The Bully || Luke Hemmings

Chapter 12

Luke's *point of view*

We pulled up to the hellhole, which is also called school, and Ashton basically had to shove us out of his truck. Skylar and I looked at each other and groaned. She motioned for me to follow her and she lead me to the tree we ate lunch at. Standing there was Jordan and Maddie, in a deep conversation, and than a guy standing near them on his phone. His hair was jet black, he had bright green eyes, and was pretty tall. Not as tall as me, but still pretty tall. He glanced up at his phone and his face turned into a smile once his eyes had landed on Skylaer. Skylar had jogged over to him and he brought her into a hug.

"Tommy, meet Luke. Luke, meet Tommy," She said and gestured with her hands. Tommy stuck out his hand and I shook it. Neither of us said hello or hi or hey. Skylar looked back and forth between us before turning to her friends. I stood there awkwardly as Maddie, Jordan, Skylar, and sometimes Tommy, discussed about nothing too important. When the bell had rung, I had almost walked away before I was pulled back.

"Are you okay?" Skylar asked me while looking deep into my eyes. I nodded uncomfortably under her gaze. She raised her eyebrows and I knew she wasn't buying it. Luckily for me, the bell had given off another warning tone.

"Tell me later," She sighed and walked away. Guilt poured inside my stomach and my stomach churned at the thought of Skylar being mad at me. My stomach completely lurched as I walked past the calender. Thursday. It read Thursday. Bringing my hand to mouth to stop from completely puking all over the floor, I made it to my seat.

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"Luke are you okay?" Her sweet voice asked. I realized that no one was around in the hall way, leaving us alone.

"Luke?" Her voice asked me once again. I brought my hands from behind my back and they clenched into fist. I felt her hands on one of my fists, slowly pulling my fingers out of the tight grip and just letting them hang. It took some time since I had my fists in an iron grip. She moved her hands to my other fist and repeated the same procedure. Some of my anger had fizzled away by the time she had my hands resting at my sides. She whispered sweet nothings, while giving my hands squeezes every so often.

"Lukey. C'mon. It's alright," She cooed. The rest of my anger poured out of me as I shrugged into a hunch. Skylar took that to her advantage, and slipped her arms around my waist and pulling me tight. I closed off the hug and held her there for what felt like hours. Thank god she was here. Usually I end up in the bathroom bawling my eyes out, or just slumped against the lockers in a trance that I can't snap out of until my thoughts become more clear. She dropped away from the hug and took a step back.

"You need to get to class before you are really late," She said. She locked her hand with mine and then began to walk down the hallway to my next period.

"Why are here? Aren't you supposed to be across camp?" I asked suddenly.

"Had to hang up posters for his new club," She replied nonchalantly. I shrugged and let her pull me along the long endless hall way. Before I reached the door, I was being pulled into another hug. I sighed into her shoulder and she rubbed my back in weird patterns. She let me just stay there on her shoulder for a few minutes before she pulled away.

"Listen to me. Don't let them get to you," She said. I nodded and let my eyes drop to the floor as if it was the most fascinating thing in the world. Her two small and cold fingers pushed my chin up and she stared directly at me before giving me the familiar hand squeeze. She stalked off and I watched her till she became a speck. I turned on my heels to get ready to face my teacher. Thankfully, the class was being wild so I was able to sneak in without getting detected. My hands found the page I was on last time and my eyes soaked in the words I haven't read yet.

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The clouds came rolling in by the end of the day and that caused the hallways to be dimmer than usual. It looked like the clouds were about to burst from holding all of the water. Walking slowly, I noticed the familiar blue eyes boring holes into my face.

"I'm bored," She grumbled and pouted.

"What did ya think school was made for fun?" I asked, chuckling. She rolled her eyes and swatted at my chest playfully.

"Let's just go," She grumbled, pulling on my arm down the familiar hallway. My eyes shifted left and right for the menacing face of my bully. I didn't see him anywhere, and we were soon out the door with no one hurting us.

"Where are they?" I asked, more to myself then to Skylar. I saw her shrug and continue to walk away from the school, me following closely behind. We were walking to Ashton's house, since he claimed he didn't feel like driving to pick us up from school. Skylar somehow knew how to get to his house from the high school, but I didn't question it because they seemed to know a whole lot about each other.

Turning down onto the last block, Skylar sat down on the curb. Patting the spot next to her, I sat down and stretched out my legs onto the deserted road.

"Tell me," She said while looking off into something in the distance.

"About what?" I lied.

"Why you were acting that way in the morning," She responded, completely disregarding my lie. I shrugged in response, not wanting to answer her question.

"Why don't you tell me something about you?" I asked, trying to change the topic. She eyed me suspiciously, but knew I didn't want to talk about anything.

"What do you want to know?" She whispered. I thought about what I should ask.

"What's your favorite color?" I asked. It was a simple question, and she chuckled a tiny bit.

"Blue," She responded.

"How come?" I asked, curious.

"Because blue is the color of the ocean. And the ocean, to me, is a perfect representation of life. Sometimes it's calm, and then other times it's rough. But, through every wave, it will always hits back on the shore. And after every rough patch, it will turns back to the calm state somehow. Which is how I like to think that's how life is like, always coming back to calm some way or another," She explained. In that moment, I realized that she was the one always bringing my ocean from rough to calm.