Photographs (Luke Hemmings)

Chapter 2

I shut my locker and took in a breath. Finally the school day was over; it felt a lot longer than 8 hours. I spun around on my heels ready to leave this place as soon as possible.

As soon as I turned around, I bumped into someone walking by. I had that happen to me quite often because I was in such a rush to get out of this hell hole, I never exactly looked around before taking off. I let out a frustrated groan, before muttering an annoyed "sorry". The figure I had bumped into looked back.

Of course, it was Luke.

"Oh. Uh" he said tripping over his words.

After a short awkward silence, he stood up straight "I'm sorry" he said almost sounding like he was unsure. I just nodded and muttered a quiet "it's okay" before I proceeded to leave the building.

The situation would have been less awkward if Luke and I weren't walking the same way out.
I put in my headphones as I walked toward the buses outside.

Before I had time to play any music, I spun around, hearing my name being called.

"Bailey!" I spotted Mrs. Hemmings right before I was going to step on the bus.

"Good afternoon Mrs. Hemmings" I said walking over to her.

"Do you just want to come over now for your tutoring session?" She began "since you're coming over in an hour, you can just ride with us now. I know how much Luke use to hate taking the bus" I nodded my head and said thank you as I climbed into the back seat of their car.

Silence; complete awkward silence was suffocating me in the car. It felt like years before Luke's mom started a conversation.

"How was your day?" she asked. I could hear the smile in her voice, she always seemed so happy.

Not sure who she was directing her question to, I stayed quiet to see if Luke would answer first.

"Fine" Luke said before leaning forward and switching the radio station.

"Fine is all I ever get out of you" she groaned at Luke "how about you Bailey?"

"It was alright, I mean school is always pretty boring to me now-a-days" I said trying to avoid my casual one word answer of 'Alright'

"Just let me get my things settled before we start, okay Bailey?" Mrs. Hemmings said as she opened the door to the house. I nodded before walking towards the dining room where our usual sessions were held.
After placing my books on the table, I started to sneeze. Whenever I began to sneeze, I could never just sneeze once. I had to sneeze at least three times, which was very embarrassing to say the least.

After my fifth sneeze, I finally began to calm down. I cursed my allergies under my breath as I saw Luke walk around the corner.

"Are you alright, you're not gonna die are you?" He asked, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck.

"I'm alright, just allergies" I said as my cheeks began to flush.

"Okay, just making sure. I heard that every time you sneeze your heart stops" he said cutting himself off, looking like he couldn't believe that just came out of his mouth "sorry.. I just always think about that when I hear someone sneeze" he said quickly.

I let out a small laugh "interesting" was all I could manage to get out.

"Hey Bailey?" Mrs. Hemmings called to me.

"Yes?" I questioned back

"Can you go to the living room and get the math textbook on the table please? I'll be in, in just a second" she hollered "or make Luke do it" Luke followed that statement with a groan.