The Middle | Hemmings + Styles AU

44. fly away

My reunion with my parents was small and brief. I picked them up from the airport before sunrise, and took them home, both jet-lagged yet seemingly happy to be home.

I was thankful that they both just wanted to sleep so I could go back to the new space and continue painting. "We'll have dinner tonight," Mum said, giving me another hug before I snuck back out to my car again.

We'd been there late last night painting, and I probably wouldn't have left at all except Luke threatened to take my key and lock me out if I didn't get at least four hours sleep.

He'd been right to do so, I guess, because right now my eyes were having trouble focusing on the road ahead. I turned left on the next street and my tired eyes started to betray me because it looked like there was already someone waiting outside the building.

The car windows were foggy from the cold air outside and my car was the only one on the road. There was no reason for anyone else to be out here at dawn.

As I got closer, I realised that my eyes, however tired they were, weren't lying to me. It wasn't a trick of the fog either. There was someone there, leaning against the brick building like they were a part of it.

I recognised the way he was standing before I could make out his face clearly. It was Luke, clutching a cardboard tray with two coffees sitting tightly inside.

I parked the car, and raced out towards him, immediately thinking something must be wrong. "What are you doing here?"

He handed me a coffee and shrugged. "Waiting for you. Figured you'd be here after you left the airport."

I stared at him miraculously. As much as my body craved the caffeine in my hands, I couldn't bring myself to take a sip yet. "What if I hadn't have come?"

"I knew you would."

We could talk more inside, but for now I wanted to get both of us out of the cold morning air before we caught hypothermia. I unlocked the door and let us inside. It wasn't much warmer in here, but much better than outside.

"At least there's heating upstairs." We walked up silently and I finally had a sip of my coffee. It wasn't as hot as it should have been. I wondered how long he'd been waiting there.

I spun around on my toes once we were at the top of the stairs. "But what if I didn't come?"

Luke glanced down at his coffee. "I didn't have a plan b, Stel. I told you, I knew you'd be here."

He was using that voice. The one he used when he was most vulnerable. It turned my heart inside out, tipping my feelings into the palm of my hand. Take them, I wanted to tell Luke. Take them, take me. All of me. Call me your girlfriend, hold my hand in the street. I don't want to be scared anymore. Let's have everything.

"There's something I have to tell you," he said suddenly, his voice cutting through the creaky old heating system that was finally kicking in. 

The words swept my previous thoughts back into my heart in one swift motion. Like they'd never really been there at all. "Okay."

"I'm not supposed to say anything yet." He twisted his coffee cup around in the cardboard tray. It made this annoying scratching noise, much like the way his words were scratching at my heart. "It's been hard enough. I thought I could just avoid you until it was official and I was allowed to tell you... You know, maybe if you thought I just wanted to be friends, we'd hang out less and it would be easier..."

"You don't want to be just friends?" My voice turned up at the end, sounding far more hopeful than I wanted it to.

What was I doing? Maybe it was the lack of sleep. Or the cold morning air. Yes, maybe I was delirious and suffering hypothermia and it was affecting my brain.

"Friends?" Luke's voice cracked. He sounded defeated. "Come on, Stel."

I don't know how it happened, but suddenly my lips were on Luke's, and I was kissing away all of the warning sirens in my head. His hands felt warm on my cold fingers, as they wrapped up together like a neat little package.

If Luke was hearing the same sirens, he was kissing them away too. And then his hands were underneath my shirt, I was kissing his neck. It was out of our control. We fumbled down the stairs, somehow, mouths attached, fingers entwined, heart beats racing.

"The studio," I muttered between kisses, our feet finding their way through the open space and into the recording studio near the back. There was a few dusty old chairs in there which I'd planned to replace anyway.

Luke fell back into one and I fumbled with the buttons on his black skinny jeans. His slipped a condom out of his back pocket, whining my name under his breathe when I climbed onto his lap. I kissed him again, and he held onto my hips like I might fly away. In that moment, I could have promised to never leave him, ever.

-

I just had sex in a recording studio, was my first after thought.

I just had sex with Luke, was my second.

And my third...

Luke was already up on his feet, pulling on his jeans. I guessed recording studio sex didn't really warrant cuddling afterwards. I was okay with that. He handed me my t-shirt which I slipped over my head, trying to organise my third thought into a sentence.

"Do you still want to tell me?" Maybe I didn't have to know.

For a few more seconds, I could see his chest moving rapidly, then he pulled his t-shirt back on. "You're going to find out anyway. I'd rather it be from me."

Now that I was thinking clearly, he didn't sound sad or angry. Maybe whatever it was, wasn't even that bad. Maybe he'd found a place to move into with Michael. Or maybe he wanted to ask about having dinner with my parents again. Maybe he just wanted to tell me that he had a new favourite band, or that Michael was going to dye his hair lilac.

"It's Harry... He's starting his own label, and he wants to sign us."