Another Broken Girl

Chapter 52

Luke's POV

"Did you hear?" I hear Calum ask Ashton in the living room.

"What?" Ashton asks.

"Ali's graduating high school." Calum says.

I feel my heart stop at the sound of her name. I haven't heard her name ever since she moved. It always killed me not knowing what happened to her the day she left. I always wondered why she was crying and why she had to leave. The guys knew that I was really upset about it, so they never brought her up.

"Really? How do you know?" Ashton asks.

"She tweeted about it. She posted a picture of her with her friends." Calum says.

"I miss her." Ashton says.

"Same. She lives in California though." Calum says excitedly.

"Really? Maybe we'll see her! We're staying there for a while, aren't we?" Ashton says.

"I don't know, but she is getting popular on YouTube."

"Really? From what?" Ashton asks.

"Singing."

"Singing? We never got to hear her sing before." Ashton says.

"We can watch one of her videos. She's really good."

"You watched one of them?" Ashton asks.

"Of course I did."

"What are you chumps talking about?" I hear Michael ask.

"Ali. She's graduating today." Ashton says.

"Really? Wow, didn't she drop out?" Michael asks.

"Yeah, but I guess she decided to start again." Calum says.

"Heard she has a boyfriend." Michael says.

Ali has a boyfriend? I feel my chest tighten at the fact. What else have we been missing?

"Really? How do you know?" Calum asks.

"Twitter. She tweeted a picture of her kissing him. I think his name is Noah?" Michael says.

"You know she's still a waitress?" Calum asks.

"Really? I guess one thing didn't change." Michael says.

"Yeah, but she doesn't live in an apartment anymore. She lives in a beach house." Calum says.

"Really? Wow, I guess moving to California was good for her." Ashton says.

"What are you losers talking about?" I ask walking in coolly even though I know what they're talking about.

"Nothing." Ashton says quickly.

"Ali's graduating today." Michael says sitting down on the couch.

"That's cool." I say as if it's no big deal but I'm pretty sure my heat is beating even faster than I can run.

I see the boys look at each other in confusion. I know that they know I'm a sad mess since she left, but I'm Luke Hemmings now. I'm famous. I can get any girl I want. So, why am I still hung over a girl I never had?

"So, since you seem so cool about this, can we meet up with her?" Calum asks.

"We're going to meet up with her?" Michael whispers to Calum excitedly.

"Of course we are, dork. I know where she works." Calum whispers back.

"Yeah. That's fine with me." I say pretending to seem uninterested.

"Alright, we're going to hit her up when we go to California." Calum says.

"That's cool." I say turning on the television. There was a couple minutes of silence, but I could feel their eyes on me.

"Luke?" Ashton says.

"Hm?" I hum taking a sip out of my water bottle.

"Do you still like Ali?" he asks. I start to choke on my water.

"What?" I ask as I gasp for air.

"Do you still like Ali?" Michael asks instead of Ashton.

"I never liked her in the first place." I say wiping my mouth.

"Bullshit." Michael says.

"What?" I say.

"We all know that you liked her." Calum says.

"You guys thought wrong." I say taking another sip of water without choking.

"We should tweet something to our fans." Calum says.

"Like what?" Ashton says.

"I don't know. Just a thanks I guess." Calum says.

"Alright." Ashton says starting to type away.

"So," I say after a few minutes of silence, "have you guys kept in touch with her?"

"Who, Ali?" Michael asks.

"No, Katy Perry." I say sarcastically. "Yeah, Ali." It felt weird to say her name again, but at the same time, I had to stop myself from smiling.

"No. She unfollowed us from Instagram and Twitter and stuff. But we still check up on her." Calum says.

"Really?" I ask still trying to seem uninterested.

"Can you stop that?" Michael says.

"Stop what?" I ask.

"Stop acting like you don't care. I know you were listening to our conversation earlier." He says. I sit up straight and turn to face them.

"Fine, I care." I admit.

"You want to know more about her, huh?" Calum teases.

"Yeah, I do." I agree.

"I bet you stock her YouTube channel." Michael says with a chuckle.

"I do not." I say.

"Doesn't say it on your search history." Michael says.

"What?" I ask. "You saw it?"

"What?" Michael asks confused.

"What?" I ask.

"You actually stock her channel?" Michael says.

"Uh-"

"Wow mate. You're more of a sad kitten than I thought." Michael says.

"I'm not!" I say throwing a pillow at his face.

"Whatever you say." Michael says now hugging the pillow.

"By the way, I only care about her as a friend, nothing else." I say.

"Does nothing else include kissing, going on dates, and sleeping over at her apartment?" Michael asks.

"That," I say trailing off, "is something I can explain."

"Then explain." Calum says.

"I will, once I get an exclamation." I laugh.