Toxic - Luke Hemmings

Chapter 9

After stopping in almost every clothing store in the mall, we finally had stuff we could work with. The costume store had all the miscellaneous stuff so we only needed to worry about clothing. We stopped in the food court and got coffee, sitting at a table to give ourselves a break from walking.

"Ashton's going to love it." I told her, giving her a suggestive look as I motioned to the bags she had.

"Yeah, and Luke's going to look at you the way he used to again. I already know." I rolled my eyes at her.

"Way to make it about me, Soph." I chuckled, taking a sip of my coffee.

"You'll see. Once look at you in that costume and he'll get on his hands and knees, begging for forgiveness." She was so convinced that there was more to it. All I saw were two people who hated each other, not a million different layers underneath it.

"I already told you, we don't get along. That's all there is to it. There isn't some unspoken love or any other mushy shit going on." I explained, watching as she smirked at me.

"You're in denial. I don't know why he went back to treating you like shit, but even after you walked away that night he couldn't stop thinking about you. He didn't want to talk to anyone, he literally just wanted to see you! He brought your bag up to your room the second we got back!" She nearly shouted at me. So, it was Luke who dropped my bag off. I didn't realize he rushed to see me right after the party, though. I was long gone by then.

"That's just the guilt, dude. He's a prick, just please leave it at that?" I begged her, just wanting to drop the topic all together. She nodded in agreement, changing the subject quickly.

We spent the rest of the day with each other, not really doing much of anything. I only had one more day of classes and then Saturday was Halloween. I really just wanted to get through it and drink. Out of the three parties I'd been to, I still haven't been able to enjoy a single one. I wanted one night of pure fun, no bullshit and no drama.

Sophie went back to her room around 10, leaving me to go to bed so I wouldn't be tired in the morning. I put all the stuff we got from the mall back into one bag and placed it on my chair before getting ready to sleep. Everyone wanted a movie night tomorrow anyway, so I knew I'd be up late then.

I woke up early to get coffee before class in the morning. It was a cold and rainy day out, so I threw on a sweatshirt and leggings and went out the door. I took a seat with my coffee in the corner of the café and pulled out my phone to scroll through some of the texts in our group chat. It was Sophie's idea to start it, and we all enjoyed and texted in it every day, except Luke. I had a feeling he felt like he was too good for it.

Just as the thought crossed my mind, Luke walked into the café, getting in line to get a coffee after noticing I was sitting. He shot glances at me a couple of times while he was in here, but walked out as soon as he got his order. I let out a sigh, still trying to accept the new normal. I grabbed all of my belonging and headed out to get to my first class.

Nothing unusual happened at lunch, but when Luke came into our chemistry lecture he sat only a handful of seats away from me. The last couple of weeks he had opted to find the seat farthest from me, but I guess not today. I turned to him, quickly seeing him put his bag down and sit. He just kept staring at me, I could feel it and see him turned in my direction out of the corner of my eye.

It went on all lecture, making me highly uncomfortable. We had an unspoken deal to just ignore each other now, and he was not following that. I could barely pay attention to what our professor was explaining, the feeling of eyes burning into the side of my head being too distracting. By the time class was over, I rushed out of the lecture hall to go back to my dorm.