caught☽ luke | ✓

Eight | Grounded

Audrey ended up dropping Luke off at his house after their conversation. Luke didn't mean to, but he was pretty sure that he'd hurt Audrey's feelings when he said that she'd be the one to hurt him. Or maybe she just felt awkward. Either way, Luke felt guilty.

He walked quietly into his house, making sure not to disturb his mother. He didn't want her to find out about his new piercing, and he knew that he was going to be in trouble for not coming home last night.

He was almost ready to sneak into his room when he heard someone clearing their throat behind him.

"Luke, where have you been?" his mom asked him with worry in her voice.

"I was with a friend," Luke told her, not turning around.

"Don't you lie to me, Luke Hemmings," she said, more sternly.

"I'm not, mom. I was with a friend."

"With a friend at a party?" she questioned, knowingly.

"Yeah," Luke sighed. He knew that he was going to be grounded for sure. It didn't matter that he was almost eighteen, he was still his mom's little boy in her eyes.

"What's that smell? You've been drinking, haven't you? Luke, turn around," she ordered.

He groaned, unwillingly. "Mom I-"

"Turn around now," she said, knowing that Luke was hiding something from her.

Luke did as she said, slowly turning around to make eye contact with his mother.

She gasped upon seeing Luke's lip piercing, and Luke was sure that she was about to faint.

"Luke, why would you do that? Who did this to you?" she asked him.

Luke shrugged. "Just a friend and I don't know, I just wanted it."

"Oh my god, Luke," she shook her head, clearly disappointed in her son who previously had never done anything bad in his life. "That's it, you're grounded."

"Grounded from what?" Luke asked considering he'd never been grounded before.

"I don't know, um," she said, pausing to think about it. "You can't leave the house. Yup, that's it. You go to school and you come right back home. No exceptions."

"Fine," Luke said, then finally entered his room and slammed the door shut behind him.

He was tired of being the dorky, awkward kid that never did anything. He didn't want to be Luke Hemmings, the dorky mama's boy who never got into any trouble. He wanted to be Luke Hemmings- cool, mysterious and handsome Luke Hemmings.

Luke spent the rest of his weekend going through his clothes and throwing away anything that resembled the old him. He only kept his flannels, his skinny jeans, and the band shirts he never wore because he didn't want people to judge him for his taste in music.

But new Luke didn't care. New Luke was going to be confident, not awkward and dorky. He wasn't going to stutter or blush whenever a girl was around. He was going to make girls stutter and blush over him.

And maybe, just maybe, Audrey would start seeing Luke in a different way. Maybe she'd even fall in love with the new him.

"Luke, I have to go to the school for a couple hours to help some of my students out. There's a big test tomorrow. There's leftover pizza in the fridge," his mom told him, and when he didn't reply, she decided to just leave.

Luke ran his tongue over his bottom lip and waited until he was sure that his mom was gone before he opened his window and climbed out, taking his guitar and a blanket with him.