Oblivious Hearts (Luke Hemmings)

Chapter 6

 So I did. I told him everything from my mother leaving us 3 years ago and how I communicate with her but barely. How she got me tickets to see them as an 18th birthday present. I told him my dad abuses me in the worst ways possible and that I think it's because he's upset my mother left him. I told Luke that we used to have a great relationship but it's all down the drain now.

        "That day, after I dropped you off, that was him?" He bit his lip ring, it was so attractive. It was also a very inappropriate thought at this moment. I looked at my shoes and nodded. "How?"

        "What do you mean, how?" I kicked at the grass.

        "How did he...um how did he-"

        "Hurt me?" He nodded. "Are you sure you want to know? You look like you're going to throw up."

        "I don't want to know. I need to." He didn't meet my gaze.

        "When I got home, he was angry that I went to a concert without telling him. He yanked my hair, slapped me-" I stopped because I saw Luke clench his fist.

        "Just tell me everything he did to you. Please." He wouldn't look at me even though my eyes never left his profile.

        "There was a lot of slapping. That's where the cut on my cheek came from. He did twist my arm and push me against the wall several times, making it hard to breathe. He kicked me and-" I paused for a while.

        He looked at me waiting for me to continue. I finally looked away. "He used a piece of his beer bottle to stab me, above my waist. And that's why there was blood on your sweater."

        I risked a glance at Luke and his eyes had changed. There was something burning in them: anger. Then he asked something I didn't think he would, "Show me your wound."

        "What? Luke, no."

        "Cali, I'm not going to ask again." He looked furious, it scared me. I lifted up my top to show him the bandage that was covering it. Even the bandage wasn't big enough to cover the whole wound. "Did you get it stitched up?"

        "No. Gracie's the one who's been patching me up. She's good but she doesn't have the proper equipment." I pulled my top back down, shy that I showed some of my skin.

        He got up and took my hand, sort of dragging me with him. "Luke, where are we going?" He didn't say anything but to trust him. After about fifteen minutes of walking, we were in front of a hospital. I didn't even have time to argue with him because he was still dragging me and I was struggling to keep up with him.

        He let go of my hand to talk to the reception and as soon as I caught my breath he grabbed my hand again and led me to a room near the end of the floor. He let go of my hand only to carry by my waist and put me on a bed. I blushed furiously as he did so. As I sat on the bed, his hands were on either side of me and then he looked up at me from my hands.

        His piercing blue eyes softened as he looked into mine. For a moment a desire burned in my heart: I wanted to kiss him. We were only inches away from each other. It was ruined when a doctor came into the room with a clipboard. Luke moved from me and towards her, whispering something into her ear and she nodded.

        She came towards me with a beaming smile. "Hello Calista, I'm Doctor Jennings. I'm just going to stitch up your wound, okay?" She began preparing her tools.

        I smiled. Luke brought me here because he wanted me to be properly taken care of and there was no greater pleasure. I lifted my top for her. She took the bandage off and made a face. I looked down at the wound and I could understand why. Even after a couple of days, the wound was still open and bleeding. I couldn't blame Gracie, she wasn't a professional and she was only doing the best she could.

        I looked over at Luke. He was staring at the open wound and after a while he shook his head and left the room. It was nagging at me that he didn't say anything ever since we entered the hospital.

        The doctor stitched it up and took off her gloves. "It should be better in a few weeks. If any unusual pain comes from it, come back here. Do you mind me asking how you got this?"

        "Slipped on glass." I faked a smile. I got down from the bed, ready to go meet Luke, wherever he was when she held me back.

        "We're not done yet." She said. I gave her a questioning look. "Your boyfriend asked me to run some tests to see if you had any injuries in your head or body."

        "He what?" I covered my mouth with my hand. That's what Luke was whispering to her. My heart melted at the thought of him being so concerned and caring.

        I proceeded with the tests and found it quite boring. After everything was done, the doctor said, "You're fine but it seems to me that you've sustained a lot of injuries in the past. Some of your muscles are taking longer to heal than others, only can be caused by a huge amount of pain infliction."

        "I'm a clumsy person." I shrugged. "But I'll be okay?"

        "Yes you will." She wrote some things on her clipboard. She glanced at me for a minute, not quite believing me. But she changed the subject. "You have a lovely boyfriend."

        "He's not my boyfriend." I stared at my hands which were laid on top of each other.

        She looked surprised. "Oh I'm sorry. The way he looked at you gave me a different idea." I lifted my head and looked at her but all she did was smile.

        "You're free to go." She stood up and left the room. I was still sat on the bed.

        The way he looked at me? How did Luke look at me? Like I was a broken toy that needed to be fixed up or something else? I remembered a line from a book I read about a year ago. 'Love is when you look at her and she's the only thing there. Everything else around you disappears except her.'

        Was that what Doctor Jennings meant? I didn't know. Just then, Luke came in. Without saying anything he pulled my shirt down to cover the stitches. I didn't realize it was still up.

        "Thanks." I said. He nodded me and offered me his hand which I took. We walked past the reception and I stopped him. "Luke, the bill. I have some money in the ATM that I can draw out."

        "It's taken care of." Was all he said before tugging my hand and making me walk with him. We walked all the way back to my house in silence, still hand in hand. Somehow the thought of that gave me major butterflies.

        "You didn't have to do all of this. The bill, the stitches, the test." I said, squeezing his hand.

        "I wanted to." He glanced at me. "You don't deserve any of what has happened to you. You deserve to be treated like a princess."

        I was so glad it was night time because my cheeks were hot as hell. I said thank you to him and I saw him softly smile at me. "Can I ask you something? Where is your dad now?"

        "He's away for three months. Off to his honeymoon with his new girl." I said. "He has a new one every few months and I'm pretty sure he abuses them too."

        Luke doesn't say anything for a while. He looks like he's thinking and he starts to smile a bit but when I questioned him, he tried to cover it up. "I'm glad you're okay." He said.

        We reached my house and I stopped him outside of the door. "Could we not mention this to Calum, Ashton and Michael? I'm not ready for everyone to know yet."

        He rubs my hand with his finger. "Whatever you're comfortable with." We enter the house and we see the three other guys on the floor, with pizza surrounding them. They had made themselves at home by playing FIFA on my flat screen.

        They waved at us with greasy hands and Luke and I couldn't help but laugh. "I told you they would be fine." Luke joked.

        After seeing they were fine, I announced I was going to bed and left the four boys to games and pizza in my living room.