Across The Street // Luke Hemmings

Chapter Thirty-Five

Chapter Thirty-Five

The water felt numbingly cold as I splashed it on my face. I had just brushed my teeth after throwing up a few times from that frightening phone call, and now I had to reapply the make up that I just cried off.

Needless to say, I felt like a hot mess.

Luke wasn't knocking on the bathroom door anymore, and a little part of me hoped that he had just left and gone home. That would make the next few minutes slightly more bearable.

That wasn't the case, though. When I stepped out of the bathroom, he was sitting on the couch, leaning forward with his arms resting on his knees.

We just looked at each other for what felt like forever. Finally, Luke spoke up.

"You wanna tell me what's going on?" His voice was quiet, almost nervous sounding.

I shifted uncomfortably on my feet as I avoided his gaze. How do I possibly even begin to explain any of this? I can barely make sense of this.

"Look at me."

I obeyed, meeting his eyes, and his eyebrow arched as he awaited my response.

"I'm actually kinda tired," my voice cracked, making me sound even more pathetic. Great.

"I think I'm just going to lie down for a bit."

Luke stood up from the couch to stop me from going to my room.

"No, Chelsea, sit down with me. I wanna talk about this." He took me by the hand and led me to sit next to him on the couch.

"That's the second time you got upset because of a phone call. What's up?" I could tell just from his tone of voice that he wasn't going to accept some sort of bullshit answer that I was fully prepared to give.

"I'm just dealing with some stuff from back home," I said with a forced smile.

Luke nodded for me to go on.

"I think I need to handle this on my own, though," I whispered.

"What does that mean?" He moved so he could see my face better. "Chelsea, if we're gonna be together now, I feel like I should know about whatever it is that's clearly weighing down on you. That's what people in relationships do."

After thinking carefully and doing my best to keep my composure, I took Luke's hands in mine.

"You're right," I said slowly.

Luke breathed out a sigh of relief. "Okay, good. We're on the same page now. So fill me in. Tell me what happened."

"No, I meant.." I paused and took a deep breath. "I meant that I'm not willing to talk about this, so maybe we shouldn't be together anymore." The words came spilling out of my mouth, slowly but surely.

For the first time since I met Luke, the silence that sat between us was uncomfortable.

"Are you serious?" His tone was a mixture of angry and hurt.

"Luke, we've only known each other for a few weeks. It's impractical to think you can know, and handle, all of my problems."

"No it's not impractical. I wanna help. Tell me everything that's going on. Jesus, Chelsea, why does this have to be so secretive?" He rolled his eyes at me and sighed.

If only he knew.

But I can't tell Luke what's going on, because I have this gut feeling that Cam would hurt him. He'd physically hurt Luke if he found out that I told him what happened. (And Lord knows, he would find out. Evidently, he's got eyes everywhere.) I could never forgive myself if something bad happened to the sweet, kind hearted guy that's sat next to me.

Just thinking about the severity of the situation made my eyes tear up.

"You mean so much to me, but this is something that I don't feel comfortable talking about. And I need to be on my own while I deal with this." I looked down in my lap so Luke couldn't see my eyes.

I'm tired of crying in front of him. I'm tired of crying in general. If being apart from Luke is what it's going to take to keep us both safe, then this is what I have to do.

If the roles were reversed, I know he would do the same for me.

Luke startled me by abruptly standing up from his spot on the couch and pacing the living room floor.

"So, what? What the fuck am I supposed to do? Just stay away from you because you don't want to tell me what's hurting you?" His voice was much louder than I've ever heard it before. "How is that fair?"

"Luke, I just need you to trust me on this."

"No, Chelsea, you need to trust me! What are you hiding that's so bad that you think I can't handle? Just trust me with whatever it is! Let me help you. Let me fucking help you, Chelsea." Anger, frustration, and desperation were laced within his words, and I couldn't take it anymore.

"I think you should go." My voice was so quiet and timid, I almost didn't recognize it.

Once again, we were surrounded with an uncomfortable silence that felt suffocating.

A knock at the front door cut through the silence, but wasn't nearly enough to cut through the tension. Luke and I didn't look away from each other as Peyton opened the door and walked inside.

She must have felt the tense atmosphere.

"Is this a bad time?" Her voice was quiet, too.

"No." Luke finally spoke up. "I was just leaving."

I watched as he brushed past Peyton and walked out the door, without looking back.

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