Part 3/4
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Requested by:
Anonymous
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A SHOW OF HANDS: who had ever thought, "I really want to dare Caitlin to write something really strange, but I don't know how 😕"
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Luke:
"Y/N, it moved, I swear it did," Luke groaned, rubbing his forehead, "why would I lie about this?"
"I don't think you're lying," you touched his shoulder and looked up at him sincerely, "I just think you had some bad mushrooms."
He crinkled his nose and shoved your hand away, "don't patronize me, I know what I saw."
"I highly doubt that," you rolled your eyes, "the garden gnome didn't move Luke. It's an inanimate logic, by definition it doesn't move."
"That's what they want you to think," he snapped, "open your eyes Y/N!"
You raised your eyebrows and made a big deal of blinking, "my eyes are wiiiiide open Luke. Are yours?"
"Yes, clearly. I'm the one that has noticed the fact that the gnome has migrated a total of seven and a half inches to the left!" He said matter-of-factly, looking at you like you were the crazy one for not thinking that the garden gnome had moved.
"Maybe it was the wind? Or an animal? Or a person moving it?! Why don't you rule out the most reasonable explanations before we start jumping to the rise of the garden gnome?" You snorted, listing off all of your ideas on your fingers and then waving them right in Luke's face.
Your brother recoiled back and frowned, "I'm not crazy Y/N-"
"Debatable," you muttered, not really meaning for him to hear you.
"-hmph," had narrowed his eyes, "I thought of this, we have a big fence to keep people and most animals out, plus an animal would be more likely to just knock it over. As for the wind, I've been keeping a measurement on it ever since it's started to move, and there seems to be no correlation between the speed of the wind and the movement of Gnoah," he actually pulled out his phone and showed you his notes and scatter plot. You didn't know what to be more horrified by. The fact that he went out and measured the location of the gnome daily, that he named it, or that he sincerely thought that it was alive.
"Gnoah?" You looked up from the little screen at your brother, now more concerned than anything.
"Yes, I named him, don't judge me," he sniffed, putting the cell phone back in his pocket.
"How did you even notice that it moved in the first place?" You hummed, it wasn't a normal thing to go out and closely observe garden gnome location down to the inch anyway.
"Wait until you hear this," he smirked cockily as he remembered the story, "I drove home one night and Gnoah was gone. So I went to investigate but I didn't see anything, and in the morning he was back."
"Wow, the mysterious vanishing gnome," you said sarcastically, "Luke were you drunk when this incident occurred?"
"Huh?" He looked a little taken aback by the question, "why does it matter?"
"You know why you gnome loving dork," you snorted.
"Fine, I see how it is, I'll show you. You'll see! You'll all see!" Luke turned on his heel and marched out of the house.
"WILL I RUE THE DAY TOO?" You giggled.
"YOU'LL RUE IT!" Was the last thing that you heard before he front door slammed shut. You had no idea where he was going, probably to go watch the dumb gnome.
You just shook your head as you tried to process all of the information, and then sat down on the couch. You began to think through all of what had happened in the last fifteen minutes, and some things stood out to you. First off, how disheveled Luke looked. His clothes were rumpled up and stained, and his hair was sticking up in a wild mane. When he had first started to rant about 'Gnoah', you had been too caught up in how bizarre it all was to really think about what that meant. He was obsessive. Not that his meticulous records didn't already demonstrate that.
But what he had said, also struck you. Now, you did not believe that the gnome was real, not one bit. However, he did have a point when it came to the fence. There were a select number of people who could've come in and moved the gnome, and in order to do it constantly, they'd have to be around rather often. Now who would want to drive Luke nuts by moving his gnome around all of the time?
"Y/N?! LUKE?!" You heard the door fly back open, and you stood up to go greet Ashton, who you recognized by his voice.
When you walked into view though, it wasn't just Ashton standing there, but also Calum, and Michael. Just the boy you wanted to see.
"Ashton! How are you?" You opened your arms and walked up to him, giving him a big hug which he enthusiastically returned. He was a little too enthusiastic really, when his arms wrapped around your middle and pulled you flush to him, you were pressed for air, and even swore that your feet came off of the ground.
"Wooooooow, what am I? Chopped liver?" Calum grumbled, pulling you right out of Ashton's arms and back to him.
"Hey! I wasn't done!" Ashton pouted as you greeted the Kiwi.
"Well you have to share, and I was tired of waiting," Calum shrugged, releasing you.
Michael on the other hand, didn't look at all happy to see you. He was rocking back and forth on his feet, going from his heel to his toes and back. His face was looking everywhere but at you, mostly concentrated on the ceiling.
"Michael? Are you okay?" You raised an eyebrow and looked at him expectantly.
He just pouted, glancing at you and then averting his gaze back up to the ceiling.
"Right, Michael here is why we came actually," Ashton sent his bandmate a stern look of disapproval, "is Luke around?"
