I woke up in the morning and I was still at Luke's house. I was now the only one on the couch, Luke had moved to another chair. I squinted my eyes to look at the time off of the cable box. I cursed to myself as I threw a pillow at Luke, jolting him awake. "What?" He muttered.
"Luke we did it again." I sat up, fixing my hair. "We need to leave." It was noon and it was also a weekday, meaning we had school. He groaned as I attempted to drag him out of his chair. "Come on Luke."
"Ellie why can't we just stay here?" He questioned, standing up. "School's boring anyways, it would be a lot more fun if we both stayed here." He smirked, kissing me lightly.
"That's fine I'll just go to school by myself." I said, grabbing my shoes that I had kicked off.
"No I'll come. I don't want you walking to school by yourself." He grabbed his things and followed me back to my house. I wondered if my parents even bothered to see if I was gone, they probably didn't. My parents tried to be the type that cared a lot about what their kids did, but in reality they only cared a little. That was part of the reason why my sister did what she did and left, because my parents had no discipline over her. I told Luke to wait downstairs while I changed.
I opened my bedroom door and immediately searched for something clean to wear. I made a mental note to remind my mom to do laundry and picked out a pair of jeans. I quickly threw on a pair of black jeans and a white crop top that had daisies on the collar. I went backstairs to join Luke, where he was already standing by the door.
Ten minutes later Luke drove into school and put his car in park. I reminded him that he wasn't allowed to park at school but he just shrugged it off. It was our lunch period when we walked into the cafeteria. I saw Michael, Ashton, and Calum sitting at one table. I dragged Luke to sit at the same table as the people who hated him.
"Hey guys." I smiled, sitting next to Michael. Ashton returned a smile and Calum looked down, playing with the food on his tray.
"Ellie you should've been in science class today. We did a lab and Jack, whatever his last name is, blew up the beaker." Michael laughed. "It was absolutely great because he's such a klutz."
"I got to go guys." Calum mumbled as he stood up, taking his tray of mashed potatoes and a hamburger with him. He dumped the full tray in the trash and walked out. I figured now would be one of the only times I could talk to Calum alone, so I told Michael, Luke, and Ashton I would be back and followed Calum.
"Calum wait!" I called after him, jogging down the hallway to keep up with him. "Can we talk?"
"There's nothing to talk about, Ellie." He stuffed his hands in the pockets of his gray sweatshirt, refusing to look me in the eyes.
"There obviously is." I folded my arms across my chest. "We haven't spoken in weeks and when we're finally in the same room together, you run out like someone yelled fire in a crowded movie theater. You can't just ignore me because I like someone."
"I don't want to talk about this here, Ellie." Calum spoke up, dragging me into an empty classroom. I was a little worried about what exactly was bothering him, considering it seemed to be very private.
We both sat down at two desks in the front row, facing each other."What's going on, Calum? Why can't you just tell me? I really want my friend back."
Calum tapped on the desk with his fingers, nervous about whatever was going on here. "I can't be friends with you if you're going to date Luke." I was shocked at what came out of his mouth. Calum and I had been friends for a long time, and suddenly he was throwing it away because of Luke. I was about to speak up, but he kept talking. "I don't like that guy at all."
"Why? You don't even know him."
"Ellie I'm not sure how to tell you something like this." Calum bit down on his bottom lip, trying to think of a way to tell me whatever it was he wanted to tell me. "Your sister and Luke had a very weird relationship."
"Calum, I know that. What do you think everything has been about this whole time?"
"Just let me finish." He snapped. "This isn't easy for me to say, considering I haven't been talking about it." I slouched in my seat, waiting for Calum to come clean. "Julia and I really liked each other, even though she was a year younger than me. It fucking sucked to see someone you like, who feels the same about you, just throw away everything good about themselves because of some asshole. She only hung out with Luke because she liked him and thought he would like her back. It was awful watching that. When you found out I was glad that you hated him too."
"But now that I've changed my mind you can't handle that." It was ridiculous to think Calum wanted to end all of this. "I thought since Ashton could deal with it, you could too."
"I can't Ellie. Julia actually meant a lot to me and I can't watch you fall for him too. I can't stand by and watch that happen again." Calum stood up, about to leave. "I have to go. But I hope he's worth all of this." I watched Calum walk out and turn back to the direction of the cafeteria. I sat in that room a little while longer, thinking about what he had told me. This was different, what I had with Luke was different and I knew that. He didn't pressure me to do anything and I knew what I wanted. Julia was too head over heals for Luke that she didn't care.
At that moment I wasn't sure which mattered more. My relationship with Luke or with Calum. Calum has been my friend for a long time and meant a lot to me. But I was having a relationship with Luke, one that I wanted to continue. I liked the way Luke made me feel and I didn't want that to end.
I got up from the desk and walked out of the classroom. Not caring about school anymore, I walked down the hallway and out the front doors. I didn't bother to tell Luke or Michael that I was leaving, I just walked home.
It took me longer than usual to walk home, but when I got home both of my parents cars were parked in the driveway. They wouldn't be home in the middle of the afternoon like this. Wondering why, I jogged to the door. I was surprised what I saw when I opened the door and went into the living room. My parents were sitting on the couch, on both sides of my sister.
**
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
ha bet you didn't see that shit comin
