<Luke's POV>
Every word was ringing in my head. I couldn't focus on anything as I lay there with Kara watching some stupid cartoon that didn't even make any sense. The prior events were spinning through my mind, and I seemed to have lost all sense of control over them. Like when you spin a top on your finger, and you end up moving your hand to keep it balanced as it seems to move on its own.
It started once I knocked on the door...
••••••••••••••••••••
"Is Kara awake yet?" I asked as we walked inside. Her mum led me to the kitchen, where she finished putting a few dishes away.
"Not yet. I was just about to go get her. Is there anything I could help with? And please, just call me Maria," she smiled and glanced over at me.
"Well, it's our four month anniversary, and I wanted to do something special for her. Would it be alright if we spent the day together?" I asked a bit hesitantly.
"Will there be any illegal activities or...other things involved?" Questions any good mother would ask.
"Oh no, of course not. I just wanted to surprise her with whatever she wanted to do, then take her to a concert tonight." I smiled at the thought of just spending the day with her. "It's that band she loves so much, Twenty One Pilots. I got the tickets a while back when the first went on sale because I knew that would be our four month," I explained.
She turned around with a smile on her face. "How on earth did you get those tickets? They must have cost an arm and a leg..."
"So it's a yes then?" I raised an eyebrow.
"Of course. I think that's the sweetest idea."
"Thank you so much," I grinned. "And don't worry about the cost. I got pre-sale tickets so they were cheaper."
"Well, I should probably go make sure she's u-" She was cut off as a faint beeping started from upstairs, which I guessed was Kara's alarm clock. "Never mind then. Oh! You should hide then jump out and surprise her!"
"That sounds like a great idea. Where should I go?" I looked around in search of a spot when Maria hurried over to a door. Opening it, I was greeted with a pantry that could fit two people easily.
"How about in here?" She grinned.
••••••••••••••••••••
"I think I'll try to talk to her." I took a deep breath and answered slowly. "Hello?"
"Lukey? It's you right? Oh I've missed you sweetheart. How are you?" My mother sounded just like she used to, and it bright back a wave of awful memories.
"Since when are you suddenly worried in how I'm doing?" I retorted, my heart beating faster. Kara leaned into me a bit more, the feeling doing little to calm me.
"Are you saying I don't care about you? That I don't think about you every day?!" She sounded almost hurt. Almost.
"I'm not saying that, but you haven't made any effort to contact me since I left! So I guess in a way I am saying you don't care."
"Well it's not like you made it easy for me to keep in contact! You change your number every so often, and I never know if it's going to be you or some random wrong number! I want to know what's going on in your life, Luke, but you never let me!" Her voice was loud now as she tried to defend herself.
"My life is finally starting to go right, mom. I don't need you coming in and fúcking it all up. I'm doing fine on my own, I have a girlfriend now, I don-" I was immediately cut off then.
"You have a girlfriend now?!"
"Yes, I do have a girlfriend. She's my everything and she makes me happy," my tone was much softer as i pressed a soft kiss to Kara's hair. I held her a bit tighter, hoping this wouldn't scare her. "Today's actually our four month anniversary, so if you're done prying in my life, I'd like to get back to our plans." My tone was bitter once again, and Kara sighed quietly.
"Well, I'm having a family get together in two weeks and I want you to be there. No one's seen you in a long time and we all are getting worried."
"No- mom, I'm not c-"
"Yes you are!"
"I said no mom! I don't need to go see you now, or ever for that matter," I hissed, feeling my chest tighten. Kara was being completely quiet, and it was worrying me.
"Oh, come on Luke! You can bring your girlfriend. I'm sure she's curious about your family, right?" She almost sounded smug.
"Fine. If she really wants to, I'll consider it. But only if Ben and Jack are there. I don't need to get into a fight with you in front of her, and they know how to keep the peace..."
"They've already confirmed they were coming. We were only waiting on you," she agreed.
"Fine. I'm hanging up now," I stated before immediately ending the call.
••••••••••••••••••••
"Luke!" Kara's hand waved in front of my face. "Earth to boyfriend."
"Sorry, sorry... I got a bit lost in my head," I apologized.
"Is everything alright?" She shifted in my arms, her body facing mine as she placed a hand on my cheek. "You look sort of upset..."
