arcade boy ↠ luke hemmings

1 || shrug

Luke sat on top of the glass cupboard, little toys and sweets filling up the compartments inside. It was winter time in Australia, which meant that everyone was out of school for holiday, which also meant that everyone was going to start coming to the local arcade.

He sighed, fixing his metal nameplate. His name that was written in bold black letters was starting to fade after so long of working at the arcade.

He started when he was fifteen, only calculating people's tickets and helping them pick out what prizes they should get. But now, he's responsible for that and fixing the game machines that were broken, filling them up, cleaning, and locking up the arcade.

If you asked him, two years of this was utter hell.

He was tired of the little children running around and he was tired of picking up the scraps of tickets that everyone left behind.

But the bright side was that he could look at the hot girls that came to the arcade. During summer time, you could bet that Luke had a field day.

Now, all Luke had to do was just wait for Ashton to open up the arcade, then Luke can start working.

"Have you ever thought about what you're gonna do after high school?" Ashton came out of the storage room with a box in his hands, beginning to put the prizes away.

Luke shrugged.

"Well, I'm gonna get a scholarship to a nice university. And I'm gonna put this place in my rearview mirror and I'm never coming back." Ashton nodded, smiling at his little plan. "Yeah. That's what I'll do." All Luke did was nod.

Someone walked into the arcade, even though the sign on the door clearly said closed.

"Hey, no, you gotta get out. The sign says we're closed." Ashton stood up from behind the counter and pointed back at the door.

"The sign also says that you guys open at eleven. It's currently 11:01." The raven haired girl looked at her phone and showed the two what time it was.

Ashton huffed in annoyance, getting down on his knees and putting prizes back again. The corner of Luke's mouth lifted up into a half smile, but it disappeared as fast as it appeared.

The girl walked up to the coin exchanger, planning to get twenty coins out of a crumpled five dollar note. The machine spat the note back out, and it was a vicious cycle of her shoving the money into the black machine and the machine shoving it back out.

Luke shook his head and walked up to her, showing her to another side of the machine. He took the money out of her hands and smoothed it out, seeing the annoyed look on her face. Her expression made him feel some sort of way, like it was fun to prove her wrong.

"Thanks." She grumbled, putting the note in and getting her coins to play arcade games.

Luke nodded. He walked back to the counter and sat on it. Ashton's elbow dug into Luke's side, a small smile playing on his lips. Luke raised an eyebrow.

"You like her." Ashton giggled. "Admit it! You like her!" Luke shook his head. "Sure you don't." Ashton went behind the counter and took a sip of water. "So, what is it about her?"

Luke shrugged.