Make It Stop ⇼ Luke Hemmings

A few days had passed, and it was now Friday morning, the awkwardness and attention to Luke and I had died down, as Faith Meyer had announced that her and Samantha Henry were dating—no one knew Faith liked girls, so it was a shock to us all, and drew the attention away from Luke and I. The girls still wouldn’t talk to us, but the boys made short conversation so they wouldn’t get yelled at by the other half of the group. I was invisible to everyone but Luke and Madison Brown, and I felt so pathetic because not even my best friends would talk to me. Was it honestly such a big deal that Luke and I had kept it a secret? I wanted to tell them, but they wouldn’t understand, Why couldn’t they grasp that?

“Slut.” A voice hissed as Madison passed me in the hall, bumping my shoulder as she turned to face me.
“Leave me alone.” I rolled my eyes, trying to move past her. She frantically grabbed my forearm, her nails digging into my skin—I didn’t even flinch, not wanting to give her the satisfaction of hurting me.
“Make me, Romina.” She grinned, knowing I wouldn't do anything. “Go on!” She urged, pushing me lightly. “Make me.” She repeated, smirking. Clutching onto my books, I tried to keep my cool. And as Madison pushed me against the lockers, I was nearly about to slap her, when someone interrupted our conversation.

“Leave her alone!” Kaylee sneered. Madison’s head whipped around, causing her to sigh.
“Stay out of this, Kaylee.” Madison rolled her eyes.
“I’m not going to tell you again.” She warned, placing her hands on her hips. Madison clicked her tongue, staring me down.
“We’ll finish our discussion later.” She half-promised, her heels clicking down the hall as she strutted away. Kaylee and I stared at each other for a long moment before she finally spoke.

“This doesn’t mean we’re even.” She said.
“I know.”
“And it doesn’t mean I’m not angry. Because I am.” Straightening my posture, I looked down at the floor.
“I said I was sorry.” I murmured. “But you said some bad shit, too.” Kaylee rolled her eyes, as always blaming me for every single thing I do wrong.
“Sorry doesn’t fix anything.” She whispered, our eyes connecting.
“I know.” I whispered right back, and with that, she walked away.

***

“Kaylee defended me today.” I told Luke as he sat with me. Once again, we were alone.
“From Madison?” He assumed, shoveling a forkful of pasta into his mouth. I nodded with pursed lips. I opted out of lunch today, as the whole encounter made my stomach twist and made me nauseous. “What happened?” He asked.
“It went something along the lines of Madison being a bitch, pushing me into a locker. Kaylee telling her to leave. It’s weird… Why has Madison always been scared of Kaylee?” I inquired.
“Intimidated.” Luke corrected, quirking an eyebrow. “She thinks Kaylee is the most beautiful girl in the school and could easily pass her up. Plus, Kaylee’s not afraid to speak her mind, so… She’s pretty scary.” We shared a small laugh. “Then what happened?”
“Oh… Uhm… Well, Madison left. Kaylee told me she was angry and sorry isn’t going to fix things.” He frowned.
“What did you say to that?” He asked.
“I told her I know.” I shrugged.

“What are you going to do?” I couldn’t help but scoff.
“No idea!” I exclaimed. “Like… I want her back as my best friend… But it’s just exhausting, and I don’t think I did anything that horrible! I mean, yeah, I didn’t tell her about us, but I tried! And she totally brought up me sleeping with college boys, which she knows isn’t true and that my dad-” I stopped my rant with a sigh, burying my face in my hands and somewhat pulling at my hair. “It just pisses me off!” I exploded. “I’m invisible to her! And she has the right to act like she’s told me every single thing?!?! I just-” Stopping again, I looked up at Luke, who was eating slowly, staring at me and nodding.
“It’ll pass, you know.” He didn’t know what else to say. Sighing again, I nodded.
“It always does.” I somewhat mocked our friend group, as every problem we have seems to become nonexistent after a while.

