down. "Each one has a story," he confirmed. "Each one represents an event in my life. Which would you like to hear first?"

I got down and sat on the swing as well, leaning toward him. "This one," I placed a finger on his forearm. The three birds on his skin flew toward the skull on the other side of his arm, the closest one being the biggest while the furthest was the smallest.

"That was one of my first ones. Each bird represents one of my family members. This one is my mom," he pointed to the largest bird, "The middle is my oldest brother, and the last is my other brother. They're flying toward the skull because they helped me through that time in my life, and it's like the birds are coming to the rescue." Luke's voice was somewhat thick as he spoke, and I knew that this tattoo had true meaning to him.

"And this one?" I trailed my finger up his arm to the dream catcher in the crook of his elbow. "What does this mean?"

He smiled, looking from the ink to me. "That one is supposed to remind me to 'catch my dreams', so to speak. I figured a dream-catcher would depict that well."

"I love that idea," I grinned. "Very clever. And this?" I gestured to the group of roses on his upper arm. In the middle, there was a banner that read "Kills", which must mean something.

"Life always kills us even though it seems like a beautiful thing. Hence the roses; they're beautiful, but the second you try to pick one you get a thorn in your hand."

I gestured to many other tattoos, learning each story. As he moved his other arm to stretch, I noticed a circular bit of ink on the inside of his bicep. "What's that?" I pointed.

"This one?" he asked and placed a finger on it. I nodded, looking at it again. Upon closer inspection, I realized it was a compass. "It's supposed to help me 'navigate through life', but sometimes I still get lost," he shrugged. "Any others you'd like to know about?" he smiled.

"One more," I scanned the remaining ink for one I found interesting. I settled on a pair of quotation marks on the side of his neck. "How about these?" I traced the small marks.

"The quotes?" Luke's voice hitched slightly, as if the tattoo brought him bad memories. "That's what my dad said to me before he left..." he looked at his hands, a delicate frown playing on his lips.

"But there aren't any wor- oh..." I realized mid-sentence what he meant.

"Yeah. He didn't say anything. He just walked out. I haven't seen him since I was five."

"I'm so sorry," I muttered. "I thought it would just be a scenario like mine when you originally told me it was just you and your mom..."

"I think we need some ice cream. Enough intense conversation for one day," Luke said after a moment. He stood from his swing, smiling down at me. He stepped in front of me, taking hold of the chains of my own swing. I had to look up at him, tilting my head back to see his face. He gently kissed my forehead, before stepping back. "Let's go."

I stood and brushed a bit of dirt from my legs, before I followed Luke from the park. We walked to the same ice cream shop as last time, and I got the same thing as before. We sat outside and talked over plans for the dance, and I informed him that I'd invited Ashton to tag along.

"So you think Eve likes him?" Luke grinned as he finished off his ice cream.

"Yeah, I know it," I nodded. "I thought it was so cute. They both got all nervous and awkward. Eve turned cherry red, though I won't tell her."

"That's so sweet. This Ashton guy sounds pretty awesome. I've heard about him before since he was only two years above me, but I never knew him."

"He's so nice. I think you two will be really good friends," I nodded and finished my ice cream as well. Looking at my phone, I realized I was late getting home. "Crap. I've gotta go," I looked back up at Luke. "My mom wanted me home ten minutes ago so we could have dinner together."

"Yeah. I should probably get going too," he agreed and stood. I did the same, and we walked to our cars. "See you at school," he wrapped his arms around me and kissed my head.

"Bye," I said into his shirt. Taking a step back, I kissed him on the cheek, then got in my car.

As I drove home, I thought about the things he told me today. The pieces of his past that he shared with me. I smiled to myself and kept driving.

Luke Hemmings truly made me happy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N:

I'M SO SORRY GUYS!!!!!! I'M SUCH A HORRIBLE AUTHOR. I haven't updated this in almost a month. I published that other Author's note thingy on May 16th. It's June 2nd. I suck at this. Hence why I gave you all such a long, pretty important chapter. Because I just feel like a bad person.

On a brighter note: HOW HAS THIS GOTTEN OVER SEVEN THOUSAND READS?!?!?!?!?! I JUST......... YOU ALL ARE AMAZING PEOPLE. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. Oh my goodness. I love you guys so much. You all mean more to me than I can even say. Just...... wow.

I hope you guys enjoyed that little insight to Luke's past. I found the picture that I put with the chapter and the idea just popped into my head. I was honestly at a little fork in the road and couldn't make up my mind on what to write this chapter about, then I just figured it out. I'm just so pumped for this story. It's going to get even better.

However, until next Tuesday, I won't be able to update as much. That includes all my other stories, for those of you who are reading those (you guys rock. You slay at life. Thanks!!) That's on account of having to take finals for school. But come Tuesday, I will finally be on summer break, which is super short for method year (we go back on freaking August 17th or something like that!!) I will then be able to update much more. I've got a lot planned for this summer.

Once again, thank you all for your growing support. For example, Chapter One on here officially has 600+ reads. You guys amaze me every single day. I want you to know that if you comment on here, I read it (and will most likely respond cause that's the kind of person I am. Just look at my following to followers ratio. XD) I kind of wish I could get more comments, but I'm so blessed to even get one. So I'm not complaining. I just want to hear feedback! ^-^

I love you all more than I can ever say. Thank you, stay classy, and look up the song "Whistle (While You Work It)" by Katy Tiz. If I'm having a bad day I listen to it and it makes me happy. I want you all to be happy because that makes me happy too. And if you aren't happy for any reason at all, feel free to talk to me. I've been through some crazy stuff, and I just want to help. (Comment a song that makes you happy if you read this. Help out your fellow readers as well as me!!)

I'm going to go since I'm really just rambling at this point. *Kisses* Goodbye my darlings!!

~CC

(P.S. what is the equivalent of ninety degree Fahrenheit in Celsius?? I'm American so I don't know these things.... X'D)

[Edited]