Rise To The Top ➳ l.s. | n.h.

Chapter Eighteen

"Where's the sauce?" Harry pouted when he lifted the top of his sandwich. Louis sent him a glare.

"You said no sauce,"

"No I didn't,"

"You're misleading,"

"You can't cook. See! I proved it,"

"It's just sauce,"

"Still, it proves a lot," Harry laughed, biting his sandwich regardless of that missing zing from the ketchup. He hooked his ankle with Louis' around the chair, the two eating lunch quietly to themselves, despite no one being in the house at the moment.

Demi and Nick both wrote on the note board they out. Possibly a date but who knew. Luke was around the outside of the house somewhere, alone or with Perrie but it didn't bother Louis and Harry too much.

Luke was in fact alone in the tea garden, relaxing to himself as the trickling water from the buddha fountain kept him sane. He needed to think about this properly. How was he going to tell Perrie, Louis and Harry about his feelings inside. 

Perrie joined him moments later by Luke's request. She quietly sat next to Luke on the bench, sighing a hello as they watched the fountain dribble out water to fall into the pool below. It was interesting for some odd reason.

"Sometimes, do you think you can say something but then something pushes it back?" Luke says suddenly. "Like, you want to say something but your mind tells you not to?"

"What are you talking about?"

"That's exactly my point. I-I don't know what I'm talking about."

"Luke, why did you call me out here?" Perrie asked harshly. "I'm still not happy with you from this morning--"

"I need to apologize for that, Pez. I didn't mean it, cross my heart. I was just a little upset. You got a little too angry at Louis and Harry for something which could be easily excused. So...,"

"They couldn't be excused though, Luke! If Nick or Demi saw the clothes and figured it out it was Louis and Harry's, shit would have happened and you know what? Since we kept in the secret, we will get in trouble too!"

"But I don't really care for that right now, Perrie!"

"Well, you should. They're your friends,"

"I mean, I don't care if I get in trouble anymore," Luke sighed. "I-I don't think I want to compete anymore, Pez. I don't want to be in the competition. I want to go home and just forget about everything. It's too hard for me,"

Perrie gasped, taking Luke's hand and turning into a blabbering mess. "Luke, you can't leave! It's the top 6! Leaving now will only lead to you feeling guilty about not trying to reach for the crown!"

"It's hard, Perrie,"

"It has been, Lukey. You need to fight through your mind on this. You want to be Britain's Next Top Model, right?" Perrie questioned with a desperate tone. "Right?!"

"I-I--"

"Luke!" Perrie slapped him. "You need to snap out of it!"

"Abusing me won't help!"

"Well, stop using your brain, again, and just think about us! Please! Luke. I would send you home straight away if I wanted to win this for myself but you have a bloody good chance with this! You need to stay!"

"Perr--'

"Don't. You need to stay, Luke. I'm not letting you go home," Perrie told him. 

"Bu--"