Rochester Avenue // Luke Hemmings

Chapter 20 - 'Subtlety Isn't Exactly My Strong Suit'

When Luke finally decided to rejoin us, we were all sitting together in the living room, laughing as we sang stupid songs in stupid voices with Michael playing the guitar.

"Luke! We thought you'd been swept away by the ocean," Calum said dryly and Ashton chuckled, adding, "You missed some epic songwriting."

"Whatever," he said nonchalantly, running a hand through his already disheveled hair. "I'm going to go unpack." Then he disappeared upstairs, lugging his suitcase with him. As soon as he was out of sight, Calum said quietly and in a slightly amused voice, "He's in one of his moods."

"He'll get over it soon," Michael assured me even though I hadn't said anything.

"I never said he wouldn't," I said, sitting back and folding my arms. After a moment, I asked hesitantly, "Any idea what it's about?"

Ashton and Calum shared a look while Michael shrugged before saying, "Who knows. You could always go talk to him if you want to find out."

I sighed and pushed myself off the couch. "I might. Which is his room?"

"Second on the left," replied Ashton with a smile. I nodded in thanks and made my way upstairs.

When I saw that his door was closed, I bit my lip and knocked gently. The door opened slightly as Luke peered round to see who it was. When he saw it was me, he raised his eyebrows questioningly as if to ask what I wanted.

"Don't give me that shit," I said shortly before pushing the door open and stepping past him into his room.

He sighed slightly and turned to face me. "What shit?"

"Where you just don't talk to me and act like I'm the last person you want to see," I replied, stepping forward.

"That's not what I'm doing," Luke said irritably. "Do we really have to do this now? I'm kind of trying to unpack here."

"We are doing this now. Your unpacking can wait," I said stubbornly.

Luke exhaled slowly and pushed his door shut. "Jesus. Fine. What–"

"Why are you being so moody?" I asked immediately with a frown. "You're really reminding me of how you were when I first met you."

He rubbed his face. "What can I say? I guess it's my time of the month."

"You're not funny," I snapped but he smirked. "If this is about me sitting next to and listening to music with Michael, Luke, I swear–"

"Jesus Christ, Noelle. It's not about that. But," he paused, looking down at me intensely; "I can't say I particularly liked you getting all cozy with him."

"Are you serious?" I said in annoyance. "You can't get pissed off with me just because–"

"I just said it wasn't about that," he cut me off heatedly. "You have no idea..."

"I have no idea about what?" I questioned fiercely. "Please enlighten me, because I really hate it when you act like I've done something wrong and I don't even know what it is and now you won't tell me, and you say it's not Michael even though you're acting really jealous right now–"

Suddenly Luke was right in front of me, his hands cupped around my face as he looked down at me with a fierce look in his eyes. "You know what, Noelle? I am fucking jealous." Then he kissed me.

I made a small noise of surprise at the sudden contact as his lips moved with mine, the cool metal of the ring feeling better than I ever thought it would. My hands acted without me even thinking as they moved up Luke's chest and locked around the back of his neck, pulling him as close to me as he could possibly get. We were suddenly moving and my back hit the wall as Luke pressed himself against me, making sure there wasn't an inch of space separating us.