Luke was still asleep when Anna woke up.
She awoke with a peaceful and serene attitude, as does anyone after a good night's sleep. For once she felt relaxed, powerful, and as if she could take on the world. Nothing could hurt her in-between this state of sleep and awakeness.
That is, until she realized that she was naked and in a boy's arms--a boy who was also naked.
Anna scrambled to her feet, confused. She wasn't fully awake yet, but she could sense that something was off.
She wasn't in her room at home. She wasn't in a hotel room, traveling for work. She was...
In a movie theater?
The theatre she was in was mostly dark, but illuminated by tiny windowpanes on the ceiling. They gave her all the light she needed to realize that there had been a blanket around both her and the boy, but that was it.
Did she really...?
In the dark, Anna scoured the floor for her dress desperately.
How could she be so stupid? She never did stuff like this. Eva always did stuff like this.
Thankfully, she found the tangled-up dress and grabbed it, quickly putting it on.
As she got dressed, memories of the previous night began coming back.
She remembered Eva, dancing with that mysterious curly haired boy. She remembered Taylor, interrogating her about her love life. She remembered Drew, pestering her to kiss him to fulfill their management company's wishes. She remembered Nathan, devising a plan to get revenge on their parents.
Then she remembered Luke.
Luke. Luke Hemmings. Hemmings. Band boy. Penguin boy.
She remembered spotting him at the bar with his brunette, muscular friend. She remembered meeting him on the dance floor after she'd had a couple drinks. She remembered kissing him at midnight. She remembered fleeing the party with him to come to this antique little theatre. She remembered him picking Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind as the movie for the night. She remembered herself talking to him about how overjoyed she was about his choice of movie.
And then...
"Fuck... What did I do?" Anna accidentally said out loud.
She glanced over at Luke, but luckily he hadn't woken up yet.
Luke. What was she going to about him?
It didn't help that he looked absolutely gorgeous when he slept: all angelic-like with his wispy blonde hair in multiple directions and peaceful demeanor.
His hair was still messed up from the previous night, reminding Anna of more memories of last night.
Now she fully remembered.
Did she really...?
And what was she going to do about it?
Luke stirred next to her, fully waking up. He opened his hazy blue eyes, squinted for a second, but quickly focused on her.
"Hey," he acknowledged her sleepily, in a very sexy Australian accent.
Anna froze dead in her tracks. It was so much harder to decide now.
"Hey." She replied quietly. "Um... Do you have a phone I can use? And a bathroom?"
"Oh... Yeah." Luke shifted on the couch, trying to find his pants pocket. He then remembered they were on the floor, and he reached over effortlessly to grasp a black iPhone 12. "The bathroom's down the hall to the left, and the passcode for my phone is 'Luke'."
"Really? 'Luke'?" Anna shook her head, mainly to herself. You would expect a guy as famous as Luke to have a more difficult phone passcode; he was making it incredibly easy for phone hackers.
Luckily Luke didn't hear her and just sat up, rubbing his eyes. Anna's eyes couldn't help but gaze at him; he really was perfect. His muscles weren't as prominent as his band members', but they were certainly there. And they were beautiful.
Anna rolled her eyes at herself for being sucked in to beauty, of all things. And to a guy who's phone passcode was his first name.
But then again, he was sweet. And gentle. And was in a band. And loved penguins. He had many redeeming qualities to his name, and Anna couldn't help but admire that.
Anna walked away from him, still confused as ever. She reached the bathroom effortlessly with Luke's directions and locked the door behind her, sighing when she saw her reflection stare back at her.
Her hair was a wreck, her makeup was a wreck, and, despite her peaceful sleep, her body looked tired.
Anna decided to come back to it later as she used the bathroom, washed her hands, and all the normal things you do in a bathroom.
And then she was left to face her own reflection again.
She quickly tied up her long caramel-colored hair into a ponytail without a hair tie, using a trick she'd learned from her stylist. She wet a piece of Kleenex and dabbed it every which way under her eyes and complexion, dabbing away the smudges of makeup.
When she was done her makeup almost looked natural--almost.
That was the good thing about wearing too much makeup. To correct it, you just remove the excess and you're back to normal.
Anna wished her life was that easy.
After she finished correcting her appearance, she sat on the toilet with the lid down and turned on Luke's phone.
The screen quickly lit up with texts from what seemed like everyone in existence.
Anna was used to this on her work phone, filled with reminders of photoshoots she was scheduled to do, messages from her publicist and manager, and the occasional note from her parents saying that they 'saw the shoot, loved/hated it'.
She had a personal phone that she almost never used except to play music and communicate with her few close friends. That was it.
But this was Luke's personal phone. Not his work phone.
She could tell because everyone contacting him was names she recognized, thanks to last night.
Ashton Irwin.
Calum Hood.
Michael Clifford.
They were mainly texts of 'We're leaving, where are you?' from his manager and similar messages from his friends. She wouldn't have paid them any attention to them had they not mentioned her name.
Ashton Irwin: heey Luke where are you ?? everyones looking for u & r pissed @ u
Ashton Irwin: everyone's*^ loll
Ashton Irwin: i mean seriously man where r u... did u hear that Anna left?? people are sayin she left... bummer
Michael Clifford: dude where the fuck are you... did you ditch with Anna??
Michael Clifford: hAHAHAHHA NEVERMIND THATS NOT POSSIBLE SHES SO OUT OF UR LEAGUE WHY DOES EVERYONE THINK U HAVE A SHOT WITH HER
Michael Clifford: .... wait wtf the papz say u did???? LUCAS????
