"If you could have one superpower, what would it be?"

"Uh... I don't know, maybe time travel or something." Luke rifled through the papers on my desk with furrowed eyebrows. "Or reading minds. So I could confirm my theory that you are constantly picturing me naked. Is this all your stuff?"

I rolled my eyes at the reading minds comment. "Yeah. And I don't–"

"It looks seriously boring."

"Whatever, Luke. And I'm not constantly picturing you naked."

"Sure, snowflake."

I scrolled down the questions on my phone as I lay on my bed. "Why are we doing this again? These questions suck."

"We're doing this to get to know each other in a place that isn't the studio," Luke replied, opening a drawer in my desk.

"So we pick my dorm? And quit looking through all my shit," I grumbled, locking my phone and rolling over before burying my face into the pillow.

"Yeah, your dorm is... homey. And messy," he remarked, closing the drawer.

I scoffed and lifted my head to look at him. "It is not that messy. And, well... it would be tidy if Jess was here."

"Your roommate, right?"

"Right."

It was the weekend again and after I'd accidentally let slip Jess was away, Luke invited himself over to my dorm and told me we were having a 'getting to know each other' session. I'd managed to get him to my room undiscovered and he'd immediately made himself at home by looking through all my work, and now my drawers. He lost interest in my desk and wandered over to my chest of drawers. I sat up immediately.

"Luke, you are not allowed to look in my underwear drawer," I said sternly, and he threw a smirk in my direction before opening it anyway. "Luke!"

"Jeez, fine. It's not very interesting. Although you do have a lot of red underwear."

"Yeah, it's my favorite color, remember?" I reminded him, lying back down and twisting a strand of hair around my finger.

"You do that a lot," Luke mentioned, and I glanced over at him.

"What?" I said in confusion.

He nodded at my hair. "You twiddle your hair."

"Oh. I never noticed."

"It's cute." Luke sat in my chair and put his hands behind his head, looking out the window.

"I'm not cute," I protested stubbornly. Luke looked over at me with a raised eyebrow.

"Um, okay? You're... sexy?"

I grinned. "Better."

Luke shook his head at me, and glanced around my room. "Do you not have a guitar?"

I shook my head. "Not since mine broke. Dad wouldn't get me a new one and I can't really afford a good one, so... I don't know, maybe he'll be feeling nice on my birthday. We'll see."

Luke didn't answer for a moment. "You can have one of mine, if you want."

I frowned at him. "Like hell I can. I'm not taking one of your guitars."

"Well, you can borrow one, until you get a new one. I wouldn't want you to get out of practice."

"I don't need a guitar, Luke. You on the other hand, do," I pointed out, absentmindedly twiddling my hair again.

"I've got like ten. You can take one, honestly," he assured me.

"I'll still feel bad," I mumbled, and he grinned at me before standing up and stretching, causing his t-shirt to lift up and expose some of his pale torso. I stared.

"I better get going– Noelle, are you staring at me?" he suddenly said, sounding amused.

I snapped my gaze back to his face and shook my head very quickly. "No. I'm not."

Luke laughed softly. "You do that a lot when you think I'm not looking. Do you stare at other people? Or am I just lucky?"

I huffed. "I was not staring."

"Whatever floats your goat or sails your whale, Noelle."

"What?" I said in slight confusion. "Sails your whale? And I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be floats your boat, not goat."

"I write songs. I like making shit rhyme. Plus, I'm spontaneous."

I shook my head at him. "Okay, Luke. If you've gotta go I'll–"

"I'm a big boy, Noh, I think I can walk back to the car on my own," Luke stated with a laugh. "And then I'll see you on Monday for our little road trip."

I smiled at that. We were headed to the town John had mentioned this coming Monday, and I had to say I was looking forward to it. "It's not exactly a road trip. Just a trip, period."

Luke shrugged. "Yeah, but it sounds more fun if you call it a road trip. And it's going to be fun alright." He bit on his lip ring as he looked down at me.

I pressed my lips together to hold back a smile as I got up from the bed. "I'm not sure I trust that you're going to behave yourself this week."

"Yeah, I don't trust myself, either," he said softly stepping closer to me.

I snickered quietly at that. "You try and make yourself sound like such a badass."

"I don't need to try, snowflake," Luke said bluntly, stepping closer to me still.

I raised an eyebrow. "If you were a badass, you would have gotten a tattoo. But I'm the one with the tattoo, so I guess I'm the badass."

Luke smirked at that. "Whatever sails your whale. But you can't really be a badass with a nickname like snowflake."

"Yeah, well, I wasn't the one who gave that to me." I placed my hands on his chest and moved them up and across his broad shoulders before locking them behind his neck, bringing his head down to mine. Before our lips met, I moved my head so I kissed his cheek instead. Luke groaned.

"God, I hate you."

I laughed and stepped away. "Goodbye Luke."

***

People in my corridor were starting to realize that I was friends with Luke Hemmings. I supposed Luke hadn't made it out all that successfully because I had students I'd never spoken to before coming to my dorm and questioning me about it. Mostly girls. Some girl with red hair whose name I couldn't remember seemed very interested in Luke.

"Are you going out with him or something? I mean, he was in your room, right? Were you guys having sex?"

I stared at her. This was a really weird conversation. "Um, you and me are not friends. I've never spoken to you before. I am not talking to you about sex."

"But you were in your dorm with Luke Hemmings! Wait, are you a groupie?" she questioned with wide eyes. "If so, where can I sign up for that?"

I glared at her slightly. "I'm not a groupie. Please leave."

