l u k e

Waxing my hair into my normal everyday quiff, I was ready to face my first day in my new college. I sighed at the thought of being miles away from Australia, Sydney to be exact.

"This is my new home." I told myself, flashing a smile at my own reflection.

Replaying the events of the day before, I smiled at the memory of her. Who knew I would be so lucky to have encountered such a lovely person. Though she was drunk, she was a pleasant person to be around with, for a little company.

I scouted around my room and finally found my orange back pack. Slinging it around my back, I rushed out of my room, determined to face the day with positivity rushing through my veins...or something like that.

After walking four blocks down to the school, I was reluctant to enter the double doors, facing so many new people and practically throwing myself into a life of my own, I couldn't help but feel a little scared. Pushing all those feelings aside, I entered the main building and strode straight to the front desk.

"Good morning," the lady receptionist greeted looking like she was in her late 20s.

"Yah, hi. I'm kinda new around here and I'd like to know where I could find the main lecture hall?" I chirped out, knowing fully well how high pitched my voice sounded.

"Oh yes, Luke Hemmings! You will be accompanied by Haley over there," I flinched at the name, memories flashing across my mind. I shoved it all away and told myself 'Nothing will stand in my way of having a good day. Nothing.'

"Thank you." I smiled at the receptionist as I followed Haley to the main lecture hall.

As I arrived, I thanked her and quickly walked into the room, knowing full well I would crack if I stayed anywhere near her.

I took a seat right in the middle and opened up my laptop, a picture of her quickly greeted me as I noted to myself to change my screensaver soon.

As more students started to fill in the vacant seats, I could only notice that all of them came in pairs. I felt a stinging sensation as a wave of nostalgia hit me and I could barely keep my mind off of her. But I felt a warmth next to me that pulled me back to reality. I shifted to look at who sat next to me and I was surprised to see the girl from last night.

Seeing as she hasn't acknowledged me existence, I stuck out my hand, "Hi, I'm Luke." I introduced myself as she looked at my hand, eyes tracing from my hand to my face, shock evident in her expression. "I'm Gayle." She greeted as she took my hand in hers and shook it firmly.

g a y l e

Once we shook out of our thoughts, we released our firm grip on each other's hands and smiled. Just then, the professor came in and we both shifted our attention to the front. But I couldn't help but wonder off into my thoughts about the boy who sat only inches away from me. I didn't think that I would see him ever again. Was this fait?

I looked to my side and noticed that he was looking at me too. I awkwardly pretended not to have noticed but I couldn't help but feel all giddy inside.

After a quick introduction into Professor Stevenson's class, he was quick to give out a "first day" assignment.

"Pick a partner!" He chirped, in a sing song voice.

I didn't even have to think a single second of whom I wanted to pick, but just then, I felt a hand on my shoulder.

My attention snapped to see that, indeed, Luke was looking straight at me with a shy expression.

"Will you be my partner?" He asked timidly as I felt little fire works burst in my system.

"I-uh-I was just about to ask the same thing." I stuttered as we both looked at each other, and I forgot all about my surroundings.

But a loud voice erupted from the front and both of our attentions flew right back into reality, "Write a chorus about your partner. Due date tomorrow. Let's put your writing skills to the test, shall we?" And with that, they were dismissed.

"Where do you want to work on the assignment?" Luke asked me as I tried to catch up to his quick pace. Judging from how much taller he was compared to me, I had to literally be in the Olympics just to catch up to a single step of his.

When I finally caught up to him -though I knew perfectly well that he purposely slowed down for me- I answered, "There's a café down town, 2 blocks from here."

Luke nodded as he gestured for me to lead the way.

-

When we arrived, I chose the seat nearest the window that could give me the perfect view of the busy city up ahead.

For most people, they would always find comfort in the quiet, forest type of themed areas. But for me, the city was my favorite place to be in -though I wouldn't mind the peaceful outskirts either. I loved the business of everything. The people buzzing all around her with energy and
cars shifting from one place to another. The harmony of the foot steps and many, many voices ringing through her ears. The smell of fresh coffee everywhere. And the thought that I was one of the many people in the city made me feel like I was a part of this big movement and that made me feel ecstatic in the inside.

I grew up in such a small town in the outskirts of New York and I was so sick and tired of living in such peacefulness. But when my family had to move closer to the city because they became the leading suppliers of coffee beans in almost 8/10 café shops, I found herself stuck in the busy, tangled up web of the city and I couldn't help but feel that I finally found where I belonged.

"Hey," Luke said making me jump a bit. "What's gotten you all puzzled up?" He asked as he may have noticed my blank gaze into the thick, large space of nothingness.

"Oh, don't you just love the city?" I couldn't help but pass on my thoughts as I looked into Luke's icy blue eyes, matching with his ocean blue button up polo shirt.

He shrugged, "It's cool." He said, sounding a bit put off about the whole topic.

Biting the insides of my cheeks, I quickly changed the subject, "How do you wanna start writing?"

"Wait a minute..." He said as he opened up his phone and gave it to me. Looking at the screen, it was opened up to the "Add new contact" thing so I punched in my number and took a quick selfie for the caller ID -probably looking stupid in it.

Giving it back, he mumbled a quick thank you as he typed out something and a quick notification made my phone buzz.

Random number:
This is Luke.

I shoved the phone back into my pocket and smiled at his dorky shyness.

