(Part 1, Part 2)

Wednesday rolled around. You went to school with no problems Monday and Tuesday but today you were dreading it because of a certain lesson and a certain teacher. You laid in bed, staring at the ceiling as you listened to your alarm buzz on your bedside table. You thought about bunking off to spend the day studying at home. What use was school a week before your exams? You only had three lessons on a Wednesday but they were all so spread out. All the teachers would get you to do was to revise with your books so they could get their own work done instead of potentially improving your exam grade.

You eventually reached out to turn your infuriating alarm off and get up for school. You needed to go in really. You had History, Biology and Maths. You still didn’t understand the maths equations from Friday’s lesson so you needed to go to school but you sure as hell weren’t going to ask Luke for help. You’d find another teacher and then skive. Maths was your last lesson, as soon as you had sorted the problem, you would make your excuses and leave. Simple as that. Excuses around Luke were dependant on what mood he was in. If he wanted you around for you to carry on teasing him, you’d have to think outside the box. If he was looking out for you so you could get some work done for a different lesson, you would just need to lower your top and flash a grin.

Easy enough. Today you wouldn’t even need to see Luke. You’d be long gone before then.

Or not.

You stood by the desk with the old female maths teacher with her dry grey hair falling in her eyes ten minutes before the bell would ring to signal the end of lunch break. You were in the classroom you usually had your maths class in.

“What’s wrong?” She asked once you had already explained how you didn’t understand about the x and y equations. You tried not to sigh in front of her before you patiently told her again. “Right s- ah here’s Mr Hemmings, he’s your maths teacher anyway isn’t he?”

“Uh…” You hesitated and looked at Luke. Your heart beat sped up.

“What’s up Y/N?” Luke asked as he walked over and put his laptop and bag onto the desk.

“Right where am I for my next lesson then?” The woman rambled to herself as she looked into her planner. “Room 24, I’ll be off then. Bye”

“Uh yeah bye” Luke raised his eyebrows as we watched the obese woman leave. “Bonkers” Luke mumbled. “Y/N I didn’t mean what I said on Fri-”

“I didn’t come here to talk to you about that” You spat, frustrated and annoyed that you were in here talking to him. “I came to talk to a teacher because I don’t understand this” you pointed to the page in the book, mentally kicking yourself for daydreaming at the beginning of that lesson last week.

“Uhm you need to…” Luke let go of the book and opened his laptop. “I’ll talk you through the powerpoint again” He was implying you were listening the first time. He knew you weren’t.

You took a seat at the first desk at the front behind you both. Luke sat beside you and put his laptop down. You sat awkwardly as you both waited for it to load. He found the slide show and explained it. In an instant, you understood what you needed to do for some strange reason. You took notes anyhow to help you revise later. “Y/N how did you do that? It looks nasty” Luke pointed to your blistered hand from the hot water incident on Sunday. You didn’t think anyone could see it anymore. You barely the red line running underneath your knuckles.

“Burnt it” you shrugged. “Why would you care? Do you really care because as far as I can tell you-”

“Of course I care! As your teacher as well as y-” Suddenly you felt Luke’s hand on your leg. Your head snapped up and you looked at him. “I uh sorry, habit” His hand stayed on your leg anyhow and you immediately felt yourself getting wet as you knew this was how events between you and Luke always started, despite your words you threw at him next.

“I bet it wouldn’t be a fucking habit if we were in a room full of students” you said through gritted teeth, rage threatening to spill over. You went back to copying notes and then you looked at Luke again. His eyes, the colour of the ocean stared straight back into your dark orbs. It took all your strength not to lean in and kiss him.

“Y/N” It was like Luke felt it too. A kiss is how your relationship began. You weren’t about to have another one to signify the end of it.

“Luke don’t” you shook your head.

“You were going to tell me you didn’t mean what you said on Friday. What do you mean?” You told yourself you weren’t going to ask him this. You weren’t going to put yourself through it.

“I didn’t mean it when I said I didn’t want to see you but you hung up before I could explain” Luke told you.

“Then why didn’t you try texting me all weekend?” You asked, putting your things away.

“When I came over Michael told me to leave and not t-” Luke stopped talking when the bell rang. We had seconds before students would start coming in. You stood up.

“He said what?” You asked as Luke moved to the front again.

