alumni ➢ luke hemmings [DISCONTINUED]

3.1 ➢ Beautiful.

SOPHIE HAYES

The next day is weird because Luke starts acting weird. It was going perfectly well, somewhat routine and the usual before I stepped foot in the library to get some work done and found him sitting at one of the computers. I sat next to him, no words needed, and he smiled at me. Pretty normal, so I didn't think any different.

But then I started writing; flickering between notes and lecture slides and handwritten post-its given to me by someone on my course who didn't mind filling in for my absence, and I could just feel him staring at me. Luke has this way of focusing on you until you look at him, yet I don't think that's what he was trying to achieve; his gaze snapped away right after we locked eyes. That weirded me out quite a bit, but obviously I didn't bring it up. For all I knew, I might have had something on my face that he'd prefer not to point out.

Then lunch came and instead of kicking up a big fuss over where I wanted to eat, he just went along with it. I'm being serious. He was driving the car and when I said what restaurant I wanted to go to, he just gave me this little nod, before turning the music up and tapping his fingers along to the beat. That's how I knew we wouldn't be having another mini argument any time soon; he was listening to his happy playlist. Which was nice in a way, but also very strange.

He let me order this time, too, and while I did so he kept his eyes trained on me and told me not to be silly after I asked him what was going on. I'm not going to lie- I thought he'd been cloned, or something. Replaced by someone who looks exactly like Luke Hemmings and talks exactly like Luke Hemmings but isn't exactly Luke Hemmings. I've watched enough conspiracy theory videos to know, and the fact that he was acting so odd didn't help in the slightest.

"Maybe he's going through menopause," Ashley says, the pizza slice in her hand bigger than her face as she stuffs it into her mouth. Her vibrant yellow lipstick smudges to the side and prints itself onto the pizza and I'm sat there wondering how she does it; pull off such a bright colour all while eating something that makes everyone else look disgusting.

I give her a look and she grins, but she's too busy chewing to speak properly. "I'm joking. Hey, maybe he's been cloned,"

"That's what I was thinking," I state seriously, and she laughs.

"It's possible,"

"Or maybe he sold his soul,"

"You can't sell what you don't have," she notes, and an amused smile plays on my lips.

"Okay. Maybe he won the lottery,"

"Luke Hemmings? Needing more money? Impossible,"

"True, true,"

"Maybe he just had a revelation,"

"A revelation," I echo. Ashley nods.

"Mhm. Like a big, life-changing realisation, or whatever. Those things they talk about in near-death experience documentaries," 'documentaries' meaning, the entire Saw movie franchise.

"What, just last night?" I play along.

"Yeah," she shrugs, "My brother used to have revelations all the time and the next day he'd start acting really weird. Like, the one time he was convinced the earth was flat, he wouldn't leave his bed for a whole three days,"

She fails to mention that Ron, who she's told me countless of times belongs in a psych ward but won't stay admitted, is the brother that she is currently talking about. "What revelation could he have possibly had that would make him act so weird around me today?"

"Who knows?" she asks, swallowing the mush of grease and cheese in her mouth, "Maybe it's something really deep. Don't ask him about it yet, though. Let him come to you,"