((this chapters really long oh and it might be a little triggering like I don't know cuz I'm dont I'm not meeeh I'm not sure idrk I'm sorry))

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3:56 PM

"What could you possibly want?" Luke snapped, answering the phone.

"My God, did I interrupt something important?" Michael scoffed, letting out a loud laugh.

"Actually yes, Michael, you did." Luke said, rolling his eyes. He really didn't want to tell Michael that he had been about to have a wank in the bathroom, but he knew he was getting to the point where he would need to.

"What were you doing, having a wank?" Michael continued laughing, barely able to get words out of his mouth as he gasped for air.

"Yes!" Luke shouted, clearly annoyed. "Now please tell me what was so important."

Michael stopped laughing abruptly, realizing that what he had previously assumed was true. "We have to talk."

"About what? Are you going to make me cry again?" Luke asked, letting out a groan. He realized that he probably shouldn't be groaning like that, or Michael would still think he was jacking off while on the phone.

"No, no, oh my God, Luke." Michael said quietly. Luke knew that Michael felt bad for making him cry earlier, and when they were on the phone the second time Michael apologized probably a thousand times. Even though the two of them didn't always get along, nothing ever went as far as one of them crying, and it obviously scared Michael that he had the ability to do so.

"Okay, fine. Then what is it? I don't have all day, Mike." Luke said, hoping to ease Michael along.

"The girl," Michael started, and Luke sighed. He already felt that this was going to be the same conversation they had before.

"Skylar." Luke corrected him, figuring that if she was all Michael was going to call about he might as well learn her name.

"I'm worried about her, dude, have you been on twitter lately?" Michael asked.

Luke shook his head, he hadn't been on twitter since earlier today in the sandwich place, because he had been trying to save the battery power on his phone. "No. What's going on?"

"She's getting a ton of hate, and it's even making me upset. How old is she, Luke, barely 18?" Michael asked, and Luke swore he felt his heart drop to his stomach. Was the hate really that bad? Luke always assumed that the fans were hating on him for being with Skylar, not the other way around.

"She's 17." Luke said, "She just turned 17 two months ago."

"Oh God, Luke, she doesn't deserve all of this at just 17 years old." Michael said shakily, like he couldn't believe it either.

Luke just kept shaking his head, like maybe if he did it enough times the words coming from his friends mouth might somehow become untrue.

"No, there has to be a mistake? Are you sure the fans are talking about her? Maybe they're saying those mean things about that girl I was with a few weeks ago, she was mean anyway." Luke rambled on, trying to deny the fact that Skylar was getting all of this hate.

"No, they're definitely talking about her. Luke, this isn't good. Please don't let her see any of it, she's not going to be able to handle it." Michael went on, "Do you remember when we were her and started to get noticed by people, and they sent us hate too? That whole 5SOS versus One Direction thing? That was awful, I swear Calum was upset about it for a week."

"I know, I know, it wasn't good. But the fans can't be that mean, right? They don't even know Skylar, how could they say something mean to them?" Luke asked.

"I'm just saying, man, it gets to you. Skylar's pretty innocent in all of this, I don't like the idea of people being so rude for no reason." Michael sighed. Luke ran a hand through his hair, not even bothering to look in the mirror and check himself out like he normally would.

"What are they saying?" Luke asked, and when Michael took too long to answer, he asked again, "Michael Clifford, tell me what they're saying about Skylar."

Michael paused for a moment before finally taking a deep breath and responding to Luke. "All this shit, Luke, it's awful. There's stuff about you paying her for this and her paying you, and rumors that she's pregnant with your kid. They're calling her all these names, too, and making fun of basically every move she makes. Luke, there's even death threats here."

Luke felt his whole world stop around him, because that was where the line was drawn. It was alright for the fans to say all of those mean things about Skylar, because they didn't mean anything to anyone and Skylar would never see them anyway. But having someone threaten to kill her was different, and that made Luke more upset than anything. He felt like crying all over again, just because he couldn't imagine why his fans, people that he's supposed to love and who are supposed to love him, would say such horrible things about a girl that they've never even heard speak.

"Luke, are you there still?" Michael called into the phone, noticing that he hadn't heard Luke in a while.

"You can't be serious. This is bullshit, Mike, is that stuff really going on?" Luke asked, finally breathing out after holding air in his lungs for such a long time.

"I hate to say this but yes, it's true. I don't know why they would say that, because I'm sure Skylar's a lovely girl, and she's too young to be getting this much attention." Michael continued, and Luke could hear it in his voice that he was genuinely concerned about all of this, which was definitely something new for Michael.

"I can't believe they're being so mean, what did Skylar ever do to them?" Luke asked, whipping his now sweaty palms on his pants.

