Outside || Luke Hemmings

Chapter 6

‘this way’ Luke said excitedly. He was about to run but tried really hard not to.
I laughed and followed him.
‘There! There they are! Look how cute they are! Did you ever see them swim? It’s so cute! You really have to see it’ He almost screamed of excitement as he grabbed my wrist and pulled me forward, since, apparently I was not fast enough.
Within a few seconds, we were practically squished against the glass.
‘Oh look they’re being fed. Look at them, swallowing a whole freaking fish. Oh look there’s one swimming over there!’ Luke continued as he pointed at the swimming penguin and grabbed my hand without really noticing it.
‘Do you see them? That one is going to jump in too, look’ Luke pointed with the hand that was holding mine. He looked at it before looking at my face and slowly letting it go.
‘Sorry,’ He said, his cheeks turning a soft pink colour. ‘I tend to get really over enthusiastic some times and I do things without thinking about it’
I laughed. ‘It’s okay, don’t worry about it. Just look at the penguins. Look, there’s another one about to jump in’ I answered.
Luke looked back at the penguins, a lot calmer now than he was a few minutes ago.
We stood there, watching the penguins for another 10 minutes before Luke finally looked away from them.
‘Okay, shall we go see what other animals they have then?’ he said.
I nodded and we walked away from the penguins.
‘I basically made it my life mission to look for penguins in every country I go to’ Luke said after a few minutes of silence.
‘Have you seen a lot of them already?’ I asked curiously.
‘I have seen quite a few yes. Not all of them though’
‘I’m sorry to burst your bubble but I don’t think you’ll get to see penguins in every country in the world’ I said.
‘maybe not, but I can try’
‘Yes you can’
‘So where are we going? What animals do you want to see?’ Luke asked.
‘I don’t know, let’s just go that way and see where we’ll end’ I answered as I pointed to my right.
‘I like the way you’re thinking’ Luke grinned.
We walked to our right and followed the path.
We came across some Llama’s, camels, we went inside a reptile house, we saw flamingo’s, elephants, giraffes and zebra’s, we went past the lions that were nowhere to be found, we saw some polar bears, we went past the penguins for a second time and eventually ended up at the monkeys.
‘my friends have this weird thing with gibbons’ Luke smiled as we passed the gibbons.
‘Awh, so they have their gibbon thing and you’re all alone with your penguin thing?’ I asked.
‘You could see it like that yeah’ Luke pouted.
I laughed. ‘awh you’ll find your penguin buddy someday’
‘I know, I just hope he or she will come along fast’ he smiled.

We walked through the zoo until had seen everything and went back to the car.
We sat in silence for a little while. It wasn’t an awkward silence. It was a normal one.
It was a silence that everyone has sometimes when you’re just done talking for a while.
I rested my head against the window and closed my eyes for a second.
I had barely slept the night before and I had spent most of today walking so it was safe to say I was very tired.