"N-no. I'm fine. I was just thinking..." I shook my head and pinched the bridge of my nose as I squeezed my eyes shut. Shivers raced down my spine as I felt her thumb ghost over my bottom lip, making me look at her again.
"If you need to talk about it I can listen. Just remember that okay?" She whispered, her eyes on mine and her brows drawn together in worry.
I sighed and placed my forehead against hers. "I just don't understand why she had to call me today. I mean, of all the days of the year, why today?"
"Maybe that's what was meant to happen... It didn't ruin my day, so you shouldn't let it ruin yours," she shrugged. "Don't worry about it until tomorrow if it makes you feel better about it..."
"But I don't know if I'm ready to have you meet my family, Kara. We're very problematic."
"I want to meet your family though. It's not like my mom and I have never been problematic before."
I didn't know what to say. No one I'd ever been with had been to me what Kara is. No one had stuck around for as long as her, no one had cared about me the way she did, and it felt nice. I had never trusted anything with some of the things I trusted her with, like the stories behind my tattoos for example. Not only was she the only one to ever ask about them, but she was the only one I'd ever consider telling about them.
So now was the biggest thing I could trust her with, the thing that very well might make her rethink being with me.
My family.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A/N
Hey, hey, hey!! It's me, your sorta cool, sorta sucky author, back at it again with a pretty good update if I may say so myself. I was really excited for this one, since I got to have the phone call in it. But I really do apologize for the wait. There wasn't really a way around that unfortunately, and now I won't be able to get the book done by the end of the month (unless I write non-stop for the next two days which I obviously can't do, though I'd love to try.) It's okay though. I'm going to try to get these last five cha- OMG ONLY FIVE CHAPTERS LEFT YOU GUYS!!!!!!! WHAT AM I GONNA DO WITHOUT THIS IN MY LIFE?!?!?!?!?! No need to panic. I've got the sequel all planned out. I'm kinda starting prewriting, because I want it to be better than 'Rejects' and I did no prewriting for this at all. Also, I can't believe this is the 50th part of the book )if you include the author's notes and playlist, which I'm posting a new version of at the end of this. I changed it quite a bit.)
Okay, I need to address something that was brought to my attention recently. This topic is hateful commenting. Now, note that thus far I have somehow escaped the path of frustration and hurt feelings created by people who only leave mean comments, but I can't say the same for some people very near and dear to my heart. I have no personal experience with hate on any of my stories which, believe me, I'm thankful for. It either means that my writing is (somehow) good and accurate, or people just don't feel the need to hate on my work. But my lovely friend jkervs1234 has not, for some stupid reason, had the same happen to her. Instead, she has had multiple people come one her favorite story that she's written thus far and post mean, hateful comments. And let me tell you what, those comments weren't just brushed off. I won't say exactly what went on because that's obviously not my place to say, but I just want everyone to know that when it comes to something, like a story, that someone has put a lot of time and effort into, it is NEVER, and I really do mean never, okay to put them down for any reason whatsoever.
I don't understand it, nor do I ever think I will, but why do some people feel it's necessary to go and hate on someone else's hard work? When people do that, they don't know what that thing may mean to whomever made it. I can't tell you all how appreciative I am that I haven't experienced this yet, but I might still have it happen in the future, and if it ever does I just pity the person who does it because I know what this story means to me, and I can only hope that you, as my amazing readers, would defend me and my story. But I also hope you guys would defend anyone's work, not just mine. Whether it be music or art or anything else, always be supportive of people because your encouragement can take that person farther than they every imagined they could go. That's what happened with 'Rejects' so now you have proof that what I'm saying is true.
So, back to my point. If you all feel so inclined, I'd really appreciate if you could help me support jkervs1234 because she's really shaken up by all this sudden hate. Go check out her story "Sleepless in Holmes Chapel' as it's amazing and that's also the story being subjected to hate. I love you all, thank you for supporting me, and also thank you for supporting her. I know it means the world to both of us.
And please remember that if you ever need someone to talk to about anything at all, I I hope you know you can talk to me. My inbox is always open, and you can contact me on almost any social platforms. I don't want you to have to keep whatever you need to say inside, and I have no right to judge you about anything. I'll always try to help to the best of my abilities. If you're getting hate, tell me and I'll go try to help as well. ^-^
~CC