Gone Cold. -Luke Hemmings Love Story. AU-

Chapter 17

-LUKE'S POV-

"Luke?" Kit asks as we pull up to a red light. We have been driving for hours now. I haven't been keeping track of the time, all I know is that it's been awhile. Because, it's now dark out.
"Yeah?" I ask with a smile as I turn my head to look at her.
"We've been driving for hours." She says and smiles, looking down. "You must be getting tired of driving, why don't we park somewhere so you can take a break?" She offers.
"The more we drive, the less likely it is that we go home soon." I reply with. Today has been the best day I have ever had with her. There is usually other people around, so my attention can't fully be on her. Or we are alone, but can't say too much because we're only alone due to the fact that we're skipping class together. But this, this is just her, and me and all the freedom in the world. We can do whatever we want, the day is ours. That's the way I always want it to be.
"I don't want to go home anytime soon." She assures me.
"Why don't we pull over so you can drive." I suggest. "I like driving with you."
She lets out a little nervous laugh. "I like driving with you too, Hemmings." She says as I do I U turn off into an empty parking lot. We don't move right away. "Then again, you could tell me that we're shoveling shit together, and I'd love to. As long as I'm with you, than I don't care what else happens."
I smile at that. "You really don't know how to listen to a warning, do you, Kit Kat?" I ask.
"That's never been my strong suit."
"I'm glad." I say as I feel my face start to burn. "Can I be real honest with you right now?" I ask, nervously. She just nods. "Good," I start and pause, thinking of how to say this. "I know that I'm a pain in the ass. I know that I'm a dick sometimes, I know that I push and push then push some more, but the truth is, I just don't want to lose anyone else." I admit. "As much as I've tried to push you away, you've only taken steps closer. And as much as I may push you away in the future, I just want you to know that I don't want you to go away. I always want you to step closer as I push you farther. When you're around, I start to feel the way I used to again, so thank you for that." I let out. I've wanted to tell her that for awhile.
She smiles. "You know, I'm not the only one bringing someone back." She says as her smile fades into a smirk.
"What do you mean?" I ask, looking over at her.
"I wouldn't have ever let anyone know, but I wasn't happy when we moved here." She tells me. "I had just lost my baby not too long before hand, and I really couldn't mourn it, because the only people who even knew I was pregnant were the asshole that implanted me with the child and myself." She explains. "The closer you get to you, the closer I get to me."
"We really are in this together, aren't we?" I ask.
"As I said," She says as her smile reappears on her face. "It's you and me against the world as long as it's what you want."
"I do." I say. "More than anything." I smile at her. "But, I want to get back on the road, can we switch seats now?"
"Of course we can." She says and lets out a small laugh. We get out of the car and swap seats with each other, quickly. Before too long, she changes the gears and pulls out of the empty parking lot. When we get back to driving, things go back to the way before. Nothing really happening, just us.

