alumni ➢ luke hemmings [DISCONTINUED]

1.4 ➢ Stolen.

"I can't take this,"

"Sophie, you have to."

"I don't have to. I could just leave it here,"

"For some sad old senior to pick up and use for campfire fuel tonight? You're funny. Take the damn book already, Hayes,"

"Don't be so..." I watch as Chase flips obsessively through a small dictionary in his hand, his eyebrows pulling into a frown as his eyes land on the right word, "...Ma'arte?" [Finnicky/Dramatic]  "Ashton left it here for you for a reason,"

"Did you just try to speak Filipino?" Ashley asks. He shrugs.

"I tried to."

"I can't take it. It's not mine, and it isn't even Ashton's,"

"So the fuck what?" Ashley rolls her eyes, almost successfully swiping the book of off the table. I yank it towards me quickly, my refusal at letting her have it shining through, "It's a poetry book, Sophie. It's not like it holds all the secrets of the universe, or whatever,"

"Probably just scribbles on how to become super, mega-rich," Chase notes playfully, and together they laugh. I can't help but hold back. "Seriously. You've always hinted that you'd like to take a peak in Luke's mind every now and again. Now's your perfect chance,"

"I have never said that. Not even once," I frown. He shrugs.

"You've hinted it,"

"Look, the point is, we've got an asshole's Tumblr-aesthetic-worthy book in the middle of us, and it's probably filled with shit he has to say about other people," Ashley notes, slapping her palms on the metal surface, "It's now or never!"

"It wouldn't be right," I say, "It's not my book, you guys. And just because Ashton gave it to me to have a look through doesn't mean Luke even knows about it,"

They squint their gazes at me, evidently confused. "And why does that matter?" Chase questions me, dumbfounded.

I carry on, "I've seen him in the coffee shop, with his head down and his pen ready. He writes so much that he loses himself. He probably forgets where he is half of the time, he's so out of it. And when Sadie comes by, he snaps it shut like nothing ever happened,"

"You've lost me," Ashley states. Chase nods in agreement.

I roll my eyes, unzipping my backpack before subtly sliding the book inside, "I'm not going to read it, or even look through it. It's his privacy,"

"Privacy he probably doesn't give a shit about if he's willing to let you read it,"

"That's the thing. Ashton probably took it without him knowing," they both raise they eyebrows, though it's pretty evident where my morals are and how they probably won't change. They simply aren't around Luke as much as I am- regardless of it not being intentional- so they just simply wouldn't know.

He writes obsessively, looking up only for air and the occasional glance in the distance to gather a few more ideas. He writes until his hands are hurting and even then, I've never once seen him stop. Luke Hemmings pours his feelings out through pen on paper and to read that would be entering a space in his mind in which I know I'm not permitted.

Maybe I'm overreacting. I probably am. But there's something about the way I've seen him clutch the edges, something about the worn out pages that have long since folded into each other, that tells me I'm not.

I know Luke, and I have a good sense of who he actually is already. And who knows? There might be a side to him that nobody's ever seen before, tucked away safe and sound in a book by Rupi Kaur; scribbled haphazardly in between the lines, no doubt. But to find that out though his apparent best friend's sneaking-around just wouldn't be right.