‘Ivy, wake up’ Luke softly said.
I opened my eyes and lifted my head up.
I looked around, disorientated for a minute before all the memories came back and I remembered we were in Luke’s car.
‘we’re at your house’ he said.
I nodded and we got out of the car. We walked to the front door, which I opened and we walked inside. Taking place on the couch once again.
My stomach grumbled aggressively and I grinned.
‘I’m going on a hunt for some food, do you want something?’ I asked.
‘well, I’m definitely hungry but I don’t know how much food you have left’ he answered.
I walked into the kitchen and looked around. Hoping that somehow, there would be something left to eat. But as I expected, there was nothing.
Luke walked into the kitchen and looked at me.
‘Unless you’re in for cheese as dinner, I have absolutely nothing’ I said, smiling apologetically.
‘Don’t worry about it. I’ll order us pizza’ Luke said. Smiling back at me.
‘No, you don’t have to pay for my pizza. I can do that myself. you already paid for the zoo’
‘yes, because I invited you’ he said. He already had his phone ready to make the call.
‘well, I invited you to eat here so you can make the call but you don’t have to pay for it’
Luke grinned and pressed the call button, while asking me what pizza I wanted.
I told him what I wanted and grabbed us something to drink, which was water, because there was not enough milk to share.
I handed Luke his glass while he was still on the phone and went back into the living room, looking for money.
I knew my parents had this kind of safe with money in it hidden somewhere.
When I was about 7 they accidentally left it open so I looked in it and I could see was money.
When I was 13 I saw how my dad opened it and when he caught me looking at it, they hid it somewhere else.
I never saw it anymore after that but I knew they kept it somewhere.
I took a sip of my water and put the glass on the table. I sat on the couch and looked around. At first it always was in between the DVD’s for some weird reason, but I knew it wasn’t there anymore.
I stood up and walked over to the first cabinet I saw. I opened it and looked around, but I didn’t see the safe. I opened the second one and after that the third one, until I had looked through all of them.
When I couldn’t find it Luke was still on the phone, but it was with someone else now.
‘Luke’ I said as I walked in the kitchen. Luke instantly put his hand over my mouth as he kept talking to the person on the phone.
I tried to push his hand away but it didn’t work.
‘wait, hold on just a second’ he said to the person on the phone.
He then focused on me.
‘can you please, please, please, please, please, please be quiet for just a minute please?’ he asked while removing his hand from my mouth.
‘I’ll explain later, just…please’ he begged me.
I nodded confused and whispered: ‘I only wanted to tell you I’m going upstairs for a minute. So if the pizza is here can you open the door?’
‘yes, of course. No problem’ he smiled reassuringly.
‘thanks’ I said as I walked out of the kitchen.
I walked up the stairs and stood still in front of my parent’s bedroom.
I was never allowed in there and it was the only other place the safe could be.
I sighed and opened the door.
The room smelled like my mother’s perfume and it was as spotless as my dad always wanted things to be.
I swallowed hard as all the memories of my parents came rushing back, and forced myself to focus on what I came to do.
I walked to the closet and pulled it open, revealing all of the clothes my parents owned.
the smell of clean washed clothes filled the room as I noticed the little black box at the bottom of the closet. I bend over to grab it and accidentally dropped some clothes off of the hangers. I grabbed the little, but very heavy box and looked at the clothes I dropped.
I put the box on the ground beside me and grabbed the clothes.
I dropped one of my dad’s old sweaters. He absolutely hated it.
I remembered when my mom made him wear it one day, because she did like it.
I smiled at the memory as tears slowly started to fill my eyes.
I looked at the other piece of clothing I dropped. It was a dress of my moms.
One of her favourites. She wore it at least once a week because she always felt beautiful in it.
Before I could even realize it. I was sitting on the ground, with my mom’s dress and my dad’s ugly sweater in my arms.
Quietly bawling my eyes out, and only thinking about them.
I totally forgot about Luke at that moment and the black safe, that was standing right beside me suddenly wasn’t important anymore at all.
I sniffed and wiped away my tears, just so they could be replaced by new once only seconds later.
The heavy feeling in my chest and the overpowering silence grew bigger the longer I sat there but I couldn’t get myself to move.
‘Ivy?’ Luke yelled from downstairs.
I didn’t want to answer him so instead of doing that, I buried my face in the sweater and continued crying.
I heard footsteps on the stairs, telling me Luke was on his way up.
Only seconds later he showed up in the door opening.
‘hey, what are you doing here? He asked as he carefully walked in.
I looked at him, with my tearstained cheeks and puffy eyes, I wanted to answer him, but all I could get out was: ‘they’re gone’ Luke sat down beside me and pulled me in a hug.
At that point I lost it. All the self-control I had was gone and I continued crying. My breathing was unsteady and I felt slightly light headed, but I couldn’t stop it. I put my arms around Luke’s chest and hugged him like I had known him for my entire life.
‘they’re really gone’ I repeated in his chest. ‘what am I supposed to do now? I don’t have anyone anymore. My parents were all I had. And they’re just taken away from me like it was nothing. I don’t know what to do anymore’ I rambled in between my unsteady breathing, probably making it even worse.
‘I don’t know, Ivy’ Luke softly answered. ‘But I do know that eventually, it’s all going to be fine. It might not feel like it now, but it will, I promise’

---------

A/N
this chapter is ridiculously long it's almost twice as big as my normal chapters are...
I'm going to be honest and tell you that i almost had to cry while writing that last bit...but that's probably just me though. 

anyway i hope you like this story so far! (: