Addicted. || l.h au

thirty-six

"We have to get up" I sigh into Luke's chest. Check out was at 11, and unfortunately our week in paradise was coming to an end.
"I know" He mumbles, and we both roll out of bed. I put on some new clothes and prepare myself in the bathroom, having a shower and brushing my hair before brushing my teeth and putting on some makeup. I clean up my toiletries, and walk out to the main room, putting my toiletry bag into my duffel bag along with all of my clothes surrounding it.
"I don't wanna leave" Luke groans.
"Neither" I sigh, zipping up my bag and putting on my shoes.
"Fucking work" He says and I laugh, nodding my head.
"You ready?" I ask, slipping on my vans.
"Yeah" He nods, picking up his bag and putting his own shoes on. "Bye motel room that holds many sweaty memories" Luke says, putting his fingers to his lips and blowing a kiss into the room.
"Good times, good times"
"My back is stinging like hell, by the way, thanks for asking" Luke says, referring to the masterpiece of scratch marks I had made on there last night during an especially heated session.
"You'll live" I say, patting his shoulder as we walk out of the room, shutting the door behind us. We walk to the elevator, shoving each other softly the whole way down to the lobby where we pay the bill and hand in our keys. It only takes 10 minutes, and we head straight to the front to get a taxi to the airport. We could easily walk, but both of us are far too lazy for that.
We finally manage to hail one over, and we jump in, telling the man behind the wheel where we need to go.
"Where are you flying to?" He asks.
"Back home to Sydney"
"Ah, Sydney people. It's quite busy there"
"We're from the quieter part of Sydney" I say and he nods.
"I once had a fish from Sydney" He says, and Luke and I look at each other. "I'm only joking, he was from Brisbane" The man says and Luke and I burst into laughter.
"What was its name?"
"His name was Rodney, a gold fish. Died a tragic death of over-eating"
"I'm pretty sure that will be Michael's cause of death" Luke mutters to me and I giggle. It's only funny because it's true.
"Sounds rough" I say.
"Aye, it was a hard time but I got over it after a month or two" The taxi driver jokes, shaking his head. "What are your names?" He asks.
"I'm Kate, this is Luke" I say and he nods.
"Kate and Luke, I expect to see you guys in the engagement notices one day"
"You will definitely be invited to the wedding..."
"Greg"
"Greg. You will definitely have a place on the guest list" Luke promises and Greg smiles at us in the rear view mirror.
"I should hope so. Maybe I will be able to bring you guys a goldfish as a wedding gift" He says, cracking a smile and we laugh.
"I'll be waiting"
"Well, here you are. Have a good flight" Greg says, pulling up at the drop off part of the airport car park. Luke pays the fare, and I notice he gives Greg a tip as well.
"Take care" I say, stepping out of the cab.
"You too. Treat her right" Greg says to Luke and he nods.
"Wouldn't dream of doing anything else"
Luke and I wave to Greg and he speeds off. "What a lovely old man" I say, and Luke grabs my hand in his, rubbing circles on it with his thumb.
"He was a legend"
"He was" I laugh. Luke and I walk through the airport, walking up to line of people waiting to get their tickets. Luke and I wait behind a middle-aged couple, with a little girl clinging to the mothers skirt.
"Have you changed your mind about kids?" Luke asks, obviously also looking at the little girl in front of us.
"I don't know, Grace is pretty cute"
"She is" Luke smiles and I put my arms around him, one of them resting under his jumper and warding off my goosebumps, as he holds me against his side, his hand resting on my shoulder.
"If it's with the right person, I'm sure I wouldn't mind popping out one or two" I shrug, looking up at him and he laughs loudly at me, squeezing me tighter.
"God, I love you" He says and I poke my tongue out at him. I turn around to see we are at the front of the line, and a woman behind one of the desks is calling us over. We walk up to her, and Luke takes care of the tickets, before we head to our gate, going through security and everything on the way. "How are you feeling?" Luke asks as we sit down in the chairs.
"Alright" I shrug, despite the small shaking of my legs.
"You sure?" He asks and I nod. He squeezes my jittery leg, and I force a smile at him. He plants a kiss on my cheek, then one on my lips.
We wait for about half an hour before they tell us our plane is boarding. That's when the shaking gets a little bit worse and Luke squeezes my hand.
The closer we get down the line, the more anxious I become, and I take deep breaths, calming myself a little bit. The lady behind the booth rips off the side of our tickets, wishing us a safe flight before we walk through to the plane.
Luke and I take our seats, and he holds my sweaty hand in his own, rubbing it assuringly. I smile at him weakly, resting my head on his shoulder.