Calum Hood: theyr makinn me leave i dont wanna go i dont wanna goooooo
Calum Hood: thiss isnt fair ar u with AAnna
Calum Hood: luek thiis is sirius are u with heer bc if u are then niice
Adam Li, Modest!: Good job. We have to talk about last night. Call me.
Shit. That sounded serious.
Anna reluctantly typed in his four-letter passcode, afraid of what she would accidentally stumble upon next.
It was weird, though. Why were Luke's friends texting so casually about her and Luke?
It almost seemed like a set up. Like they were planning for them to meet. [A/N: lol well Luke was... but not in a manipulative way at alllll]
Anna suddenly felt sick. There really was no end to the lies and manipulation, was there?
So she did what she intended to do in the first place; she called her personal driver and scheduled for him to pick her up. She provided the address Luke provided for this location--about fifteen minutes away from her house (driving, with traffic). There was no way she could walk from here.
Next, Anna sent a text to her brother to check up on him.
Luke Hemmings: hey Nathan. it's Anna, forgot my phone at home. how are you??
Nathan Rihvalsky: omg I've been trying to reach you all morning! I'm grounded lol... plan was a success. have u checked the news lately? ;)
Luke Hemmings: no... why??
Nathan Rihvalsky: you might want to... that's all I'm saying ;)
Luke Hemmings: ??
Nathan Rihvalsky: trust me, they're very entertaining :)
Nathan Rihvalsky: btw whose phone are u using?
Luke Hemmings: uh
Luke Hemmings: a friend's
Nathan Rihvalsky: you don't have any friends ;)
Luke Hemmings: love u too bro... g2g
With that, Anna locked Luke's phone and unlocked the bathroom door. She was relieved to hear that her brother was safe and the plan seemed to have gone well. Anna would uncover the details later, but just knowing that Nathan was okay was all that mattered.
As for her own life, she was at a crossroads. And she had no idea where to go from here.
She just knew she had to figure it out, and fast.
What to do about Luke was only part of the problem.
When Anna reached the main room where Luke was, she realized that they weren't alone anymore.
Four others had joined them, standing near the concession stand. Anna instantly recognized three of them as Luke's bandmates, but didn't recognize the fourth. He was an older man, very official-looking.
Probably Luke's manager.
By this point, Luke had put on his pants at least but was still shirtless. He still looked exhausted, but his manager continued to lecture like there was no tomorrow.
Their manager might have looked happy, but the rest of them looked hungover.
Still, none were too hungover to notice her. All eyes turned to her as she walked into the room, presumably because she was the only girl. And also ten-times more famous and more gorgeous than all of them.
The three boys exchanged curious glances with one another while Luke smiled at her, a playful glint in his eyes.
She had no idea what this smile meant; it was a mixture of happiness and warmth and confusion and satisfaction. She had no idea what it meant, and it scared her.
The red-haired boy broke the silence, greeting her. "Hey, I'm Michael. I don't think we've formally met."
Before Anna could reply, Luke joked, "Yeah, and I was kind of trying to keep it that way."
Michael snorted. "Shut up. I'm trying to be nice."
"Hey, Michael," Anna laughed nervously. "You're very nice."
"See?" Michael smirked at Luke, in which Luke stuck out his tongue.
"See what I have to deal with?" The middle-aged man sighed, teasingly. He then smiled warmly at Anna and extended an arm out to her. "Adam Li, Modest! Management. It's a pleasure to meet you."
Anna thought it was weird; no managers she ever met were this nice unless they wanted something from her. She didn't have to guess what he wanted from her: a contract binding her to Luke for publicity.
But she wasn't about to let that happen any time soon.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, too." Anna put on the best smile she could muster and shook his hand. "Sorry, I really would stay, but I'm late for a meeting."
It wasn't a total lie. She was planning to spend the whole day with her brother, trying to figure out exactly what happened last night. Besides the obvious, of course.
"Yes, I imagine your schedule is very busy." Adam nodded empathetically, sympathetically.
Anna didn't know how to reply to this, but luckily Luke came to her rescue by saying, "I'll walk you to the door."
"Thank you." She smiled up at him gratefully for the save. She wasn't sure about how to deal with managers without her own manager present; they would usually do the talking for her. Anna was always afraid of saying the wrong thing or promising things she didn't intend to promise.
Luke smiled back as the two began to walk towards the door in silence. Anna knew that Luke was waiting for her to say something--but what?
"Thanks for yesterday." Anna finally came up with, breaking the silence. She didn't elaborate; he could interpret it however he saw fit. And knowing Luke, he'd probably interpret it in many different ways that were all true.
"My pleasure." He replied softly, gazing down at her with those beautiful blue eyes. "I'll see you soon?"
Anna knew she was running out of time. And she also knew she couldn't promise to see him again when she had no idea what the future had in store for her.
So right as Anna saw her driver's black Range Rover pull up, she made her decision.
And her decision was not to make a decision. Not yet, anyways.
She closed her eyes and kissed him. This kiss was different, bittersweet.
Luke's lips were certainly something she'd miss, but could live without for the time being. After all, she was Anna Rihvalsky, an independent woman who was perfectly capable of living life without a man.
Right?
"That's my ride." Anna whispered into his ear, her voice sweet and regretful at the same time. "Take it easy, band boy."
And then she left, leaving him just as confused as she was.
A/N: OKAY THE THING ABOUT LUKE'S MANAGER SAYING 'GOOD JOB' WAS BECAUSE IN THIS STORY HE HAS SOCIAL ANXIETY & HIS MANAGER WAS COMMENTING ABOUT HOW WELL HE DEALT WITH IT
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