i hate you | l.h

nineteen

the moment luke had hung up,  i slumped back against the wall, as if my legs had lost the ability to keep myself upright. i stared at my phone in my hand, unsure of what to do. my finger lightly hovered over the call button, as i debated whether or not to call him back.

"lydia?" calum came up from behind me, startling me out of my trance-like state and i jolted with surprise. he must have noticed the expression on my face when he took a step towards me.

"hey, is something wrong? i saw you from the dinner table, you looked pretty upset..." his voice trailed off and there was concern laced upon his features, and his dark eyebrows were furrowed in confusion.

"yeah, i just-i forgot i had to go with luke to visit his mom in the hospital." i meekly explained. calum's eyes widened in shock, either due to the fact that i had forgotten or due to the fact that luke had chosen to visit.

"wow...jesus. was he mad?"

"not really, i don't even know." i managed to regain the strength to lift myself off of the wall to earn another look of concern from him. "can you take me home?"

"yeah, dinner is pretty much over. " he looked at me steadily. "i'm sure he's not even that upset. you'll see him at school tomorrow and everything will be normal." there was something in his voice that had me wondering whether or not he was saying this just to make me feel better.

despite this, i ended up nodding. "yeah."

-

i had been on edge all rehearsal. luckily, i hadn't gotten one comment of criticism from ms. miller yet besides her telling me to 'chill with the attitude'.

the end scene, ms. miller wanted nate to go running down the stage, hook me around the waist, and then half pick me up as we kissed. it was, to be honest, a bit more acrobatic than i thought realistic, and when we'd practiced it, it hadn't gone particularly well.

nate wasn't necessarily bad at performing the kiss, just the momentum of the spin caused him to miss my lips twice and caused him to end up kissing me on the neck, instead. i had snapped at him that this wasn't some creepy vampire play, earning a comment of disapproval from ms. miller.

despite my bad attitude, i'd thrown myself into rehearsal, approaching each scene with new energy, nailing each and every one of my lines.

"lydia!" exclaimed molly. she scrambled on stage when the scene was finished between nate and i. "michael and i were planning to go to the beach later, and you're coming."

there was a table on set as one of the props, and despite ms. miller's many warnings to be careful with the set pieces, molly hoisted herself onto the table. her long legs dangled back and forth and she brushed a piece of blonde hair behind her ear.

"i've already invited violet, will, anna, ashton, calum, and luke." molly said, her eyes bright. "oh! hey, you!" she waved her arm melodramatically towards nate, who looked back at us in alarm.

"you're friends with ashton! come with us tonight." she grinned, and whether it was out of politeness or if he really did want to come, nate agreed.

"see? my charismatic charm gets me everything i want." she leaped off out the table, landing on the stage with a small thud. "the whole thing with you and luke won't be a problem, right?"

after calum had dropped me off the night before after dinner with his family, i had run straight to molly's house to tell her everything. the first thing she had done was call me a "unforgivable bitch". the second thing she did was bake a batch of cookies that she claimed she wanted yet didn't stop me when i devoured half of them.