jerk irl \ muke

chptr 10

luke stared at me with teasing eyes as i tried to form a sentence to respond with, but "i-i, uh, no. uh, w-what?" was all that i could manage to stutter out.

"you like me, don't you clifford?" he chuckled and smirked at me, which let me know i wasn't getting out of this easily.

"i'd rather get hit by a car," i sighed, rolling my eyes.

"let me go get my car," he said, pointing outside to where his car was parked, "i'll do the honors."

"luke, i'm not obsessed with you. the only reason i knew what coffee you liked was because you ordered it for me," i explained to him as if he was a small child. his smirk faltered a little bit as he tried to think of something cocky to reply with.

"whatever, let's just work on the project," he said, sitting down with lauren following.

"okay, we need to decide whether or not we're gonna write a poem or write a song," i said after a few moments of silence.

"no shit sherlock," luke said sarcastically, glaring at me from his spot on the couch.

"didn't know i was a detective now."

"you're not, you're too clueless to be."

"what's that supposed to mean?" i demanded and closed my notebook, setting it down on the floor next to me.

"n-nothing," he said, suddenly losing his confidence.

i scoffed, "whatever, i'm going home." i shoved my notebook into my backpack and slung it over my left shoulder as i stood up.

"oh and luke," i called out and turned back towards him once i made it to the doorway, "you're singing for the english project."

~

i stood in the driveway waiting for my mom to pick me up. i had texted her 15 minutes ago to come and get me - and luke's house is a 5 minute drive from our house...so what's taking her so long?

mandy's dad had already picked her up, and lauren begged luke to give her a ride home, so now i was left alone in luke's driveway at 9 o'clock at night.

i decided to sit on luke's porch, watching all the unfamiliar cars drive by as i waited for my mother. i felt my phone vibrate in my pants pocket and i checked it eagerly, hoping it was my mom. i saw the ask.fm notification on my screen that had grown to become familiar to me and smiled to myself.

"i really want to get to know you better."
-anon

"go ahead and ask me anything, what else would ask.fm be for? haha," i typed as a response and waited for a question to appear in my ask box. as if on queue, a "1" appeared over the question mark tab on the app.

"do you like any sports?"
-anon

"do i seem like i would know anything about sports? and you know you don't have to sign each question as "anon" right? you're the only one who's ever talked to me on here," i chuckled as i hit the answer button.

"well what if one day everyone suddenly took notice of how perfect you are and wanted to confess their love for you over social media? then you would forget all about me."

-anon

"yeah like that's ever gonna happen."

"you never know, i mean i didn't take notice at first, but now it's all i ever notice."

-anon

"aw anon you're too cute. do you any more cute questions?"

"what's your family like? like, who do you live with?"

-anon

"i live with just my mom, her and my dad are divorced, nothing huge. what about you?"

"i live with my mom, my dad, and my two brothers."

-anon

"that's cool, what are your brothers like?"

"they're both older than me and annoying to say the least."

-anon

i chuckled at the last part and closed the app to text my mom one last time.

a few minutes later a blonde boy plopped down on the porch next to me. i looked up at him for a brief moment before looking down at my phone again and deciding to read the messages i had received from my mystery girl over again.

"um, hi," the blonde boy said to me. "im jack."

i smiled, "im michael."

"i know - luke talks about you all the time. it's sickening. it's like he's a male version of a 12 year old schoolgirl," he said and rolled his eyes at the last part.

i laughed, "really? i thought he hated me?"

"oh no, it's like, the opposite of that. he's totally in love with you."

my eyes widened as i turned to look at him, "what?"

he nodded, "yup. he doesn't have very many people to talk about it with, except for calum and ashton, but they're not much help - so he talks to me."

i stared at him in shock and tried to comprehend what he was saying. luke didn't love me, i knew that for a fact. maybe he was learning to tolerate me, but there was no way he could even like me. his brother was probably only messing with me, knowing how much luke hated me and wanted to prank me or something.

"well i better be getting ready for bed now, i have a job interview tomorrow morning. luke should invite you over more often, mom would love to get to know his boyfriend," he smiled at me and stood up, walking to the front door.

wait, did he just say ... boyfriend? does he think im luke's boyfriend?

"why are you still here?"

i whipped my head up to see luke standing by his car, his arms crossed over his chest and one of his eyebrows slightly raised. i started feeling my cheeks heating up at the sight of him. what if what his brother said was true? what if luke did love me? i felt something in my stomach when i thought about it, and i wasn't entirely sure if it was a good or bad feeling. ugh, michael what has gotten into you? i hate luke. i hate luke. i hate luke.

there, that ought to do it.

"having a harsh internal debate there or ...?" luke's voice made my thoughts be put on hold as he trailed his sentence off.

"no."

"hmm, could've fooled me. so, again i must ask, why are you still here?"

"my mom's late picking me up, obviously," i stated, rolling my eyes. he chuckled slightly and looked down the road at the direction my mom was supposed to come from. my mom was usually late for everything, no matter how important it was for me or her, that's why i couldn't wait to learn how to drive from someone - anyone, because my mom's claimed she's "too busy."

"is that your car?" luke asked, nodding towards the silver challenger driving slowly down the cement road.

i nodded, standing up, "that's my mom, fashionably late as always." i hoped off the porch and made my way down the pathway to the car that was parked on the opposite side of the street.

"hey wait michael!" luke said, running to catch up with me. i looked up at him and nodded my head as a gesture for him to continue.

"can i - can i get your number? for, uh, for the project?" he asked and gently smiled at me.

"sure," i said, returning the smile as i saved my number in his phone.

----

so much happened in this chapter omg. LUKES DROPPING SO MANY HINTS !!!