Gone Cold. -Luke Hemmings Love Story. AU-

Chapter 22

-LUKE'S POV-

I let out a big groan as someone comes into my room and shakes me on the shoulder. "Luke, it's time to get up! You have to be at the airport in a half an hour!" Karen says. "I need you down stairs as soon as possible, you don't want to miss your New York trip." She says before walking out. I look over at the time to see that it is only four thirty in the morning. I have to be at the airport by five and we're leaving at around six. I sigh as I roll out of bed. Even though I am not a fan of waking up around the time that I usually go to bed, she is right. I don't want to miss this trip. Kit and I are so excited to spend this time together. Even though, sadly we won't be able to spend much time together until we get there. They say to minimize confusion, everyone is to sit next to their room-mate on the way there and back, then go straight to our assigned rooms for the night so we can catch up on whatever sleep we'd miss. I'm not one hundred percent sure how long the flight is, Kit does. She was telling me, she said something about it's close to a day long.
They said to dress as comfy as possible since we're going to be on the plane for so long, so I just put on a pair of sweat pants and a jumper, with a hat over my bed head that I don't have time to fix. When I'm sure I'm ready, I grab my suitcase and bring it downstairs, trying to be as silent as possible, but I end up banging my suitcase off the stairs, but thankfully I don't think that I woke my dad. When I get downstairs, I don't set my suitcase down, because I know that I'll probably forget about it, so I wheel it into the kitchen where I knew Karen would be. "Are you hungry, Kiddo?" She asks, in an almost whisper.
I just shake my head no. I don't trust my vocal cords to work this soon after I woke up.
"Coffee?" She asks.
"Please." I say barely audible before she comes over and hangs me a mug. I pour more sugar in than usual and some cream before downing the whole thing, even though it burnt my throat on it's way down. I put my head down on the table for a few seconds after I'm done my coffee, hoping that it will hit me and I will be awake soon.
"This is from your dad and I." She says, handing me an envelope.
"Thank you." I say before opening it. My jaw drops when I count what they put in there. "Three hundred dollars, that's way too much!" I say, trying to hand it back to her.
"We want you to have it." She says with a smile. "We have it already in American money so you won't have to work out the differences."
"Thank you so much!" I say before going over and giving her a small hug.
"No problem, hun." She says before hugging me back. "Are you almost ready to get going? I don't want you to be late."
"Yeah, we better." I say and give her a half smile. "Michael and Kit have been texting me asking where I am. Michael said he's going to kick my ass if I make him have to sit and room alone. Kit said she's going to kick my ass if she doesn't get this time in the real world with me."
"That's a big step for you and Kit." She says as we make our way out the door and to her car. "I couldn't think of a better way for you two to take that step either."
"It's a high school trip, we're not moving out of the country." I say.
"Yeah, but you're still away from all the shelter that you usually have." She explains as she pulls out of the drive way.
"I mean, I guess." I say and think about it. "But, teachers will be so far up our asses that we'll probably end up being more sheltered. The teachers still don't trust me, and now they don't trust Kit because she's my girlfriend." I tell her.
"You know what, you tell them this, the exact quote." She says with a smile before clearing her throat. "Say, listen, you go fuck yourself. Tell them that they don't know you and that if they did, they'd be sorry they ever doubted you." She says. "I mean that, Luke. You're a great kid."
"No, not really." I say and laugh. "I'm easily irritated, short tempered, I hold onto grudges, refuse to let the past stay in the past. I smoke, I drink.." I say and keep on listing things that people hate about me off.
"Yeah, but you're also kind, caring, sweet, loyal, low key sensitive, you stand up for what you believe for and you have a really strong head on your shoulders."
"Only people I trust know that about me." I explain with a half smile. "And I'm not sensitive." I say, defencivly. "I'm stone cold."
"Are we talking about the same kid that was crying on my shoulder because you were scared that you were falling in love?" She asks, jokingly.
"Not really." I say. "To be fair, I was high out of my mind when that happened."
"What do you mean?" She asks a little more serious.
"I took a sleeping pill and I was up for hours after I took them, if you don't sleep them off they fuck with you."
"What are you doing with sleeping pills?" She asks. "Aren't you a little young for those?"
"I thought so." I admit. "When I was in therapy my therapist gave them to me. I didn't think I needed them, so I only took them on the bad nights."
"Why aren't you in therapy anymore?" She asks.
"Therapist only wanted to drug me up." I explains. "I was going on anti depressants, nerve pills and sleeping pills. I said fuck no and stopped going."
