caught☽ luke | ✓

Thirty | Scared

"Anna, it's me," Audrey said upon hearing the sound of her sister's voice. She was so glad that she had picked up the phone and not ignored her. Truth be told, she missed her sister. She was the only one she truly cared about in her family.

"Audrey? Oh my god, are you alright? Where are you?" Anna asked, suddenly worried.

"I'm okay, I think. I'm with Luke and we have nowhere to go. I don't know what to do," she told her. "I think someone sent the police after us."

Anna paused for a moment as if she was thinking about what to say.

"I want to say you can stay with us, but I won't be able to protect you if mom and dad find out you're with me," she finally said.

"I know, Anna. We'll only be there for a few days, I promise," Audrey said.

Anna took a deep breath. "Okay. I'll text you my address."

"Thank you so much," she said, then hung up.

Luke and Audrey drove to Anna's house, which wasn't as far away from her old house as they had thought. They walked up to her front door hand in hand, nervous as ever. They weren't sure if Anna would actually go through with letting them stay with her, especially since the cops had gone after them, but they were hopeful.

The door slowly creaked open, revealing a very tired looking Anna. She was dressed in baggy clothes and had her hair up in a messy pony tail. As soon as her eyes caught sight of Audrey, she pulled her sister in for a tight embrace.

"I've missed you, kiddo," she said.

"I've missed you too, Anna. Thank you so much for letting us come here," Audrey told her, taking a step inside.

"Sorry if it's a bit messy in here. Um, let's sit down. I think we need to discuss . . . everything." Anna said, walking over to the couch.

Once everyone sat down, Audrey took a deep breath.

"You remember the old abandoned house that I used to go to all the time, right?" Audrey asked her. She nodded. "Well me and Luke were staying there. We were very careful, and I didn't think anyone would notice, but today when we got there, a note was taped to the door. It said, 'Should've Listened' and then almost immediately the cops came."

"That's sketchy as hell. Who do you think wrote the note?" Anna asked.

"At first, I thought it was Luke's ex, but she had no idea about the place. The only people who know are Rain, Vera, and Ashton, and I know for a fact Rain wouldn't do something like that to me. It had to be Vera, if not Ashton."

"What about Mom and Dad?" Anna asked.

"Trust me, if they knew about that place, then I'd be right back at their house living with them," she said.

Luke held on to Audrey's hand as a way to comfort her. He didn't know how else to.

Anna shook her head, almost in disbelief. "That's completely crazy, Audrey. Who would've known Vera would turn out to be completely psychotic?"

"I just don't know what to do. I don't know why she hates me this much. It can't just be because Luke doesn't want to be with her. She literally wants to take every bit of happiness I have and destroy it," Audrey said as her eyes began watering up. She wiped it away before anyone could notice, but Luke noticed anyway.

"Well, you guys can stay here until everything cools down a bit. I just can't believe how crazy everything is. There's a spare room upstairs next to the baby room. You two can stay there," Anna told them.

"Thank you again, Anna." Audrey said, standing up with Luke.

"No problem. Have a good night, guys."

Audrey and Luke walked upstairs to where the spare room was and immediately collapsed on the bed. They didn't have any of their belongings, anyway. Audrey didn't even have her leather jacket.

"Why does life have to be so difficult?" she whispered, feeling defeated.

Running his fingers through her hair, Luke sighed. "I don't know, babe, but it'll be okay."

"I hope so, Luke. I'm scared."

Luke wrapped his arms around Audrey and pulled her close. "Don't be. I'm here this time. I'm not gonna let anything happen to you."

"But Luke, if Vera somehow finds out where we went and tells my parents, I don't know what I'll do."

"Audrey, you're eighteen now. You're a legal adult. They can't hurt you."

"I know, but I'm still afraid. We can't just live with my sister forever. Where else could we even go?"

"You know, I've always wanted to live in Arizona." Luke smiled.

Audrey smiled back. "You'd seriously be willing to move to another state with me? I thought you didn't want to leave your mom?"

"I think my mom will be okay. She has a boyfriend, you know."

"Luke, I--"

She was interrupted by the sound of her phone ringing. She looked at Luke nervously before picking it up, not recognizing the number.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Audrey. Cops scare you away?"

"Fuck you, Vera. That was our place, and now you know exactly what's gonna happen to it. How could you did that?" Audrey said, anger filling her voice.

"Well, that's exactly it. That was our place. It wasn't yours or Luke's, or Rain's, or Ashton's, or Michael's, or even Calum's. You and me made that place."

"What are you even saying, Vera?"

"I'm saying that we never should have brought anyone else there. It fucked everything up, and you know it."

"No, Vera, you fucked everything up as soon as you started sleeping with every boy I cared about. That was your fault, no one else's."

"I didn't- I never slept with anyone there." Vera said.

"Yeah right, I saw you there with Ash and Mikey told me everything."

"Michael- Michael said I slept with him?"

"Well, yeah, because you did," Audrey said, starting to get even more annoyed.

"No, Audrey, Ashton was an accident. We were both sad and drunk and we didn't know what we were doing, but I never did anything with Michael."

"Then why would he say that?"

"Audrey, he's been in love with you since forever. He wanted to make you jealous."

"But- but Mikey wouldn't do anything-"

Audrey thought about everything, and suddenly it all made sense. Michael had always been in love with her, and he was always there throughout everything. Maybe there was more to the story this whole time. Maybe Vera was never truly the villain, but Michael was instead.

"Meet me at the diner on Kent street in ten minutes. We seriously need to talk." Audrey told Vera, then hung up the phone.

-

a/n

hello!! we are slowly approaching the end of the story :( but i hope you enjoyed this chapter! don't forget to leave a vote/comment or even message me so we can become friends! i'd love to check out some new stories!

also, i will be starting a new luke fanfic (which i will actually be updating frequently!!!) very soon!! so stay tuned :)