foreordination // Luke Hemmings

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March sixth, two thousand and fourteen.

"Luke Hemmings." "Emily Harris, from my English writing class. What a pleasure." I said sarcastically as she sat down next to me. "Cut the sarcasm Hemmings. I need to ask you something." She told me. "Ask away." "What is your actual opinion on love? Do you actually think it's bullshit?" She asked frowning. "Why do you care?" I asked taking a sip of my coffee. "I need people's opinions about love for my English piece." "Oh right, the extra homework you do." I said going back to drinking my coffee. "You know, Emily Harris, you are super cool." I told her making her sigh. "Okay, everyone knows I'm the lame one. Lamer than depressed boy sitting here drinking his probably tenth cup of coffee today, waiting for his only friend to show up." I didn't say anything to her, I knew she'd apologise to me in a minute. "Luke." She sighed. "I didn't mean that, I'm sorry." "Emily Harris, of course you meant it otherwise you wouldn't have said it." I told her. "Not necessarily Hemmings, you can say stuff without meaning it. You don't believe in love right? So if someone tells you they love you will you think they mean it? No, because you don't believe in it."

"Touchè." I said slowly as I took an orange out of my bag and begun to peel it. "Well, look at me now. I'm a depressed boy, eating his first orange of the day waiting for his only friend to show up." I said trying to mimic her making her sigh. "Tell me, Emily Harris, how do you know so much about me?" I asked. "What do you mean?" "Well, how do you know I'm a depressed boy, sitting here drinking my tenth cup of coffee and waiting for my only friend to show up?" I asked as I begun to eat my orange. "Hey Luke." Ashton, my 'only friend' - well best friend, said sitting down. "Oh look, it's my only friend." I said making Emily sigh. "Luke, I'm sorry." "It's fine, I'm just messing around. Anyway, do you still want my opinion or not?" "That would be great." She said taking the lid off of her lid, getting ready to write.

"Love, is preposterous." I said watching her write those exact words on her paper before looking back at me. "Go on.." She said nudging my arm. "That's all." I said as she frowned at me and sighed. "Luke, please." "Emily, do you ever look at yourself in the mirror?" I asked. "Well obviously." "And what do you see?" "I see me." "Describe yourself to me Emily Harris." "But you can see me." "Describe yourself." I repeated. "Um, nothing special, average height, average weight, boring brown, boring brown eyes, boring-" "Why do you have to use the word boring so much? You're an English student, a very good one, use something else." I interrupted her. "Luke, I really need to finish you-" "Emily. Just finish this." I told her. "Okay, fine. I'm an average girl, maybe just below average, I'm tedious, there's nothing special about me." "Tedious.. I like it. Anyway okay, well however you just described yourself Emily, is your opinion. I mean do you think everyone thinks that you're tedious?" "Yes, everyone pretty much thinks I'm tedious." "True. But that's not the point, not every single person in the world is going to find you tedious, I'm sure there are people as boring as you so they won't find you as boring as everyone else does." "Luke-" "Shh, don't interrupt. So your opinion is nothing. Your opinion means literally nothing. Same with my opinion about love, does my opinion mean anything? No, Emily Harris, it means nothing." She sighed, rolling her eyes. "Thanks for nothing, Hemmings." She said, pissed off, getting up leaving me and Ashton to have the table to ourselves - like usual.

"You could've got laid." Ashton said as soon as she left. "Emily Harris is not a person to hook up with boys, especially like me. She believes in love and all that shit, she's waiting for someone to come into her life and make love to her whilst reading love poetry." I said making Ashton laugh. "You're an idiot and a blind one. She has a crush on you." It was my turn to laugh, "Emily Harris has not got a crush on me." "She does." "Not." "It's my mum's birthday today, we're going out to a some new Chinese restaurant down the road, please come." Ashton said trying to give me puppy dog eyes. "No." "Luke, please, you know how much I hate family times out." "You know how much I hate everything." "I'll do anything." "Like what?" "Whatever you want." "Okay, I want you to stop asking me to come out with you and your family after tonight." I said smirking at how his face fell. "I'm joking Ash, don't cry. Sure, I'll come, your family are more like family to me than mine are." "Thanks Luke, I'll pick you up at eight."

-

"Hi, welcome to Seth's Chinese, my name is Jade, I'll be your server tonight. What can I get you?"

Jade - short, and I mean very short, four foot eight, maybe even less. Big brown eyes, dark red hair and a huge smile. "She's too happy." I said quietly to myself. "It's because I get paid." She said quietly back to me making me chuckle. "Can we just get the buffet means?" Mrs.Irwin said to Jade. "Sure, how many?" Jade asked. "Six please." "No, no, make it five. I'll just have a skinny coffee please." I said. "Won't you eat?" Mr.Irwin asked, "No, I ate before I left." I said quickly. "Okay, so five buffet meals and a black coffee. Anything else?" Jade asked. "No thank you, that will be all." Mr.Irwin said before turning to me. "You don't eat much, Luke. A growing boy like you should eat more than usual, you don't want to be thin, you want to be strong." He said making me feel more uncomfortable. "Dad, he ate before he left." Ashton said defensively. "I heard him. But I was just saying he could always eat more-" "George, please just drop it." Mrs. Irwin said making me sigh with relief.

-

After everyone ate and I drunk my coffee, Jade came over with fortune cookies. "I know the fortunes are bullshit but they're free and they taste good." Jade said quietly to me making me laugh. "What's better than a free, cookie with a shitty message inside?" I asked making her laugh, "that's true Luke." "Wait. How do you know my name?" I asked frowning. "We have English class together." She said smiling at me. "I like listening to you argue, with almost everyone, it amuses me." "I've never seen you." I admitted. "It's fine, no one ever does." She said making me feel guilty. "Well, I'll see you tomorrow Luke." She said going to the next table. I made a mental note to myself to make sure I notice her in class tomorrow. "She seems nice." Ashton said with the biggest smirk on his face. "Ashton, I don't want to get laid." I said rolling my eyes; I swear the only thing he ever thinks about is how I need to get laid. "I think it would make you feel a lot better." He said nudging my arm. "Having sex is not going to change my mind on me wanting to kill myself." I said, a little too loudly making Mr. Irwin frown at me, please don't ask, please don- "What's wrong with Luke?" He asked his wife making me sigh. "He's fine." She said defending me, making me sigh with relief. "Shall we open our fortune cookies and tell each other what we got?" Lauren asked. "Good idea sweetie. Everyone get ready to crack open your cookies!" Mrs. Irwin said as we all got ready to crack open our fortune cookies. "1..2..3!" The fortune cookie made a little crack before breaking into little pieces all over the table.

"Mine says I'm going to be wealthy!" Ashton said excitedly, I laughed - in my head, at his idiocy. Did he honestly think these free cookies were going to tell us our future. "What about you Luke?" He asked turning to look at me. "Ummm.. It says.. You are foreordained to find her." I said frowning at the paper in my hand before laughing, - again; in my head. "Her?" Ashton said quietly. "Ashton, it's all bulls- I mean, this fortune cookie is a deception." "A fortune cookie is deception? Seriously Luke? It could be true you know!" "Whatever." I said ripping up the paper into tiny pieces.