in the crowd • luke hemmings

18. an abundance of pasta

"first of all, he definitely wants to have sex with you - he came to your house and just kissed you-"

"what what?" michael said incredulously, sitting beside his girlfriend on the sofa and staring at lola with expectant eyes.

"we don't have time now baby i'll tell you later."

"bella!"

"lola! some focus please." bella held the dress up, shaking it slightly in front of lola. "this dress with some cute black strappy shoes and i'll do your hair?"

lola took the dress from her friend, biting her lip in consideration. it was a milkmaid dress she'd bought when she was with nate, but never actually worn.

"it is a nice dress." she said slowly, feeling the soft material under her fingertips.

"exactly! now." bella pulled lola upwards. "go and put it on - moisturize everywhere again so you're super soft - and then come out and show us!"

lola just nodded, her heart starting to pound slightly when she noticed the time and saw that luke would be picking her up in only two and a half hours.

***

"so." ashton grinned. "you're cooking for lola."

"jesus luke, it's almost like you want to kill her." calum quipped, flicking through an untouched recipe book.

"jesus cal, it's almost like you think you're funny." luke countered childishly, running his hands through his hair. "what in that looks easy?"

"dude stop stressing, we'll help you cook." ashton patted luke's back, pulling the recipe book away from calum and turning a few pages.

"look, that looks easy." ashton pointed at a pasta bake recipe and luke scanned over it quickly, relief washing over his body when he realised it was indeed, an easy recipe.

"you should have everything for that man." calum started rooting through luke's kitchen, pulling out the various ingredients they'd need.

"i've never cooked for anyone except me before, it's weird." luke mumbled, pulling a saucepan out of the cupboard under his sink.

"that's exactly why we're here to help." ashton grinned.

***

"calum what the fuck have you done?" luke's eyes grew unbelievably wide at the sight of just how much pasta calum had made.

"i'm used to cooking in big portions i'm sorry!" calum objected, unable to keep a straight face.

the three boys had managed to make enough pasta for the entire group, and luke was stressed to the point that he felt his hair might start falling out.

"calm down." ashton stood between the two boys, looking over the bowl full of pasta. "calum and i will take some for us to share with michael and bella, and then you should be left with enough."

"yeah, okay." luke easily accepted the suggestion, looking around his apartment while ashton tried to find a tupperware.

"what if she doesn't like my apartment?"

"what?" calum looked up from sneaking pieces of pasta while ashton wasn't looking, only to see his friend suddenly looking terrified.

"hers is so nice and mine is shit and boring - i should've painted the walls a nicer colour or something at least." luke ran his fingers through his hair for the millionth time that evening,

"luke, man, you have a nice apartment. it's clean, it's got cool photos and posters - the photos are of us which is also cool -"

"luke you don't need to worry about it man. she comes to our apartment on a regular basis and yours is much nicer." ashton interjected, cheering quietly when he finally found a tupperware.