Toxic - Luke Hemmings

Chapter 35

Izzy's POV

The guys left the hotel at around 4 the next day, telling me and Sophie to expect them to be back before 7. I asked Luke if I should worry if he wasn't back by then, but he tried to convince me to hold tight if that were to be the case. I was on edge the entire time, the worst-case scenarios running ramped through my head.

Sophie convinced me that it would be a good idea to go out and take our minds off of it. I had to remember that she had a personal stake in this too, since Ashton was going with him. We were worried about all four of them, so we figured retail therapy was in order. It didn't take the edge fully off, but it helped us forget why we were so stressed out to begin with.

I didn't want to spend too much money, so I only really bought stuff when we got to Sephora. I wanted to replenish my collection, and Sophie's Christmas present got me excited about new products again. We must have spent an hour in there, just swatching and testing different things. I spent way too much money and was completely ashamed to admit it, but at least I walked out of the store with a smile on my face.

We grabbed coffee at Starbucks on our way back to the hotel, so I got to use my gift card for the first time. I mentally thanked Calum and Ashton for splurging on the $100 one, knowing it would come in handy many more times after that. It was almost 7 when we got back to the room, and the guys still weren't back. I decided to text Luke to see if he would answer.

Me:

How is everything?

I waited a few minutes for a response. I threw my phone down on the bed and pulled out a bag of chips we had stopped for, switching the TV on so we could distract ourselves again. As much as Riverdale entertained me, it still couldn't shake the thought of the guys being in trouble out of my head. When I finally heard my phone vibrate, I jumped for it.

Luke:

We're on our way back rn

I let out a sigh of relief and turned to Sophie to tell her. We sat there in silence for a minute, just happy to hear that they were okay. It didn't take long for us to hear them come back to their room, so we ran to the conjoined door and opened it. I think both of our jaws hit the floor when we saw the conditions they were in.

"What happened? Are you okay?" I panicked, running up to Luke as I looked at all of them. Luke looked the worst by far, but they were all beaten up pretty good. Luke had a black eye forming, and this time it looked like it was going to be bad. When he unzipped his jacket, his tee was covered in blood.

"Brett left out some details." He said, clearly fuming. I didn't want to push him any further than that right now, so I just pulled him into mine and Sophie's bathroom to wash him up. I grabbed one of the white hotel hand towels and wet it, dabbing away the blood that was smeared all over his chin.

"Are you hurt anywhere else?" I asked, hoping the answer would be no. When pulled his shirt off, I saw that the answer was regrettably yes. "Luke!" I shouted, bringing my fingers to the cut on his side. It looked like someone cut him with a knife.

"Just clean it up, it'll be fine." He tried to sugar coat it, but the amount of blood coming out of the gash in front of me was really freaking me out.

"Was it a knife?" I asked, trying to control it with a towel.

"Yeah." He mumbled and tried to take the towel from me.

"Luke, stop. I think you need stitches." I kneeled to get a closer look to see exactly how deep it was. When the blood wouldn't stop pouring, I had a feeling it was worse than what we could handle.