❪ 𝗕𝗟𝗨𝗦𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗚 ❫

𝖼𝗁𝖺𝗉𝗍𝖾𝗋 𝖾𝗂𝗀𝗁𝗍 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━
sparkling apple cider. ╱ act two, chapter eight.
❛ it's the best i could do last minute, okay ! ❜

𝙍𝙀𝘼𝙇 𝙇𝙄𝙁𝙀 !

TALIA WAS VERY nervous, her stomach was bubbling with anxiety as she rushed around her apartment trying to tidy up the small messes that were spread throughout the apartment. This was the first time that she and Luke would be hanging out, and she certainly didn't wanna fuck it up. The only time they hung out was a few weeks ago when they first met. And now they were hanging out alone in her apartment. Talia was just sweating from the thought.

She just couldn't comprehend that she was actually going to hang out with the man that she's been pining over for four years. Many instances over the past hour she's wanted to reach for her phone to cancel this whole thing. But in her head, she oddly heard the voice of David calling her a pussy. So she didn't follow through with canceling.

There was a rush of eternal panic that flowed through the short girl once he said yes. She was going to have a goddamn celebrity in her fucking apartment. Suddenly Talia felt like her apartment looked like it belonged on Hoarders. The last hour was full of Talia vigorously cleaning her apartment, afraid Luke would judge her for her home. Even though deep down she knew he wasn't like that whatsoever.

But there was a huge part of Talia that was fucking pumped that this was happening, this side was just about to overshadow the anxiety, but remembering that he was famous made her recoil into herself and the anxiety was brought right back.

She did put a lot of effort into making her living room look cozy. From the different assortments of blankets and pillows that were spread around the couch, to the vanilla candle burning on the coffee table. By the time 7:30 came around, Talia was in the kitchen popping popcorn.

She was humming an impromptu melody off the top of her head, which was slightly calming the ever-growing anxiety as time ticked by. A loud knock caught her off guard and she dropped the large bowl of popcorn in her hands. With a groan, she watched the popped kernels fly across the kitchen floor. A small fire of burning frustration began to light up in her stomach seeing the new mess that was splayed on her floor. The knock came again, she snapped her head up with a roll of her eyes, soon she begrudgingly squatted to the ground to pick up the pieces of popcorn.

"It's open," Talia's voice boomed through her calm apartment, and it wasn't long before the door opened and steps of both a human and an animal filled the apartment. Excitement bubbled in her stomach, and her process was soon speeding up.

"Talia? Where are you?" Luke's soft Australian accent boomed through the surprisingly large apartment. Talia internally swooned at his accent, which seemed to be a common thing for her every time he opened his stupid mouth.

"Kitchen,"

It was long until the kitchen door opened and the tall Australian walked in, his eyes fell on Talia who was on her knees scooping scattered popcorn into a large bowl. He let out a soft laugh, "What happened?"

"You and your stupidly loud knocking, that's what happened," Talia annoyingly grumbled, scooping the remaining kernels into the bowl.

"You spilled the popcorn cause of my knocking?" Luke questioned, crossing his arms in amusement.

Talia gave him a playful glare, her voice slightly rising in defense, "I'm just a jumpy person, okay?"

Luke chuckled and nodded, "Noted,"

Talia soon stood up and turned to pour the popcorn in the garbage, but she turned back to the man, noticing a bottle in his hand. Talia's eyebrows quirked up in confusion, "Champagne?"

"Not exactly," Luke remarked as he walked over to the island, putting the glass bottle on the countertop.

"Sparkling apple cider?" Talia giggled lightly, slapping a hand over her mouth to subdue the laughter.

Luke huffed, pulling the bottle back to him, "It's the best I could do on such short notice, okay?"

"No no, it's cute," Talia replied, grabbing the bottle from him and soon went to go retrieve glasses for them. As she poured the cider into the glasses, Talia had a humorous smile on her face, "I hope you know I can knock this back like fucking water,"

Luke soon took the small glass that Talia handed him, soon snorting at her comment, "Oh, I'm not surprised at all,"

They fell into a small silence as they began to drink the sparkling apple cider. Talia knew she should start making a new batch of popcorn but laziness flowed through her bones and the thought of watching a movie wasn't something that she wanted to do.