"That was smart of you." She says. "Those pills turn your brains to mush."
"That's what I heard about them." I say as we pull up to the airport.
"Well, here we are." Karen says. "Want me to come in with you, or are you good?" She offers.
"I'm good, thanks anyways." I say before opening the car door, letting my suitcase fall and hit the ground I get out of the car after it.
"I'll see you in a week, okay?" She says.
"See you then."
"We're going to miss you." She says. "If you miss us too, just call us. I don't care how far it brings your cell bill up to, okay?"
"Will do." I say with a smile before closing the door behind me. I give her a wave before walking into the airport, the first thing I see is the teachers standing there. Their faces drop when they see me.
"You actually showed." One of them say, disappointed. before going all the way down their check-list and checking my name off. They read the number of my ticket before handing it to me.
"Thank you." I say with a sigh before making my way back with my group that I went with. This trip was put into three groups. One went on the flight before us, and one is going on the flight after us. They're all only a few hours apart, but they couldn't fit our whole group onto one plain. Even though they could have easily squeezed us all into two of them, but I'm trying not to question the method behind their madness.
When Kit sees me her face lights right up. She runs up to me and jumps up into my arms. I lift her up before planting a small kiss on her lips, then letting her down, she's still cuddled into me, but I love that. I just keep my arms wrapped around her. "Why don't you greet me like that?" Michael asks, pretending to be hurt.
"Come here, babe!" I joke and hold an arm out. "There's always room for more!" I say and laugh.
"Group hug!" He yells before wrapping his arms around Kit and I. Calum and Ashton aren't here. They got put on the next flight out. Not that we'd really get a chance to hang out with them anyways.
"What time did you guys go to bed last night?" Kit asks, just staying cuddled between Michael and I. "I was stupid and went to bed at midnight. I'm exhausted." She says with a small laugh.
"I was smarter than you and went to bed at ten." Michael says. "I'm still tired, but I'm not falling into Luke." He laughs. "Well, I guess I sort of am now.." He says, noticing that he is still hugging onto us. He lets go and smiles.
I just laugh. "I went to bed at two." I tell them. "I couldn't sleep last night. I'm running off of two and a half hour sleep and really strong coffee."
"You're going to pass out as soon as we get on the plane. I'm calling it right now." Michael says and laughs.
"Uh, I think no." I say. "You're talking to the king on insomnia, Mikey."
"I don't know about him, but if I don't pass out on the plane then I'm ripped off." Kit says as Harper walks over to us with a friendly wave. She never talks to us, but she'll stand in the group, saying the odd word or two to Kit.
"Did you guys pack gum?" Michael asks, trying to make conversation. Harper means well, but she has a very awkward vibe to her.
"Yeah, I did." Kit says.
"Yes." Harper says quickly and quietly.
"Pack gum?" I ask. "What the hell would I pack gum for?" I ask, confused. "Is there a reason for packing it, or are you guys in an after school gum club that I don't know about?"
"You need gum on a plane, Luke." Kit says.
"Why?" I ask.
"When the plain goes up, the pressure makes your ears pop really badly. Chewing gum helps with that." Michael explains.
"How did he not know that?" Harper asks Kit. Kit just shrugs.
"Shit," I say with a half smile. "How bad is it?" I ask.
"How does crying from pain sound?" Michael asks and pulls out a pack of gum and hands me two pieces. "I got you." He says.
"Thank you so much." I say before I put the gum in my mouth and start chewing it, knowing that it was moments away from them starting to call us two by two. "I'll pay you back on the way home."
"It's gum, Luke." He says and laughs. "It's about five cents a piece. We're good."
"So, what are you guys most excited for?" I ask, changing the subject.
"I can't wait to shop." Kit says.
"I'll be doing that with you!" Harper says.
"Well have more girl time than just shopping." Kit says. "It will be so fun."
"Hopefully not too much girl time, Kit needs to have some time for her amazing boyfriend." I say before rubbing her Kit's shoulder.
Harper's face drops a little at that. "She's aloud to hang out with more than just you.." She says.
"It was only a joke." I say. "I have Michael to bother the whole trip if I have to."
"I was just saying.." She says.
I pause for a second, at first I couldn't decide if she was serious or now. But, by the look on her face, I could quickly tell that she was dead serious. "So was I." I say and look over at Michael who look just as thrown off by Harper as I am.