"No, he said something about proving Gnoah was alive and then he stormed out," you shrugged, not looking away from fed guitarist.
"Gnoah?" Calum chuckled, "Who's that?"
You shook your head a little before answering, "the garden gnome that Luke is convinced moves all on its own."
"He named it?" Ashton said in disbelief.
"Yes, it's mildly concerning," you sighed, blowing the breath out through your nose.
"Well, I think that our buddy Michael here can set the record straight on good Ol' Noah," Calum walked over to his friend and clapped him on the back.
"Really? Why am I not surprised," you looked outwardly exasperated, but internally you were rather pleased that you had successfully called out Michael as the one who had been tormenting Luke. Not that it was truly hard to pick out the one who would do it.
"Go on Michael," Ashton nodded at him.
Looking like a guilty child, Michael started to talk, "I didn't mean to start it, I was drunk, and our buddy Niall dared me to steal Luke's garden gnome-"
You cut him off, "Gnoah you mean."
Michael rolled his eyes but nodded, "he dared me to steal Gnoah, and I did it. But when I woke up in the morning, and I saw a garden gnome in the bad next to me, I freaked out and quickly drove back and put it back. I didn't want him to knoooooow," Michael sighed.
"And? What happened after that?" You pressed him, enjoying how he squirmed.
"And then I noticed that it was a little bit off, so I moved it over, and then it became a joke because Luke came up to me and he was all, 'did you touch my garden gnome Michael?' And I said no, and he totally started obsessing. But I didn't mean for it to get this far," he looked around and then grumbled, "it's totally freaking me out ."
"That is the weirdest thing I've heard in a while," you giggled at just how strange your life was.
Your brother's best friend had just confessed to you that he had drunkenly stolen, and slept with, your brother's garden gnome, accidentally sparking an obsession with little porcelain statues of woodland creatures.
"Welcome to the band Y/N, where have you been for the last five years?" Calum crossed his arms and looked at you bemusedly.
"Don't give me none of that, I am not in your lame band Hood," you stuck your tongue out at him.
"My lame band? MY lame band? MINE?" Calum repeated over and over like that would give it some kind of extra meaning.
"Yes yours you dork," you punched him lightly in the arm.
Before Calum could finish his thought, the door burst open, nearly nailing Michael in the face.
"WE HAVE AN EMERGENCY HERE!" Luke screamed.
Michael squeaked and jumped up in the air.
"Whoa whoa whoa," Ashton pulled Luke to the side, grabbing him by the sleeve.
"What's going on?" Calum asked, clearly worried.
"GNOAH," Luke gasped, "HE'S BEEN KIDNAPPED!"
Any worry in the room dissipated as everyone realized it was just Luke being weird(er).
"Don't you mean he was stolen?" You rolled your eyes, "I don't think non-humans can be kidnapped Luke."
"GNOAH WAS A HUMAN TO ME!" Luke gripped Ashton's shoulders and then fell down onto his knees so that his face was pressed into Ashton's lower abdomen, "WHYYYYY?!"
"Okay, get ahold of yourself man, this has gone too far," Calum pulled Luke up off the ground and back to his feet, "plus that was dangerously close to Ashton's southern border."
"Shut up Calum," your brother sniffled, "this is serious, Gnoah is gone."
Three sets of eyes turned to Michael. You were all thinking the same thing, once a gnome-stealer, always a gnome-stealer.
"Hey!" He held up his hands as soon as he realized he was the number one suspect, "Don't look at me, I haven't touched the gnome in three days!"
"What are you talking about?" Luke glared at his friend, "Why did you touch Gnoah at all?"
"Luke, Michael was the one who had been moving with your gnome," you interrupted, "it isn't alive."
Your brother looked horrified. His expression was one of pure betrayal as he glared at his bandmate.
"Yeah I did, but but I don't have it now!" He protested.
"Well Gnoah was there half an hour ago when I last checked on him, and you three have been the only new people in here," Luke's eyes widened.
"No," you shook your head and held up your hand, "no, don't even say it."
"GNOAH LEFT ALL BY HIMSELF! HE REALLY IS ALIVE!" Luke squealed and went running back out.
You furrowed your eyebrows and marched over to Michael. You poked him right in the chest and stared into his green eyes, "did. You. Move. The. Gnome?" You asked, each word was accompanied by a poke.
"No, I'm completely serious, I didn't touch Gnoah at all today," Michael promised. He looked rather sincere, and you believed him.
"Then what's going on?" You murmured, looking at the other two.
"Maybe Gnoah is really alive Y/N, technically we can't rule that out completely," Ashton let out a little giggle and a shrug.
"I'll go help him look," you marched over to the front door and pulled it open.
"AHHHHH!" You yelled, as you saw the little figurine sitting on the edge of the porch.
You slammed the door shut and looked over at the other boys in shock.
"We never speak of this again."
"Agreed."
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