<Kara's POV>
I stepped through the door to school the next morning, only to be swept into a pair of familiar, strong arms. Luke spun me around once, before placing me back on the floor in a small fit of giggles.
"Good to see you too," I said after I finally stopped laughing. He simply gave me a happy grin before he leaned down to kiss my nose. I wasn't sure if he was aware, but I absolutely loved when he did that...
"How was your girl day yesterday?" He asked curiously as he slung an arm across my shoulders. I leaned into his side and breathed him in for a moment, almost forgetting we were walking down the hall at school.
"Very nice. We went shopping and got ice cream and it was wonderful. How did your day go?" I inquired just as curiously. He had promised to give me whatever this surprise was today.
"Very well. I slept a bit then hung out with the guys. It was a day filled with testosterone and music and I really needed that." He chuckled and kissed my hair.
"You seem to be in a very happy mood today. It's really cute," I smiled and looked up at him.
"Well I do have that surprise to give you. But not until after school. It's not at my place either so you'll have to ride with me because I don't feel like giving you the directions," he winked and gave me a cheeky grin.
I rolled my eyes, playfully shrugging his arm off my shoulders as we reached my locker. "I never thought you were this lazy."
"That and I also like driving you places," he shrugged and pulled his lip ring between his teeth, an action that made me weak in the knees.
I could only smile as I opened my lock, retrieved my necessary books, and relocked it with by bag inside.
"I do actually have two surprises though. One isn't really an object, well technically they both aren't, but I do have something important to tell you," he said softly as I turned to face him.
My brain went into overdrive, wondering what he was about to say. "Yeah?" I cocked my head slightly.
"I, um... Well, when I was working on the main gift I got really stressed. And as you can probably guess, I don't usually handle my stress very well. So I went outside and I was planning on smoking a cigarette to calm me down..." He looked down at the floor at this point and I wondered where on earth he could be going with this.
"But as I was about to light it, I stopped. And I thought, What would Kara say? How would she respond to me doing this to myself?" At this, he looked back up at me with a smile. "So I threw it away." The last part was no more than a whisper that gave me chills.
"You threw the cigarette away?" I asked quietly, trying to clear my head.
He nodded, reaching up to scratch the back of his neck. "Yeah. I mean, I remember how much you hate it and how you reacted to me smoking last time, so I decided I'd stop. For you."
I stood there for a moment, stunned. How did I have enough influence over someone that I could get them to give up an addiction? How much did I truly mean to this boy if he'd give up his stress reliever for me? Just to make me a little more comfortable around him?
"L-Luke... If that's your way of getting rid of your stress and as long as you try not to do it around me its okay..." I shook my head.
"Well if I'm gonna be in a band I probably shouldn't do it an-"
"You're in a band?" I cut him off suddenly. Blood flushed his cheeks as he chuckled softly.
"Well, yeah kinda. That was actually supposed to be part of the other surprise, actually. But now you know," he grinned.
"That's awesome! What are you guys gonna be called? Who's in it?" I asked excitedly.
"We don't have a name yet, and you'll find out sooner or later," he replied mischievously, trying to cover up his grin with a kiss to my forehead.
"I'd better. And I'd better hear you guys eventually," I rolled my eyes again. "Now we need to go to class. The bell's gonna ring soon."
••••••••••••••••••••
"Are we going to a store? Or a park? Just tell me the general place itself at least," I pleaded from the passenger seat of Luke's car. We were en route to wherever this surprise was, and I was almost dying of anticipation.
"Nope. You aren't getting a word out of me," he chuckled.
"Luke!" I groaned in exasperation.
"Quit whining Kara, we'll be there in like two minutes," he sighed, though through my eyelashes I could see a smile still sitting on his lips.
I huffed and crossed my arms, pulling my legs up onto the seat so I could lean my forehead on my knees. "Fine. I'm timing you though," I giggled quietly. His only reply was another chuckle.
Sure enough, two minutes later we pulled into the driveway of a small house that looked very homey already. I turned to Luke, one eyebrow raised. "Who's house is this?" I asked the obvious question.