"Well," Michael says after shaking his head a little. "I'm excited for late night drunk fifa sessions with Mr. Hemmings over here."
"You can't get drunk in the states." Harper says.
"I know." Michael says. "It's illegal or whatever. It was a joke, calm down." He says and rolls his eyes. When Harper looks in the opposite direction, Michael looks at me with a devious smile and points to his suitcase. "We're getting wasted." He mouths over to me. I just laugh and nod.
"Okay," One of the teachers says as we all turn to face her. "I'm going to call your numbers and two by two you're going to line up as we board the plane. We want to get on early so we have time to spare and nobody gets left behind last second." She explains as she starts calling us over by groups. Kit is four rows ahead of Michael and I so we really won't get to see each other for the next little while.
Soon enough everyone is boarded on the plane. I got a window seat and Michael got the middle seat. Luck enough for us, nobody has the end seat so we don't have to put up with unwanted conversation. "Who shoved the stick up Harper's ass?" Michael asks after we put our belts on.
I shrug. "I thought she maybe she went to the beach this morning and still had sand down her crotch to be honest." I say.
"Really?" Michael asks. "Because I was just about to guess that she walked downstairs to a big shit in her corn flakes this morning."
"Well, my best guess was that she woke up by falling out of bed then realized that it was that time of the month." I say, going along.
"I think you may be onto something." Michael says. "I think she woke up to the her dogs ashes being delivered, so she set it down next to her grandma's ashes long enough to dig a hole to sprinkle the ashes in. When she was done mixing her dog in with the dirt, she realized that was grandma then she burnt herself cooking breakfast."
I let out a snort as he says that, drawing attention to us. "Okay, I surrender. You win. That's defiantly what happened. Her dog died, she occidentally got rid of grandma and burnt herself."
"I knew it!" He says as the plane starts vibrating.
"Holy shit! What is that? Is it blowing up?" I ask in a panic.
"Attention passengers, we are ready to take flight now, sit back and enjoy non-stop to New York. Make yourselves comfortable, this is a twenty hour flight."
"Twenty hours?" I ask. "Fuck sakes."
"I know." Michael says. "It's going to be brutal."
"Good thing I packed these." I say and pull the bottle of sleeping pills out of my carry on.
"Really?" Michael asks, unimpressed. "Your master plan is to drug yourself up with drowsy pills and leave me here alone with nobody to talk to for twenty hours while you get the sleep of your life?"
"No." I say and pop open the cap. "My master plan is to drug both of us so we can both get the sleep of our lives and we'll be pleanty energized for late night fifa matches."
"Sounds good to me." He says before holding his hand out. I give him two pills and I take two pills. "That will do the trick." I say. "Oh and they taste bad, just a fair warning." I say before we both down them, he scrunches his face at the taste. "I've sort of gotten used to it." I tell him. "Now, just relax and you'll be passed out within fifteen minutes." I tell him as he rests his head on his shoulder as I rest mine against the window.


"Passengers, we will be landing in New York in ten minutes." I hear the pilots assistant say in her overly calm voice. I can't help but think of how they are made to act in 'code red' situations. I open my eyes to see that my head is rested on Michael's shoulder. I'd move, but his head is on top of mine, much like how Kit and I sit when we're cuddling. I don't want to scare him. But, a second later, he bounces up, so do I.
"Holy shit." He says rubbing his eyes. "We're here. We're actually here." He says as the plane starts going down, I start freaking out again. "We're landing, jackass. Not every time the plane does something means we're going to die."
"Right." I say and shake my head. This part I didn't like so much. Going up, and landing. While we're in the air it's fine. Before too long, we are at the airport in New York, but not for long, just long enough to get our luggage. Every group had a taxi waiting for them to go to the hotel, where we figure out the room situations.
"Those pills were a life saver, man!" Michael says as we get into our taxi. "I actually lost about nineteen hours." He says. "That is magical. It is so worth the bitter taste in my mouth."
"Isn't it?" I ask. "And I got us covered for the flight home." I tell him.
"Sweet!" He says. "The only downside is that now I'm wide awake and we're not aloud to leave our hotel rooms until morning." He sighs. "I'm wide awake and we're basically being forced to go to sleep."
"We're not aloud to leave our hotel." I correct him. "We are aloud to walk around the hotel as long as we don't cause trouble."
"Thank god." He says as we pull up to our hotel.
"Thank you." I say to the taxi driver before Michael and I get our luggage and get out of the car. They were already paid for us so we wouldn't have to waste our shopping money on the cabs. The trip was overpriced so we would have free food and transportation.