-KIT'S POV-

I smile over at Luke as we reach a stop sign. Today has been the longest we have spent together. I am loving every minute of it. I can't believe what he told me, before I took over driving. I can't believe how open he was about everything. He told me that I'm bringing him back. That makes me beyond happy. Knowing that me just being me is enough to make him feel okay sometimes again. I see how much he hurts and knowing that I can numb that instead of him drinking all of the time is a reminder that I really do matter to him.
I pull my phone out of my pocket as I hear it go off. It's just my mom asking me where I'm at. I respond by telling her that I am just out with Luke and I shouldn't be too much longer. She said to take my time and to have fun. I just replied with a smiley face. I look over at Luke who looks mortified. "What's wrong?" I ask with a small laugh.
"You were just texting and driving!" He says, in awe.
"Yeah, so what?" I ask.
"Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?" He asks.
"It's not as dangerous as they play it out to be." I say. "I have been doing it since I got my license." I assure him. "Nothing has happened to me."
"Yeah, but isn't that like the number one cause of accidents?" He asks.
"Hemmings, don't be so gullible." I say with a smile. "If you're going to get into an accident, you're going to get into an accident. No matter what you were doing while you were driving."
"No offence Kit Kat, but I strongly disagree with that." He says.
At first I don't get why he got so scared at me texting while driving, but then I remembered. "I'm so sorry." I say. "Is that what happened when you got in the accident with your mom?"
"No." He says. "That was a trucker asshole falling asleep behind the wheel." He explains. "But after it happened I've done my reaserch. Texting and driving kills, Kit Kat."
"Yeah, but how many of the people texting and driving drunk as well?" I ask. "Or how many times were the person that hit them drunk?"
"I guess.." He mumbles.
"Seriously." I say. "I have been texting and driving for years, I'm fine." I tell him. "When do I get to meet your family, by the way?" I ask.
That question seemed to have bothered him more than my texting and driving, because his face goes completely pail. "I- I don't know." He stutters out. "Eventually, I guess."
"Why is it such a big deal?" I ask. "You met my family."
"What time is it?" He asks with a sigh.
"It's eleven." I reply with.
"Drive to my house. My dad probably took extra shifts, but Karen would be home." He tells me. "You can meet her."
I smile as I turn and start driving to his place. I've been curious about meeting his dad and Karen for awhile. Mostly his dad, to be honest. From what I've heard, Karen is fantastic. But, his dad seems to be very up and down with his moods. I wonder how he would react to Luke bringing a girl to meet him.
Before too long, we pull up to Luke's house. I suddenly start getting nervous. Even though Luke's dad probably isn't there, and I requested to meet them. But, I always get unnecessarily nervous before meeting new people. I always want to leave everyone with a good impression of me, and often worry about failing to do so. But, I follow him out of his car as I hand his keys to him, and into his house, where there is just a woman who I assume to be Karen sitting on the couch, reading a book. As she hears the door close, she puts her book down and walks up to Luke and I with a warm smile. "Who's this?" She asks's Luke.
"This is Kit. I've told you about her, right?" He asks.
"Many a time." She says and extends a hand towards me. I shake it. "I'm Karen." She says.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Kit." I say. "Luke has told me great things about you."
"I can guarantee you that he's told be more great things about you. I see why, you're beautiful."
"Isn't she?" Luke asks, with a smile.
"Thank you so much." I say with a smile as I feel my face going red.
"Where's dad?" Luke asks. "Still at work?"
"Yeah, he decided to take the night shift as well. I don't know how he does it. The man never rests."
"He's a workaholic." Luke says and rolls his eyes.
"Don't feel bad." I say, . "It must be a dad thing, because mine basically lives at work as well."
"I always though dad things were bad jokes and socks and sandals." Luke says and laughs.
"Well, Luke to be fair your dad does both of those too." Karen laughs.
"Especially the socks and sandals." Luke says.
I laugh. "You know," I join in with. "My dad likes to do this thing at barbiques and things like that where he spends the whole day wearing knee socks, Velcro sandals and one of those horrible Hawaiian shirts."
Karen laughs. "I'll be in the living room if you need anything, yeah?"
"Alright." Luke says as he leads me upstairs to his room, he closes the door behind me. He goes over and sits on his bed. "Come sit!" He says as I awkwardly walk over to go sit beside him. "What do you want to do?" He asks.
"What do you usually do when you're alone in your room with a girl?" I ask, jokingly.
He just looks down with a smirk. "Anyways.." He says. "Do you play any video games or anything? I have lots of those. There are movies, I think I have a couple books if you like reading.."
I laugh. "I just made you uncomfortable." He blushes. "I so did, now you're blushing, how cute!" I say, which just makes him blush even more, I pinch his cheek, jokingly. He tries not to, but he smiles at me.
"Stop that!" He says, as he giggles. "What do you usually do when you're alone in a room with a boy?" He asks, trying to embarrass me like I did him.
I just scoff. "It's been so long I wouldn't know what to do anymore."
He looks over at me, knitting his eyebrows together. "I'm sure it hasn't been too long, you're- I'm sure you can pick guys up."
"I can, but I don't." I say and laugh. "My last time was with my ex."
"How are you so open about that shit?" He asks me, a little surprised with how blunt I'm being. "Isn't it awkward or un-ladylike or something?" He asks.
"Un-ladylike yeah, awkward no." I say. "People have sex, I don't see why it's a big deal to talk about." I shrug.
He nods. "Seriously, do you play video games?" He asks, desperate to change the subject. "Even if you don't, I can teach you if you'd like."
"I've tried video games, but I can never get the hang of them. What kind of movies do you like?" I ask, giving into changing the conversation, even though watching him get embarrassed was probably the best thing I've seen ever since I've met him.
"Um, there's comedy, there's horror.. Whatever you want."
"I like any kinds of movies." I say. "You pick one out."
"Okay." He says before getting up off his bed, he opens a drawer and pulls a movie out. "Is this one good?" He asks.
"Yeah," I say, not even looking at what he chose out.
"Good." He says before putting the movie in and getting his TV all set up. He comes back and he lays down beside where I'm sitting. "Make yourself comfortable, Kit Kat." He says with a smile, as I move over and lay down beside him, I rest my head on his shoulder as he pulls me closer into him, leaving my head to rest on his chest. I can hear the sound of his heart beating, I love that. I can't seem to focus on anything else but the sound of his heart beating. He would let a little laugh out at the movie every now and then, then I'd mimic him, so he'd think that I'm paying attention, but his heartbeat is so captivating that even if I had it in me to listen to anything else but, I would choose not to.
Being in his arms feels warm. He has his arms wrapped around me, he keeps on rubbing my arm, which I love. The sound of his breathing is quite calming. I could stay like this forever. I really could.

