Rejects // Punk Luke Hemmings

>Chapter Forty-Eight<

"I just didn't feel like bothering you," I choked out. "I needed a haircut anyway..." I tried to give a small laugh, but the lump forming in my throat made it difficult.

"Since when are you a barber?" He raised an eyebrow and smiled slightly.

My lips tilted up at the corners, a sigh coming out through my nose. With that, he swept an arm under my knees, making me gasp in surprise as he picked me up bridal style and carried me to his room. I was too exhausted to object as I simply leaned my head on his shoulder.

"If it counts for anything," he murmured in my ear, "I think it looks really good."

"Thanks, Luke," I smiled. He approached his bed before gently setting me atop the sheets. Taking a moment to kiss my forehead, he stood and went to pick up his acoustic guitar before sitting on the floor with his back against the bed. He positioned the guitar so it was comfortable and began strumming a few chords.

I lay down so my head was by his, allowing me to slowly brush back the hair that was hanging near his eyes. I kissed his temple as he started playing the song he'd written for me again. I closed my eyes, my hand still drifting through his silky hair as his voice rang out, soft but clear.

She sits at home with the lights out,
Seeing life in different colors
I think it's time that we wake up,
So let me take you away.

We could run down the street,
With the stars in our eyes,
We could tear down this town,
In the dark of the night.
Just open the door,
We've got time on our side,
We can make it out alive.

Hey we're taking on the world,
I'll take you where you wanna go.
I'll pick you up if you fall to pieces.
Let me be the one to save you.
Break the plans we had before,
Let's be unpredictable
I'll pick you up if you fall to pieces,
Let me be the one to save you...

The song ran through my veins, the words like ice water, the melody like molten gold. It washed over me, calming me down by the end. I felt much less stressed than I had before, all thanks to Luke's music...

"I think I'll call it 'Unpredictable,'" he whispered after the final chord had ended. "What do you think?"

"I think it's your song so you should call it whatever you want," I replied sarcastically. He chuckled, giving me a look. "I love it..." I smiled, kissing his cheek.

He smiled and began playing another song. As he started singing, my mind began to wander back to last night. But thinking about it now didn't make me want to cry. Instead it made me realize something about myself.

All this time, I felt strong and confident in myself. I was always happy to be me and be in the situation I was in at the moment. But it wasn't always like that. Before Luke came into the picture, I was much less confident than I am now. I was quieter and even more of an outcast than I am now. I didn't belong anywhere in America, and I knew it. All there was to me there was a pretty face who knew how to draw.

I was a rose that everybody cut down to get to where they needed to go, broken but still beautiful.

But here, halfway across the world and much further south than my old home in Minnesota, I felt like I finally belonged. I now had more than two friends, I had a boyfriend whom I loved with my heart and soul, and knew the feeling was mutual.

I felt like someone had taken my roots and replanted them, and now I was a rose that was allowed to bloom without being trampled on the ground.

I was the rose, and Luke was my sunshine, and Eve and Michael and Malaya and Ashton and even Calum were the soil in which I grounded myself. They had all helped me in some way or another, whether they knew it or not, and I couldn't be more thankful for any of them. Especially Luke.

"Did you know that one?" Luke asked, suddenly drawing me from my thoughts.

"I'm sorry. I kinda got a bit lost up here..." I admitted, tapping my head apologetically.

"It's quite alright. It happens," he laughed. "Anyway, that was a song by A Day to Remember. I think I've shown them to you before."

"I think you did. What was the song called?"

"If It Means a Lot to You. One of my favorites by them," he turned his head to face me.

"I think I've heard that one. Just in case I haven't, though, you should play it again," I suggested with a wink.

He smiled and kissed me softly before agreeing. I watched carefully as he began playing again, noting the way his eyebrows would come up a bit as he sang higher notes, and the veins in his neck stood out a bit more than usual. This boy, in all his broken glory, was beautiful. He was a beautiful mess that had hidden how incomplete he was. But then he found me, and I think that, in the act of making me whole, I made him while as well.

Together, we were complete.

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A/N

So um...... That was a bit difficult for me to write. I just... I really don't want this to end guys... It's like 2:30 am for me as I'm finishing this up, and I realized how big of a role this story plays in my life right now. I look forward to updating and reading/replying to your comments, and when this is done I won't have that for a while. Oh well, I'll still have my other stories (which I seriously need to update............. O-o)

That reminds me: ONLY TWO CHAPTERS AND THE EPILOGUE LEFT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you all for your endless amazingness and love and support. Thank you for almost 60,000 reads, and over 1,000 comments and votes. Thank you for sticking around if you've been here since the start. You guys are the real MVPs for dealing with my crazy update schedule that never actually existed. If you stayed up to unearthly times to read the whole thing in one or several nights, or if you just read it at all, you're also the real MVPs. (Especially you all-in-one-night binge readers because I do that all the time and that's such a satisfying, exhausting thing to do. If there are any of you out there who have ever stayed up reading even just part of this, let me know because I need to personally thank you for giving up your precious sleep to read my semi-crappy writing.)

I love you all, I hope you all enjoyed this last bit of brace until the epilogue, and I'm going to go start on the next chapter even though I should probably go to bed! <3

~CC xoxo