When people still didn't leave me alone I made myself a 'do not disturb' sign and hung it on the outside of my door, hoping people would get the message. I could still hear everyone talking so I plugged myself in to my phone, turning the music up way loud. A song Luke recommended came on called 'Light Up The Sky', and it was by a band called Yellowcard. I'd decided it was my new favorite song.

After a while of just listening to music, I got a bit bored, and since Jess wasn't here I couldn't talk to her or anything. Spring break started on Monday and she'd left already to spend time with her family. George was probably out with Ross and Luke had just left. I had other friends but I didn't really feel like seeing any of them. So, I decided to get out some paper and a pen and jot down any ideas for a song.

After a while I decided I couldn't do much without a guitar so I gave up on that, too. I suddenly remembered one person I could hang out with, so I quickly dialed Fran's number, hoping she was free. Luckily she picked up.

"Noelle, hey," she answered.

"Hi. Are you free to hang out? Like, can we go do something?" I asked hopefully.

"Yeah, I'm not doing anything. One second." There was some muffled talking and then Fran came back to the phone with a groan. "Only thing is, you know how Sasha is staying with me at the moment? She wants to come with. Trust me, I'd rather leave her at home– ow! Don't hit me, Sash. So, would you mind if she came along?"

I sighed very quietly and forced a polite tone to my voice. "Yeah, that's fine. Let's meet at the studio."

"Sure. See you in... forty-five minutes?"

I glanced at my watch. "Yeah, sounds good."

"Okay, bye!" She hung up and I sighed much louder. I didn't really want to see Sasha at all but I didn't really feel like I could say that. I would just have to ignore her best I could.

About forty-five minutes later, I arrived at the studio and stood outside to wait for Fran and Sasha. As I saw them pull up, I promised myself I would be polite and friendly to Sasha even if she wasn't, just to be the... bigger man. I frowned at the thought. I hated being the bigger man. I preferred to be petty.

I greeted Fran with a hug and forced a smile at Sasha who rolled her eyes at me. Jesus, she was like a grumpy fourteen year old.

"Hey! Did you have a plan of where you wanted to go?" Fran asked me as we wandered away from the studio and along the street with Sasha trailing behind us.

I shrugged. "Not really." Sasha snorted behind me. I ignored her. "Is there anywhere you want to go?"

"Not specifically. I say we go get a milkshake or something," she suggested.

I raised an eyebrow. "But it's not summer."

"So? Milkshakes are good any time of the year," Fran stated.

"Fair enough."

"Do we have to get milkshakes?" Sasha complained from behind. "I don't feel like one."

"You don't have to get one," Fran pointed out with a sigh. I shot her a sympathetic half-smile. "You didn't have to come along, either."

"I was so bored, though. I wanted to get out. Why can't we go and see the guys?"

"If by the guys you mean Luke and shit, just... no," Fran said firmly, not looking behind her to meet Sasha's eyes. "Look, here we are. This place does the best milkshakes." Fran led the way right in and got us a table by the window. I sat myself down and glanced around me. The bar was brightly lit and colored with multiple people sitting by it, and away from the bar were pink tables – one of which we were sat at right now – with white seats. Jazzy music played softly all around us and I felt relaxed. Plus, the milkshakes everyone was drinking looked really good.

"I'll order. You guys know what you want?" Fran asked as I glanced through the menu. I quickly made up my mind.

"An Oreo one, please," I requested, and Fran nodded before turning to Sasha whose nose was wrinkled in distaste.

"I told you, I don't feel like a milkshake. Ask if they do diet cokes."

Fran rolled her eyes before walking up to the bar to order.

I watched the people walking by the window, having absolutely no intention to talk to Sasha, but Sasha seemed to want to talk to me. Or interrogate me, I imagined.

"So, have you noticed?" she demanded, folding her arms and leaning back.

I turned my gaze to her and raised an eyebrow. "Noticed what?"

She shook her head at me pityingly. I narrowed my eyes. "Some of the girls in here are staring at you."

I frowned but casually glanced around me. Annoyingly, Sasha was right. A few of the girls in here, all aged in the range of about thirteen up to at least eighteen, were looking at me every so often then talking to their friends who would, in turn, peer over at me. I felt my face grow hot but tried to act nonchalant.

"So?"

Sasha observed me for a moment. "You know why, right? I mean, you must seen the pictures and read the articles."

I had read a few but there were more than a few out there. "Not all of them."

"You're famous, Nora–"

"Noelle," I corrected sharply. Why did most people I know have such trouble remembering names? "And I'm not. People just recognize me as one of Luke's friends."

"Therefore, you're famous. Didn't he follow you on Instagram?" Sasha questioned with an annoying sly smile on her face.

I nodded. "What's your point, exactly, Sally?"

Sasha rolled her eyes. "My point is, it's only going to get worse. Good luck with it all."

"How kind of you," I said flatly. "I'm surprised you're not taking advantage of it all. Given that you like to use people for fame."

"Watch it, Nora. I could completely screw you over, you know that?" she said coldly.

I laughed slightly. I found her drama queen tendencies pretty amusing. "How could you do that, exactly? You don't even know me. And why would I care what you have to say? Your opinion means shit to me."

Sasha just smirked. "We'll see." She shut up as Fran came back with the milkshakes, who didn't seem to notice the tension between Sasha and me.

"Oreo milkshake for you, and diet coke for you. It's on me," Fran said to me, but then she carried on to Sasha, "Actually, you can pay me back. Noelle doesn't have to pay."

I smiled gratefully at her while Sasha scoffed. "Real mature, Fran."

"While we're at it, you also owe me for those shoes I bought you," she reminded her cousin. "And that mascara. And that lipstick."

I snorted and Sasha shot me a death glare. "Yeah, whatever. I'll pay you back. Eventually."