Good Intentions ⇼ Luke Hemmings

Why is it that I’m so damn nervous to see a man whom I’ve spent nearly my whole life with? Why am I stalling to pull open the heavy door and run in the rain to his shiny car. And as I opened my umbrella and slid in the passenger seat Luke smiled gently at me
“Hey glasses.” He teased as I removed them to wipe the fog that formed with the change in environment and weather.
“Hello Lucas.” He rolled his eyes as he pulled out of the car park. It was a foreign feeling to be in this small car with him, as we had so much space growing with the old truck. If I was mad, I’d sit far away, If I was not, in the middle. But in here, I am trapped. The space between us will remain constant, and that drives me some what crazy.
“What happened to the truck?” I asked timidly once we stopped at a red light. A frown etched over Luke’s face as he fidgeted with his dress shirt.
“I crashed it.” He sighed, the car moving again.
“How?” Luke stayed silent for a long while.
“Can I be frank with you?” He asked, I nodded. “I tried to kill myself, ran it into a streetlight.” Although I was completely horrified and shocked about what he had confessed, I couldn’t help but think of this encounter as mundane. We’re carpooling to a semi-successful job, talking about where things went wrong.

“Why?” I inquired, though I knew the answer.
“I was an idiot for letting you go.” He gave me a small smile. “I tore myself apart for so long.” He pulled into work. “How could I live with myself after what happened?” As the car turned off, he and I sat in silence. “I missed you a lot, Romy.” He whispered. “I still do. Hell, you’re sitting right here—so close—and I still miss you because I know we’re going to go in there and ignore each other and I won’t see you until the end of the day, and you’ll be sitting right there again.”
“Maybe we’ll take our lunch break at the same time.” I tried to help, but knew I failed. Luke sighed.
“We should just get it over with…” His voice trailed off.

As we walked into the building, Luke opened the door for me, and once I passed him, he gently grabbed my arm and turned me toward him. We stood in the middle of the doorway as he picked up the necklace.
“Luke.” I rasped. “What are you doing?” He stayed silent for a few moments.
“It’s nice to see you wearing this necklace again.” Confused by his actions, I gently stirred away from him and slowly began walking.
“It was nice of you to return it.” I mumbled, and we rode the lift in silence before I left him to lock myself away in my office.

***

“Hey!” Mallory chirped, sitting across from me. As always, she emptied her bag onto the table and began picking at it, pretending like she was going to eat. Half of me thought that today was going to be the day that she resumed eating.
“Hi, Mal.” I smiled warmly. “How are-” She cut me off.
“I don’t want to talk about that.” She stated blandly. “I want to talk about something much more important.” Her hands folded in front of her, as if denying my hopes of her eating. She waited for me to speak, and as I didn’t quite know what she wanted, my eyes scanned the room. They fell back on her, I was left to examine every inch of her body. She’d lost a good five to ten kilos since I first befriended her, say five months ago. Her eyes were becoming lifeless, and she seemed to have no energy for useless things anymore—like putting on her bright pink lipstick. It was now almost always smeared. Her clothes lacked the usual spark that it had—outrageous mixtures and huge necklaces. I felt sorry for her, she was always turning up to work a mess, but I never knew what to say about it.

“Okay, okay.” I gave in after what seemed like hours. “Well, Maiko and I broke up. We had this wicked bad fight and I stayed with my mate for a few days—until I had figured things out—and so when I went home, I was going to break up with him, I walked in and he was with another girl… They weren’t shagging or anything, but she was holding him… She was wearing his shirt, and he never let me do that. Told him he has to leave. Haven’t spoke to him since.” Mallory picked at her sleeves.
“Has he tried to call or text you?” I shrugged.
“Few times. I don’t know, it was pretty apparent that it’s over, so…” She nodded.
“I get it.” Her voice trailed off as she glanced around the breakroom. “So are you going to go back to Luke now?” She asked, a mischievous smile playing at her lips.
“I don’t want to talk about him right now.” I said the one thing I never thought I would.
“I saw you two walk in together. Did he give you a ride?” I nodded slowly, rolling my eyes.
“I don’t want to talk about him.” I repeated. “It means nothing.” Silence, again, fell over us. But before Mallory had the chance to speak up again, Luke strolled in.

Mallory and I remained silent as he grabbed his lunch from the fridge and sat next to my red-headed friend. She didn’t look at him. Instead, she began shoving things back in her bag.
“You’re not going to eat?” Luke asked her, referring to the contents she was slyly trying to put back in her bag. Her face turned pale and she cocked her head.
“Yes I am.” Her tone was defensive and made me nervous for her. She, then, did something that surprised me to no end. She took her sandwich back out and began to eat. The three of us sat in silence until Luke cracked a joke about Toby from sales, and another about Matty from reception. He kept it up until Mallory and I were dying of laughter. I couldn’t help but miss his dumb sense of humor.

Notes