"Hello?" I asked, picking up the phone.

"Hey, are you busy?" Michael's voice appeared on the other end.

"Not at the moment, why?" I spoke softly, standing up from the couch. I began to pace around the room, a habit that I always did when I was on the phone.

"Do you want to come over? We finally bought a DVD player." Michael chuckled into the phone.

"Finally." I laughed. Now he could finally stop asking to borrow mine.

"So, do you want to come over?" Michael asked.

"Um, sure. It's not like I have anything going on here." I shrugged, glancing around my empty living room.

"Luke Hemmings isn't going to pop by at all, is he?" Michael joked.

"I doubt it. He doesn't pop by anymore." I sighed, my eyes quickly filling with tears at the mention of Luke. I missed him a lot, but he wasn't speaking to me.

"How long has it been?" Michael asked, and I knew exactly what he was talking about.

"A month." I said, wiping under my eyes. "I haven't seen or heard anything from him."

"I'm sorry, Stella. I'm sure he'll come back soon." Michael sighed as well. As much as he didn't like to admit it he missed Luke too, the two of them had almost become friends in the short time they spent together.

"Right. I'll be down in a few minutes." I smiled, hanging up the phone.

I got myself ready to go, only fixing up my hair and sliding on a pair of shoes since I wasn't going very far. I pulled open the front door, only to reveal a tired looking Luke standing before me.

"What are you doing here?" I asked. All I wanted to do was hug and kiss him, make sure that he wasn't just a figment of my imagination.

"I need to talk to you." Luke gulped. He pushed passed me and stepped inside the apartment, not waiting for me to invite him in.

He looked so different. He was thinner, his skin was paler, his hair was longer. It's like he had hardly taken care of himself in the past month. I hated this, I needed to reach out and touch him. He looked almost like a new person, like I didn't even know him anymore.

"I really don't think there's anything to say." I folded my arms over my chest and leaned against the wall, staying away from Luke.

"I have something to tell you, actually, if you would just let me." Luke gulped.

"You think that you can just show up after a month of staying away from me and everything will be just perfect?" I questioned, crossing my arms over my chest.

"I have a good reason for staying away." Luke said quietly, staring down at his feet.

"Well then, where have you been?" I asked.

"I was in the hospital for a few weeks." Luke shrugged. "I tried to kill myself again."

I knew it, I knew I shouldn't have left Luke alone that night I was upset with him. He had told me all about his problems and I knew about every single one, I should have seen something like this coming. I can believe how mean I was to him, I probably provoked this whole thing. This was all my fault. He tried to commit suicide because of me.

"W-what?" I stammered.

"I wanted to die, Stella. I thought that I had lost you, the one good thing I had in my life, and I felt that dying was the only option. I thought you hated me, and if you hated me then I felt like I had no point anymore." Luke stated simply. He wore the same usual blank expression on his face, looking as though he had told this story millions of times.

"What...h-how?" I asked. I could say anything else, I couldn't even apologize even though I knew this was all because of me.

"I guess I swallowed a ton of pills again. My mom found me passed out in my room and took me to the hospital. She's better, by the way. She doesn't hit me as much anymore." Luke explained.

"I'm glad you're okay." I sniffed, more tears coming.

"So am I." Luke's lips formed into a small smile. "Because if I killed myself, I wouldn't be able to do this."

Luke rushed forward and cupped my cheeks in his hands, immediately bringing our lips together. I wrapped my arms around Luke's waist and pulled him against me, focusing more on holding him than kissing back. I had missed this, so much.

"Luke." I sighed, finally pulling away from him.

"I know, you're still upset with me." Luke ran his fingers through his hair, letting out a big puff of air through his cheeks.

"You didn't tell me - " I started to speak, but Luke cut me off.

"Yes, you're right. I didn't tell you that your asshole boyfriend was cheating on you. But so what? You cheated on him with me! I didn't want to hurt you, Stella. I was willing to do anything for you to make sure you were never hurt. I wanted to protect you, Stella, that was my main goal. I never wanted to hurt you." Luke yelled, making me flinch. I didn't want him to yell at me. I thought this would be a normal conversation, but apparently I was wrong.

"I don't know why you had to keep it a secret, though." I sighed.

"Jesus!" Luke shouted, turning around and hitting a lamp of the small table next to the couch. "What the hell do you not understand?"

"I'm sorry, I just-" I was trying to stay as calm as possible, but I guess Luke wasn't having it. Luke cut me off, as always.

"I hate you! I hate you I hate you I hate you!" Luke screamed. He kicked the table over, followed by a few other things.

"No, you don't." I shook my head. This wasn't the first time Luke had told me he hates me, but I know now more than ever that he's lying.

"Look what you've done! Look at me, Stel! This isn't me, I'm not supposed to be acting like this! It's all your fault!" Luke ran his hands through his hair, still breathing heavily.