“Not t-” Luke stopped talking as his head moved to the door when it opened. You rolled your eyes and left the room. He wasn’t going to call you back. You were actually surprised at the amount of students who were going to class anyway, you expected them all to bunk off and ‘revise’ at home.

You knew Michael would be at home when you got there. He was on the breakfast shift at the hotel until 12.

“What the fuck did you tell Luke?” You screamed at Michael when you saw him in the kitchen without seeing Ashton or Calum, the last two band mates, sitting with him at the table. The three of them had their laptops out and there was paper all over the desk.

You still didn’t care about Ashton and Calum being there. They should know about what a jerk your brother was. You were still as angry as you were when you left college, you weren’t any calmer.

“Michael?” You yelled again when he didn’t say anything. He just looked at you.

“I told him to leave on Friday” you watched Ashton and Calum look between you and Michael as you spoke. You didn’t know if they knew about you and Luke but they certainly weren’t going to interrupt your argument.

“And then what?” You asked.

“Did he tell you?” Michael seemed to misinterpret the question you asked him. You wanted answers, not more questions.

“No but you definitely told him something. What did you say?” You spoke clearly and slowly, taking a deep breath to stay calm once you had repeated the question.

“I told him to leave you alone” Michael muttered. “Especially because of your exams” He added, daringly added.

“You had no right! You’re not my parent and I’m not under eighteen! Why can’t you keep out of things that are not your business Michael? Do not talk to me about my exams either! I bet you don’t even know what subjects I take!” You screamed again.

“Y/N he is your fucking teacher! Do you think that’s ok? Imagine if you’d got caught” Michael was beginning to get just as cross and wound up as you. Calum and Ashton were still watching.

“We did get caught Michael!” You screamed. “Look!”

“It doesn’t change the facts” Michael commented bluntly.

“What facts Michael?” Your voice suddenly quietened, calmed dramatically when you started to become upset rather than angry. “Do you not think for us it’s different? I’ve known him well before he became a teacher, it’s not like at school he’s treated me any differently”

“I just thin-”

“I don’t give a fuck what you think!” You snapped, steam rising again as your blood boiled.

“I’m just trying to look out for you. Is that so bad?” Michael features all dropped a little and for a few seconds you felt bad until you remembered he told the man you loved to stay away from you.

“Michael for god sake” Calum mumbled under his breath. He looked at you. “Michael knew, we all knew”

“You… you knew?” You were staring at Michael at this point as more anger bubbled inside you. Anger you didn’t even know you could muster. No one has ever seen you this angry. Have you even ever been this angry? Especially at a family member, your own brother.

“Y/N, to Luke you were just a challenge. An illegal challenge let’s face it” Calum told you. You needed to hear what he had to say, but because you had to does not mean they hurt any less than if you wanted to hear them.

“Calum!” Ashton flinched at Calum’s harsh words. “Y/N it was because of Kieran’s wedding, Michael was the one who slept with Jade. Luke wanted to get back at Michael for Kieran’s sake and you were it” Ashton was speaking slowly in his low voice, the only one of us managing to keep a lid on it.

“You knew he was using me Michael and you didn’t nothing to stop it? This all happened because you couldn’t keep it in your pants for a woman you don’t even care about?!” You spat across at Michael who refused to make eye contact with you, not acknowledging Ashton who had just given you the information. “Why did you let it go on for so long?”

“I tried to stop it Y/N!” Michael shouted angrily. “I did! Luke and I fell out over it all and then only forgave each other when he told me it was over a couple of months” You vaguely remember a time when you didn’t see Luke outside of school. “I honestly thought it was over. If I knew you weren’t in, I’d ask mum and she told me you were out with friends and then you’d come home that night so I would believe you were”

“Why would he tell you we were over if we weren’t?” A single tear fell down your cheek. There was a knock on the door before anyone could answer you. You took a deep breath, wiped your eyes and headed to the door before anyone could stop you.

It was Luke.

You slammed the door straight back into his face and raced upstairs so fast you almost tripped over your own feet.

As you laid with your face in a pillow yet again, you heard shouting downstairs. Luke and Michael.

You were 18. You didn’t need to cry. Again.

As much as you wanted to, you managed to fight back the tears beginning to spill over.

You couldn’t hear what your brother and Luke were saying but you knew they were throwing angry, venomous words at each other.

What made the situation so much worse, was that you had come between two best friends. You had ruined that and unless a miracle happened sometime soon, that was it between them and the band.

No going back. You’d ruined it. You’d made this mess.