caught☽ luke | ✓

Thirty Three | Caught

Audrey's heart raced as she sat on the couch with her sister and Luke, whose lip was still bleeding. Even his eye seemed to be bruising more and more as time went by. Audrey couldn't help but feel at fault— Actually, she knew she was at fault. She put so much trust into Michael that she failed to notice the obvious signs of what he was doing.

But that was over now. Michael was no longer going to be around, trying to ruin her life. There were only two people that could possibly do that now.

Her own parents.

She knew she had to do this. She'd ended her feud with Michael; She could end this one too. It was just a matter of saying all of the right things and making sure they would listen.

"Anna, have they seen the baby yet?" Audrey asked her sister.

"No, I never let them. But they know I was pregnant," Anna explained.

"Let's keep it that way. I really, really hate them."

"I know. I do too."

Audrey held onto Luke's hand, hoping it would calm her down. She didn't even know what she would say to them, but what could she? She knew they wouldn't listen to her anyway.

"Audrey, I think they're here," Anna said, standing up from the couch and walking over to the window. "Yeah, it's them. Ready?"

Audrey nodded. "Let's get this over with."

Luke placed his hand on Audrey's. "Do you want me to leave?"

"No, stay. Please. I can't do this without you," she told him. Her heart began to speed up with anxiety. Luke gave her a small kiss on her hand, then hugged her.

"Then I'll be right here."

The front door opened, revealing Audrey and Anna's mother and father. The mother had her hair in a ponytail, and her face was worn out and tired. The father was a larger man, with gray hairs and wrinkles around his eyes.

"So you ran back to your big sister's house again, huh?" the mother asked Audrey disapprovingly.

"Yanno, you almost gave your mother a damn heart attack running away like that. That's all you ever do, Audrey. We didn't raise you like that," the father stated with his arms crossed.

"Yeah, I wonder why," Audrey muttered.

"Why don't you two sit down. Audrey has some things to discuss with you," Anna said, gesturing to the seats across from Audrey and Luke.

Audrey's father looked at Luke disapprovingly. "Who the hell is this guy?"

Luke stood up carefully and stuck his hand out. "Hi, I'm Luke."

"Luke is my boyfriend," Audrey quickly added in.

Her father stared at Luke's hand without bothering to shake it. "This is the kind of guy you're fooling around with? Sneaking out and running away all the time for him?"

Luke sat back down and looked at Audrey, sadly. He knew that they wanted to say whatever they could to hurt her.

Audrey's eyes welled up for a moment, then she cleared her throat. "I never did anything except try to get away from you. You are the most toxic individuals I have ever encountered in my entire life. Living in that house with you destroyed me. Before I met Luke, I was reckless. I did things that I knew would get me hurt, things that could've killed me. Yanno why? Because I would rather die than live my life being controlled by the two of you," Audrey said, then stood up and walked to the front door.

Luke followed Audrey and grabbed her hand. Her parents followed behind.

"You're a selfish, ungrateful little girl. All we ever did was take care of you," her mother said, with her hands crossed over her chest.

"Take care of me? Locking me inside of my room for three days straight was not taking care of me. Constantly putting me down and trying to turn me into someone I wasn't was not taking care of me. Anna's a better mother than you'll ever be, so I'm living with her from now on. I want you to both leave me and my sister alone from now on or else I'm getting a restraining order," Audrey said, then opened the front door as if to say that if they didn't leave at that moment, she was going to call the police.

"You have no idea what you are doing. We are your parents," her father said, but Audrey shook her head.

"No, you're not."

To Audrey's surprise, her mother and father walked out of the house and to their car without looking back. Audrey, Luke, and Anna all stared out at them until they drove away, and they finally closed the door.

Audrey and Anna let out a breath they didn't know they were holding, and Luke wrapped his arm around Audrey.

"I'm proud of you for doing that," Luke told her.

She sighed. "I'm just glad it's over. It's all finally over."

-

From then on, Audrey and Luke ended up staying at Rain and Calum's house in the guest bedroom. There, they didn't have to deal with Michael or Audrey's parents. That was all behind them. Audrey and Luke graduated high school and immediately applied for jobs so that they could save up and get a place of their own.

"So, did you guys figure out where you're gonna move?" Rain asked, sitting down next to Audrey and Luke on the couch.

"We were thinking someplace warm. Maybe California or even Nevada," Audrey said.

Luke smiled. "As long as it's away from here. We're gonna miss you though, Rain. Calum's pretty cool too, I wish we could've been closer."

"It's okay, he's always working. But, I know you two will be great. You've made it so far together. You better come back to visit every once in a while," Rain laughed.

"How could I not?" Audrey said, then gave her best friend a hug.

Rain stood up. "I'll be downstairs. The Vampire Diaries is gonna be on soon and I cannot miss that. Have a goodnight, guys."

"Night, Rain," Audrey and Luke said.

When she was finally downstairs, Audrey and Luke looked at each other.

"Thank you, for standing by me through everything. I know I was difficult, but I'm really sorry and I wish I could-" Audrey began, but was interrupted by Luke's lips on hers.

"I really fucking love you," Luke said, then kissed her again.

"I will always love you, Luke. They say not to keep chasing someone if they don't want to be caught. I didn't want to be caught, Luke, but you chased anyway," Audrey said.

Luke smiled, pushing a strand of hair behind Audrey's ear. "I caught you."

"You caught me."

"And I'm so happy I did."

THE END

Hey y'all! This book actually took over 2 years to finish because I completely lost motivation for it. If this chapter kinda stunk then I'm sorry, but I promise my writing isn't usually like this — I just gave up on fan fictions. :(

HOWEVER if you'd like to read a teen fiction novel that ISN'T trash then feel free to check out my book "One Last Adventure" for some higher quality writing! It's teen fiction, with love, adventures, but no Luke Hemmings :(

Thanks loves, and thank you so much for reading this far. It's been quite the journey.