Rejects // Punk Luke Hemmings

>Chapter Twenty-One<

I drove home after about another hour of talking with Eve. We just sat and chatted, drinking our coffee and tea, and once our drinks ran out, we just talked more. I learned tons about her, and told her tons about myself.

Now, I knew her favourite color was pale green, her favourite band was Echosmith, her favourite class was photography, she wanted to be an artist when she grew up, and so many more things. I never thought this shy, petite girl could have so much to say.

When I reached my house, I entered carrying my dress. I had hardly stepped through the door when mom was on top of me.

"Oh my goodness Kar! I need to see what you got!" she hovered by my side excitedly.

"Alright mom," I laughed. "Let me put down my bag first." I walked into the kitchen and set my purse down on the table. I then unzipped the garment bag covering the dress to show her.

She gasped, coming to look at it closer. "Oh Kara, it's beautiful!" she mused, smiling at me.

"Mom, you haven't even seen it on me yet!" I laughed.

"Well try it on for me!" she said eagerly.

"Alright then," I picked up the dress, smiling at her enthusiasm. "I'll be right back," I said, making my way up to my room to change. I did so as fast as I could to show her. When I did, she squealed like the teenage girl I always knew was inside of her.

"Kara! You look stunning!" She wiped at tears pooling in her eyes.

"Thank you mom, but you don't have to cry. It's not prom or anything," I reminded her.

"I know. But you've come so far from that girl you came her as. You're talking to people, going to a school dance, you have a boyfriend..." She wrapped her arms around me, hugging me close. "I'm so proud of you, she whispered.

"Thanks mama," I smiled to myself.

~~~~~~~~~~

"Hiya," I smiled as I saw Luke. I ran over, wrapping my arms around him.

"Hi," he laughed, kissing my head. "It's nice to see you so happy," he mumbled into my hair.

"It's nice to see you not wearing long sleeves for once," I looked up at him. And it was true. His arms were showing for once thanks to the almost ninety degree weather (thirty-something degrees in Celsius since that's what they use here). He had on his "YOU COMPLETE MEss" shirt, which always made me laugh.

"Yeah, well, if I had my arms covered today I think I'd die of heatstroke," he smiled down at me. "Lets go do stuff," he said happily as he took my hand.

Thanks to it being Sunday afternoon, we decided to hang out. We walked down the street hand-in-hand past the pizza shop we had eaten at. I had déjà vu then, thinking back to when I saw that couple walking by with their hands linked. I had wondered if that would be us one day, and here we were, not even a full two weeks later, doing just that.

"We should go to that park nearby," I suggested and leaned my head against his arm as we made our way down the sidewalk.

"That would be great," he agreed. We kept talking as we walked to the park. He asked how my weekend had been going and I told him I'd gotten my dress for the dance. "I can't wait to see it!" he grinned.

"I can't wait to show you," I grinned back.

"Wanna go on the swings?" Luke asked with a childish smile as we reached the park. There was a set of maybe ten swings to one side along with a playground.

"Of course!" I laughed. "Race you," I said before I took off running. He beat me on account of my shorter legs, but I really didn't care. As we reached our destination, I got up onto a swing, standing on the seat as I held the chains. I looked down at Luke with a grin, loving the fact that I was taller than him like this.