GOLDEN, luke hemmings

VIII: BARS AND CLUBS

"There's not one single girl that you wanna at least makeout with, is that what you're telling me?" Calum asked incredulously, smirking.

There was one girl, but Luke didn't think that it'd be best if Calum knew who it was. That would be endless reading for days. So Luke stayed quiet, playing with his glass of alcohol.

"Fuckboy Luke Hemmings is gone!" Calum exclaimed happily, causing Luke to shush him.

Luke's phone just dinged and he scrambled to answer it, whipping it out and unlocking it. He bit back a smile and began to type quickly. He no longer payed attention to Calum and the kiwi boy just began to piece the puzzle in his head.

"Oh, my God," Calum breathed out, grinning, "You're whipped. Let me see."

Luke didn't look up from his phone but answered anyway, "No."

Calum sighed and then quickly reached over the table grabbed Luke's phone from his fingers, reading what was on the screen. Luke immediately blushed and stood up to try and grab it back, trying to grasp it frantically.

Ava :-): hey, emo, i'm at work and i have five minutes left, entertain me.

Luke: you wanna hear puns?

Ava :-): i came to the wrong person for entertainment.

Luke: rude

Ava :-): like come on, lucas. a girl asks for entertainment and you give her PUNS. unbelievable.

Luke: first of all, my name isn't Lucas, that's gross. and second, puns are great shut up.

Ava :-): wow you suck

Luke: wow you swallow

"Wow," Calum added, scrolling through some more of their previous texts and shaking his head, "You're lame."

"Come on, man. Give it back," Luke whined, voice squeaking, practically on top of his friend, trying profusely to get his phone back.

Giving up, Calum tossed Luke back his phone. He gave him a look and Luke blushed harder than he already has. "You like Ava, you like Ava!" He taunted Luke petulantly, gaining stares from a few people.

"No, I don't. We're friends. Do you know the meaning of friends or has your stupid relationship with Becca created blurred lines?" Luke snapped, shoving his phone back into his pocket.

He hadn't meant to be so rude, but he didn't appreciate the teasing and it also didn't help that he was pretty exhausted. Relationships and liking people were a touchy subject for him and he was instantly offended by anything that had to do with it. He watched as Calum's smile faded and he felt guilt pouring into him. He didn't apologize however, feeling too ashamed that he had gone that far.

"Luke, what the fuck?" Calum whispered, clenching his jaw. Luke didn't have any right to say that about his and Becca's relationship, especially since Luke knew how much that bothered him. "Don't say shit like that."

Luke didn't know how to say sorry so he just shrugged and sunk lower into his seat.

Calum grabbed his coat and shook his head, going to Ashton, "Have a nice time finding a ride home, asshole." He was about to continue walking but he turned back before doing so, "You know, just because one of your relationships didn't work out doesn't mean that you get to take your anger out on everyone else's."

He went to get Ashton and instead of apologizing and running after his friends, Luke continued to sit there. The words plunged into his heart like a knife and it stung, it stung a lot. He already felt bad and now he felt even worse. And to top it all off, he had no ride. He thought it was petty for Calum to leave him like that, but it was petty of him to say something so mean to Calum. He groaned, rubbing his temple due to the oncoming headache settling in.

Was it possible to get hungover on feelings?

He didn't know exactly what to do, so he did the only thing that seemed clear in his head. He got his phone and dialed in a number, holding it to his ear as the line rang. It was a bad idea to make a call in such a boisterous environment and the person might not even answer, but -

"Hello, Emo. How may I be of service?"

Luke let out a weak laugh, shouting over the music. "Hey, Ava. Don't mean to bother, but could you pick me up? I'm at a bar and I don't have money for a cab and I don't have a ride."

"Yeah, sure, oh my God. Are you okay? Is anything wrong? Do I need to beat anybody up?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine, Aves," he reassured, calling her the nickname he decided to give her a few days ago, "Um, I'm at a place called The Vortex."

"Okay, okay. I'm on my way. I just finished work, so I look gross, but oh you don't even care, sorry. Okay, I'm getting in the car, and I'll see you there. Stay safe and don't get murdered in a back alley. Bye!"

The phone call ended with a click and Luke found it really cute how often she rambled, even when they texted. But friends do that, don't they? Friends do all sorts of things so Luke didn't have to worry about whether or not he romantically had feelings for Ava. Right? God, he didn't know. This whole thing seemed so confusing. How was he supposed know this feeling bullshit? He could barely handle himself when he felt excited about dogs, let alone all of his own emotions. Feelings were dumb, love was dumb, relationships were dumb, Calum was dumb - everything was just dumb.

Luke got up and went to the exit and tried to push the echoing words out of his head.

Just because one of your relationships didn't work out doesn't mean that you get to take out your anger on everyone else's.

If Luke had learned anything, relationships were always a mess and he was doing the right thing by protecting himself from whatever they had for him. Even if it meant pushing feelings away and shutting them back up.

•••

woah what a thrill ride.

i actually like writing this because luke has a really complex character whereas ava's character is a bit more openly problematic in means of her issues and problems and you can tell that she doesn't have many secrets (right now...) and luke kinda puts up this weird front but deep down there's a lot to his past that people don't know yet to i look forward to writing about his personal feelings and emotions.

and calum and luke got problems if you couldn't already tell from chapter six (???) and now there's more so whoops.

this chapter is pretty short, i'm sorry but i hope you enjoyed because this is pretty critical to the plot line.