SINCE DAY ONE ― luke hemmings ✓

6

"Boo!" She jumped to her feet when she heard the noise coming from her left and seeing Kyle with a wide grin. "Woah, something wrong?" Kyle sure noticed the lack of reaction from her and saw a dreadful face that concerned him greatly.

"N-No." She quickly mused. "Just nervous to meet the vocalist is all." She smiled, masking all possible worries laced on her face which she's very good at ever since the whole fiasco two and a half years ago.

"You'll be fine, Theo. Come on, go!" Kyle pushed her towards the elevator that just opened, winked and bid her goodbye encouragingly, not knowing the girl was so scared to meet him for obvious reasons.

Number one? It's her ex-boyfriend.

And number two? They ended in bad terms.

Theo stood outside the building block, leaning on the gray walls and with sweaty palms, waited. Impatiently and nervously. She didn't know what to say to him. How to greet him, how to address him properly, and how to stay so casual next to the man she's still madly in love with. It's like asking her to stay still when a ten-wheeler truck is crashing course in her direction.

Theo knew this wasn't the wisest decision, but felt very trapped at the moment.

She was counting down to ten, trying to steady her breathing as she tries not to look left and right so she could 'accidentally' missed seeing the boy. Theo was also trying to consider changing career paths, resigning as early as her first day, and avoid the very band altogether. But her heart kept pulling her back, pulling her back until a man with a familiar cologne passed by her, talking to the phone, and seemed to have missed her small figure.

Almost three years and he still hasn't changed, it ached her heart greatly to the point that she had to choke back the tears that are threatening to fall in her eyes. "Man, is it the gray one? Yeah, I'm here—I'm sorry, what? Come on, Cal. Come down and get me." She walks closer, patting down her sweaty palms on her jeans, and cleared her throat. But her heart almost jumped out of her chest when he instantly turned, meeting a frozen Luke Hemmings wearing a hood and dark eyeglasses. "Hey, Lu? You still there? Man, I-I-I'm sorry." Theo overheard Cal's voice on the phone and her heart kept aching every second they're there.

Frozen and no idea what to say.

She had to thank her medications for keeping her at bay albeit challengingly.

"Hey, Luke." She greeted casually with a fake glee voice that's almost too evident and embarrassing. She remembers the time from the diner and her mind is running miles and miles about what could he have thought of her after seeing her twice in one week. And that's without any intentions at all.

She felt like it was an hour before he finally, finally spoke after putting his phone down. "Theo? What are—you doing here?" She tried to look away, knowing that behind those glasses were piercing stare she didn't want to see. She focused anywhere but on him but can't help noticing how his shoulders were tensed or that his grip on his phone were too tight. Three years later and Theo still knows every bit of him in such a familiar way.

"Well, the thing is—um, well—you know—"

"Theo, you're rambling." A blast to the past is what it did to her when she remembered trying to tell Luke that she had accidentally burned his pan from trying to cook, and was too nervous to put together words he would brush his back soothingly, and reassured her that whatever it is, it'll be okay.

But not today. Not for Theodora. Not anymore.

"I-I didn't know how it happened." She started, almost out of breath as the anxiety began creeping up under her skin, threatening to burst and breakdown. Like a ticking time bomb, any second would be an explosion waiting to happen.