Rejects // Punk Luke Hemmings

>Chapter Forty-Two<

"That's awesome! What are you guys gonna be called? Who's in it?" I asked excitedly.

"We don't have a name yet, and you'll find out sooner or later," he replied mischievously, trying to cover up his grin with a kiss to my forehead.

"I'd better. And I'd better hear you guys eventually," I rolled my eyes again. "Now we need to go to class. The bell's gonna ring soon."

••••••••••••••••••••

"Are we going to a store? Or a park? Just tell me the general place itself at least," I pleaded from the passenger seat of Luke's car. We were en route to wherever this surprise was, and I was almost dying of anticipation.

"Nope. You aren't getting a word out of me," he chuckled.

"Luke!" I groaned in exasperation.

"Quit whining Kara, we'll be there in like two minutes," he sighed, though through my eyelashes I could see a smile still sitting on his lips.

I huffed and crossed my arms, pulling my legs up onto the seat so I could lean my forehead on my knees. "Fine. I'm timing you though," I giggled quietly. His only reply was another chuckle.

Sure enough, two minutes later we pulled into the driveway of a small house that looked very homey already. I turned to Luke, one eyebrow raised. "Who's house is this?" I asked the obvious question.

"You ask too many questions. Just get out of the car," he shook his head with a smile and took the keys out of the ignition. Rolling my eyes, I opened the car door and stepped out. Waiting a moment or two for Luke to do the same, I followed him to the front door, which was painted bright red. He laced his fingers through mine and smiled for the millionth time before raising a hand to knock.

We waited a few seconds before there were thumping footsteps on the other side of the door. It then swung inward to reveal a very familiar, dimpled face. "Hey guys. We've been expecting you," Ashton greeted. "Come on in." He stepped aside to admit us into a cheerful, wonderful-smelling foyer. I would have been surprised at the warm herbal scent had it been anyone other than Ash. He always seemed to smell good.

Closing the door behind us, he clapped his hands together and took a deep breath. "I'm gonna take a guess here and say you're here for that surprise, right?" His eyes twinkled mischievously as Luke nodded. "Follow me then."

We trailed behind him as he walked toward a door leading to what I'd guess to be a basement. The steps leading down were confirmation as we descended into an open space. There, I was pleasantly surprised to find Michael and Calum with instruments hanging from their shoulders. There was a cajon at the end of a row of three stools, which Ash immediately walked over to. I recognized Luke's acoustic guitar resting on a stand near the wall, and I slowly pieced everything together.

"So... This is your band?" I asked slowly. Looking up at the tall blond boy at my side, he nodded.

"Yup. And they are actually helping with the surprise. Now go sit down," he grinned and nodded toward a couch facing the boys. I smiled and did just that, pulling my legs up so I sat Indian-style on the cool leather. Luke walked over and picked up his guitar, before making his way to sit between Cal and Mikey.

"So if you hadn't guessed already, the surprise is a song," Luke said softly. "I wanted to give you something just because, but I wanted it to be more personal and unique. Then I got the idea to write a song, so that's what I did..."

I couldn't help the broad grin that stretched across my face at his words. The similar look he wore told me he felt the same.

"So I guess we'll play it for you now..." Luke's voice, had I not been so familiar with it, would have sounded perfectly normal as he murmured the words into the mic. But I could hear the slight tremble and nervousness of it. I could sense how nervous he was, which he obviously shouldn't have been.....

It started out with a few simple notes. Then Ashton added a laid back and steady beat along with Calum's bass. I felt my insides bunch up as I watched Luke and he watched me, the precision between our eyes like that of a surgeon.

I wasn't expecting to have the wind knocked out of me though.

I wasn't expecting to end up crying in Luke's arms after the song had finished.

He wrote that for me.

He wrote me a song...

What do I really mean to him?

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A/N

SO CUTE GUYS. I LOVE THAT SO MUCH. THE OPENING AND TGEN THE SONG AND THE WHOLE THING WAS JUST GAH. I LOVEd writing that if you couldn't tell. I wanted it to be as good as possible so yeah. That's why it took so long among other thing like homework.

Okay. Important thing here. I updated the cover of the story. The reason for this is because I figured out the dimensions of the picture, and because the previous cover was a bit blurry, I decided I'd fix it. Don't get me wrong: I love the old cover (technically the second on because the first was so bad) but like I said, I didn't look the best when it was the larger version. So I took a better version of the same picture and used this really good font app I have (called Phonto if you're wondering. It's magical) and I made a new one. I hope you guys like it because I'm kinda obsessed. This'll be the last time I do this. It was also partly because I wanted it to look more official since (somehow) Rejects is getting more and more popular. And let's be honest, on Wattpad you can almost guarantee that if it looks like a lot of time was put into a cover it's probably a good story too. I guess it's just for the benefit of the story really. I apologize if you like it less that the other one though. I love them both so I get it.

That being said, thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you for so much support lately. You don't understand how much you all mean to me (haha I totally just referenced the end of the chapter though XD) and I love you all so extremely much it hurts. Thank you for over 43,000 reads and over 1,200 comments and almost a thousand comments. You all make me so unbelievably happy and I love you. <3

~CC