"I still leave your side of the bed empty, like you left it.
It's cold but you felt colder."
-m.razon

**

"I know Troye, I'm really sorry." I pout at my best friend on the other side of the screen.

"Thank god Addy talks to me, or I wouldn't have known if you three were dead or alive." Troye shakes his head, the disappointment clear on his face even with bad video reception.

"I will call you more frequently, I promise."

"Good." He says and goes on to talk about his new job as the new Vogue photographer's personal assistant.

I missed him so much, and it's not that I didn't want to call him or answer his endless phone calls but it's just that I didn't have the heart to lie to him. He would ask me how I was doing and I would have been forced to tell him I was alright when I really wasn't. Now that I'm finally a little happy and content with my surroundings, I decided to Skype call him after breakfast today.

"You should come back soon. It's like having a detached limb without you guys here." He sighs loudly.

"I miss home too. So how's your new boy toy?" I ask him curiously. Strangely enough, he hasn't brought up any guy yet.

"I'm single baby girl." He laughs, but the sadness in his tone is clear to me.

I raise an eyebrow at him. "That's a first." Troye was always the outgoing and adventurous one. He always had a love interest.

A shadow blocks out the sunlight directly in front of me while Troye talks "I decided that I have better goals—" I look up from my laptop screen and almost fall off the edge of the bed when I see Luke standing in front of me.

I pull out one of my earphones and glare at him for the scare he gave me. "How the hell did you get in here?"

He smirks at my shocked expression and sits down on the bed. "You didn't lock your door."

"It was locked!" I huff at him. He moves closer to me and whispers in my ear. "You're right. It was locked. Perks of being a filthy rich asshole that pays for your hotel."

"Who is that?" I hear Troye shout in my other ear. Luke hears him too.

"Who are you talking to?" Luke asks, moving closer to the screen.

"The guy that pays for my hotel room apparently," I answer Troye with a grin, ignoring Luke.

"Hello!" Luke waves playfully and Troye audibly gasps when he sees who it is.

"Luke Hemmings!" Troye shrieks and I pull out the other earphone before I go deaf. Luke unplugs them from the computer so he can hear what Troye is saying too.

"Hello!" Luke shouts again, eyeing the excited boy on my screen.

"Luke, you remember Troye Delgado? Troye, Luke Hemmings." I introduce them both seeing the confused look on his face.

"I thought he was your boyfriend for a second there," Luke mutters silently and I pray that Troye didn't hear any of it.

"Are you seeing him, Sierra? Is that why you haven't bothered calling me?" Troye jokes and I feel my face flush with embarrassment. Why is a relationship the first thing people always assume?

"No, I'm not," I reply, interrupting whatever sarcastic comment Luke was about to give.

"Whatever you say, princess. Look I gotta run, I'll call you again soon and you better answer!" Troye tells me and I agree.

"It was nice seeing you again...through the screen, Luke Hemmings." Troye waves.

"You can call me Luke." He says kindly.

"Well, Luke, take care of my girl for me. Byeee!" he waves and I blow him a kiss right before he logs out. I heave a sigh and close my laptop, already missing his energetic presence.

"He's a nice guy." Luke breaks the silence from next to me. I don't know why he is here in the first place but I don't question it. After the day we spent together yesterday, this morning felt lonely without him around.

"He is."

"Did you two date?" He asks me and I feel him shift on the bed, laying down. I do the same, laying down on my side. His lips are turned down at the corners with a small frown.

"He's gay, Luke." I chortle.

"Oh." He laughs airily, his deep blue eyes staring right at me.

"Yeah. Oh." I whisper because I felt a kind of peace in this moment and I didn't want to talk too loud and fill it with noise.

"Don't you want to know why I'm here?" He turns his body towards me, supporting his head with his arm.

"Not really."

"I'm telling you anyway. We're going out. Since we have to head to Perth tomorrow, I have one last place I want to take you." He states, playing with his lip ring.

"And I'm assuming you won't tell me where that is?" He always surprised me so there was no point worrying about where we were going.

"Nope. It's another surprise." He chuckles and I groan into my hands.

