Katie POV-
Lets just say that Luke's parents really knew how to throw a party. When I mean, it was over the top, it was over the top. Of course our graduation at school was dull and boring, but this party was like nothing I've ever experienced. It was grand, and I really mean that. There was decorations all over the backyard with our school colors, maroon and gold. There was at least 50 something balloons lining the entire backyard. They also included streamers all along their deck. They kept the pool open for the younger kids, and it was nice not having a lot of them running around outside. Another cool thing they did was actually a huge surprise I didn't even know about. They had flown Luke's friends from Australia out for the next two weeks. It was nice seeing Luke have his friends there. He was beaming with happiness. I was jealous, I couldn't lie, which is how I ended up sitting by myself currently, just playing on my phone.
I looked up from my phone out into the big crowd of people. I couldn't even count. There must have been 100 people at least. All for a high school graduation. Some of them were Luke's relatives, but I had guessed others, especially the ones with kids, were people from his mom's job. Not to judge, but a good chunk of them seemed to be very high class. I definitely felt out of place. Currently I was texting back and forth with my dad. Luke invited him of course, but he had already planned a surprise weekend trip for himself and Wendy, before he even knew the date. I didn't mean to bother him but I was alone. I didn't want to bother Luke either. He was at his own party, and he had to be sociable with everyone. My phone vibrated and I looked down.
Go attempt to make friends. You never know.
Why must my dad always be right? I sent a quick reply and got up and walked around. There were people everywhere, but it seemed like everyone had already found their groups. I continued to walk around to maybe find someone I could attempt to talk to. But there was no one. I headed up the deck and went inside. It was definitely quieter in here, even thought there was the slight echo of the kids jumping into the pool. I walked around looking at the familiar house. I headed into the living room and was shocked to see a small girl sitting on the couch. There was little sniffles coming from her direction, and her head was down, buried in her knees. I wasn't sure what to do. I had never dealt with a crying child before. Or any child for that matter. I thought about trying to go find somebody, maybe Liz, but why would I bother her.
Reluctantly I went over and sat on the couch. At first I just sat there really uncomfortable, and then I cleared my throat. "Um. Hi. Are you okay?" I asked nervously. She picked her head up and her light brown hair fell to cover her face. She took a peek at me and then brought her head right back where it was. Maybe I should try a different approach. I huffed and then tried again, "I'm Katie. I was trying to find a friend here. I don't know anybody but Luke. I was wondering if maybe you could be my friend for the day." The little girl stopped her sniffling and looked back up at me. She straightened herself up. "I'm Kara," she said quietly. At least now I was getting her to talk. Maybe now I can get her to fess up.
"Awesome. You know Kara. Friends tell each other when they're upset." I said and she stared back at the floor. She took a small look at me and then back at the floor. I took this time to really study her. I couldn't guess her age, I was never good at that. She had light brown eyes, and she had this beautiful butterfly pin holding her hair back. It didn't seem like it was working too well. Her hair like it was extremely thick. "I can't swim and the other kids made fun of me." I couldn't help but laugh inside a little bit. Oh if only this little girl knew.
"Well. It's not that uncommon you know," I told her and she sat back on the couch and looked over at me. Her eyes were red from crying. "I can't swim. And I'm an adult," I told her. Technically I was an adult. Technically. Her eyes got wide and she looked up at me in disbelief. "Really?" She said excitedly and I nodded my head.
"Yup. When I was young, I wasn't the best swimmer, but I had a bad accident in the pool, and now I don't even go near it. Luke has actually helped me get in the pool a few times, but I can't get past my waist." I told her and she covered her mouth. She started kicking her feet back and forth excitedly and squealed out loud. "An adult doesn't know how to swim! That's crazy!" She told me and I laughed. It did sound crazy, but not everybody knew how to swim. Maybe all the adults she'd been around knew how.
"It's more common than you think. How come you don't know how to swim?" I asked her.
"Mommy and daddy don't have time to teach me, and nanny doesn't know how to swim either. So I don't have anyone." She told me and I understood. I spent a good majority of the time hanging out with Kara. We went outside and eventually started playing games, such as hide and seek, and tag. We had the giant backyard, why not use it. I wasn't sure how much time had passed, but eventually we had to stop. Her parents actually stopped us. They said they had been looking all over for her and were glad to see she was hanging out with someone. Before they took my little friend away, she ran up to me and gave me a big hug. She only went up to about my thighs. She was just so adorable, and my connection to her was strong. I caught her mom looking at us and then Kara went back with them. Her mom didn't go with her and her father. She told them to go on and stayed with me.
I had a bad feeling I was about to get yelled at and the hairs on my arms instantly stood up. She looked me up and down and just stared at me. Kara looked a lot like her. She had most of her features, except her nose. Her nose was definitely smaller than Kara's. I had to say she was a well put together woman. She was very pretty, and she didn't even have to try. Her natural beauty shone through. "Amanda Tate," she said and put her hand out. I put mine out and we shook hands. So professional. "It seems my little girl has taken a strong liking to you," she said, still eyeing me.
