you are in love · luke hemmings

vii

Cierra was not happy to be back in school.

Although it was just a normal weekend, it wasn't just a normal weekend for her. It was magical, and special. And she'd felt something so strange and so captivating and she wanted to have that feeling again. She wanted to relive it all, from the stars to the wine to the couch to the pancakes. Everything...pure magic.

School just wasn't giving her the same effect.

It'd probably be different if Luke went to her school; he seemed like he could make any situation fun. Even calculus, which was an awful class.

And Cierra really missed Vicky, and there was a hole in her heart where she usually was. She'd always walk with her from 4th period to 5th and today she was awfully lonely. Even though she sat with Em and other friends at lunch, it wasn't the same without Vicky there.

And Cierra knew she was sad that she left, but she also knew that was a selfish reason.

She mostly figured she was sad because Vicky was getting bad again, and Cierra didn't even realize. And it made her feel like a shitty best friend.

The day was finally coming to an end, and Cierra was in one of her favorite classes, which was history. She loved it, for some odd reason. So it wasn't a bad class to end the day off with.

They were doing partner work, and Emma was talking her ear off about the whole Luke situation.

"Have you been texting?" She asked, chewing on the end of her pen.

"A little," Cierra replied, scribbling down some notes from the textbook on her paper. She and Luke had texted only a few times since they last saw each other, which was the day before. Luke apoligized again for falling asleep at her house, and asked again if Johnny hated him. They conversation only lasted for a little bit; it ended after Luke asked if she had any social media and Cierra gave it to him. They had Snapchatted a little too, and Cierra couldn't help but get butterflies whenever his name popped up in a notification.

"Can we stalk his Instagram?" Emma asked, turning to Cierra, still chewing on her pen.

"Of course," Cierra said, with a quick laugh. She had already looked through his pictures, of course, but she was willing to go through them again. "I'll kill you if you like anything."

Em glanced at his page, asking "Why is his username 'Luke is a penguin?'"

Cierra giggled, like she had when he has first followed her and she saw the username. "I don't know. I think it's cute."

And then they scrolled through his pictures, tapping on the occasional one to get a better look. Em clicked on one of him and Mason (where Luke had on a grey shirt and a backwards hat, and he looked so good that Cierra could hardly even stand it) and scrunched up his nose in disgust. "I hate that kid."

Cierra had told Emma that Luke and Mason were friends, and at first, it excited her a lot. ("We can go on double dates, C!") "Why, what happened?" Cierra asked, because Em was telling her more about Mason yesterday.

"Well, he said that he'd text me and we'd hang out or whatever, but yesterday he stopped texting me and I'm pretty sure he unfollowed me on Instagram. Maybe even blocked me." Em was chewing on her nails.

Cierra made a pouty face at her, and then said, "I'm sorry. Luke did say he's an asshole."

"Yeah, I don't know what I didn't get that vibe from him from the start!" Em said, slumping back in her seat and putting her arms across her chest.