Soon enough, Calum Hood and Michael Clifford had made their way over to Maggie and Luke's lunch table.
Luke told her they were starting a band. He had expected his red-haired best friend to be disappointed, to be upset that she wasn't going to be the recipient of all of his time and attention anymore, but he couldn't say he wasn't surprised when she actually befriended the two boys and supported them as they started. She didn't seem to care that she had to share him with two others, she just cared that he was happy and enjoying what he was doing.
That should have been Luke's first sign that he didn't deserve her. Because if he was put in her situation, he would've been a clingy mess that wanted nothing more than to spend every waking second with her. Technically, he already was a clingy mess, but he was young and dumb and had a major crush on his best friend, so he didn't really understand yet.
He didn't know what jealousy felt like until Ashton Irwin joined the band.
Maggie gravitated towards the drummer, and Luke understood it to an extent. He knew enough about Ashton's personal life and his early life to know how they bonded and connected over the broken homes they both had experienced, but Luke felt constant pangs of fear that one day she'd end up at his house when she needed someone to talk to, and she'd no longer let Luke sing her to sleep and hold her when her eyes began to fall.
Luke Hemmings didn't know it at the time, but he would eventually be the very reason Ashton and Maggie became inseparable in the future — and it wasn't his charm, his charisma, his humor that would bring them together, it was his mistakes and his inability to come to terms with the fact that he was, in fact, the biggest asshole he'd ever have the displeasure to know in his entire life.
The four boys were practicing in Ashton's garage after school, laughing at stupidly crude jokes and trying to figure out how the hell to make music that people actually liked, when Calum brought up Marigold Insley and Luke's face immediately turned a few different shades of red.
Here's the thing: three of the four best friends that Luke had knew damn well that he was in love with his other best friend, and they had known it since the moment they had seen the two of them interact. And the countless times after the first interaction, where they all tended to end the same way; Luke would stare at Maggie like she was the only thing in the world, like he was stranded in the middle of the ocean and she was a mirage of glitter and gold and bright lights that just seemed to whisper, "Home," in his ears methodically until the current swept him up in a wave of dreams and calamity all at the same time.
Basically, he looked at her like she was the entire world and more, and whenever he'd look away, it would take him a few more seconds to seemingly come back down to earth and realize that there were four other people in the room. And the boys would always look amongst each other and shake their heads like they were in on some secret joke that Maggie and Luke were oblivious too, because they were, they always were, and they'd pretend like nothing had happened.
"So, where's Maggie today?" Was the only thing Luke needed to hear for the blush to creep onto his cheeks.
Calum smiled at him expectantly; no malice involved, just genuinely attempting to get his bandmate to admit what everyone around him already knew.
Luke shrugged, "My mom is tutoring her."
Which was true. What Luke failed to tell his friends was that she had spent the last week at his house, and she had slept in his bed, in his arms, and he had tucked that damn piece of hair behind her ear that always seemed to fall when she was lying on his chest multiple times.
What he didn't tell them was that her parents were finally, thankfully, admitting their issues and getting a divorce. They hadn't put in the effort to tell Maggie that it wasn't her fault, that they just weren't in love like they were when they were kids and that things had changed too much for them to work it out, but Luke had whispered the words to her multiple times.
It's not your fault, he'd promise, this is between them. It's not you.
And when she'd brokenly whisper back that she was afraid she'd be alone forever, that she'd end up like her parents, he would always promise her, you'll have me. I'm not going anywhere, which was a promise that a now fifteen-year-old boy should not be making to a now fifteen-year-old girl, but he didn't understand the weight of his words back then.
It took him a very long time to understand that his words were more than just words. And he realized too late that he had unintentionally spoken many empty promises to the girl he vowed to never hurt.
"Is she going to come hang out with us later, then? I want to see my Mary-girl," Ashton spoke rather excitedly, as he had gotten word from the girl herself about the divorce, and he felt more obligated than ever to make her smile and giggle and hopefully forget about her problems, at least for a few moments.
Luke had to mentally tell himself to not roll his eyes or grit his teeth at the nickname Ashton had given to his best friend. He shrugged half-heartedly, "M'not sure."
"Well if she does show up," Michael perked up, "are you finally going to make a move on her?"
