The Caroline Cycle :; Luke Hemmings

ȚHRĘĖ

2010

"Do you wanna be X or do you wanna be O?" Caroline asked Luke as she had a tic tac toe grid on a piece of paper in front of her.

"X, for kisses." Luke smiled at her.

"Okie dokie!" She grinned. "I'll go first!" She drew an O right in the center.

"Put one on the top left." He directed her. Caroline listened and drew the X in that spot.

"Caroline, what are you you doing?" Caroline's mom looked at her. Caroline dropped the pencil.

"Playing tic tac toe." She said quietly, sinking into her shoulders.

"With who?" Her mom raised an eyebrow.

"Luke." Caroline muttered.

"Caroline, don't you think you're a little too old for imaginary friends? We've talked about this." Caroline's mom sighed.

"He's not imaginary." Caroline muttered under her breath.

Caroline's mother walked into the room and sat down next to Caroline. "I'll play with you."

Caroline shrugged. "I don't wanna play anymore." Caroline crumpled up the piece of paper and threw it across the room. Caroline's mom frowned and began to play with Caroline's hair.

"Honey, Luke isn't real. Why don't you invite Ashton or Hannah over and play with them? You need to forget about Luke. I don't want this to become a serious problem." Her mother spoke completely concerned.

Luke stood there and fiddled with his fingers awkwardly. Everytime this had happened, it hurt him deeply.

"I'm sorry mommy." Caroline began to cry.

"It's okay baby." Her mom weakly smiled and kissed her in her forehead. "Tell me if you want me to invite Hannah or Ashton over, okay?"

Caroline just shrugged and her mom closed her door. "I'm sorry, Caro-"

"I don't wanna talk, Luke." Caroline continued to cry.

"Caroline-"

"Luke, I don't want to talk." Caroline stared at him with puffy and watered eyes, emphasizing each word. Luke disappeared.

++++

"Luke!" Caroline ran inside her house after school.

"You rang?" Luke appeared in front of her.

"My parents won't be home for a couple of hours!" She cheered. "We can all play!"

Luke smiled. "Just Dance?"

"Just Dance." Caroline smirked, running into her large living with a Kinect and an Xbox. She put in the game and started it. "I know it won't see you and count your score, but it's still funny to watch how bad you dance." She chuckled.

"Well, you won't be laughing soon after you see my sick tricks." Michael announced, acting as if he was the best dancer in the world.

"Sick tricks as in tripping over your own feet that don't exist?" Calum snorted.

"Shut up, Calum." Michael glared at him.

"We all know I'm the best." Luke flipped his hair.

"We'll see about that." Caroline smirked.

"Is that a challenge?" Luke crossed his arms.

"Hell yeah it is." Caroline confirmed.

"How'd you learn to speak like that?" Michael took in shock.