Never Enough | Luke Hemmings

Chapter 24

"Love is not the burning. It is the hell after that leaves you in flames."
- RA Ramos

**

I open the bedroom door and poke my head in, "Luke?" The room is dark, the shades are drawn and there is an awful chilling cold in the room. I haven't so much as stepped in and a shiver runs down my spine, goosebumps forming on my skin from the cold air.

"Yeah?" A shape in the middle of the dark room asks. It takes a few seconds for my eyes to adjust to the dark and I finally see him, standing in the middle of the room, mid-stride like he had been pacing before I knocked.

"Hi," I smile at him from the doorway. He looked confused and worried, an emotion I was accustomed to seeing on his face.

His strained features relax a little. "Hey."

He sounds calm, thank god.

"How—um, how are your hands?" I step inside the room, pointing at his hand.

"Can I be honest?" He breathes.

"Of course, you can." I keep smiling at him, trying to ease the tension. I probably looked like an idiot.

"They hurt like a bitch. These bloody painkillers don't work." He nervously laughs and my heart aches at the sound of it. I had broken my hand in pre-school once and it had hurt so much that if I closed my eyes right now and thought about it, I'm pretty sure I would still feel the pain.

He tries to lift his hand to brush the hair away from his eyes out of habit but winces at the pain. His hair is a mess, standing out at weird angles like he had been pulling at the ends of them in frustration. If it didn't look so good on him my hair stylist instincts would have driven me crazy right about now.
His clothes are ruffled like he had just gotten out of bed but judging by the dark circles under his eyes, and the worry lines on his forehead, I knew he hadn't gotten any sleep.

"Did you take them on time?"

"Yes! Why does everyone keep asking me that? I'm not forgetful." He raises his voice like I offended him.

"I'm sorry I was just checking."

"What do you want?" He snaps, annoyance filling his face and voice.

Great, there goes the calm I was hoping for.

"I wanted to ask you something... about what happened at the ARIAs..."

"What do you want to know?" He asks, something flashing behind his eyes at my words. I send a silent prayer to whoever is up there watching and continue.

"Well, that song you sang on stage—" the abrupt change in his features stop me mid-sentence.

"You know what? I don't want to answer this shit right now. Get out." He points at the door, raising his voice again.

"But you just asked me what I wanted to know," I say calmly.

He closes his eyes. "And I changed my mind."

"In two seconds?!" I wanted to walk over to him and kick him in the groin but I was trying to be a civilised human being.

"I don't answer to you. Get out." He snaps again, pointing at the door. He was fine just a few seconds ago and I hadn't so much as said two lines.

"Is this because I asked you about the song?"

"No!"

"Then what is it? I have so many things I want to know! You can't keep pushing people away every time someone wants to have a civilised conversation with you!" I yell at him this time.