Photographs (Luke Hemmings)

Chapter 9

After telling Luke which gas station I was at, he assured me he would be right there.

I told the worker my dad would probably be by within the next few days to check out the car since I understood nothing about cars. I walked outside waiting under the gas station overhang for Luke to come get me. As I waited, I sent my dad a text saying the engine died and that the car was waiting at the shop.

"Bailey are you okay?" Luke said once I got into the car, "what happened??"

"The engine died when I went to go get a smoothie, I'm okay you know me, I have tremendously terrible luck," I said, reassuring him as I put on my seat belt. He sounded worried which made me smile because it showed he cared.

"Good to know you're okay," he said smiling at me, which made my smile even bigger.

"Thank you for picking me up though, I hope I didn't interrupt anything you were doing. I felt really bad asking but I had no one else, I'm sorry," I said rambling sincerely.

"Bailey, don't apologize. It's okay I don't mind. I'm here if you need me," Luke said with a smile, placing his hand on my arm.

His hand was only there for a second, but it felt a lot longer than that. I could still feel the tingling on the skin of my arm, and the butterflies in my stomach when he put his hand back on the steering wheel.

"Do you need me to drop you off somewhere specific?" Luke said, looking at me quickly before putting his eyes back on the road.

"Oh no, you can just drop me off at home if you don't mind," I said quietly, "thank you Luke."

"You're welcome, now stop thanking me," he said laughing.

"I just feel bad for making you drop whatever you were doing to come get me," I said looking out the window, letting the guilt flow through my veins.

"It's really not that big of a deal," Luke said and I could hear him getting frustrated with me, "would you not have done it for me?" He asked, which got me to think.

"I would have," I said looking over at him seeing his point.

"Exactly."

"Okay you win," I said in defeat. He looked over and smiled, making me let out a small laugh.

As Luke pulled into my driveway, the rain started coming down hard.

"Oh great I have to walk to the door in that," I said groaning.

Of course with my luck it started coming down harder; to the point you could barely see ahead of you, right when we got to my house. I was serious when I said I had tremendously terrible luck.

Luke laughed at my misfortune as I took a breath and lifted one hand to the car door handle, as the other held my house key.

As I was about to open it, I looked over at Luke, "do you want to come in for a little while?" I asked, shocking my ownself. I wasn't exactly sure where my confidence came from, but the question came out.

"It will be hard to see while you're driving right now anyways," I scolded myself for a second, worrying about him saying no and feeling rejected, but I was taken back when he said sure.

"On 3 we run, ready?" Luke said, giving me a smile and placing his hand on the door handle, "1, 2,"

and we both said "3" in unison before running to my door step.

Luke gave me a small head start, so I could unlock the door before him and I quickly rushed into the house. We both started laughing as we got in.

The 30 seconds we were outside, we were already almost soaked. I led Luke into the living room, and told him I would be right back as I went to go grab a towel. I walked over to my room, quickly changing my shirt because my other one was wet, and it had made me cold. I walked back into the living room, tossing the towel at Luke. I felt bad because his shirt was half wet, which had to be uncomfortable.

"Thanks," he said catching the towel and using it to dry his hair. I laughed as I watched him shake out his hair; he was one of the boys who cared about his hair quite a lot.

"I don't like my hair dripping water down my back and my face," he said laughing at me, catching on to the fact that I was laughing at him. He shook his hair out one more time, before using his fingers to pull at it, making it stand up. He tossed the towel back to me, which I just threw on the floor.

I picked up the remote, flipping through TV channels trying to find something at least a little interesting for Luke and I to watch; I finally just put on a hockey game.

As Luke and I made small talk and watched hockey for a couple of hours, I noticed the rain slowing down. I checked the time on my phone, seeing it was 6:30.

I got up making my way to the kitchen, "want a drink?" I asked Luke. He nodded and stood up to follow me.

"Thanks," he said as I passed him a Coke.

"Are you hungry? I was going to put a pizza in the oven," I said, opening the freezer then looking over at Luke. He was leaning against my kitchen counter taking a sip of his soda.

"Yeah that's cool."

"Is pepperoni alright? I have just plain cheese if that's better," I said hoping that one of the choices would be okay.

"Yeah pepperoni is my favorite."

"Me too," I said looking up at Luke's eyes.

I put in the pizza once the oven beeped, letting me know it was preheated, before setting a timer.

Luke and I walked back to the living room, both sitting on the couch. We watched the hockey game in silence, I looked over at Luke who had his eyes glued to the screen. He was so indulged in the game, his eyes followed the puck all over my screen. I pulled my eyes away from Luke's face and focused them on the twitter timeline on my phone screen. I didn't want to have Luke catch me staring again.

Before I knew it, the oven beeped signaling it had been 20 minutes, and I got up. I noticed Luke get up behind me, so I turned to him. His body was towering over mine, since he was so tall, it was intimidating because he had such broad shoulders.

"Sit down, I got it," I said with a smile.

After cutting the pizza as even as I could, I grabbed two plates out of the cabinet.

"Hey Luke, how many slices do you want?" I called to him in the other room.

"Two please," he said leaning over to look at me in the doorway.

I grabbed us each two slices, some napkins, and two cokes.

"Thanks Bailey," he said with a smile as I passed him his plate.

"Of course" I said crossing my legs on the couch as I opened my soda before putting it on the floor.

"But stop thanking me," I said mocking him since he had told me that earlier. He gave me a small smile.

After I was done I looked over at Luke who was done as well. I stood up grabbing his plate and mine, making my way to the kitchen. I put them both in the sink and then I put the leftover pieces of pizza in the microwave. I grabbed a sticky note and stuck it to the microwave after scribbling a note to my dad that there was pizza leftovers inside.

I walked back over to the couch, "rains gone," I said noticing the sunshine peeking through the clouds after looking through my living room window.

"Yeah," Luke said meeting my eyes. We looked at each other for a few seconds before he looked out the window, then back at me.

"Hey Bailey, want to go for a drive?"

-

A/N

here's an update,

I go to WWA DC tomorrow ajhdfksjfsjhfndfjasgf so excited.

enjoy and have a great day!

(Twitter @Procrashtinates)

-Ricki xoxo