"So...how do we start this?" I asked again. Breaking the quietness. And he was just blankly staring at me, eyes wondering around a bit, and that couldn't help but make me feel my heart beat a little bit quicker.

l u k e

"Why do you keep looking at me?" She asked after a good 5 minutes. I'd been staring at her the whole time. Gayle was the first girl I ever made contact with after her.

"I'm just memorizing you," I said barely being able to filter my words. I was so messed up at that point, all messed up in the head. "You know, for the project." I blushed at my correction.

A crimson red quickly coated her cheeks too and she remained still. Tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

Shaking out of my trance, "Okay, let's do this." I chirped up as I caught Gayle completely off guard at my sudden alertness.

"How do we start?" She asked, tapping her pen open as the loose strand of hair fell out again, causing her to get a little bit impatient and frustrated whilst tucking it back behind her ear again. "She looked so cute doing that." I thought to myself.

"I got it! Rapid fire, just...tell me anything you love." I said, tapping my pen open as well.

"No limits?" Gayle asked, looking up from her blank paper.

"Anything under the sun." I said as I focused my attention to her, once again.

"Um..so you've probably already guessed, i talk a lot. Be prepared for long explanations." She warned as she got comfortable in her seat.

I shrugged, "Go on."

"I've already proven my love for the city, I guess. The buzzing tangled web of the whole place gets me so...so fulfilled with the energy and business of everyone." She said looking out the window, the side of her lip tugging up into a side smile.

"I also love the summer. Oh! And I love the rain! Just, the summer rain. Like, when it's so hot then rain just starts pouring down. I just love that." She sighed, leaning back to her chair.

As I watched her ramble on and on about what she loved -taking down notes occasionally- all I could think about was how passionate she seemed. Almost as if she could talk for years without running out of words to say. I liked that.

"And I like boxer shorts! I don't know if that'll help in anything but-" I cut her off.

"Wait, like the boxer shorts that guys wear?" I asked with a puzzled expression.

"No, I mean the ones for the girls. My boyfriend never lets me borrow his clothes, though I've always thought of how cute that could be." She said looking at the sky, making her brown eyes seem a bit green because of the reflection.

"He doesn't let you wear his clothes? What kind of relationship is that?!" I exclaimed almost falling off my chair.

Due to my over reaction, she let out a high pitched, squeal kinda laugh and, within seconds, I was already laughing hysterically.

"What?" She asked missing out on why I kept on laughing.

"Oi!" She called out, feeling embarrassed enough.

"Was that suppose to be a laugh?" I asked still laughing.

"Uh...yah, I haven't really done that for quite a while now." She said, looking quite down about it.

"You mean...like...laugh?" I asked almost shocked. She seemed like such a bubbly person to not laugh almost every flying minute.

"Yah...it's been a pretty foreign thing to me lately." She shrugged and sighed, leaning back into her chair.

"Oh, okay." I said, knowing that this was the best time to actually pack up and go, since it was getting pretty late.

"Hey," She said before I could beat her to it.

"Yah?" I asked as I put down my pen.

"You're kinda like my getaway...you know, from like, life and stuff." She spoke up, almost being too quite for me to catch it.

I smiled, "Well, you're kinda like my sweet escape." I spoke in a hushed voice, as if saying it any louder could cause the world to spin out of its axis.

After what seemed like 5 minutes of just staring up at each other, we packed up our things and walked home.

"Today was nice. It's funny how easy and comfortable I actually feel around you." I mentioned, voice cracking a bit from the sudden effort to speak.

"Same." She agreed, looking up to me.

Just then, I could hear plit-plat's on the cement, it was raining!

"Gayle! It's raining!" I said a little bit too excited.

"I know, I'm not blind." She rolled her eyes back at me as they continued walking on the roofed side walk.

"Hey, don't hate me for doing this." I whispered to her as I pushed her into the rain and followed suit.

"Oh my God! Have you actually lost your mind, Lucas?!" She screamed over the sound of the rain.

"Lucas? Who's Lucas?" I asked, laughing at her reaction and simultaneously almost slipping on the wet surface.

"Thats you! We're gonna get sick, Luke!" She used my real name as I grabbed onto her wrist before she could run away.

"You're no fun, Gayle!" I said, crossing my arms like a little boy who couldn't get the last cookie from the cookie jar because his mom said so.

But before I could say anything else to convince her to stay, I saw something click in her. She ran away, causing Luke to follow her, "Catch me if you can, slow poke!"

And with that, the wild chase was on, but of course, within only a few seconds, I'd already caught her.

"That's no fair! You're wayyy too tall!" She stuck her tongue out.

"Well, you're wayyy too short." I mimicked her voice when I said way.

"Okay, we really have to get you home now," I said, snapping back into my "mature side" as I grabbed her wrist and ran again. Remembering the events of the night prior with the guy behind her apartment door, I didn't want things to get nasty.

When we reached her apartment, we said our goodbye's and I ran straight back to my hotel room, dismissing the looks I got from the people at the reception.

When I finished changing out of my wet clothes, I grabbed my guitar on the corner of the room and pulled out my laptop from my bag and started writing down everything my heart felt about the girl whom I've only met twice but felt a lot more than just an acquaintance.

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Wow. For those who know me, and have read my other books, never will you ever see me write a chapter THIS long.

Hope you liked this chapter because this was quite the challenge to write, but, neither the less, it was fun to make.  :)