waking up, wearing luke's t shirt, wrapped his in arms and breathing in the scent of his skin was the closest lola had ever felt to paradise.
his body was somehow always warm, and he managed to be somehow both solid and soft at the same time, and lola really couldn't get enough.
lola traced her fingers lightly across his chest, drawing mismatched patterns on his pale skin and both waiting for him to wake up and perfectly content for him to stay asleep as long as she stayed in his arms.
luke stirred slightly, and lola lay her hand flat over his heart, suddenly feeling bad for disturbing him.
he pulled her closer, nuzzling his face in her hair and pressing a kiss to the top of her head.
"good morning pretty girl." her cheeks flushed a bright pink and she wrapped her arm around him.
"good morning pretty boy." luke let out a soft chuckle, bringing one of his hands down to cup her cheek, stroking his thumb against it slowly.
"i have training today."
"so do i." lola yawned softly. "i have a class to teach too."
"want me to drive you home?" luke offered, unwilling to part with the small girl but at least being confident in the fact he would see her again soon - a safe feeling he couldn't understand how he'd ever gone without.
"is that alright?"
"of course baby."
"but first we have a cup of tea?" lola's wide, hopeful eyes made luke's heart explode and melt, and he nodded, unable to keep the fond smile from pulling at the edge of his lips.
"first we have a cup of tea."
***
it felt like forever since luke had woken up to lola in his arms, when in reality, it had only been two days.
two days filled with excessive training and an impromptu match that had left him wishing he could just go crawling back to lola and fall asleep with her, rather than return to the gym under his coach's insistence.
another hit landed on the punching bag; luke's legs were growing wearing and beads of sweat were threatening to fall into his eyes, but he pushed through, determined to go for at least another twenty minutes and test his endurance.
hit after hit; the dent in the punching bag grew deeper and luke narrowed his eyes as the sweat began to collect over his brows - five more minutes, just push for five more minutes.
five minutes ended after what felt like a lifetime, and luke let himself breathe for a moment before climbing out of the ring and making his way over to the bench where a bottle of water stood.
a sharp ring broke the silence, causing a furrow in luke's eyebrows, and he put his water bottle down, answering his phone without looking at the name.
"where are you?" his mother's voice sent a wave of anger through his body and his jaw clenched painfully.
"why does it matter?"
"because there's no one here to let me in your house luke. i look like an idiot standing outside-"
"you're what?" luke felt his entire body become seized up with rage, dark spots clouding his vision and his fists knotted so tight that his knuckles were about to burst through his skin.
"what the fuck are you doing at my house - how do you even know where i live-"
"your dad managed to locate your phone. you need to stop-"
"do you have any idea how fucking insane that is of you?" luke yelled, holding his phone so tightly he was sure he would crush it.
"luke you have to come home, we need to talk. it's been seven years, don't you think you've punished us enough?"
he couldn't comprehend how audacious he found the statement.
"i'm coming home now and i swear to fuck if you're still there-"
"you'll what luke?" she's caught him out again. she knew he had no idea what he'd do, and she took advantage of that area of weakness, of the fact that she was his mother and that he would never hit a woman. she poked his weak spots and watched him squirm.
"i'll see you when you're home."
the line went dead and luke slammed his phone into his bag, pulling on the discarded hoodie that had been laying on the bench and stumbling out of the gym and into his car in a blind rage, a terrifying part of him not being sure exactly what he would do if he found his mother standing outside his house.
his knuckles were papery white against the black leather of his steering wheel, and luke probably shouldn't have been driving in the condition he was in, but he had to get her away from his house, he had to make her leave.
just knowing she was standing outside his front door; in his town; where his friends lived; where lola lived, made his skin crawl.
her presence at his home felt like an invasion and luke was anxious to see her leave as soon as possible.
before she ruined him and he ruined everything else.
***
"finally luke. you took your time."
"fuck off." luke could feel his pulse increasing dangerously at the mere sight of his mother; dressed in a pale blue suit jacket and skirt, her hair and nails meticulously styled and polished and her face holding a scarily inhuman lack of emotion.
"luke do you really want to do this out here?" her smug look was enough to send him rioting, but, as much as he hated to admit it, she was right.
if she'd driven all this way, she was here for something, and unfortunately for luke, she wouldn't leave until she got it.
he shoved his key into his door and twisted it hard enough to break it off, storming inside his house and not bothering to turn around to see her follow.
"it's about time you came home luke. this is just silly now." his mother folded her arms, and the casual proposal made luke's mouth gape open in shock.
