cool » l. hemmings

viii.

"Wait - did you just-" Michael stopped in the middle of walking, moving directly in front of me. "Luke Hemmings?"

"Luke Hemmings," I say again slowly, nodding. I shrugged his hands from my shoulders. His green-like eyes were still looking at me even when his hands dropped.

He shakes his head and returns to his spot next to me. We continue walking and I'm still confused, but not bothering to ask him why he reacted that way.

I look down at my hand and at the numbers Luke wrote on my hand. A smiley face with a nose. He doesn't strike me for the type to do smiley faces. Though he also didn't give me the impression that he actually did well in school, either.

"Remember Brooke?"

I know I said Brooke was alright earlier, but she was worse than alright. She was absolutely horrible. At first she was okay. Everything turned to shit within a month of her and Michael becoming a thing. She annoyed me beyond belief. I know people can be loud, but you'd think she didn't know the difference between an inside or an outside voice. I don't think she even knew what those were.

I scoffed and rolled my eyes, remembering her quite clearly. Her annoying voice and her taunting words and the obvious way she swayed her hips to look a lot more attractive than she is. "Of course."

He pulled down his flannel sleeves and covered his hands. We walked closer to his house as we talked. Only about five minutes away now. I saw Michael become nervous, and he struggled to say anything. Michael isn't a very emotional guy, he never has been. I looked at him and asked if he was okay.

"Luke was the one she...you know, she kept cheating with."

"I thought that was-"

"No, that was the other time." As you can tell, Brooke was a very, well, thoughtful person. Quite selfish, conceited. Michael was none of those things, I have no idea what they ever found in common to start a relationship together.

This changes my whole perspective on Luke. I was growing fond of the idiotic (and quite adorable) boy. More than fond. He was the closest I've been with anyone since I met Michael.

I thought back to when Luke wanted to know about Michael. So that's why.

We were on Michael's driveway now, walking toward the single step that led to his front door. But we didn't go inside. We sat down on that step and continued talking.

"You never told me she did it more than once." You should've seen how broken he was after it all happened. I had been the one that told him something bad was going to happen when she moved away. He loved her, for the seven months they were together.

Michael is the sweetest person I know underneath his appearance, and with Brooke, that's how he treated her. She treated him like utter trash, and I wanted to tell him to drop the whole relationship. But he didn't, even through the arguing she started over and over. Even after finding her cheating at his own party.

"It mostly happened with Luke."

I sighed, almost tripping on the separation of the sidewalk. "He's part of the family that moved in."

"You're not kidding?"

"I do not kid, Clifford." I attempted to make him smile a bit, and it worked. I got a laugh, too.

We sat on his step for another fifteen minutes, just until I had to go to pick up Grady.

"You can come, too, if you want. He won't shut up about wanting to see you," I smiled, standing up and turning to wait for Michael. "He's figured out a name sign for you."