"We both can't swim," I said quietly.
"What was that?" she said sternly. I felt like I was on a boat and she was my captain.
"We both don't know how to swim." I told her.
"Interesting." She said and brought her hand up to her face. She circled around me and I didn't dare move. Suddenly I felt super insecure about the outfit I was wearing. Blue flare jeans, and a bright red t-shirt. "How do you know the Hemmings'" She asked me.
"I'm Luke's best-friend." I told her and tried to relax a little.
She nodded her head and stood in front of me. "I've heard about you. You're the girl Liz talks highly of." I was surprised Liz even mentioned me. I didn't talk to her that much. "They talk very fondly of you. Listen. Kara isn't the easiest people person in the world. But she seems to like you," she told me and I was surprised that she was saying that about her young daughter. She opened her purse and shuffled around in it. She pulled out her wallet, and pulled out a piece of paper. "If you want to take care of her, I'll pay well. Give me a call, and we can set something up." Did I just get offered a job? Like a real job?
"Wow. Um thank you," I told her. I was baffled.
"Don't thank me yet. We'll see how it goes." She told me and I nodded. She took one last look at me and walked away. I stood there, completely stunned at what had just happened. My first instinct was to tell Luke, but he was nowhere to be fined. I released the tension out of my body. I was walking back towards a table to sit down when I heard a voice screaming my name. "Katie!" I turned around and saw Luke walking over with his friends. I felt my body tense up again and I tried to hide my nervousness. I could barley talk to people, let alone guys. I just had to think happy thoughts. Like rainbows? Yeah maybe rainbows could work. They all stood in front of me, and suddenly I felt like I was about to be interrogated.
Luke stood in front of me and started talking. "Katie these are my friends from Australia." I cut him off before he said anything.
"I think I might be able to guess all of them. Just from how you talk about them." I told him and looked at the three other boys in front of me. There was one boy in front of me who had blue hair. I knew for sure that had to be Michael. He was the punkiest out of all of them. Is that even a word? He had on a cutoff plaid shirt with a white tank top underneath it. Definitely punky. "You're Michael," I said and he nodded at me. I looked to the next boy to his right. He had dirty blonde hair and really big eyes. I studied him for a minute. He had his arm crossed over his solid black t-shirt. "You're Ashton." I told him and he smiled at me and gave me a thumbs up. "Then that just leaves. Calum of course." I said and turned towards him. They had all fit their descriptions of what Luke told me. And I may have instagram stalked them a couple of times. Especially Michael. He was really attractive.
"And you're the famous Katie!" Calum said and jumped in front of me. He wrapped his arms around me and I looked over at Luke. He just laughed and shrugged his shoulders. I pretended I wasn't uncomfortable, even though I obviously was. Calum whispered in my ear, "Thanks for watching over Luke." I was surprised at this type of emotion. He pulled away and I just nodded. The other three boys started laughing their asses off, and I just rolled my eyes.
The rest of the night went by pretty smoothly for the most part. I got to spend time with the boys and I actually learned a lot more about each of them. Mostly their personalities. Michael was really the quiet type, and he only chimed in occasionally. When he did chime in, it was usually to tell an embarrassing story about Luke. I loved hearing how goofy he was when he was younger. He's still goofy, but only when he wants to be. Calum was definitely eccentric. He didn't really have a filter and just said everything that came to his mind. I enjoyed it really. He said pretty entertaining things. I would say he was a free spirit. Unlike my frigid self. Ashton. I don't know what else I could say. He was the oldest and it showed. He was definitely more mature than all the other guys. He seemed to assume the roll as the mom of the group. He already told Luke and Michael twice to stop fighting. Like they were children.
It was nice to meet Luke's friends. I can understand how he missed them. He'd known them for so long and then he had to leave them all behind. Luke was the nicest guy I had ever met, and it rubbed off with his friends. They were equally as nice. I was glad that they were so excepting of me, and after 20 minutes I didn't feel so bad anymore. I felt included.
Once the guests all started to leave, I ended up on cleaning duty with the rest all of the guys. I started down by one of the tables in the back of the yard. I had a big, black trash bag with me and I started grabbing the trash from the ground. People were utterly disgusting. I don't understand why they can't pick up after themselves. It's not that hard to do. Especially since there were multiple trash cans stashed around the entire backyard. Beer bottles, solo cups, water bottles, you name it, it was on the ground. I grabbed a beer bottle from the ground, and I heard the rustling of another trash bag behind me. I looked over to see Calum dragging his bag over towards me. "If you drag it like that it's going to break!" I told him and he didn't listen.
He stood next to me then plopped himself down on the ground in front of the trash bag. "I'm soooooo tired Katie." He said and laid on the trash bag.
"You didn't even do that much. You picked up a couple bottles and cups." I said and he ignored me and stretched himself out.
"Tired," he said and cuddled into the bag. I shook my head and kept cleaning up around us. I ended having to pick up a plate, that still had food on it. I almost felt like I was going to throw up. I finally decided to take a break and joined Calum on the ground.