~

I scuff my boots on the pavement edge while I wait for Luke to come around with the car. We bickered for about ten minutes in the elevator and lobby after he told me he was driving us wherever it was that he has planned to take me. I told him I didn't want him driving with his hands still barely healed. But Luke, stubborn as ever, told me that he will be fine and stormed out, leaving me in the lobby.

I put on a pair of dark denim shorts that are frayed at the ends and a loose fitting white t-shirt with a v-neck. It was a little windy outside and I couldn't help feeling a little cold so I brought along the poncho I had gotten from the vintage market the other day. The two necklaces are still around my neck, the tiny glass shining under the afternoon light.

A few minutes later, a sleek nineteen sixty-seven Ford Mustang pulls up near me. It takes me a second to fathom what is happening, my eyes hungrily taking in the beauty of the car. I bend down to look at the driver.

Luke rolls down the window and leans over the gear. "Are you going to get in or stand there gaping at the car?" He calls.

"Where did you get this?!" I shake my head at him, opening the heavy door carefully and getting in. The car had an old smell to it, like cedar wood and decade old cigars.

"It's my dad's. He has a thing for collecting this stuff. I borrowed one tonight cause I knew it was your thing."

"How do you know it's my thing? I dig a good sports car." I joke.

But he was right, this car is a dream to me. I didn't think these existed now. Classic cars were a rarity these days because people just wanted to get places, and they wanted to get there fast.

"You have this really old soul. Like Ashton says, you were born in the wrong era." He says observantly.

"But I think I'm a mix of both. I admire modern architecture quite a lot." I add.

"You're weird either way hon." He laughs and presses a button on the stereo. Green Days, Basket Case starts to drone through the speaker.

I hum to myself in satisfaction and lay my head back on the seat, running my hands along the leather seats. Minutes pass and I feel his gaze on me as we wait at a stop sign.

"What?" I ask softly, turning my head towards him. The afternoon light cast shadows on the planes and angles of his face, his blue eyes are hooded but I can see the shine in them.

"You look beautiful when you're happy."

"Thank you." I look down at the hands on my lap, smiling to myself.

---

"A drive-in theatre?!" I squeal when Luke pulls into a line behind about fifteen other cars.

"Surprise!" 

He really does have the best damn surprises and he was such a romantic sap but I don't dare tell him that, worried he would get offended by it.

"I love this!" I exclaimed, clapping my hands together.

"I knew you would." He says slowly as I look around. It was a huge park with a giant screen right in the middle of the grounds. The screen was slightly raised so that people at the back had a good view. Cars are parked behind each other, people walking around, buying snacks and having a good time with their friends and family while they wait for the movie to start.

"I didn't think Australia even had these places," I mumble in wonder.

"We have everything, love." Luke snickers and we come to a stop in the middle of the lot. He parks behind a Mini Cooper filled with teenagers around it.

"I'm going to go get snacks. Anything you want in particular?" He asks, taking off his seat belt.

"Anything will be fine," I assure him.

He smiles cheekily at me and gets out. "I'll be right back!" he calls back to me and I watch him jog off. I get out of the car and let my eyes wander around. I have been to a drive-in theatre once with my father when I was very young. We had watched an old classic movie and midway, I had dozed off to sleep on the roof of the car, almost slipping off and injuring myself. We still laugh at that memory to this day.

I see Luke being asked for a picture by two fans while he waits in line for snacks. I always seem to forget that the whole world knows who he is, especially at times like these when it's just the two of us.

The two of us.

The last three days felt like a very long birthday. On your birthday, everyone is just so nice to you and even the people that dislike you keep their mouths shut. Everyone tries to give you a good day and you try to hold onto it as much as you can. It felt like that with Luke, I just pray that it doesn't end. I can tell a lot of planning goes into these things, even though he makes them look effortless.

I lean my back against the car and watch the park. There are a lot of people here. Families are parked, sitting around and having picnics. Teenagers hang around, laughing loudly and chugging cans of beer.

"Hey." Luke comes around the car towards me with his hands loaded a few minutes later.