"She didn't do anything wrong, Luke, and that's the problem. Do you think she's seen any of the things going on?" Michael asked quickly, still worried about this. Luke didn't understand why Michael was so bothered, he doesn't even know Skylar, does he?

"No, no, she doesn't have a twitter and I don't think she even knows about the hate. I want to keep it that way, Michael, I want to keep her safe." Luke sighed. That was all he wanted, so keep Skylar safe from everything. Michael was right, Skylar was way too young to have this much attention on her. She was just a kid, she didn't need the whole world obsession over her and how she's been spending her day.

"I really hope that those are your intentions, man." Michael said, sighing as well.

"What does that mean?" Luke asked.

"I just really hope that you've actually changed. I know that you used to do this whole asshole thing as an act but lately it's gotten too out of hand, and it's not just an act. But I think this girl has done some good for you, and you're turning back into the normal Luke." Michael laughed softly, the memories of how Luke used to act around the boys obviously coming back to him.

"No one likes Normal Luke." He scoffed, not wanting the get into that whole ordeal. That was another story that he would probably never repeat to anyone, because it was just too personal to tell just anyone.

"We do, Luke, your friends, your family, Skylar. We like Normal Luke." Michael said. And with that, he said a quick goodbye before hanging up the phone without letting Luke say anything else.

Luke took a few seconds to breath and process what was going on before exiting the bathroom and returning to Skylar, who was sitting on the edge of the bed and staring at her phone.

"Sky, baby, how about we go get something to eat?" Luke asked, hoping to take his mind off of all of this.

"Later." Skylar said softly, setting the phone down next to her.

"Skybaby." Luke said quickly, making it sound as if it's one word instead of two. Luke liked his little nickname for Skylar, he just wished she would come up with a nickname for him.

Luke crouched down in front of Skylar, putting his hands on her knees and staring up into her eyes.

"Skylar, what's wrong?" Luke asked, finally noticing that there were tears in her eyes. He automatically expected the worst, and his eyes flicked down to her phone, which was still unlocked and displaying a news article about Skylar and Luke's wild day out.

"Nothing." Skylar said quickly, pushing Luke away from her and standing up.

"Baby, please tell me what's wrong." Luke called after her as she went into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her and locking it.

"Skylar." Luke pounded on the door, though he knew that she wasn't going to open up for him. He could hear her crying through the door, and it honestly broke his heart. He hated to hear Skylar cry.

"Skybaby, open the door, I just want to talk." Luke begged. He didn't even really want to talk, he just wanted to sit there and pull Skylar into his arms and tell her that everything was alright, that she was special, that she didn't deserve any of the hate she was getting.

After a few minutes of Luke standing hopelessly outside of the bathroom door, he heard the click of the handle and the door opened for him, revealing a very sad and very tired looking Skylar sitting on the bathroom floor.

Seeing Skylar sitting there like that reminded Luke of the many nights he had done the same thing, and what that eventually led up to. He couldn't let that happen to Skylar, so he decided that he needed to tell her the story that he had never told anyone else before.

He just needed to get this off of his chest, because usually telling someone about something that was bothering you made this better. Luke had never shared this with anyone else, and he was scared, but he knew that it was the right thing to do. Skylar and him had only met a few hours before but she already meant more to Luke than anyone else ever had, and he knew that he was making the right choice by confiding in her with this.

"Sky, I have something to tell you." Luke said, sitting down next to Skylar.

"Okay." Skylar nodded, sniffing a few times. She covered her face with her hands, a whole new face of sobs coming over her.

Luke wrapped an arm around Skylar and pulled her into his chest as she sobbed, not caring that she was soaking his shirt or that the bathroom floor was cold and really gross. Luke didn't mind any of that, because all he cared about was Skylar and her well-being.

When Skylar finally calmed down again, Luke spoke. "I, uh, I kind of have a story for you. And I'm telling you this because I trust you, and because you've stuck with me through a lot, so I want you to know this."

"Go ahead." Skylar squeaked, trying to hold her tears back again.

"You told me earlier today that you used to get bullied, and I just thought that you should hear my story." Luke said, slowly taking his wristbands off. He handed them to Skylar, letting her hold them while he held his arm out to her, revealing the many faded scars that lined his wrist.

"Skybaby, I trust you a lot. I've never shown anyone this or told them about it. My own mum doesn't even know. So please, I'm begging you, don't tell anyone what I'm about to say." Luke said slowly. It was so important that this secret didn't get out, because it could change so much for Luke.

"Luke, I would never - " Skylar said, shaking her head, and stopped talking so she didn't start crying again, her eyes locked on Luke's wrist.

Luke hadn't cut himself in over two years, so the scars weren't very easily seen, but you could still see them if you looked close enough. He didn't think that the fans even knew about this, because he sure as hell hadn't told any of them. Calum was Luke's best friend and he wasn't even aware of Luke's past, and probably never would be, because Luke didn't plan to tell him either.

