the promise ➳ hemmings

Part 60

I never thought I'd find myself like this again. Maybe I could have dreamt it or imagined it, but I never would have guessed I would actually be face to face with Luke Hemmings ever again.

It was a surreal feeling that lasted and lingered. He seemed unreal as I faced him in the dim light of my dorm room.

"How have you...been?" Luke asked uncomfortably. His eyes scanned up and down my body as he bit his lip making me feel a bit uncomfortable as well. Luke eyes had traveled up and down my body head-to-toe millions of times before, and I used to have no problem with it. But I hadn't been under Luke's gaze in what seemed like ages. I wasn't used to him anymore. And I wished I still was.

"Um, good," I almost whispered still taken aback by the whole situation itself. "You?" He smiled a crooked smile and brought his hand up to my face to brush a hair away from my cheek.

"Better," he pronounced.

"As opposed to what?" I cocked my head, mostly trying to shake the feeling of his warm fingers on my skin. For the time being, Luke touching me again seemed kind of weird, but not foreign. He still had that touch that sent shivers up and down my spine like some sort of electricity generated by the tension between us. It had always been that way. I just wasn't used to the feelings Luke used to give me and they were all rushing back all at once.

"As opposed to before I saw you in the crowd tonight," his eyes flickered to my hands at my side and he began to take his pointer finger and mindlessly trace circles in my open palm. "I never thought I was going to see you again..."

I let out a forced chuckle, "Me either."

"What made you come? You know, to the concert?" Luke looked up from my hand and we locked eyes.

I squirmed a little and gave a sigh, "My roommate," I admitted. "I really didn't want to come, I-"

"You didn't want to come?" He interrupted in a tone that made him sound hurt.

"Well..." I glanced down, "No."

"Why?" He asked.

"Well, because, Luke. I haven't seen you in what, a year or so? And I--"

“It’s been a year, six months, and five days,” Luke blurted out, and my mouth began to drop, but I stopped myself. I couldn’t believe he had actually been keeping track. And all this time I thought he had forgotten about me.

“Oh,” I began with a look of shock on my face that Luke quickly took notice of.

“Yeah, I know, it’s weird to still know the day we said goodbye and to still think about you every goddamned day of my life and to still write dumb little songs about you I know you’ll probably never even hear…” Luke shrugged.

“No,” I whispered, “It’s not weird; I just thought you had forgotten about me.” As soon as the words left my mouth I regretted them.

“Forget about you?!” Luke began to yell. “How could you even have the audacity to say that, Hal?”

“Luke, I just…” I trailed off, knowing exactly what I had coming for me.

“I sent you countless texts, I called you millions of times, I even wrote you fucking letters for a whole goddamned half of a year and each time I got nothing in return from you!” Luke roared in anger. “You never texted me back or returned my calls. God knows what you did with all my letters! I put hours and hours of my time towards you, Hal, even after we had said goodbye for good, and I never heard back from you! Not ONCE. So don’t say you feel like I forgot about you when I knew you had forgotten about me and I still thought about you every single day of my wasted life.”