***

“Romy?” A small voice asked. I turned around to see Steph and Ella.
“Hey.” I murmured, shutting my locker.
“We just wanted to tell you-” Ella began, getting cut off by Steph.
“We aren’t angry.” She finished. “It’s Kaylee.”
“Yeah. She’s the mad one.” Ella agreed.
“We kind of figured something was going on.” Steph mentioned.
“And when we brought it up to Kay, she got angry.” They both shrugged. “We should have paid more attention to you.” Ella did what she was widely known for, apologizing for everyone elses mistakes. “Can we come over? Steph will drive.” Ella offered, smiling warmly.
“Won’t Kaylee be mad?”
“You’re our friend, too.” Steph defended, linking arms with me and pulling me out of the school. After getting in her car, I sent Lukie a quick text telling him I was no longer in need of a ride home and that I couldn’t hang out for a while.

***

Steph, Ella, and I are lying on my bed, eating ice cream and listening to music. We'd got home a little over two hours ago and now were extremely bored.
"You know it was all Kaylee's idea to not talk to you?" Steph randomly brought up while combing through my hair with her fingers, attempting to fishtail braid it while Ella painted her nails and texted Mikey.
“Yeah, I figured.” My voice was low, as I wasn’t very interested in the topic.
“You know how she is.” Ella justified. “She can’t help it.” I scoffed.
“Yeah, sure.” I rolled my eyes. “I love Kaylee to death, you know that. But all she ever does is make things about her, fuck me over, and tear me down. So why the hell is she so angry at me?!?! I have done so much for her and I get jack-shit in return!” I hadn’t realized I was crying until Steph handed me a tissue, tying my hair off in the process.

“She’s stubborn.” Steph reasoned, “Everything has to be about her. Always. You just never minded because no one gave you as much attention as Luke does, and it’s foreign to you, so you’re angry at her because she’s supposed to be your best friend, and frankly, she’s failing—which, in return, makes her angry because it’s the only thing that she thought was simple in her life, and it’s fucked now. You’re just angry because she forgets you exist. If Ella did that to me, I’d be pissed, too..” Sighing, I shook my head.
“But I don’t want to lose her.” I whispered, “Does that make me crazy?” Steph positioned herself in front of me, crossing her legs.

“It makes you human.” She assured.
“She’ll come around, babe.” Ella half-promised. “This will run it’s course, she’ll miss you even more, and she’ll break. You deserve an apology, she deserves an apology. You’re both to blame, but I think she has to be the bigger person, first. Not that you’re incapable… But because unless you let her step up, she’ll never appreciate you. You have to stand your ground so she’s as alone as you are, and then she’ll crack.” Ella offered advice.
“I hope so.” I muttered quietly as Steph grabbed some nail polish and began painting my nails, like she usually does because I’m always too lazy and she hates unpainted ones.

***

As soon as the girls left, I walked to Luke’s house and let myself in, finding him, Cal, Ash, and Mikey in his living room, playing video games.
“Hey.” I mumbled, sitting on the lazy boy sofa. They all mumbled separate hello’s and Luke glanced at me with a smile.
“Hi.” He focused on me for a second before turning back to the screen. “Your hair looks nice.” He numbly commented on my hair.
“Steph did it.” I had already began to pick at my nail polish.
“Looks nice.” He repeated, biting his lip in concentration at his game. “The girls leave?” He referred to Ella and Steph, the reason I hadn’t seen him since lunch.
“No, I just left them at my house.” I sarcastically replied, earning a smirk from Luke. “Is your mum home?”
“She’s staying late at work. Dad’s at poker night. No idea where Ben and Jack are.” Our conversation was mostly ignored by the other boys, who were cursing in frustration, sucked into the game.
“You eat dinner yet?” Luke chuckled, glancing at me with a smile.
“I had some crisps.” He shrugged.
“Do you want anything?” I asked. “I can make-” He cut me off.
“You don’t have to.” He insisted. I stood anyways.
“Guys want anything?” I asked the rest of the group, who gave murmured yeah’s.

