5 Seconds of Summer Preferences

Trying to fix a divorce part 3 (Luke)

Hey. I... I just wanted to hear your voice.

He blurts out the words before he can think it through, and he's mentally berating himself for sounding like a lovesick fifteen year old who's watched one too many rom-coms.

You've forgotten yourself how much you loved Luke's voice, how it used to lull you to sleep with soft whispers against your skin and how it used to wake you up with gentle words in the morning light.

You remember how it's the voice that sang his very songs to you in his bedroom and his acoustic guitar, how it's the same voice that you memorized; every husky tone and low timbre and every playful joke and light whisper.

But hearing it through the phone call again is like hearing a friend but talking to a stranger and you're not sure what to say to Luke any more.

The conversation is quick and casual and you hang up, staring at your toes and hugging yourself tight.

But he calls back every night at the same night and even though the conversation starts off strained, the two of you get into some sort of rhythm; an offhand beat of a conversation that's awkward and a little tense but you're still dancing you're still talking and it's something it's something.

The awkwardness slowly fades away and while flickers of it remains - the two of you hop over the topic of the divorce and you both know what you're trying to avoid - you don't feel as if you're talking to a stranger anymore, not when the voice on the other line makes you smile to yourself despite your best efforts not to.

You feel like a schoolgirl again, waiting for Luke's calls at the same time every night.

The shyness, the hesitancy, the hint of awkwardness - you feel like you're reliving the days when you first started dating Luke all over again.

But if it's a cycle then you don't want to relive the heartbreak again.

-

Can I... can I see her again?

He works up the courage to say those words nearly two months after you agreed to give him a chance.

Two months of texts and calls and working at this relationship, piece by piece - you're not strangers but you're not lovers but he misses his daughter and he misses you.

And just like how he craved hearing your voice, now that he has at least that every night, he wants more - he wants to see you in person and he wants to see your smile and he wants to see his daughter.

Yeah - yeah, I mean I guess you can.

There's hesitation in your voice but it's been two months and you think Luke deserves at least that much for his patience.

He said he would give you space and he said he would give you time but you'd be lying if you said you didn't miss him, too.

You tried not to - you tried to forget about him, you tried to erase him and his stupid effect on you from your life - but you suspect there's a part of him that'll always be with you, just like how a piece of you is always with him.

You arrange a date and a time and he marks it down on his calendar, excitedly circling it with a red marker.

You end the call, and even though his bed is still half empty without you, for the first time in a long time, Luke goes to sleep with a smile on his lips.

-

Daddy!

She runs towards him with the biggest smile on her face, and he can't remember the last time he's been so happy; his lips about to split his face in half with how wide he's grinning at the sight of his beautiful daughter again.