Luke was fourteen when he put his first cover on Youtube.
Maggie remembered because she was at his house when he panicked about pressing the upload button and she had no idea how to calm him down - she was getting tutored by his mom with math that hurt her head and Mrs. Hemmings had told her to go hangout with Luke for a little bit, you guys are the same age, you'll get along fine.
But what Liz didn't know what that Maggie had a crush on her son and she'd been too nervous to talk to him for the last two years. She was pretty sure he didn't even know her name, but she knew him. She knew he was quiet and reserved and didn't have much to say. He didn't seem particularly interesting in any way, he wasn't a jock or a bad boy or anything out of a movie, but Maggie felt drawn to him somehow.
When she walked into his room he didn't look up and it made her nervous, so she knocked quietly on the door. He was sitting on his bed with a book in his hands, homework that probably wasn't due for another two months.
"Is my mom tutoring you?" Was the first thing Luke Hemmings ever said to Marigold Insley.
All she could do was nod.
"I'm Luke," he spoke again, picking up the backpack next to him on his bed and dropping it on the floor messily.
He motioned for her to sit by him and she did.
"What's your name?" He asked, staring at the girl who seemed to have forgotten how to use her voice.
She looked familiar to him, but he couldn't put a finger on where he'd seen her before. What he did know, however, that she was one of the prettiest girls he had ever seen, the type of girl that made it look effortless. But Luke was only fourteen. He couldn't say that to her. He didn't have the confidence yet.
He tried not to make it obvious, the way he stared at her.
She had freckles across her entire face, ones that Luke would eventually realize never seemed to go away, no matter how many times he looked at her over the years. Her hair was red, a natural red that made her look like she belonged on a farm wearing a blue checkered dress with a dog named Toto in her arms.
And her eyes. Luke could never forget her eyes. They were a dull blue, almost like his - but he swore hers could light up the sun.
"Marigold."
'What?" She didn't seem to notice him staring at her, taking her in, but he seemed to have been so captivated by her that he forgot his own question.
"M-My name. It's Marigold. Most people call me Maggie," she was sitting up straight on his bed, her hands folded politely in her lap. She was wearing a pair of jeans and a black zip-up covering a graphic tee-shirt, her socks mismatched on her nervously swaying feet hanging off of Luke's bed.
"Marigold," Luke repeated, "pretty name."
His words weren't deep or meaningful, but Maggie found herself blushing at the compliment anyways.
"Where do you go to school, Marigold?"
"Same as you."
"How old are you, then?" Luke realized too late that he was turning the conversation into something of an interrogation, but he didn't know what else to do. They were sitting side by side on his bed, the uncomfortable silence leaking into the air and going straight to his head.
"Same as you," she spoke again.
"Wait," Luke got the nerve to look over at her, "if you're in my grade, why do you need a tutor? The stuff we're learning is really easy right now."
There was a long enough silence for Luke to feel obligated to look over at Maggie, but he cursed himself the second he did. Her lip was quivering and her eyes were welling with tears. Luke may not have been the best at social cues, but he knew he had said the wrong thing.
"I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"
"I'm not-" she sniffled loudly, "I'm not good at math. The numbers get all jumbled and the random letters don't help and I can't fail this class, I've never failed a-"
"Hey, no, I get it. M'sorry," He fidgeted on his bed, not wanting to look over at the pretty girl with tears falling down her freckled face.
They were only fourteen. They didn't know real stress back then. Luke couldn't comprehend the idea that Maggie had her own life outside of his imagination quite yet; until he was in his twenties, he never realized the silent battles that raged in her adolescent mind. He was a teenage boy - he lacked empathy in the worst ways, despite how hard he tried to understand those around him. His pre-pubescent empathy shortage paired with his anti-social nature got the better of him more times than he was willing to admit back then.
They sat in silence for a few seconds, Maggie trying desperately to pretend like she didn't embarrass herself in front of the cutest boy she had ever seen the first time she got an opportunity to speak to him.
