Breathing In

Chapter // Seventeen

My alarm yells at me to wake up, and instead of complaining I accept the alert and roll out of bed. I've gotten used to my schedule, but nothing feels the same. Ever since a few weeks ago when I stayed at Luke's house my moms made sure I go nowhere near him. Even if he wasn't, I'd try to keep my distance.

After I take a shower, and lightly curly my hair I put on a flattering black dress that my mom had picked out for me for today. Today is supposed to be the day that my grandparents come back in town to see me after my accident. I remember nothing of them, but from the pictures my mom had shown me we seemed pretty close. We're all supposed to be going to Sunday brunch at this restaurant downtown. And by all of us, I mean my mom, me, and Hunter. I'm not allowed to see anybody else. I've been limited to Hunter.

He can be fine at times, but all he ever wants to do is go to his job and work on the cars, and when it's closed all he wants to do is talk about cars. I've talked to Zoe a few times, but I'm sick of her talking about how I'm a "carrot" and whatever that's supposed to mean, and how she loves 5 Seconds of Summer so much. It's weird seeing her with shirts with Luke and the other guys' faces on it.

"Alex, honey! Get down here, mama and papa are on their way to the restaurant already!" My mom yells from down the hall. I don't want to go dressed up like a doll just to go meet my grandparents. I should be leaving in my converses and some jeans instead of this black dress, and my small heels. It's freezing outside, and my mom is making me dress like this. We usually don't dress like this, but I guess it has something to do with how my grandparents act.

I take a deep breath and close the door behind me as I walk out of my room. I hold my phone in my hand with it pressed against my clutch. I leave the house with my mother without a word and hop in my moms car so we can get there.

...

After the food is served and everyone has introduced themselves I begin to eat. I've tried playing footsie with Hunter under the table, but whenever I do he just gives me a weird look and continues to talk about his work. Has this what my life has come to? Being rejected by my own boyfriend to play footsie, and eating brunch that I don't even want to be at? My grandparents are incredibly judgmental and uptight I can see why my mom made me dress up like a Barbie doll.

Just as I about fall asleep from boredom I see a group of boys with men in black shirts surrounding them. I dart my head up to see who has security guards with them. Nobody else at the table has noticed them, but me, and it's caught my attention. I try to make it less obvious as I look over and around heads to see who it is.

The first thing I see is bright red hair and I immediately stop looking around the security guards. I remember Michaels bright hair, and it automatically reminds me of the night when I fucked everything up. I try to ignore that Luke, Ashton, Calum, and Michael are sitting only a table away. I look up a few times just to see them, and right when I look at Luke I can see how drained he looks. There's bags under his eyes as he stares at his empty plate, while the other boys are talking to each other. He looks lifeless, and unaware.

I see Calum look over at me staring, and it makes me jerk my neck to turn my head as fast as possible. I hide in front of Hunter as Calum turns back to the group and subtly points over at me. I can feel my body temperature rise, and I start to sweat. I look back around Hunter at the boys and see Calum leaning in to talk to Luke. His eyes light up as he lifts his head up faster than I turned mine away.

I started inhaling my food, but nobody notices how stressed I am. I feel invisible at this table, but right now I'm thankful for that. Hunter still won't look at me, even though I'm crying out for help. I want to get out of here and go home, but I know that's not an option. Everyone at this table is so wrapped around the idea of Hunter being a mechanic, and not the fact that I have no idea who my grandparents even are.

I start to hear the boys laugh, and it makes parts of me wish I was sitting over there instead. This dress is too tight, and these heels are killing me, I could go for a laugh right now, only nothing could possibly be funny right now. I cross my arms on the table and lay my head down as I stare off at the wall across the room. I hear Michael quietly shout out "just do it!" As Luke says the opposite.

At the same moment Calum and Michael start laughing, Hunter shouts out. I lift my head off my arms and at Hunter to see parts of oranges laying on his shoulders. He's wearing a white shirt, so you can see the juice soaking into the fabric. I accidentally let out a chuckle, and Hunter gives me a disgusted look. I cover my mouth and hold back more laughs. Hunter pushes his chair out from the table and stands up dramatically. My grandparents have shocked looks on their faces, and my mom looks like she just got shot.

"Alex, we're leaving! Go wait in the car." My mom says to me from across the table. I look down at my plate and back up at my mom. I grab the bowl of fruit and throw it over at her. I look back over at Luke and start laughing. My mom looks even more shocked than before as she looks across at Luke. Luke looks equally confused. "Food fight!" Michael yells out from across the table. There's a few other families in the building, but none seem as amused as ours. My grandparents get up from the table and give me a disapproving nod. I start to laugh again, and start shoveling my food off my plate to start throwing. Luke is still sitting down with wide eyes and untouched food.

I give him a small smile as I pick up some of my food, and throw it over at him. Once it hits his chest a smirk comes across his face as he looks up at me. Ashton starts giggling as him, Calum, and Michael are throwing food across the restaurant. Hunter runs to the bathroom, probably to save his lame white polo shirt. Calum throws a little bit more food at him before he makes it.

(A/N yoyoyoyo this is katie! Hope you guys liked the chapter! Keep voting, it means so much!)