"Luke," Skylar finally gasped, "you did this to yourself?"

"I had to, it was the only way." Luke shrugged. When Skylar didn't say anything else, he took a deep breath and continued talking.

"I have older brothers, you know, and when I was around 15 they used to bring their friends by the house and bother me because I was kind of a nerd." Luke chuckled, "I wasn't very smart, actually, but I really liked video games and comics and I loved playing the guitar and singing every chance I got. My brothers and their friends were really mean to me about it and my brothers did nothing, because they didn't want to seem uncool and defend their little brother. I cried myself to sleep almost every night because the words that my brothers and their friends said would always replay in my mind, and I just felt like shit all the time."

"That was around the time that I started to turn into an asshole, I guess. Because I felt that if everyone was going to be a jerk to me, I should be a jerk to everyone." Luke shrugged. He tried to laugh again but found that it was hard to do so with a huge lump in his throat.

Skylar nodded, telling Luke to continue. She stared down at Luke's bracelets that she held in her hands, focusing on the Batman one.

"They used to tease me a lot about the fact that I couldn't get a girlfriend, because I had asked out, like, 5 or 6 other girls and they all turned me down because they knew I was friends with Michael and he was an even bigger dork back then." Luke barely laughed again, trying to keep the mood as light as possibly while talking about something so serious. "I felt awful about the fact that I couldn't get a girl, and my brothers making fun of me for it really didn't make it any better, so I gave up on girls completely."

"I finally lost my virginity to this girl that was a few years older than me when I was still really young, and at that point I had completely given up on getting a girlfriend and decided to just have meaningless sex instead, because that seemed to fix things for a short period of time. It really sucked-" Luke's voice broke for a minute, but he composed himself again and kept going, "it really sucked because I just felt so worthless, you know?"

"Yeah." Skylar whispered, her eyes still on the bracelet.

"No one wanted to be my friend except for the boys and my brothers were dicks to me and the never defended me around their friends and my mum and dad really didn't bother and no one believed that I could make it big in the music industry even though music was the only thing that could truly make me happy. I kept sleeping around with random girls to fill the empty void inside of me and I remember when there were some nights when I would sit on the floor just like we're doing now and I just wanted to end it all, I would rather die than go through this." Luke rambled on, blinking back a few tears. He refused to cry in front of Skylar this time. Not again. "That's why I started to, uh, do this. Because I felt like it was the only way to stop all of this madness, because I thought that maybe feeling a little pain would make up for the emptiness."

"I'm not really asking for your pity, or anything, Sky, I just wanted to tell you. That's why I'm such an asshole, that's why I have trouble letting people in, and that's why I try to hide who I really am. I try to hide 'Normal Luke'," He laughed, "because people don't like Normal Luke, they like Mean Luke. Mean Luke is the one that got famous."

"I like Normal Luke." Skylar spoke quietly, looking up at Luke.

"I do too." Luke nodded. He liked being Normal Luke more than he liked being such an asshole to everyone, but he felt like that was the only way to get peoples attention. Michael had been right, lately Mean Luke had become Normal Luke, and there wasn't anything he could do to stop it. Most people that didn't personally know Luke loved the fact that he was an asshole, and that's how the band took off in the first place.

"I just... I can see how you're acting and I know some of the things that you've been through and I just wanted to tell you that I care about you a lot, Sky, even though I just met you, and I don't want what happened to me to ever happen to you. So just remember that things will always get better in the end, and there's always a better option." Luke said when Skylar didn't say anything else to him, taking her hand. "I mean, look at me, I used to get made fun of for liking to sing and now I'm famous for it."

"How long has it been since you did it last?" Skylar asked after a few long minutes in silence, sniffing once.

"About two years. I started when I was almost 16, and stopped when I was around your age." Luke explained, giving Skylar a small shrug. He didn't want her to say that she was sorry, or treat him differently now that he told her this. He just wanted her to know, because she deserved to know. That was Luke's biggest secret, something that no one else knew about him, and he figured that if he was going to tell anybody about it then he would pick Skylar.

"I don't want you to do it again." Skylar looked up at him, tears in her eyes. Oh shit, Luke thought, now I'm definitely going to start crying.

"I won't, I promise." Luke assured her, his lips curling into a smile.

Skylar smiled back at him and handed Luke his bracelets again, her eyes still on the Batman one. Luke put the rest back on, but left the Batman one out for just a second. He handed it to Skylar, watching her face as it lit up when Luke placed it in her hands.

"Keep it, please?" Luke pleaded. "I want you to remember me."

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Luke :((

See I told you guys that he had a reason for being so mean at the start