"Okay, well," Luke was the first to break the silence, "since you told me something about yourself-"
"I don't think that really counts," Maggie forced out a laugh, "being bad at math isn't something I'd share in a game of twenty-one questions."
"I want to show you something, anyway. You showed me yours, I'll show you mine," a grin spread across his face.
He moved over to his desk and turned on the computer.
"What is this?" The red-haired girl asked as he pulled up a video of himself holding a guitar.
He grinned sheepishly, "Just watch. I want to know what you think of it."
The lyrics of "Please Don't Go," began to fill the room and Maggie swore she could hear Luke humming to it as he watched himself. She noticed how his face reddened and the way his body slumped, almost as if he was trying to hide from her in embarrassment.
When the song finished, he looked back at her cautiously, as if waiting for her opinion.
There was no sign of the girl who had been crying in his bed moments ago, there was only a girl grinning from ear to ear and nodding aggressively, "Luke, that was really good."
"You think so?" He asked her, and she nodded in response, "because I was thinking that maybe- maybe I could post it on Youtube or something. Maybe do a few more."
"Oh my god, yes! You have to, Luke. I think people would like it."
"I don't - like, I don't want people at school to make fun of me for it, though."
"I won't make fun of you," Maggie promised him proudly, "I'll just think you're really really cool once you become famous."
"I'm not going to get famous, Marigold. I just like to sing."
"No, no, no," Maggie shook her head, "you're definitely going to get famous. Like, millions-of-fans-famous. And I get to be your first one."
Luke stirred for a few minutes, going back and forth between pressing the upload button and deleting the video, pretending it never happened. When he finally clicked onto YouTube, the screen prompted him to title his video and he began to move for the exit button, his nerves making the decision to quit for him, when Maggie stopped him.
"Oh, no you don't!" Maggie warned. She grabbed the mouse from him and sloppily wrote the title herself;
Please dont go (cover)
"Who's the singer again?"
"Mike Posner," Luke's heart was beating in his throat as he spoke, and he was surprised he hadn't thrown it up along with his confidence in his singing abilities, "listen, I don't think this is a good idea-"
"I'll let you do the honors."
Maggie didn't know where her confidence came from, maybe the stress-cry in front of a cute boy did something to her hormones, but she was happy to be able to praise him in the ways she'd been doing in her head in the school hallways for the last two years.
Luke looked to his new red-haired friend helplessly, but her smile of encouragement was enough for him to shakily reach over for his computer mouse and press the upload button. They sat in silence for a few moments, watching the bar fill up until the screen changed to, 'upload complete!' and Luke's voice was officially in the world for everyone to see.
They were only fourteen when Luke looked over at Maggie's still tear-stained, grinning face, and vowed to keep that pretty smile on her dimpled cheeks for the rest of his life, to never make her cry - no matter what the reason was - ever again.
He vowed, in that moment, to keep her in his life for a long time.
And it took him three years to completely destroy everything he ever wanted with Marigold Insley.
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omg hi this is totally awkward random but i came up with a fic idea last night and i RAN with it. this story follows taylor swift's "folklore" album, and if you haven't listened to it, stream that bad boy now!! its absolute perfection. im basing this off of the really popular fan theory surrounding the album, so if you haven't heard about it and you want some insight i'd be happy to add that in!
in terms of rain, my first child will not be forgotten. i'm going to be updating both stories back and forth, but invisible string may have some shorter chapters than rain (which, like, are we a fan of the longer chapters or shorter chapters? i wanna know).
are you guys excited????? let me know! this is going to be really fun and i can't wait to continue this story and see betty/james come to life in a different format. PLEASE comment if you're looking forward to reading, please vote, please go check out rain if that's something you think would be cool, and i'll see you guys soon!!!
(by the fucking way, if you saw my post about my tendonitis acting up, it went away for awhile and i decided to write this and now its BACK. the things i do for y'all you better appreciate this).
lots of love, emily <3