Luke almost dropped the guitar that was in his hands as his jaw went slack and his eyes widened, "Wh- what're you-"
"C'mon, mate," Ashton grinned mischievously, "Don't play dumb."
"Why would I make a move on her?"
"'Cos you like her," Calum spoke, shoveling a mound of fruit snacks into his mouth as he continued, "And you can't really deny it anymore."
"I don't like her."
"Yes you do."
"What makes you so sure?"
Michael snorted, "Bro, we're not dumbasses."
"You're barely ever even at school, Mike," Luke fought back, "You very well might be a dumbass."
"Hey!" Michael defended, "I didn't mean like that. I just mean that you make it painfully obvious, and we all think that it's time that you man up and do something about it."
Luke rolled his eyes, "Are you guys pranking me? Is that what this is? Is it because I ditched practice the other day to finish my homework? Because I had to. I didn't have much of a choice."
"No, dude. Can you just answer my next question honestly?" Calum leaned forward in his chair, his mouth still filled with fruit snacks.
"Can you swallow what's in your mouth first?"
"That's what she said," Michael retorted, earning a few whoops and a high five from Calum himself.
"You guys are children," Ashton scolded.
Luke rolled his eyes but said, "Fine. One question," anyway.
"Do you, or do you not, like Marigold Insley?"
There was a silence so deafening that Michael had to stop fiddling with the guitar that was resting in his hands and Ashton had to put his drumsticks down. Calum stopped mid-chew and started at his blonde friend expectantly.
Luke looked down at his guitar as he felt his face get hot. He almost wanted to cry, because he hadn't admitted his crush to anyone and he was scared, so scared of what would happen once he finally let himself outwardly feel what he felt for her, because if she didn't feel the same back, they'd both lose their person. He tried to convince himself that he was more worried about her losing him than the other way around, but he was selfishly trying to withhold his feelings because he was pretty sure he'd be a lost puppy without her at his house everyday, because he had gotten so used to her sleeping in his arms that the few times his mother had caught them and forced her to move to the couch, he hadn't been able to sleep and had spent every waking moment listening through the door to make sure she was okay in the living room.
"Yeah," he whispered, "I like her. I like her a lot. But I don't think she likes me back."
What Luke didn't know was that his bandmates were also friends with Marigold Insley, and they had had a similar talk with her already. However, after she had admitted to them that she had liked Luke for much longer than he'd even known she existed, she had sworn them to secrecy using the girl code, and they had attempted to argue multiple times that none of them were women so inherently, her code didn't mean much to them, but they knew she didn't have many girlfriends to use the girl code with, so they went along with it.
By the girl code, the three boys were not allowed to tell Luke what they knew.
Ashton stood from his drum set and walked the few feet to his friend. He shook his hand and smiled to him, "We're cutting band practice short for the day, under the pretenses that you-" He spoke in a jokingly sophisticated announcing voice before he giggled, breaking character, "Go get your girl, Luke."
Luke handed the drummer his guitar sluggishly, nervously glancing at the encouraging smiles on his friends faces. And then he nodded, took a deep breath, and opened the garage door.
When he arrived at home Maggie wasn't there, and his confidence seemed to have disappeared along with her.
His mother told him that she had gone home for the night, because her father had finally left and her mom wanted to spend the rest of the day together, just the two of them, in an attempt to rekindle their mother-daughter relationship.
Without giving himself enough time to think, Luke grabbed this bike and trekked over to her home.
Maggie's house was nice. If things were better between her and her parents, she probably would've had Luke come over more often, but he had only tagged along with his mom to drop her off a handful of times. It was a one story home, similar to Luke's, but it was bigger.
Both of her parents had high paying jobs and seemed to be constantly adding new additions to the house, but Maggie's favorite part was the garden in the backyard. So when Luke arrived at her house, that was the first place he checked. He didn't bother to walk up to the front door or greet her mom with a fake smile and pretend that he had heard anything necessarily nice about the woman, so he let his bike fall in the driveway and walked around the side.
