Paralyzed ▹ Luke Hemmings

16

Luke was terrified to go to Government class that Monday morning.

The word was already out: although it's only been a few days, everybody in the school knew what happened. Samantha Simmons dumped Ashton Irwin.

Luke heard them all talking about it in the halls earlier that morning, as if the world's biggest celebrity power-couple had just gotten a divorce. They ate the drama up and acted like this was the only thing going on in their small, suburban town. And, quite frankly, it probably was.

A lot of people already knew that Luke and Sam were an item, a lot more people than Luke had anticipated. Nobody knew about their secret affairs (that was kept strictly between them), but the rest of his classmates knew he was the guy Sam kept blowing Ashton off for.

When Luke walked around campus he was constantly feeling pairs of eyes piercing the back of his neck, and whispers being exchanged in his name. He hated the attention, but at the same time he loved it. 

He loved it because, for the first time in his entire life, Luke finally beat Ashton at something. Since elementary school Ashton was always better than him. The teachers always liked Ashton better, the girls always liked Ashton better, Ashton was better at sports, making friends...everything. And now, finally, Luke was having his moment. The taste of Ashton's ex-girlfriend's tongue was the taste of sweet, sweet victory to Luke.

Of course, there came some fear with this, too. Even though Luke technically just stole Ashton's girlfriend of three years, Ashton's still much bigger than him. Ashton's taller, faster, stronger, and could easily beat Luke to a pulp in the blink of an eye. That's why Luke was so scared to go to his third period today. If Ashton's there, Luke will surely be taking his last breath as soon as he walked through the door.

But, to Luke's surprise, when he walked into his government classroom after break, Ashton wasn't there. Nervously clutching the straps of his backpack, Luke looked around at all the desks, but Ashton was nowhere to be found. Sam was there, sitting prettily at her desk with a nail-file in hand, but the seat beside her was empty.

Confused, Luke hurried over to Sam and slid into a desk nearby, throwing his backpack to the floor. "Where's Ashton?" he whispered.

Sam looked up, her face instantly brightening at the sight of him. "I dunno." she sang carelessly, a goofy grin on her face.

"Is he at school today?" Luke pressed on.

Sam furrowed her eyebrows. "I don't know... Why?"

"Because I'm afraid he's gonna like, jump out from somewhere and kill me." Luke admitted, earning a laugh from Sam.

"Wow, Puke. It's Monday morning and this is how you greet me?" she giggled. "I don't know where Ashton is. If he is here he won't even touch you. Like I said the other night, he handled it pretty well."

Luke looked at her dully. "I still don't believe you."

"Well believe me!" she squealed, swatting at his arm. "He was pretty sad, but he wasn't angry or anything. He didn't seem like he was gonna hunt you down and kill you. I didn't even tell him about...us."

Luke let out a sigh. He was kind of pissed that Sam lied to Ashton and told him she never cheated on him. But at the same time, if she had, then Luke would already be dead by now. He just didn't know how to make a move anymore, if they have to constantly keep this a secret.

The bell rang and class officially started. Luke sat back and ran his hands through his hair, only to see another girl standing beside him with her hands on her hips. "Oh," he stuttered once he realized he had been occupying her desk. "Sorry."