Skinny Love (Luke Hemmings)

Chapter 13

Bzzt bzzt bzzt

I reach for my alarm clock, but it isn't there.

It's my cell phone. I look to see who is it and three letters appear on the sceen. Oh no. I can't answer it. What if my mum can track my cell phone? I don't want to take the risk so I need to get rid of it. I can just get another phone at some point. It stops.

Luke has already gotten out of bed and is packing his bags again. "Goodmorning." he says.

"Goodmorning. Luke, I forgot about my parents tracking my cell phone." I say.

"Is that who rang you?" he asked. I nodded, looking at my text messages. A few from my mum begging me to come home and saying we could work this out and one was from Olivia. 'Where have you gone? Hahaha. You haven't been to school in three days.' it reads.

"We could smash it...or give it to a hobo to confuse her." he laughs at his own joke. I loved this boy. I realize that it's the first time that I have thought about that. I had always said it was too soon to love him, but I just ran away from my mum with him and we're starting a life together. I guess I do love him.

"I love you." I say. He turns his head. "Why? Because I make bad jokes?" he asks.

"No. I just...I just do." I wasn't exactly sure why. "I love you too." he says, finishing up his packing. I smile at him and get out of the uncomfortable motel room bed and decide to tell Olivia what I had done. 'Ran away from home. It's complicated, but I'm with Luke.'

I get a reply quickly. 'Are you serious? Omg, that's crazy. Where did you guys go? Can I tell people?' Of course Olivia wanted to tell people. Sadly, I couldn't let her. If too many people found out, it could spread to our parents and they'd find out. I hadn't thought that much about Luke's parents. Both of his parents were married and they loved him. There was really no reason for him to do this except for him to be with me. He had the perfect life and perfect family, yet he left it for me and I hadn't once thanked him for it.

'No, you can't tell anyone. We're in London and we are just spliting rent with a guy and living with him for a while. Don't tell anyone, except maybe Ashton and Michael. I'm begging you, Liv.' I texted back. She didn't reply so I got up and got dressed and started packing. Luke went down to a gas station for coffee and breakfast and brought it back.

We checked out, threw our bags in the car, and ate on the way to the apartment.  We get there and are greeted by Richard and he helps us bring out stuff in to one of the bedrooms. "It will be nice having a woman in the house. It'll be different." he says.

"Uh huh. I think that means that you want me to cook." I say and he laughs. "That would be nice. I can't cook anything except Ramen and Mac and Cheese." he says.

"Sure. I cooked with Mum back when I lived at...her house." I guess it wasn't my house anymore.

"Oh, I was going to ask about that." Shit. "You're really young. Did you guys run away or something?"

I sigh. I know Richard wouldn't do anything. "Yeah. We did. How old are you Richard?" I ask.

"Nineteen. I'm guessing you guys are a few years younger." he says, wiping a few dishes and puting them in the cabinet. I sit on the counter with a glass of water in my hand. I look down at my water. "I'm only sixteen, but Luke is a year older."

"Oh ok! Yeah, about what I thought. I started renting this place a couple months ago but the rent was getting a bit overwhelming and I was getting lonely. I had that extra room for my ex boyfriend's friend who didn't have anywhere to go, but when we broke up, it just got awkward so he left. It's not like he was paying anything anyways so I didn't really care. He would always be gone all the time so we never spoke much." he explains. I nod listening to what he is saying. Richard was really one of the cutest things. He was so kind and I don't see how anyone could hate him.