"Got us popcorn. Do you like popcorn?" He asks me nervously.

"Do you think I'll be a brat and throw it in your face even if I didn't?" I take the bag of popcorn from him, my nostrils filling with the smell of hot caramel popcorn.

"Girls do that shit sometimes." He shrugs.

"I love caramel popcorn. And if a girl ever does that, you leave her stranded wherever you took her." I joke. He balances our drinks on the roof of the car laughing at my comment. "I knew you were mean somewhere in there. Don't strand me anywhere okay?" I scoff at him and put my phone down onto my seat.

"Do you want to sit on the hood? You'll have a better view of the screen." He suggests.

"Yeah. That'll be nice." Luke jogs over to the other side and I slowly sit myself down on the hood of the car, careful not to scratch it. I cross my legs since the hood is flat so there is no chance of slipping off.

Luke lifts himself up onto it carelessly and I hiss at him to not scrape the precious car. "The car will be fine, Era." He chuckles, settling in. The movie screen lighting up and signalling that the movie will start in a few minutes.

"Do you know what the movie is?" I ask Luke, turning my head sideways to look at him. He is already staring at me and a blush spreads across my cheeks.

"Mr.Bean." He says, highly amused.

My eyes go wide at his answer. "No way."

Mr Bean movies were as old as the car that we were sitting on. Old enough that I doubted half the kids here knew about it.

"He is a classic," Luke states with a mouthful of popcorn. He is one of those people who finishes the food before the movie actually starts.

"He is. I loved that guy, haven't seen him in years, to be honest." I hum, remembering things from the movies I used to laugh at for hours. I almost don't feel the light tracing of fingers against my cheek. The momentary amusement pauses and my eyes close at his touch.

"I love when you laugh." He murmurs, closer to my ear now. His warm breath fans against the side of my face.

"Always be happy." He tells me, pulling away a little and tucking a loose strand of hair behind my ear.

"I can only say the same for you," I smile lovingly at him, he was still a beautiful person, the world hasn't entirely ruined him, yet. My heart hurt at how much he deserved to be happy.

"I am happy love. As happy as I can be." He pops a kernel in his mouth. Right at this moment, he wasn't much of a rock star. He was just a normal guy, taking a girl out on a date. This world was such a strange place sometimes.

"Good." I nod at him, the movie credits starting to roll. The sun starts to set, orange hues spreading across the sky. Luke gets bored shoving his hand all the way in the popcorn bag so he nudges me and opens his mouth. I roll my eyes and throw one at him and he catches it perfectly in his mouth.

"Bingo!" He shouts, raising his arms above his head.

"Nice." I laugh. He takes a handful and motions for me to open up. I get ready to catch one in my mouth but he ends up throwing about ten my way and I almost slide off the car trying to catch one.

"No fair!" I shriek over his laughter, pulling popcorn out of my bra and hair.

"Can't let you beat me, babe." Luke chuckles and takes more popcorn out of the bag, pulling me into his side with his other hand. I snuggle closer to him.

The group of teenagers a few feet in front of us start to shout and boo two figures in the middle of a circle. I lift my head a little to see what is happening.

"Kids and their stupid fights," Luke mutters, rolling his eyes.

The group of girls in the crowd backs away a little. There are two guys standing very close to each other, one of them is a short guy but very muscular and angry. I can see his face from here because he is turned towards me. The tall guy standing in front of him is clearly agitated at something and from what I can see, they are having a heated argument.

I look closer and see that he has shoulder length brown hair. His tall figure is leaning menacingly towards the other guy, his fists balled at his sides. I feel my feet land on the ground and my knees almost give out. My heart beat increases as I look closer at his figure and stance... he had broad shoulders too...

"Sierra? What are you doing? Where are you going?" I hear Luke's distant voice call me as my feet carry me forward and towards the stranger who is not so strange in my heart.

A/N:

Oooohhh. Ain't gonna give you any explanations for this cause I got none. Haha. I hope you guys remember Troye from earlier chapters!

Who do you think Sierra saw?

I love you very much tho.

- Rhythmwithlove