arcade boy ↠ luke hemmings

3 || mute

The next day, Bay came back to the arcade at the same exact time as yesterday: 11:01. Luke rolled his eyes at her early presence, but he couldn't help but notice that she was wearing a new band t-shirt. And it happened to be one of his favorite bands of all time.

"Luke, do you mind turning on all the lights and music?" Ashton asked him, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. The blond boy nodded and immediately went to the laptop and put in Always by Blink-182.

He plugged in a cable to an outlet, and lights started to illuminate the dim arcade, and he saw as Bay turned around and watched them all turn on. Her long raven hair cascaded down her back, camouflaging with her black shirt.

"Nice choice, I see you upgraded to a good music taste." She walked up to the counter and picked up and sticky gel hand that was left on the counter. "Watch this, Luke." She whispered, and threw it at Ashton's curly hair. He groaned in annoyance and snatched it out of his tresses.

"Very funny, Bay." Ashton said sarcastically. He set the hand back on the glass counter and started filling up compartments with prizes like he did every morning.

"Hey, look." She nudged Luke, who was still sitting still on the counter. Bay looked up to the ceiling and threw the hand up, using all her force to get it to stick to the tiled ceiling. "Pretty impressive, yeah?"

Luke smiled for the first time in weeks, and it stayed there until Ashton snapped at them for fooling around before people arrive to the arcade.

"Loosen up, God damn." Bay rolled her eyes and took out a five dollar note and exchanged it for coins. She waved Luke over, and he hesitantly followed her to the skee ball machines. "When was the last time you played any of the games here? Yesterday didn't count!"

Luke shrugged.

"Well, today's your lucky day, my friend." She put coins into her machine and into the one beside it. "If I get more points than you then I get a free slice of pizza. If you get more points then... " She trailed off mot knowing what Luke would want. "Then I'll take you out to eat. Deal?"

Luke shrugged and pressed start, throwing balls up the black runway and getting it into the holes.

*•*•*•

They were neck and neck, a tie was taken place before they each had one balls left.

They made their last shot, and Luke ended up with the most points, which didn't surprise him. Bay was actually really bad games, but it's not like he'd ever tell her.

If you asked Bay, she was quite happy she lost. She wanted to get to know Luke more. She knew that there wasn't just what was on the surface. She knew that there was a story behind the blond boy that refused to talk, and she intended to know his story.

"I guess I'm taking you out to eat. When's your day off?" Bay asked, sitting beside him on the counter. People started to come in, and they looked at the two with confused faces. Luke shrugged.

"He's off Sundays and Thursdays." Ashton answered for Luke.

"Okay then, Luke. Looks like you'll be spending your Thursday afternoon with me."

*•*•*•

Thursday came, and ever since the two planned to have lunch that day, they exchanged numbers on Tuesday and had been texting nonstop.

arcade boy: When am I supposed to be at Grilld again?

Bay: at 12
Bay: if you don't show up, i get it. it's okay if you don't tbh

arcade boy: Tbh? What's that?

Bay: ....it means 'to be honest'
Bay: okay i'm here already hurry up

arcade boy: I'm here.

Luke could see the back of her head, and he noticed that her hair that was usually down was now up in a ponytail. He looked at his phone again and read her last few messages.

Did she really think that he wouldn't show up?

He pushed that thought aside and sat down with Bay at a booth, and waved.

"God, I'm starving." She chuckled, looking at the menu and looking for something that would sound good to eat. "What do you think a grilled chicken burger with an avocado in it would taste like?" Bay scrunched up her nose at the mention of avocado.

Luke shrugged, like he always did when faced with a question.

"Yeah, me too." She agreed, even though his shrug told her nothing about his opinion on the food.

She glanced up at Luke to see that he was looking out the window. She followed his gaze to see what he was staring at, but she was met with nothing but the Australian midday traffic and the bright sun that hung high in the sky. There wasn't anything special, but his pale blue eyes told Bay otherwise.

"What're you looking at?" She asked. All Luke did was jerk his chin to the window and continued to look for whatever he was looking for. "I don't see anything." She frowned. She wanted to know what was going on in his head. "Why don't you talk?" Her voice came out quiet and unsure, like she didn't know if it was okay to ask that question.

And like always, Luke shrugged.

"Of course that's the answer." She rolled her eyes and rested her hand on the pal of her hand, a curtain of black hair falling into her eyes.

Luke pushed down the bile rising in his throat and turned to Bay, trying to read her expression. He saw nothing but her brown eyes scanning the menu. He shook his head, ignoring the slight disappoint inside of him.

Why wasn't she pestering him to talk like everyone else did?

Luke sighed quietly, hoping that Bay didn't hear the noise he made, and looked back out the window.

*•*•*•

Bay was laying down in bed, still thinking over her whole day. She was upset over the fact that Luke couldn't talk to her.

No, he didn't want to talk to her. That was probably it. She rolled over and unlocked her phone.

The time was around one in the morning, and she didn't know if he was up or not, but she was still going to try to text him.

Bay: why don't you talk?

arcade boy: Because I just don't?
arcade boy: I don't see how it's your business either way.

Bay: sorry. i just wanted to know more about you.

arcade boy: Bay, I don't think you understand how this works
arcade boy: No one wants to know more about the boy that doesn't talk and works at the arcade. Stop bothering with trying to get to know me.

Bay: you can't stay like that forever. there's gonna be a point where you have to talk.
Bay: and i swear to god i'll be there to hear you

arcade boy: Just drop it. You wouldn't want to hang around the mute freak

Bay: that's where you're wrong, you're not a freak, luke.
Message Send Failure: Not Delivered

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honestly this book is my new favorite book. it's so cute to me and akxkckkd. idk the plot is really different from my usual ones and i can't wait for it to develop even more

remember to comment and vote, stay beautiful xx