I sat with my legs criss crossed and crossed my arms. I rubbed my arms up with my hands. It was getting chilly and I wish I brought a sweat shirt with me. I sighed and looked up at the sky. The pink sky was growing darker by the minute. There were orange bursts of light popping out from the pink line. It was a beautiful sunset for a beautiful night. Even though it was growing cold, it still was calming. "You know I really meant what I said earlier," Calum said breaking my train of thought. I looked over to him and he was looking up toward the sky with his hands behind his head. "When Luke told us he was moving all the way here. I'll tell you it sucked. For all of us. I was losing my best friend. Not only was he moving out of our city, but to a whole new continent." He said and sighed. "But he would text us everyday complaining. Saying he hated it and he wanted to come home. Then one day, those texts stopped and it changed. It was different. It was more like, 'oh yeah Katie and I hung out,' 'Katie and I actually have plans.' I was just happy that he finally had somebody out here. You really made it better for him, and you made him happy." He told me and I felt my heart warm.
"Well. He changed my life," I said and looked over towards the deck towards Luke. He was standing there talking to Michael. They both were looking at the sky and then Luke picked up a cup. He looked in it and then flicked whatever contents were in it at Michael. He started laughing and Michael snatched the cup from him. He threw it at Luke then started laughing. The two of them started pushing each other. Boys.
"They hated each other you know," Calum said and I nodded. Not surprised. Now they're best friends. I wasn't sure how long we sat there for but at some point Liz came out and yelled at us for being lazy and told us to get back to work. I finished the backyard and went up onto the deck. The other boys were finishing up their areas and I sat on the deck, just taking in what was ahead of me. A whole new life. I didn't even apply to college yet. I was just planning on giving it up for now. Maybe I wasn't cut out for college. Who knew? I couldn't make up my mind, and I was not going to waste that money I had on something I couldn't make my mind up on. The sliding door opened behind me and I turned to see Luke walking out. "Hi," he said to me and walked over. "I brought you this cause it's getting cold." In his hand was a grey sweatshirt. I gladly grabbed it and put it on.
"Thanks," I told him and stood up. We walked over to the edge of the deck and I leaned against the railing. I looked up at Luke. He was facing towards the sky. The lines on his forehead indicating that he was thinking. I sighed and looked out into the darkness in front of me.
The silence overtook us, and I think we were both just trying to take in the future ahead of us. Luke was going to leave me. He got accepted into a college halfway across the country. He was going to have an entire new life, and I was going to be stuck here. Not having any idea what I was going to do. Every time I thought about it I felt myself slowly crumble inside. It was like I could just fold inwards and then melt. I ran my hand through my hair and rested my chin on my hands. "Everything's going to change now," I told him.
He looked over to me and shook his head. "Nah. Maybe a little, but we'll be the same." He said and I wished it were true.
"I don't think so," I said and felt my stomach contort. This talking was no good for me. I was not good at emotions. Not one bit.
"Why are you saying that?" He said and rested his hand on my shoulder.
"You're going to be gone. Halfway across the country Luke. You're going to have this awesome life. You'll make new friends, you make them so easily. You're going to get your degree, and your life is going to just get better. I'm just going to be stuck here." I said and felt the tears begin to fall down my face. I pulled myself away from Luke and looked toward the house.
"Katie," he said then walked over in front of me. "Just talk to me, it's okay." He placed his hands on my shoulders and stood right in my path. I felt his gaze on me but I couldn't look up. "Katie. You're my best friend. That's never going to change." I wanted to believe it, but for some reason, my first instinct was to laugh.
"Yeah. But we're going to be in different places in life. What if I don't fit in with you anymore?" Now I couldn't stop the sound of sadness in my voice. These thoughts constantly plagued me nightly. I couldn't help it. I was never a happy go lucky person in the first place.
"I'm still friends with Michael, Calum, and Ashton right? I moved halfway across the world from them. Somehow we survived. Why can't we?" He asked me and I didn't really consider that.
"It's different," I said in almost a whisper.
"It's not." He told me.
"It feels that way," I said and crossed my arms.
"Are you five?" He asked me and I rolled my eyes. "I promise you. Nothing's going to change. Even if I have to face time you every day to prove it to you, I will." He told and then wrapped his arms around me. I relaxed my head into his chest and let the rest of the tears fall from my eyes. I couldn't hold my body together anymore. My body entirely collapsed into Luke. He ran his hand over my hair and held me close. I took a couple deep breaths and pulled myself away. I rubbed under my eyes and wiped my face with the arm of my sweatshirt. "I'm sorry," I said and pulled myself together.
"Don't be. I get it," he said and walked back over to the railing. I followed suit and stood next to him. We both leaned against the railing and looked out in front of us.
"You know. You've saved my life, on multiple occasions now." I told him and he shook his head.
"No I think you saved mine." We both stared out into the darkness in front of us. Not knowing where we were going. But one thing for certain. We weren't alone. We were always going to have each other. Somewhere inside, I knew I had to thank Lucy for bringing us together. And without my epilepsy, I wouldn't have had Lucy. So I guess I had that to thank too.