Red Roses [Luke Hemmings]

Eight

Ah, the ARIA's. It was tonight and Luke was the only one in the band without a date. He considered taking his mum but she wanted to sit with his family instead. In the end, he didn't care anymore. He was sitting at St Ignatius Academy's front, waiting for Rebecca. She had told him she was on her way, only two minutes away.

Soon enough, she saw him and Luke stood up to greet her with a tight smile. He was upset with her and he didn't know why.
"Hey," she said.
"Hi," Luke said. They stared at each other for awhile until Luke pulled out the brown paper bag from the bench and gave it to Rebecca.
"I got you a double chocolate chip cookie," he said, "I know how much you like them."
"Thanks," Rebecca said. They took a seat as Rebecca began to break pieces off of the cookie and put it in her mouth. Luke watched her eat and decline the offer of some of her large cookie.
"So what are we doing?" Rebecca asked.
"Well at first I wanted to take you to a drawing place just north of here but my mum's been bugging me about buying some nice clothes for the ARIA's."
"Oh right, that's tonight!"
"Yeah. My stylist is gone to French Polynesia for her wedding anniversary and the other guys already have clothes. I've been stalling because I hate shopping for clothes."
"I could help you."
"Yeah but I booked the drawing place for you."
"Why don't we go after? Noah's tackling the wedding prep stuff today so I could be yours all afternoon."

I could be yours. If Rebecca meant it any other way, Luke would've accepted in a heartbeat. He loved those words. He wanted Rebecca to be his.

"Sure," Luke said with a smile. And then he looked away, suddenly ashamed he was willing to have Rebecca even if that meant her cheating on Noah. He was the monster now.

"Shall we go?" Rebecca said, throwing the bag into the trash bin and standing up, happily to go.
"Let's," Luke said, walking her to his car. He opened the door for her and then he went into his seat to drive Rebecca to the art place in town. Luke paid enough to have Rebecca's own easel, her own paint and anything else she needed. He would wait for her to finish her artwork because he loved to see her face when she was determined and focus. She was so cute.

"Derrick's Art Room? Really? This place is like... expensive," Rebecca said.
"You know it's still odd as a girl rich as you, would say expensive," Luke said.
"Things are expensive, no matter how much money you have."

Luke opened the door and let Rebecca walk through. It was empty except for the front desk worker who let them freely walk into one of the rooms and Rebecca had the largest one. It was wonderful to watch her touch all of the things in the room like a child touching their gifts on Christmas morning. She was in awe as Luke was in awe watching her.

"This is so awesome," she giggled.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Draw," Luke laughed, taking a seat.
"What do I draw?" Rebecca asked. Luke shrugged. He thought to himself.
"Okay um, close your eyes and think of your happy place. Draw what makes you happy and why it makes you happy."

Rebecca did as told and soon her hand was moving with fiery and passion across the paper on the easel with her pencil. She wasn't stopping and Luke didn't want her to. He watched the lines across the page slowly and slowly change into something new each time Rebecca added more. She added more and more and the scene was still confusing for Luke. Rebecca switched to acrylic paint, painting the scene. The background was a gloomy blueish grey and the bottom a dark forest green. She painted quickly but with precision and not to mention utter perfection.

An hour and a half later, Rebecca had paint all over her apron, her arms and some green on her cheekbone. She stepped back and looked at her easel. The look on her face was the same look that Luke's mum gave him when they played their first stadium show in Sydney in front of all of their family. It was the same look that Luke longed for from all of the people he tried to make proud.