Toxic - Luke Hemmings

Chapter 23

Izzy's POV

The next weeks flew by before we could think about it. All of our professors had stopped giving us a ridiculous amount of homework so we could study for finals. We only had this week of classes and then it was finals week. The end of the semester snuck up on us out of nowhere, and I still didn't know where I was going to go while everyone went home to their families.

Luke and I were getting closer by the day, and you never really saw one of us without the other. We laid low to keep out of trouble after I told him how drained I was. He didn't want to bring any more stress into my life, especially this week. We were planning on studying for our chemistry final together almost every night, along with helping each other with our other ones. He knew we had to stay focused.

We passed on going out this last weekend and chose to stay cooped up in my room the whole time. It was nice to have a quiet few days with no contact to the outside world. By Wednesday night we were almost completely done covering all of the topics on the practice exam, so we took a break to actually go out and get food for the first time in almost a week.

We got our plates of mediocre pasta and found a booth in the corner. We talked about our other finals for a while, making sure we both felt good about them. I was glad that he took school as seriously as I did, or else this definitely wouldn't work. It was a life line for the two of us, though. We had nothing to fall back on except a degree.

"Where are you going once the semester's over?" Luke asked in between bites. I didn't want him to worry about me, since by the way he wasn't stressing out about it I could tell he had somewhere to stay.

"I'll figure it out. I can just drive back to my hometown, if anything. I have friends there." I assured him, pushing the food around on my plate. "Where are you staying?" I asked, diverting the attention to him.

"Brett's house." He said, putting his fork down and watching me intently. "Do you want me to see if you can come?"

"I don't know if that's a good idea." I said quietly, putting down my fork as well.

"Jaime's not going to be there. He has his own place, he was just there for dinner that night." He assured me, leaning his elbows on the edge of the table. "If you're there, Brett won't let him within fifty feet of the front door."

"I don't want to put him out like that." I told him, feeling bad about letting someone I really barely knew give me a place to stay for two weeks.

"Izz, he likes you. A lot. He'd say yes in a heartbeat. It's not that big of a deal, he literally makes thousands a week because of me." He smirked, giving himself a hypothetical pat on the back. I rolled my eyes at him, not bothering to hold back the smile that took over my face.

"Only if it's okay with him." I reluctantly agreed. His face lit up as he pulled his phone out of his pocket and went into his contacts. "What are you doing?" I asked him, furrowing my eyebrows as he put it on speaker as it rang. I saw Brett's name was at the top of the screen.

"What's up?" Brett picked up loud and clear on the other end.

"Hey, can I ask for a favor?" Luke said, smiling at me while he talked.

"Yeah, what do you need?"

"Is it okay if Izzy stays with us over break? I can explain later, she just doesn't have anywhere else to go." He said, making sure to not air out my dirty laundry without permission.

"Yeah! She's always welcome, bro." He said excitedly, making me smile like an idiot.

"Thanks, man. I appreciate it." Luke told him, hovering his thumb over the red button as the conversation came to a close.