in the crowd • luke hemmings

21. 'like'

"i'll cut your hair for you!" michael yelled from the kitchen.

"if you touch my hair i swear i'll kick your dick in gordon!" ashton's mention of michael's middle name was met with a burst of laughter from bella.

"shut up!"

"so what are we watching tonight ash?" bella ambled in from michael's bedroom, presumably bored of whatever series she'd been binging.

"calum wants to watch the avengers but i want to watch-"

"we're watching the avengers ashton!" calum's insistent yell bounced off of the walls of the house and made luke grin at how childish his demands were.

"you're such a movie night control freak." bella retorted.

"shut up!" calum yelled back, quickly followed by michael's shout of "don't tell my girlfriend to shut up!", causing fits of laughter in both bella and ashton - the word 'girlfriend' bringing thoughts of lola to luke's head.

"well; i'm going to go and monitor the head chefs in there." bella pulled herself off of the sofa with a grunt and running into the kitchen.

luke checked his phone, before pulling himself up from the couch and earning a disgruntled groan from ashton.

"where are you going?" he whined. "everyone else is in the kitchen."

"lola finishes in fifteen minutes and it takes ten to get there if the traffic is good."

"you're so whipped!" calum yelled from the kitchen, eliciting a high pitched giggle from ashton which preceded possibly the worst imitation of a whip luke had ever heard.

"you don't even sound like a whip, fuck off." he called out, a small grin on his face as he left the boys apartment - and the faintest of blushes painted across his cheeks, but he'd have never let them see that.

***

after the millionth time of checking his hair in his front camera, luke finally felt ready to pick lola up looking as good as he possibly could.

leaning back against the cool glass of the passenger seat window, luke checked the time again - he had one minute.

he cracked his knuckles, the harsh sound satisfying to his ears and the sensation easing his nerves slightly.

luke didn't know why he was nervous at first, but he was starting to realise.

it was the same feeling that stirred in his stomach the first time he'd been in lola's car; the feeling of being somewhere that was better than him.

the ballet school towered over his head, the walls a soft, creamy colour and luke could see through the windows of the double doors that there were perfectly arranged flowers in a glass vase on the desk of the eggshell blue reception.

and inside, luke knew the studios were probably just as perfect and immaculate, and in one of those many many studios, his perfect ballerina was dancing a perfect dance with perfect technique.

standing against his slightly dusty black car, clad in a baggy leather jacket and sex pistols t shirt with the most battered docs he owned on his feet - luke felt about as far away from perfect as he could get.

the muffled sounds of giggles and chatter drew luke's attention back to the double doors right as a torrent of students tumbled out from between them; all clad in outfits so similar luke felt his eyes blurring slightly as he tried to look for lola.

in the midst of the floaty skirts and white tights, luke spotted lola. her hand was working to take down the bun in her hair while the other clutched at the drawstrings of her dance bag to keep it anchored to her shoulder.