When he turned the corner and the garden came into view, he wasn't surprised to see the pretty red-haired girl knelt down on the cobblestone pathway, her fingers wrapped around the handle of a watering can as she smiled down at a bunch of flowers planted in the dirt. Her hair was wrapped in a bandana and crinkles by her eyes were barely noticeable because of the slight smile on her lips, but he noticed because he noticed every little thing about her.
"Mags," Luke's voice was ragged and he tried to clear it as he spoke.
She turned to him, clearly startled, and shot to her feet. She was wearing a pair of blue jeans and a white tee shirt, and she looked like she belonged on a farm. Luke thought she looked adorable, but he found the way her eyes seemed to light up when she saw him even more adorable.
"Luke!" She squealed, and excitedly ran into his arms as if she hadn't woken up in them that morning.
He wrapped his arms tightly around her and planned to never let go.
She pulled back, just slightly, still wrapped in his arms, and smiled up at him, "I missed you."
He blushed, but made no attempt to hide it from her, "You saw me this morning."
"I still missed you."
"I missed you, too."
She smiled lightly and put her head back on his chest. They stood there for a few seconds, simply enjoying each others warm.
"Is everything okay here?" Luke asked.
She looked up at him again, not bothering to remove her arms from where they were wrapped around his middle because he had yet to remove his from around her neck.
"I think so. We ate dinner together and I think my mom wants to watch a movie later. She seems like she's doing a lot better."
"I'm happy for you, Mags."
"Do you want to join us? I could always ask! I think we're watching a Disney movie-"
"No, I don't know how long I can stay, actually."
"Oh," Maggie tried to sound less disappointed than she was, "Why did you come?"
"Maggie-" Luke's voice cracked, heavy with emotion.
"Is everything okay?" She asked, "Did something happen at band practice?"
Luke's heart swelled, knowing she was worried about him, knowing that she cared. And he really hoped she'd still care after she knew how he felt.
His heart was beating out of his chest as he shook his head, "No, nothing happened at band practice."
Maggie furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.
Luke took her hand and led her over to the flowers she had just been watering, attempting to calm his nerves in any way possible.
"What are these flowers?" He changed the subject, reaching out to touch a petal.
Maggie smiled at him excitedly, "Petunias. My favorites. I really like the way-"
"I really like you," Luke blurted out.
"What?" Maggie froze, sure that he could see the way her heart was about to beat out of her chest.
"I-I'm sorry. I don't know- I didn't know how to tell you but I think you're really pretty and I really like the way you laugh at my jokes even when they aren't funny and I like your personality and your love for flowers and I like everything about you and I don't know what to do about it."
"Luke," Maggie spoke softly, taking a step towards him.
"I know- I-I know this is probably messing everything up and you probably won't want to be friends anymore and I understand that and I'm sorry but I don't know how much longer I can go without you knowing how I feel."
There was a silence, and Luke finally looked up from the petunias he had been staring down at. He had tried his hardest to not meet Maggie's eyes as his heart seemed to bleed from his mouth and spout words that he didn't even plan on saying.
"You're right," her voice was quiet as she took another step towards her blonde friend.
"I-I'm right? About what?"
"I don't want to be your friend, Luke."
"Oh," His shoulders sank, his somewhat hopeful mood deflated instantly, "I'm so sorry. I feel like I messed everyth-"
"Luke," She interrupted his rambling, closing the space between them with another step. She looked up at him and smiled playfully, "I don't want to be your friend," She repeated, and Luke almost wanted to jump in and say, yes, I heard you the first time, I don't need to hear about how you hate me again when my pride is literally all over the petunias in your garden like the water from your watering can, but then she spoke again.
"I want you to kiss me," Her voice was almost a whisper, but he heard the words, and his blue eyes met hers.
"You want me to kiss you?" He asked, confirming that hadn't imagined the words falling out of her mouth.
"Yeah," She spoke breathlessly, "I really, really do."
And then he kissed her.
- - -
maggie and luke are literally my children and i love them so much but soon we'll all be joining forces to beat some sense into luke so don't get too attached to him NOT being a dick :/
ANYWAY this is crunch time and i'm trying to update at least one chapter of each of my fics before i leave for school next week. when i get to school i'm planning on updating at least one story once a week so pls don't give up on me college is time consuming man.
i love you guys and i hope you love maggie and luke as much as i do :)