"You ask too many questions. Just get out of the car," he shook his head with a smile and took the keys out of the ignition. Rolling my eyes, I opened the car door and stepped out. Waiting a moment or two for Luke to do the same, I followed him to the front door, which was painted bright red. He laced his fingers through mine and smiled for the millionth time before raising a hand to knock.
We waited a few seconds before there were thumping footsteps on the other side of the door. It then swung inward to reveal a very familiar, dimpled face. "Hey guys. We've been expecting you," Ashton greeted. "Come on in." He stepped aside to admit us into a cheerful, wonderful-smelling foyer. I would have been surprised at the warm herbal scent had it been anyone other than Ash. He always seemed to smell good.
Closing the door behind us, he clapped his hands together and took a deep breath. "I'm gonna take a guess here and say you're here for that surprise, right?" His eyes twinkled mischievously as Luke nodded. "Follow me then."
We trailed behind him as he walked toward a door leading to what I'd guess to be a basement. The steps leading down were confirmation as we descended into an open space. There, I was pleasantly surprised to find Michael and Calum with instruments hanging from their shoulders. There was a cajon at the end of a row of three stools, which Ash immediately walked over to. I recognized Luke's acoustic guitar resting on a stand near the wall, and I slowly pieced everything together.
"So... This is your band?" I asked slowly. Looking up at the tall blond boy at my side, he nodded.
"Yup. And they are actually helping with the surprise. Now go sit down," he grinned and nodded toward a couch facing the boys. I smiled and did just that, pulling my legs up so I sat Indian-style on the cool leather. Luke walked over and picked up his guitar, before making his way to sit between Cal and Mikey.
"So if you hadn't guessed already, the surprise is a song," Luke said softly. "I wanted to give you something just because, but I wanted it to be more personal and unique. Then I got the idea to write a song, so that's what I did..."
I couldn't help the broad grin that stretched across my face at his words. The similar look he wore told me he felt the same.
"So I guess we'll play it for you now..." Luke's voice, had I not been so familiar with it, would have sounded perfectly normal as he murmured the words into the mic. But I could hear the slight tremble and nervousness of it. I could sense how nervous he was, which he obviously shouldn't have been.....
It started out with a few simple notes. Then Ashton added a laid back and steady beat along with Calum's bass. I felt my insides bunch up as I watched Luke and he watched me, the precision between our eyes like that of a surgeon.
I wasn't expecting to have the wind knocked out of me though.
I wasn't expecting to end up crying in Luke's arms after the song had finished.
He wrote that for me.
He wrote me a song...
What do I really mean to him?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A/N
SO CUTE GUYS. I LOVE THAT SO MUCH. THE OPENING AND TGEN THE SONG AND THE WHOLE THING WAS JUST GAH. I LOVEd writing that if you couldn't tell. I wanted it to be as good as possible so yeah. That's why it took so long among other thing like homework.
Okay. Important thing here. I updated the cover of the story. The reason for this is because I figured out the dimensions of the picture, and because the previous cover was a bit blurry, I decided I'd fix it. Don't get me wrong: I love the old cover (technically the second on because the first was so bad) but like I said, I didn't look the best when it was the larger version. So I took a better version of the same picture and used this really good font app I have (called Phonto if you're wondering. It's magical) and I made a new one. I hope you guys like it because I'm kinda obsessed. This'll be the last time I do this. It was also partly because I wanted it to look more official since (somehow) Rejects is getting more and more popular. And let's be honest, on Wattpad you can almost guarantee that if it looks like a lot of time was put into a cover it's probably a good story too. I guess it's just for the benefit of the story really. I apologize if you like it less that the other one though. I love them both so I get it.
That being said, thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you for so much support lately. You don't understand how much you all mean to me (haha I totally just referenced the end of the chapter though XD) and I love you all so extremely much it hurts. Thank you for over 43,000 reads and over 1,200 comments and almost a thousand comments. You all make me so unbelievably happy and I love you. <3
~CC