piercings and cigarettes | luke hemmings

Chapter Thirty Two

I was sitting outside by the back door smoking a cigarette when the doorbell rang. I had been smoking more than usual the past few weeks. I was so stressed and miserable that I needed something to help keep me calm and relaxed. The situation with Michael was starting to make me realise how dependent I was becoming of cigarettes. Before I smoked every now and then but now I feel like I need them.

"Coming!" I yelled running down the stairs. I opened the door and my eyes widened "Michael? Hi."

"I remembered I forgot something here before I moved out," Michael said and I let him inside.

"Oh," I said disappointed.

"Yeah," Michael mumbled before going upstairs.

I hadn't seen him since the day he moved out, which was over a month ago. This is the first time he's even talked to me since that day, I'd reached out to him so many times but he just ignored me. He had dyed his hair back to red, I always liked red hair on him.

Michael came back downstairs carrying a box in his hands.

"I like your hair," I said pointing at his red hair, hoping to start a conversation.

"Thanks, I'm going to go now," Michael said and went towards the door but I stood in front of it to block him.

"We need to talk," I pleaded as he tried to move around me.

"No we don't."

"We're brother and sister! Are you really going to throw away our relationship because I'm dating Luke? Do you just expect me to be okay with my brother ignoring me and wanting to lose contact with me completely? Because I'm not okay with that!" I said raising my voice and letting my tears fall down my face.

"You could have picked any guy and you had to choose my best friend," Michael said with a look of sadness in his eyes.

"It just happened!" I yelled frustrated "Luke and I really like each other and we can't change that, we didn't start dating to try to hurt you," I added more calmly this time.

"When you two break up I'll be the one who has to choose between my sister and my best friend," Michael scoffed.

"Well right now you're basically making me fill like I have to choose between my brother or my boyfriend and you're making Luke feel like he has to choose between his best friend and his girlfriend. I know you're scared because you care about both of us but you need to remember that we both care about you too and even if we have the messiest break up ever, we'll never make you choose between us," I said feeling a headache building up because of how frustrated I was.

"I don't want to talk about this."

"We need to talk about this, Luke is your best friend and you're just ignoring him and letting this effect your entire friend group. No one is asking you to pick a side so don't make all of us."

"It's not just that, you all lied to me for months!" Michael said raising his voice.

"We know we shouldn't have lied to you and we should have told you before but your reaction should be reason enough to you as to why we felt like we needed to hide it. We were afraid this is how you would react. If you can't forgive me at least forgive Luke and Ashton, they're your friends. You've known them for so long and you've been through so much with them, don't let this ruin that."

"Thea, let me leave," Michael said and I nodded and moved out of his way. I watched him leave before sitting down at the bottom of the stairs. I hugged my knees towards my chest and let myself go. I cried until I had no tears left to cry. I hated conflict and I hated fighting with people, especially when the person was someone I cared so much about.

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author's note
I'm not going to have school for like 5 weeks because of the coronavirus. By the time school starts back I'll only have like a month left of school.
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