The Deal || Luke Hemmings

Michael

"I need it right now," Luke scratched the back of his neck.

"What's the magic word?" I crossed my arms. What a spoiled kid. He didn't understand that I had to rummage through this mess first.

"I don't know, hurry?" he said sarcastically.

I was trying to rush, but I purposely wanted to slow down to annoy him. "How much again?"

"Thirty."

"Thirty?" He must really want me to be broke. "Do you think I'm made out of money?" I glared, fumbling through the stuff in my bag.

"If you want, I can ask for more. You're lucky I just asked for that amount." Lucky? Did he know the meaning of that?

"Here," I wiggled the item he was looking for.

I quickly shelled out the precious thirty dollars from my wallet and handed it to him. Well, I just payed to feed Luke and Louise's stomach's.

"Happy?"

"I would have been, if you had just handed it to me faster."

"So you aren't happy?" I pouted. "Well then, I'll just take the money back."

"Well then," he said in my same tone. "I'll just add another favor."

"Can't do that. It wasn't part of the deal." Luke grunted and said nothing. He knew I was right this time, so he walked away, without thanking me for cooperating with him.

"Enjoy your date," I smirked mockingly.

"I heard that."

-

I was frantic. My research essay was due a day from now and I only managed to finish half of it. I typed as fast as I could, faster than Michael running on the soccer field--which was considerable slow.

"You know Luke has a reservation for two in some fancy place."

A fancy place I paid for.

My eyes were only focused on the computer and I pretended not to hear him.

He waved his arm in front of the screen, blocking me from typing what happened to Tommy Fletch, my groupmate, whose hair caught on fire during trial three. Tommy thought his experience should've been broadcasted in our report, but I had to tell him we were writing a final essay and that his hair wasn't that important. Thank Heavens we had to write an opinionated report next--oh, and that he's safe too.

"What do you want? I'm doing something."

"I'm bored to death." my brother groaned.

"You have friends, don't you? Go bother them instead."

I didn't hear him reply, so I guessed he had chosen not to mess with me.

"So," he continued. "What were you and Luke doing outside yesterday?" He was watching me? Having a brother could double as having a bodyguard too. Sweet.

"You're so nosy."

"I just asked."

Irritated, I turned to look at him. "Michael, I'm really busy so-

"Good. Now that I have your attention," he cut me off. "can I ask what's up with you and Louise? You get all tense when you hear her name. Don't think I don't know," he smiled teasingly. "I got brother senses."

I sneered. "Apparently your senses aren't functioning properly. And I'm not angry at her, I'm just irritated because you keep coming here and giving me updates on what she does."

Michael surrendered by lying down on my bed and I had to shoo him off at one point because I didn't want to fix it all over again.

"So what do you want to talk about now?" He sat down on the floor and I accepted this position of his.

"How about band practice?"

"You're making me even more stressed."

"Fine. Let's talk about the people in the band."

"Don't you dare say-

If he wanted to talk about that guy, a day wouldn't be enough to roast him. Michael must've been worn-out with all my fussing about Luke and his quick tongue that I wanted so greatly to chop off already because it was filled with all sorts of insults.

But who my brother chose to talk about instead was so unexpected, I answered him all dumbstruck.

"How do you find Ashton so far?"

"Who?"

"What do you mean 'who'? I just asked-

"No, i-it's nothing. I thought that you were going to talk about...yeah," I murmured and Michael gave me a 'What is she saying?' look. "Anyway, Ashton's friendly, supportive, caring and overall I think he's great."

"Psh, really?" He raised his eyebrow. He wasn't buying in to my truthful statement.

"Yeah, why?"

"I don't know. I think he's a bit of queer kid."

"Kid? He's our age."

"You don't get it," Michael stood up gravely. My eyes followed his shifting from my place to the other end of the room and back.

"He doesn't play FIFA."

"You're joking." I played FIFA once in a while and I knew well enough that not every guy liked it...actually I only knew two guys: Danny, the guy Calum was telling me about, and some other guy. Even Tommy, the hair-on-fire boy, played FIFA.

"Yeah, like I was playing FIFA with Luke and Calum and he came in and we invited him to play but he was like 'No, I don't play FIFA'. Oh, and you should you should have seen the way Calum looked at me. He makes the funniest faces."

Calum said Luke once told him that his face alone was enough to make anyone laugh. It was a cruel joke, but they've reached a point in their relationship when they can freely insult each other without both of them minding. Same thing with me and Michael.

"So what? I still think he's cool. Not everyone has to like the stuff we do."

"You're such a softie. Maybe you have a crush on him." I had to at least try to make myself look like this was untrue but my smile gave it away. I couldn't even get angry at him because I tried so hard to look like I was typing Tommy's hair experience. "But that's unlikely. You don't like guys like him."

"How about you? What do you think about about him?"

He yawned like it was a boring topic. "Cal, Luke and I had no other choice but to allow him to be part of the band because we didn't want any of those prissy girls from the other group to be in our group. He's useful to the band though, since we needed a drummer."

"Isn't that harsh?" I didn't think they were the type to use people. Luke would, and Calum would follow anything he did, but my brother? I thought they put him in the band because they liked him. Apparently, I was mistaken for all these years.

"Not really, we did him a favor after all. I don't think he'd like the other group anyway."

"But you are all right with him?" I wanted to make sure the four had an authentic bond. If not, I knew favors weren't to be trusted, even with the way Michael said it.

"Hmm...he can keep a good beat so he'll do."

I decided to discontinue the discussion, disappointed with what I had just learned.

Michael didn't show any concern and left.

-

Tbh I don't play FIFA.

Anyway I hope you still liked this chapter.....that's if, you haven't given up on reading my story.

~God Bless~