"I didn't do anything to you!" I yelled. I don't understand why Luke was being so mean to me for this.

"Oh, you didn't do anything?" Luke looked like he was taken back by my statement. "You were the one who forced me to open up to you like this! You were the one that made me feel like this, made me attempt suicide! You were the one that played like I was your fucking toy! You were-"

"Luke, stop it!" I screamed, no longer wanting to hear about all the bad things I've done to Luke. "Stop it, I don't want to hear this!"

"I tried to fucking kill myself because of you, I was in a hospital for almost a month because of you!" Luke yelled, that only made me even more upset. I wish that he would stop reminding me of the fact that I could have lost him. I already felt guilty for sending him away that night, now I felt even worse knowing what he did.

"I didn't - "

"Listen to me!" Luke took a step forward and grabbed onto my wrists. I struggled to break free, or at least hit him, something. All I wanted to do right now was get as far away from Luke as possible.

"Luke, please." I begged. "Please let go of me, you're hurting me."

"Oh, am I hurting you? Have you thought about all the times you've hurt me? You treat me like shit and I've sat here, pretending that I feel nothing!" Luke yelled, squeezing onto my wrists even harder than before.

"Then why didn't you just quit?" I asked quietly, looking up at Luke through my eyes, that were already filled with tears. "You quit on everything else."

"Jesus, Stella." Luke laughed a mean laugh and closed his eyes. I flinched at the sound of him saying my full name. "I didn't quit on you because I love you."

Luke shoved me away from him, pushing me back a few feet. He let out a big sigh and sat down on the couch, placing his head in his hands.

"...What?" I asked, unsure how to answer. I couldn't even really process what he had just told me.

"Are you deaf?" Luke stood up. "I love you, you bitch. The end. I'm done with this shit."

"What do you mean? W-What do you mean you love me?" I stuttered.

"I mean," Luke groaned. "You literally want to make me walk into oncoming traffic, with your questions and your dumb staring contests and your pretty hair, it's not fair, Stella, the way I feel about you. You came in to my life with hardly any warning and you. . .you changed me. When I look at you I get this feeling in my stomach, it's not even butterflies anymore, I kind of feel like I want to throw up. I can't stand you, really, but I have absolutely no way of stopping myself from falling harder and harder for you every single day. I'm crazy, that's what I am. I used to fucking hate being called crazy but now this is the only way I can describe this. I'm crazy because I fell in love with you when you clearly didn't feel the same way, and I acted so pathetic because of it. You do the stupidest things and day after day I continue to love you because you're - you're...you, you're you. But whatever Stella, I'm done with you and all your bullshit."

"Luke-" I tried to speak, tried to form a sentence, form anything, but nothing would come out. I couldn't handle this.

"It's okay that you don't love me back, I'm used to it by now. I think I should go, Stella. I have a therapy session to go to anyway." Luke rolled his eyes and turned his back to me, making his way out the front door.

"Luke?" I called, stopping Luke from walking any further out the door.

"What do you want?" He asked. He let out a big sigh and turned around slowly, his eyes meeting mine.

I wanted to tell Luke that I loved him. That was really the only label I could put on this crazy relationship of ours. I loved him, and I knew that he felt the same way even though sometimes he got a little fed up with me. I wanted to tell Luke that I loved him, so I did.

I swallowed hard, "I love you."

"No, you don't." Luke scoffed.

"Yes, I do. I love you Luke, really. I'm so sorry for all of the shit I've done, the leading you on and playing you and making you feel sad like this. I never wanted to hurt you. I was a selfish bitch for yelling at you that night, Luke, and I wish I stayed with you. I'm so sorry." I spilled out, and that's when I began to cry harder than I was before.

"Jesus, Stella." Luke sighed. He took a step forward and wrapped his arms around me, letting me sob into his shirt.

"Don't call me that, you bastard." I sobbed, balling up my hands into fists and hitting Luke hard on the chest. "Call me Stel, please. Call me your nickname for me."

"Stel." Luke whispered. My heart fluttered at the familiar sound, finally I was being called Stel after a whole month. I looked up at him, his bright blue eyes brimmed with tears of his own.

"I love you, Luke." I cried.

"I know, Stel." Luke rubbed my back with his hands, burying his face into my hair. "I know."

"I'm so sorry." My voice came out scratchy and muffled from my mouth being shoved into Luke's shirt.

"I'm sorry too, it's okay. We're okay." Luke continued to rub my back and push stray pieces of hair away from my eyes, calming me down.

"Don't ever leave me for a month again, Lucas Robert. I missed you too much." I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand, finally pulling away from Luke.

"I wouldn't dream of it, Stella Anne." Luke whispered.

He leaned in again and pressed his lips to mine, shutting the door behind me and slowly leading me down the hall to the bedroom, where we were going to prove that we really did love each other.

Ok don't hate me for cutting it off here they will continue in the next chapter so cALM DOWN