Toxic - Luke Hemmings

Chapter 9

Izzy's POV

Things went back to the way they were pretty quickly. I got along great with everyone and met them for lunch every day. Luke and I ignored each other in all our classes together, and he picked up right where he left off giving me shit when we hung out as a group. I didn't bother trying to talk to him and fix things, I knew there was really no point in it.

I tried to get over it and put up a hard front, but I missed the person Luke was pretending to be. It was hard to fully come to terms with the fact that that person didn't really exist to begin with. I got through the next few weeks just fine, but I kept myself slightly separated from everyone so I wouldn't cause anymore drama.

Halloween was right around the corner, though, so I told the gang that I'd join them to go to a Halloween party that one of Calum's classmates was throwing. Leave it to Calum to get invited to all the big parties. I had a couple of days to put together a costume, which I still had no ideas for. I planned on going to the mall with Sophie later today to look for stuff for one.

After the incident at the party, Sophie asked if we could talk without the guys around. She ended up apologizing, I guess she felt like it was her fault that I had that outburst. It took some time to get her to understand that it wasn't her fault and that she didn't know any better, but once we got that conversation over with we started hanging out more and more. We had actually gotten pretty close these last few weeks.

I offered to drive to the mall, so after class I pulled my car around to the front of our building to pick her up. She was planning on being a 'sexy' clown. I was 100% opposed to the idea, but after she showed me the inspiration pictures she found online I was sold. I, on the other hand, was the most indecisive person to walk this Earth, though. I had so many ideas in mind that I didn't know what direction to go in.

The last few weeks I found myself opening up to her about the whole situation with Luke. She kind of squeezed it out of me more so than I was willing, but she was the best listener I could have asked for. It felt good to be able to talk to someone about it. I told her how much I missed the good times we had, even if it was so short. She understood why I didn't want to talk to him, though.

I filled her in on my theory about him putting on that front because of guilt. She hadn't seen the way we treated each other in the beginning, though, so it was hard for her to believe it. Apparently, she wasn't convinced that it was all in act. I remember her saying something along the lines of, "There's no way he could fake the look in his eyes when he looked at me", or some gushy shit like that. When she said it I literally laughed out loud.

But here we were, in the car on the way to get Halloween costumes to distract ourselves from school and all the other stressful crap in our lives. For some reason I couldn't let this be relaxing, though. I was stressing out about what to be, what to wear, if I should worry about how cold it was going to be. I just had Sophie pull up costume ideas on her phone as I drove.

"What about the devil?" She asked, this was probably the 20th option she gave me.

"That's too cliché." I told her, pulling into the closest parking spot I could find.

"How about an angel?" She said optimistically, even though I cringed at the thought of wearing all white.

"Have you even met me?" I asked her. We laughed for minute after she mumbled a quick 'true'. She locked her phone and slid it into her pocket, and I could tell she had something going on in her brain.

"What about a dark angel, then?" She suggested, making the gears turn in my head. I actually liked it.

"That's the one. Now we just have to find shit to make a dark angel and a fucking clown." I groaned, knowing how long it's going to take us to get everything we needed.