"Guess what" Luke whispers to me.
"What?"
"They say the world was created billions of years ago, but mine was made 19 years ago" He says and I breathe out a laugh, hitting his chest.
"You're such a dork"
"It's true!" He says defensively. I know he's trying to distract me, and for some reason it's working. Of course it's working, it's Luke. Well at least it works until the plane begins to move and my breath hitches as I try to prepare myself for the next hour of hell I was about to endure. The plane picks up speed, and after the air hostesses give the safety demonstration that I try my hardest to focus on rather than the plane ride, we soar into the air and my breathing becomes shallow.
"What do a snake and a bird have in common?" Luke asks.
"Uh, I have no idea"
"Both of them can fly, except for the snake" He says and I burst into laughter, my mind going off of the fact we were floating in mid-air right now.
"Knock knock"
"Who's there?"
"Nobody"
"Nobody who?" I say but Luke stays silent and it takes me a minute but then I get it. "That's a good one, I like that one"
The seatbelt light goes off and Luke pulls his phone from his pocket along with a pair of earphones.
"Here, this should help" He says, handing me an earphone and I put it into my ear as Breathe by Angels & Airwaves comes on. I instantly feel relaxed, this band just seems to have that effect on me. "This song reminds me of you" He says.
"You're so good to me" I sigh, kissing his cheek.
"I know, but you deserve it" He smiles and I put my head back against his shoulder, making myself comfortable, the thought and the fear of flying at the back of my mind, nothing but a minuscule idea that I almost forget about, and it's all because of Luke.
The song changes, and it's one I've never heard before. But then I hear Luke's voice and I spring up, looking at him.
"This is the song you sang to me the other day!" I say as soon as I heard the first line.
"Yeah, the boys and I got the chance to record one song, so we chose this. I was keeping it as a secret to surprise you but I guess my phone decided to ruin that. Stupid shuffle" He sighs.
"Luke, it sounds amazing! You're voice is so beautiful" I gush, focusing on the song. I remember he had called it 'Never Be', and I smile to myself, sitting back in the aeroplane chair.
"Did you like it?" Luke asks when the song finishes and I look up at him. He looks at me and sees the tears falling down my face and hugs me, laughing quietly. "God, I didn't know it was so bad it'd make you cry"
"It's amazing, Luke, I love it"
"It's all for you" He says and I smile into his chest, sniffling softly. I pull away and wipe under my eyes, laughing at my stupid emotions and I lean up and kiss him.
"I love you so much" I say, kissing him again.
"I love you more than you love peppermint chocolate"
"Are you sure about that?" I ask, raising my brow at him.
"Positive" He smiles.
I look at him, and I can't believe everything that has happened in such a short amount of time.
From meeting him at the bar, and almost resenting him, to sitting next to him on a plane, despite all the fears I've always had of flying. It was weird how quickly he had grown on me. He had burrowed his way into my heart, and I fell for him so hard.
He killed all of my bad habits, and he erased all the hate from my heart and replaced it with love for even the simplest of things. Like the way his eyes would crinkle, or the way his hugs could do more for me than any cigarette ever could.
He dissolved my alcohol dependancy, and he helped me flush away the blades that had caused me so much pain. He kept me from ending my life, and he put a stop to my sadness and my bitterness. He made me feel special from day one, and the day I met him was the day I knew I was changing.
My life was so different now, and I wouldn't go back to the old me for anything. I'm so fucking happy now, and I can't get over the fact that the person that was making me feel this way was Luke.
The dorky, funny, idiotic ball of weirdness that is Luke Hemmings was my boyfriend, and my first love, and hopefully the last.
Before I knew it, the flight was over and we were in the car, already driving back home. It was weird, I hardly felt a thing for the rest of that flight. It was like it wasn't even happening. It was just me, and Luke, and the music flowing into our ears, and that made everything seem okay.
We pulled up to Luke's complex, and we walked to the elevator and rode it up to his floor, like we had done so
many times before, and we walked trough his door like we had done so many times before. And Calum ran over and hugged us, like he had done, so many times before.
"You're home!" Calum squealed, just like he had done so many times before. But this time, I looked over at Luke, and he looked over at me, and we mouthed 'I love you' to each other, and I realised a few things.

1:
My home is with Luke.

2:
He makes me extremely ecstatic.

3:
I'm absolutely, positively in love with him.

And 4:
I was addicted to the feeling.