aisle five » hemmings a.u.

forty-four

"So," he started as they got on the elevator that only had a teenage girl on it, "I got a promotion."

She raised an eyebrow, not sure of what kind of promotion you can get at a grocery store after a courtesy clerk. "Really."

He did that cute little crooked smile that curled up at one side of his face that Emma swooned over, his dimple popping. "I'm, like, assistant manager of the store," he said. "It's double the pay."

"Do your hours change?" she asked. Yeah, she was worried she wouldn't get to see him as much.

"I, um, yeah. I have to work a bit more," he said and she frowned. "I'll always come straight home, though. You know I'll miss you through the day." Em smacked his chest and laughed as they got off the elevator.

They went to the car and got in, his hand immediately finding hers again. Luke had this deep fear of losing her and every day that passed he got more and more paranoid that it'll come true. So whenever he did small things like that he truly meant so much behind it, though she didn't see that. He hoped they'd stay together for good. So far that plans working.

After arguing over Justin Bieber and Nirvana, Luke finally won the battle and said they could listen to her stupid CD on the way back and she crossed her arms over her chest and pouted (he found that insanely adorable, so either way he won). They arrived at his old flat and got out, meeting behind the car. Luke gripped her hand tightly (a subconscious thing) as they went up the lift. It stopped at one floor where a man stepped on and Emma recognized him after a moment of uncomfortable eye contact.

"Things worked out," he observed and she grinned, holding up their interlocked hands, and Luke looked confused as hell. "Good for you." And then he stepped off when the doors opened on a floor that wasn't Luke's.

He didn't even question it, though, because his girlfriend was a fucking weirdo. He just held her hand tighter and squeezed it, and she squeezed it back, and it was kind of reassuring in a way. Luke and Emma stepped off when it was their floor and then when they got to the door, he realized he'd forgotten his key, so he knocked.

The door swung open and the air went dry. A pair of warm brown eyes went wide when they landed on the couple in front of the door and not a word was spoken. "What the hell-" Luke began but was cut off.

"Babe, who is it?"

Michael stepped out of his bedroom and started walking towards the door, but stopped mid-step when he saw that it was Luke. His eyes went from the girl holding the door open in surprise, and then to Luke who was burning holes in the side of her head, and then to Emma who was super confused (though when wasn't she). Michael coughed and it kind of broke the four out of the absolutely toxic silence.

"Michael," Luke spoke calmly, though in the depths of his voice he wanted to scream every bad word known to man, "are you with her?"

It was silent again as Michael walked over and wrapped his arm around the nervous caramel blonde haired girl. "Um, me and Avery are kind of a thing," he said and Luke took Em's hand and started dragging her down the hallway away from the flat, past the elevator because he wanted to get away. Fast.

They entered the little entryway where there was a bunch of stairs and Emma tried to slow him down when they got down around two flights. He stopped and his face was red and he looked absolutely pissed off. "Luke," she said softly, "chill."

"How the fuck can my best mate fucking go fucking the slut who fucking broke us up?" he asked, the veins in his neck popping as he got even angrier.

"If you use the word fuck one more time I think I'll punch you in the face," Em started and he cracked a small smile. "She apologized, Luke, it's okay. It wasn't her fault." He looked at her like she was actually mad, and she just shot him a pointed look.

Luke leaned against the wall. "How could he just go behind my back like that?" he mumbled quietly, and she leaned against the wall next to him. "Whatever. I don't even care. If he wants to be with a girl with probably like seventeen STDs, fine. I have you and that's all that matters."

She smiled so widely, she thought her cheeks would fall off. They went down the rest of the stairs and in the end, they decided to just go to a little diner for some food and then they'd go home. They were sat at the table and were chowing down on some fries and milkshakes (and Luke did this really weird thing where he dipped his fry in his shake and she called him gross and he just kissed her). As she popped a fry into her mouth, she kicked him playfully under the table.

"What do you think would've happened if your friends didn't dye your hair?"

Luke's blue eye fell onto her pretty green ones. "I think I would be single right now," he said, "and you'd be with that creep Andy. I also think I wouldn't have seen my mum still and I think that I'd be missing out on the most amazing girl in the world."

Her cheeks turned a slight pink and he smiled, taking her hand in his and holding it in the air just a little. So that their elbows were firmly on the table and their locked fingers were held up. "I'm so glad my mum's addicted to hair dye," she said, "and I'm glad your friends are fricken weird."

"I'm glad that you're mine."

"I'm glad that I'm yours, too."

Luke Hemmings always had a plan in life. He was to find a new girl almost every week and go with it. He'd take her home, fuck her, and never her again. But everything changed when he met a certain girl named Emma Rose King in the middle of a stupid pharmacy, and then got trapped inside overnight. Luke never would have thought that Emma would be able to sneak into his heart the way she did, but people change. It's not a myth, people actually change when faced with love. He believed love was for losers and he'd never find it. Boy, he was wrong.

Emma King was just a simple, clumsy girl without much thought as to who she wanted to be. She didn't want to go to college, but she wanted to make a name for herself. Or at least be something to the people around her. When she got stuck with a certain purple haired boy named Luke Robert Hemmings, she realized that maybe people in this world aren't who they seem. He acted like he was a big shot who didn't care about her, when in reality, all he needed was someone to believe in him. She didn't think she'd fall in love with that irritating purple (then blue) haired boy after a month, even. But she did.

And it was the best thing she'd ever done.

THE END