As soon as Michael and I walk into the hotel, our principal meets us at the door and says "Floor six room three forty two, go now." She says dully as Michael and I roll our eyes and start making our way through the lobby.
Michael stops at the elevator and presses the button. I just shake my head. "Not happening." I say with a small laugh.
"What do you mean?" He asks.
"I'm not going in the elevator. What if it broke down?" I ask.
"You're so paranoid." He says and rolls his eyes. "Whatever." He says with a sigh. "If you're going to be the person that walks six floors at least let me take your bag so you don't die on your way up."
"Thank you." I say before giving him my bag and getting a head start on the stairs. After not walking for twenty hours, my legs felt like jello and that they would collapse any second, and I'm still only on the third floor. I pause for a minute, so I can try to get my legs to stop shaking, but it's no use. I just keep on walking. Soon enough I'm on the forth floor, then the fifth, where I manage to fall up the stairs, then to the sixth floor, where I start walking down to find room three forty two. Which doesn't take long to find, The floor only goes up to room two fifty. When I walk in, Michael is sitting down on a bed with a smug smile. "Holy shit." I say and collapse down on the bed that he's not on. "Jesus Christ, this is comfortable!" I say and bounce around on the bed, taking my mind off the fact that I just worked out then more than all year.
"How were the stairs?" He asks.
"Well, I didn't feel like they were going to break and kill me, so I'd say that my mission was successful!"
"Congratulations." Michael says before getting up off his bed and throwing his suitcase onto the bed, he opens it. "I'd unpack, but that means that I'd have to pack again, and I'm really not down for that." He says. "But, I do have this." He says as he digs down to the bottom and pulls out a bottle of vodka. "How does that sound?"
"Are you fucking serious right now?" I ask. "You just smuggled liquor into another country!" I say. "That's fucking awesome!" I say before going over and giving him a high five.
"So, you'll drink smuggled alcohol but you won't go into an elevator?" Michael asks. "I'm so confused at your logic."
I just shrug. "When can we start?"
"I'd say right about now." He says before opening the bottle and drinking out of it. He hands it over to me. "Did you end up packing your xbox?" He asks me.
"Of course I did." I say and pull it out of my suitcase. "I didn't trust that the hotel would have one. And I was right not to. Did you bring yours?"
"No." He says. "It was that or the vodka. I flipped a coin." He tells me. "I figured you'd bring yours though."
I take a sip out of the vodka bottle before going over and hooking my xbox up with the TV in the room. Which didn't work right away, so I ended up yelling at the TV for about twenty minutes. "And, I got it!" I say as I change the channel on the TV so we can play xbox.
Michael and I pass the bottle of vodka back and forth to each other for awhile, taking sips out of it while we play our first game of fifa in forever. "No no no no! fuck!" Michael yells as I manage to get a goal past him.
"I told you that you suck ass at this game!" I tell him smugly before taking another sip out of the bottle. "There is a minute and a half left and I'm three points ahead. Admit it, I'm better than you!"
"No, I'm just drunk is all!" He says and takes another sip before laughing.
"So am I!" I say before downing a little more of it. "Admit it, I'm good!"
"For a sex obsessed smoking alcoholic, you're alright at fifa." He says more in a mumble before taking another sip out of the bottle. It was a big bottle and now it's a little over half gone. We decide to put it away so we have more for another night.
I burst out laughing, having troubles stopping. "You still think that's what I am?" I ask, not quite able to stop laughing.
"It's okay though!" He says in a sincere voice. "I like you again, so I don't care what you are!" He says, placing a hand on my shoulder.
"I smoke, I'll give you that one. I only drink a lot when I'm depressed and I have never slept with a girl while either one of us were drunk." I tell him.
"When you just fuck all the time when you were sober?" He asks.
I burst out laughing again. "Including Kit, I've slept with three people." I tell him. "Still think I'm sex obsessed?"
"What? No way!" He exclaims.
"I'm serious. There is Kit, there was Anna Foster and Julie Dawson." I tell him. "Julie more than once, but still."
"You're really not what I thought you were!" Michael says, confused.
"I've only been trying to tell you for the past few months now!" I say.
"I'll believe you now." He says as a devious smile appears on his face. "Do you want to jump in the hotel pool fully clothed?" He asks me.
I think about it for a second. "Yes!" I say. "That's exactly what I wanted to do!" I say before we run out of our hotel room.