"i'm twenty fucking two - i can live by myself if i choose to, and i fucking choose to." he spat.
his mother heaved a sigh, a condescending and borderline infuriating sigh; a sigh that said "you don't know better than me and you're never going to", a sigh that he'd relished not having to hear for the past seven years.
"luke don't you think you've done enough teenage rebelling now."
he couldn't even drag up any words to respond to her with.
everything in the last seven years, everything that had made him good, that had made him who he was - had been dismissed as 'teenage rebellion'.
luke's throat had almost completely constricted, and he was growing hot with anger.
"you can't keep running away from it forever." she continued, checking her nails before making eye contact with him again.
luke's entire body went cold, and the sudden temperature change made his eyes glaze over; his hands start shaking.
"sooner or later luke, you're going to have to come home."
his shoulders rose and fell rapidly alongside his heavy breathing, and he stared back at his mother with hooded eyes.
"home." he spat the word out. "that's what you're calling it now i'm gone? it wasn't that when i lived there, was it?"
she sighed again, that same, skin crawling sigh.
"let go luke. all your bitterness only hurts you-"
"and who the fuck do you think made me this way?" his voice was out of his control; sounding like nothing he'd ever heard before - it didn't sound anything like him.
"don't you blame us for what happened." part of luke was relieved his mother was starting get get angry - at least he wasn't shouting into the void anymore.
"you're the one who chose to make a big deal out of it-"
"make a big deal?" luke roared. "how the fuck was it not a big deal?"
"maybe not a big deal wasn't quite the right word choice-"
"word choice? he was your son." luke's voice was ringing in his own head and his eyes were filled with tears - tears he would never let fall.
his mother didn't deserve to see him vulnerable.
"and so are you luke-"
"i am not your fucking son." luke slammed his fist onto his kitchen counter, a strange, horrible sensation radiating up his arm at the sudden contact, but he couldn't register it.
"you gave birth to me and that is it-"
"luke i am your mother-"
"don't you fucking call yourself that!" his other fist was clenched so tightly that despite his short nails, the flesh of his palm had been split open and a tiny droplet of blood had made it's way to the edge of his hand.
"it's been seven years since he died luke. move on. your father and i did." his mother clutched her purse to her chest, the ice in her voice when she brought that up cutting straight through luke.
"of course you did." luke scoffed, his face still burning.
"luke you're being unfair."
"get out of my house." he stated it simply, not giving her an empty threat to pick apart; starving her of the opportunity to undermine and enrage him.
just a simple direction.
his mother searched his face for any sign of him crumbling, any sign whatsoever of her getting her own way.
but she was greeted with a curtain of sheer hatred that prevented her from seeing any further into the man that had been her son once.
"fine." nothing. "i'll go."
luke watched in a simmering silence as she walked over to the door, pulling it open before she paused and turned back to him.
"he's dead now luke." she said lowly. "you need to get over it and stop punishing me and your father for something that was his fault."
the door was closed before luke could even react, and the moment the words had fully sunken into him a gut-wrenching yell of "FUCK" had escaped his lips.
his insides were painfully twisted and his skin felt like it was on fire - luke hadn't been this angry since he left 'home'.
everything about him was restless; the tiredness from his non-stop training had gone and he needed to hit something before the anger brewing inside him ate him alive.
his phone - miraculously not broken - started to ring from inside his bag, and with his mind still not operating entirely in harmony with his body, luke answered the call.
"hey man!" it was ashton, but even his friend's cheerful tone couldn't help dispel luke's rage.
"me and the boys were thinking we could all hang at ours tonight and have a film night or something - calum's managed to get endgame on dvd and he's desperate to watch it -"
"she was here."
"who was?" ashton asked slowly.
"liz." luke refused to call her his mother.
"oh fuck, man-"
"i don't think i can be around anyone, i'm sorry. i'm going to the gym." luke hung up and threw his phone down onto the sofa, taking only his keys with his as he slammed the door to his now-tainted flat and left for the gym.
***
bella lay on lola's bed, watching friends at the highest possible volume in order to drown out the sound of the shower in the bathroom.
she looked up as her friend walked in wrapped in a towel, with another one encasing her hair.
"so, movie night tonight." bella said cheekily, shutting the laptop and sitting upright. "what are you going to wear tonight to see your man?"
"since it's a friends film night, nothing sexy." lola retorted dryly. "probably just some pyjama shorts and a sweater."
bella whined, wishing that her best friend would for once take her advice and not be so stubbornly pg.
"okay but can you at least wear the little tight black ones? please lola?" she pulled her best puppy-eyes face and lola sighed.
"okay but i get to choose the sweater." she insisted, pulling the almost criminally tiny - but admittedly rather flattering - black shorts out of her pyjama drawer.
