5. Sass is Back

53.3K 2.1K 1.1K
                                    

As soon as the contact was gone, I regretted it. I let out a quiet whine and scrambled to get to my recent calls. As soon as I got there, I clicked on his number. The 'save to contacts' screen popped up, and I clicked on it. Moments later, the name Luke with a monkey emoji was back on my contacts list. I sighed in defeat and glanced at October. She was staring at me, almost looking disappointed.

"Don't you go judging me like that, missy." I scolded half-heartedly. But I knew she was right in doing so. Being so attatched to Luke's phone number like this was seriously pathetic. With another sigh, I turned and exited the office. There were still more things to do with the camp today as well as surgeries to assist tonight. Thoughts of Luke and our past relationship would need to be pushed aside for the time being.

--------

Zoe was back at camp the next day with instructions to be given certain pills at noon. Other than that, Luke really didn't say anything. And I didn't ask. Of course, like always, Luke was late picking her up. By Friday, I had taken to just bringing her to my office once all of the other kids were gone. Though today, being Friday and thus the 'water fight' day of camp, I'd had to dry her off a little bit before taking her to my office. I'd grown pretty fond of the small girl. She was very excitable and was always humming some tune or another. I recognized a few as versions of songs I'd heard on the radio and such, but most seemed unfamiliar. 

Luke rolled in around 6:30 today, almost a half hour after I was supposed to have gone in back to help Dr. Ventri with surgeries. To say I was livid would be a bit of an understatement. As soon as I spotted him, I stood up.

"I need to talk to you." For a brief moment, he looked like he might protest, but he agreed, following me into the smaller office that branched off of mine. There was a window, so we could watch Zoe as she played with October. As soon as the door clicked shut, I spoke again. "What gives you the right to think that everyone runs on your schedule?" I demanded. Luke rolled his eyes.

"I'm not that late, Dae. Calm down." He sighed. I lifted my eyebrows at him, actually surprised at his lack of respect.

"Wow, Luke." I said. He looked over at me sharply, and I knew he recognized the tone of my voice. It was the same calm, eerie tone I'd used the day I left him. "I didn't get my doctorate's in human anatomy, but I'm pretty positive it's not healthy to have your head shoved that far up your ass." His jaw dropped slightly at my remark, but I didn't allow him to say anything before I continued. "Now, I have a job to do. A very important one, and one I should have already been started on. Tell Jack that if he wants to enroll Zoe in any of our other childrens' camps he's allowed to with one condition; you aren't going to be dropping her off or picking her up. And if he asks why, give him this and have him call me. I'd be happy to tell him." I handed Luke a card with my office phone number on it and opened the door to the room. Zoe glanced up and smiled, standing up in order to walk over and give Luke a hug. 

Luke seemed to be slightly in shock at the proper scolding I'd just given him. But he deserved it. If I hadn't been sure before, I was now; Luke wasn't the same boy I knew five years ago.

--------

"Hey Daeyna, you like rock-y music, right?" I turned at the sound of Katie's voice, locating the black-haired woman as she entered the break room. I shrugged noncommitally. I mean yeah I listened to rock-style bands, but the music wasn't necessarily my favorite style. My true love would always be country. It had been what I grew up on, and I would cherish it forever. Of course, that's not what I said to Katie.

"Yeah, I listen to it quite often." I replied, smiling at her over the fork of macaroni I had been about to shovel into my mouth. She grinned at my words.

"Perfect. I know it's a bit short-notice, but I had tickets to a concert with one of my friends, and for some reason she bailed on me. I was just wondering if you'd like to go. It's on Saturday night. We both have it off already, which is convenient." She explained happily. I nodded, figuring I might as well go.

"Yeah, I'll go. I don't have anything else to do on Saturday anyways." I said, feeling somewhat pathetic for not having plans beforehand. Katie's beaming smile seemed to get larger at this, and she scampered over to her purse to pull out an envelope. She reached her hand into the small rectangle and pulled out a ticket, handing it over to me. "Thanks, Katie. I really appreciate it. Where are we sitting, and who—" I stumbled over my own words as soon as my gaze landed on the printed name on the front of the ticket. 

5 Seconds of Summer.

Part of me wanted to immediately give the ticket back to her and apologize. But I couldn't do that. I may not be absolute best frieds with Katie, but she was a realy nice person, and if going to the concert would make her happy, I'd go. Even if I really didn't want to.

"I know, 5SOS!" She exclaimed excitedly. "Can you believe it? It's been over a year and a half since their last tour, and they haven't even released any new songs in the past year, but they're doing another tour. It's only around Australia this time, but I've heard rumors that they're planning a new album release soon!" She leaned in towards me as she spoke, as if her words were some sort of unshareable secret. Clearly, she'd taken my sudden silence as confirmation that I loved the band. 

Don't get me wrong, I'm very well aware how talented the boys are. I'd been the one to help record and edit some of the videos that had helped them get noticed. I'd been the one recording at a few of their concerts, and though I wasn't around when the actual video was made, a lot of the footage I'd recorded had been used in their 'Out of my Limit' video. The video I had edited, though, was Gotta Get Out. I remembered how ridiculously difficult it was to get all four boys to act serious at the same time so that the video looked nice. I'd ended up recording a lot of different angles because my original all-in-one-shot idea definitely didn't work.

But, there was one thing that kept me from truly enjoying their music and being excited that I'd just landed tickets to their show. And that thing wasn't a thing at all. It was a person. A person I hadn't spoken to in over two weeks, ever since I yelled at him for being a complete dick.

Luke.

////////

Woah! 2 Chapters in 2 days? What has gotten into me? Who knows? But it's nice, isn't it? Anyways, expect the next chapter on Sunday. This was just a little apology for the tardiness of the last one.

I love you, and am very thankful for all te wonderful feedback and support and love I receive from you all!

See you Sunday! =))

Forgiven // l.h. // Book 2 in Bully SeriesWhere stories live. Discover now