-LUKE'S POV-

As the movie ends, I smile down at Kit. I place a small kiss on her forehead as she looks up at me with her bright eyes. I brush the hair off of her face as we just lay there in silence. Not an awkward silence, a necessary one. Even though not one word is being said, it feels as though thousands of them are. "Shit!" Kit suddenly says as she jumps up. "What time is it?"
"One thirty five, why?" I ask.
"I have to go!" She says. "My mom asked me to be home by one thirty."
"Oh, okay." I say, disappointed, I want her to stay, but I know she can't. "I'll drive you, okay?"
"Thank you." She says before she follows me downstairs, where we say our goodbyes to Karen, I tell her that I'll be right back, and she says how nice it was to have finally gotten to meet Kit. Kit agrees before we make our way out to my car. "We'll have to do this again sometime." She says we we both put our seat-belts on.
"I agree." I say before pulling out of my drive way. "And not just because we were both lonely on Christmas."
"Next week my dad has a business trip that my mom decided to tag along on, I was thinking of throwing a party, what do you think?" She asks.
"Hmm.." I say and think about it. "Will Sophia and Olivia be there? I'll only go if they are." I joke.
"Lucky for you, they will be!" She says and laughs. "I just called them this morning to make sure that they were. They said they liked you so much that they couldn't not show up."
"Now I know that you're playing with my emotions." I say and stick my lip out. "Because this morning, I know for a fact that they were writing their thank you letters to Santa while building ginger bread houses with their mom and dad."
She starts laughing at that. "How do you know for sure?" She asks.
"Because they're real catches. You're right I got their numbers!" I say.
"Numbers?" She asks. I just nod. "Well, now I know you're bullshitting me. They share a phone."
"Well, I got their number then." I say and laugh as we pill up to Kit's house. "Here we are." I say with a small smile, even though I didn't want her to leave.
"Yeah." She says. "Thank you for today. It was amazing." She says before leaning in and giving me a kiss, this one wasn't as intense as the one from earlier today, but it was still good. She pulls away with a smile. "I'll see you later."
"Threat or promise?" I ask with a smile.
"Promise." She says smugly before getting out of my car. I watch her walk up to her house, not pulling away until I know she's in there safely. Before she enters the door, she looks back at me and gives me a wave, while biting her lip. I wave back to her as she walks in. After that, I stay parked outside for a few minutes with a smile on my face.
Soon I decide that just waiting outside her house like that was creepy, so I pull out of her driveway and make my way back to my house. The drive feels longer than usual. Probably because I actually want to get home for a change. Now that Karen has met Kit, I need to know what she thinks about her. I can't imagine she'll have anything bad to say about her, but to be honest, I just want to talk about Kit some more.
I pull into my drive way quickly before locking my car. I walk into my house as I hang my car keys up with everyone else's. I go into the living room where Karen is sitting and I so sit a spot away from her on the couch. She turns the TV off as she looks over at me with a smile. "So," I say. "What do you think of her? She's pretty amazing, right?"
"Yes, Luke." She says. "You've got yourself a keeper."
"We're not together." I say.
"You could have had me fooled." She says. "I see the way you two look at each other. Too bad your dad wasn't here to meet her."
"Actually, I think that him not being here was for the best." I say. "I didn't want to accidentally piss him off in front of her. It isn't hard to do, and I don't want her to be afraid to come around here."
"I don't think he'd lose his chill in front of her like that." She says. "Plus, he's going to have to meet her eventually."
"I guess." I say and shrug.
"You know what else needs to happen soon?" She asks.
"I'm scared." I say dully.
"He needs to know that you went to the cemetery. He talks about how he wants to take you there daily. It's getting harder to lie to him about it, kiddo."
"I can't go there with him." I say quickly. "I couldn't even go with Kit. I yelled at her. If I was able to yell at her, I don't want to know what I would do to my dad."
"Then why don't you tell him you've been there?" She asks.
"I don't want him to think I've gone soft." I say with a smile.
"Well, I think that you should try going with him. I can go too if you'd like." She offers. "I know you don't want to, but your dad worries about you." I just sigh. "Think about it, okay?" She asks.
"Sure." I say. "But, I'm going to bed. Good night."
"Good night, sweetie." She says.
I walk upstairs to my room, closing the door behind me. I take everything but my shirt and my underwear off before taking my seat by my window. I get a cigarette out of a pack before opening my window. I light it quickly and take a big puff in. I haven't smoked all day because I've been with Kit for most of it, but I really didn't mind. I didn't even think of smoking. She had me too distracted. I take puffs off my smoke as I look down at my legs. I get mad at myself as I see all the little scars. I hold the smoke between my fingers, but for the first time in forever, I don't see the point in hurting myself with it. I just pinch the end and throw it out the window before going and laying down on my bed, covered by my blanket.