"lola he's literally had his fingers inside of you, why are you afraid of dressing sexy for him?" bella countered, watching as her best friend's cheeks flushed red.
"i don't know. i do want to, i really do, but - i guess i'm scared he won't like it?" bella studied lola carefully, her eyebrows furrowing and her heart clenching at how vulnerable and self conscious her friend suddenly looked.
"lola of course he's going to like it. he thinks you're beautiful - his words not mine, although obviously i agree." she grinned widely at the shy smile that pulled at lola's lips.
"you're beautiful, he likes you, he is definitely sexually attracted to you - take confidence in that and dress sexy for him like you want to!"
"you always make me feel so much better, i love you." lola's heart swelled with gratitude for her best friend, who simply blew her a kiss from the bed.
"i love you too, now get your sexy pyjamas on! come on, dig out that black lingerie."
bella rolled back onto her stomach and un-paused friends while lola pulled on the very risqué bra and panties bella had gifted her for her birthday last year - a set that had previously only been worn in the privacy of her bedroom, for no one except herself and the mirror.
lola pulled on the shorts and rubbed moisturizer into her legs quickly, not wanting to keep her friend waiting for too long.
"see!" bella glanced up at her and smiled. "you look hot!"
"you look hot. how come i'm the dancer and your figure is better than mine?" lola gestured at bella's pyjama trousers and crop top ensemble that highlighted her curvy figure - one that lola had never not been jealous of.
"shut up." bella giggled. "and go for the blue sweater, you look so cute in that."
lola pulled her baby blue sweater over her head obediently, cuffing the sleeves to prevent them from falling over her hands and roughly towel-drying her hair. she crouched to look in her dressing table mirror; deciding that the slightly damp curls hanging around her face would be fine for a film night.
her ringtone - crocodile rock by elton john - cut through the sounds of ross's stress about being late, and bella huffed, reaching to pick lola's phone up.
"it's ashton." she passed it up to lola, who finished pulling on her socks before answering.
"hey ash. bella and i are literally about to leave-"
"lola have you heard from luke today?"
a frown fell over lola's face at the urgency of his tone and her heart started beating double time.
"not since this morning, why? do you need me to pick him up-"
"he's not coming tonight lola."
she felt her heart fall.
"oh."
"it's not for me to tell you what happened, but he's really not in a good place. i spoke to him and i haven't heard him to angry in a long time. he's at the gym right now, but i don't think he should see anyone for a while-"
"i'll go and check on him." not registering bella's concerned expression, lola rushed into the living room, pulling her keys out of her dance bag and attempting, with one hand, to put on her converse.
"lola i really think you should give it a couple of hours - i only spoke to him an hour ago, he's still going to be really angry."
"that's okay."
"call me if you need anything and me or one of the boys will come and get you guys."
"thanks ash - maybe see you later."
"be safe lola."
the line went dead and bella rushed in, watching her friend pull her converse on frantically.
"lola what was that about?"
"somethings happened with luke - i need to go see him." she stood up to face bella, worry evident in her eyes.
"what's happened?"
"i don't know but ash said he was angry and he's back at the gym - he's done nothing but box and train for two days straight, he's going to burn himself out-"
lola was halfway out the door when she felt bella's hand gripping hers, both of them wearing matching expressions of fear.
"lola if he's that angry are you sure it's safe? luke is a great guy and i have no doubt he'd never hurt you but - but are you sure?"
lola let go of the door and wrapped her friend in a tight hug.
"i'm sure - i'll be completely safe i promise." she drew back. "but i need to go and see him."
bella nodded understandingly and that was all the reassurance lola needed to run out of her door and towards her car.
"text me and let me know what happens." bella called after her, feeling slightly helpless as she watched lola fumble with anxiety trying to put her keys into the ignition.
"i will." with those two words she was gone, heading directly for the gym.
lola's teeth bit down on her lower lip, a steady feeling of dread beginning to stir in her stomach and make her feel slightly sick.
she wasn't sure exactly what she'd find when she found luke at the gym, but she could only hope they were close enough that he'd be able to talk about it this time rather than shutting her out.
she could only hope.
CALUM FIC AND MORE D R A M A
i'm writing all four fics at the same time now but i'm going to wait to publish the michael and ashton ones just to give me time to polish the stories more but i'm SO EXCITED
i just wanted to say thank you to everyone who's ever read, voted or commented on this story. your comments make my day and it's so lovely to have so much support and feedback on my writing. i love how invested people have become with the story of luke and lola, because honestly i have too, and i can only hope you all enjoy the stories about the other boys just as much!
stay safe & love always