Walking into the kitchen, I searched through Luke’s cabinets and settled on a simple sandwich, beginning one for each of us as I heard them getting progressively angrier because Calum had ‘cheated’. I heard the loud music stop as the boys complained.
“I’ll be right back!” Luke nagged, meeting me in the kitchen.
“Hey, babe.” He smiled, pecking my lips before sitting on his island stool. “How did things go?” He referred to Ella, Steph, and I getting together.
“Fine.” I smiled. “Hows this? I’m not interrupting anything?” I hoped. “Because I can go.” He shook his head, standing and walking around the island, grabbing my waist and turning me toward him. My hands set on his chest.
“Stay.” He insisted. “They just showed up.” He shrugged. “Probably because the girls were with you. Kaylee has some… Pregnancy thing.” I let out a dry laugh. “We’ve been playing Madden for three hours.” I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Fun?” I assumed, unsure. He smiled.
“Yeah, but Calum won’t stop cheating!” He raised his voice so the boys could hear him.
“I am not!” Calum yelled back.
“Sandwiches are done. Call the boys.” I squirmed out of his grip, grabbing the plates and setting them on the table. Luke called them, and they rushed in, grabbing sodas and sitting at the table.

“Thanks, babe.” Luke smiled through a bite of his sandwich. As if he’d reminded the others, they thanked me in pursuit. Luke tried to hold my hand under the table, but I swatted it away, shaking my head at him because our friends were here. Even when it was one of our families and us, I still didn’t like to display public affection, in fear that they’d say something—the same rule applied to our friends. The mindless banter was interrupted by Ben and his current girlfriend, Maria entering the house, coming straight to the kitchen for something to drink.
“Hello, Romy.” Maria smiled.
“Hey.” I smiled back, nodding at Ben as well.
“When will mum be home?” Ben asked, getting two cokes from the fridge, handing one to Maria as they crossed the kitchen.
“Around midnight.” As it was a bit awkward, Ben left us alone, bringing Maria upstairs with him, which had ignited a new conversation topic.

“Who’s that?” Mikey asked.
“Maria.” Luke shrugged, looking at me. “You good?” He asked.
“Yeah?” My answer came out as more of a question as I laughed.
“You good?” Calum teased. Luke bit his lip as he laughed it off, running a hand through his hair. Mikey leaned over and whispered something to Ashton, who nodded, staring at Luke and I.
“Me, too.” He agreed. I furred my eyebrows.
“What?”
“Nothing-” Mikey began, getting cut off by Ash.
“Kaylee says she doesn’t see you two as an item, anymore.” He spoke. “But Mikey and I think you’ve something.” Blushing, I finished my sandwich. “I love Kay, but she really needs to get her head out of her arse.” He stated, shaking his head. Finishing our dinner in silence, we headed back to the living room, Ash and Mikey on the sofa, Cal spread out on the lazy boy sofa, and Luke and I lying on the loveseat, my head on his chest, and picked a film to watch. Although I hated the fact that I could tell Cal, Mikey, and Ash kept glancing at us, it was still comforting that Luke didn’t really care and would still be proud to hold me when his friends were here.

***

"Have you ever solved a Rubik's Cube?" Luke asked, fumbling around with the small toy as we lied on his bed after the boys left.
"No." I laughed.
"Back when I lived in Adelaide, we had a teacher who kept Rubik's Cubes in her classroom. And none of us knew how to solve them except for one kid. He solved everyone's Rubik's Cube for them. He was like... Unstoppable and everyone loved him because he solved their Rubik's Cube." Luke told me.
"Where is this going?" I giggled, unsure why he was telling me this.
"I hated him because of how much I envied him. I mean, why the fuck did they love him so much because of a damn cube?" He sighed, throwing the toy on the bed and staring at me. "There was only two times in my life that I have ever felt like the Rubik's Cube kid. The first was when I broke my arm, and everyone wanted to sign my cast. The second is the day you told me you love me, and I haven't came down since." It took all I had not to gasp, and I wanted to weep. How could he have felt so lonely before? Luke cracked a smile, grabbing my hand, his thing pressed against my knuckles. "I love you so much, Rom." He promised.
"I love you more." I challenged, causing Luke to laugh.
"Bullshit." He muttered, pressing his lips against mine.

Notes

Hello everyone!
You all probably hate me because this has.been written since Friday night and I'm just publishing it now.
I know it's a lot to ask, but it would be amazing if you could follow Make It Stop on wattpad as well?
It would mean a lot!
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