"Hey, you wanna put off the movies until later, and maybe help me with some stuff I've been working on?"

Luke put down the glass, soon sending her a questioning gaze, "Like your new music? Are you sure?"

"Yeah," Talia nodded with slight excitement. She had been royally struggling with her music lately, and would honestly love a fresh set of eyes. "I would love a new set of eyes on it, I'm kind of stuck,"

"Lead the way Miss Talia," Luke mentioned with a soft smile, making Talia's heart slightly speed up, but she pushed it off.

"Before we do anything, I must do something first,"

"And that is?" Luke asked, his eyes following her as she headed towards the kitchen door.

Talia turned to him with a knowing smile, which made Luke's heart thud in his chest, but he pushed it off, "I have to go meet that cute-ass dog of yours,"

꧁⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯꧂

TALIA WAS A LITTLE worried about sharing her personal lyrics with Luke, but she had nothing to fear because this man was a natural and it was so easy to bounce ideas off of him. Talia felt pure joy as the work session flowed smoothly. The whole night did not disappoint, and she could see herself becoming really close to Luke, there was something about him that felt right. And it made Talia want to hang around him more often.

They both sat on her bedroom floor, a guitar in Luke's lap as he played the melody that he and Talia just finished. While Talia listened to him play, Petunia placed her head in the girl's lap as she was softly patting her. A small smile was sprouting on Luke's lips as he looked up from the fret of the guitar and saw Talia running her hand down Petunia's head. It wasn't long before Talia gave him a teasing smile, "I think your dog likes me more than you,"

Luke quietly chuckled as he nodded softly, "I'm pretty sure you're right,"

Once Talia's eyes fell on the large bulldog, she knew she was in love. Petunia was quick to waddle to the two twenty-year-olds, and Talia practically fell to her knees in excitement to give the dog her love and affection. It wasn't long before a small bond between the girl and dog was formed, where Talia was in the apartment, so was Petunia. It confused Luke to no end, seeing his own dog pay more attention to someone that she just met, rather than him.

But seeing the large smile on Talia's face made it all worth it.

Talia's eyes fell down to the pages of sheet music that her and Luke had been slowly filling out for the past hour and a half. "I think what you just played is perfect,"

Luke nodded, playing a few random chords on the guitar, "I really like the lyrics, they're really beautiful and not to mention quite personal,"

Talia's mouth flew open in surprise at the kindness lacing his tone, "Oh, um, thank you,"

"No problem," Luke remarked, soon reaching down to fix a note he accidentally wrote on the page. His soft gaze board into Talia's appreciative one, but it wasn't long until he broke the contact and he glanced down to his hands, "If you don't mind me asking, but who's the song about?"

Talia's throat closed up, constricting her voice to almost no noise. She wasn't ready to share that with him, she maybe never could be. But the wince on Talia's face made guilt flow through Luke, "If you don't mind I'd rather not get into it,"

Luke nodded furiously in agreement, understanding that he might've just overstepped some boundaries. "Oh yeah, I completely get it, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to,"

"Thank you," Talia smiled gratefully, the panic and dread were soon dissipating into thin air as her eyes fell on Luke's slightly guilted ones. An idea popped in her head, and she sent him a hyper glance, "I have a great idea,"

Luke looked up from the guitar, "Hmm, what is it?"

"Are you busy tomorrow?"

"No?" Luke's eyebrows quirked up in confusion at her question, his head was soon tilted also. "Why? What do you have planned?"

Talia was visibly filling with excitement and it made Luke even more confused, "Do you wanna go into the studio with me tomorrow?"

"Really?" Luke questioned, which was in a tone Talia couldn't decipher and she felt like her idea was plummeting fast.

"I mean yeah, we just have a good vibe going on and I was wondering if you wanted to come in with me tomorrow and help out," Talia rambled, while her hand was awkwardly rubbing her neck, nervous to hear his reply, "I mean if you don't want to, you don't-"

"I would love to,"

A contagious smile broke out onto Talia's face, which made Luke follow her lead and returned the smile. "Great, I'm super excited. But if you don't mind, would you wanna watch some movies now? I'm kind of tired of this,"

Luke sighed, placing the guitar against her bed, "I thought you'd never ask,"

꧁⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯꧂

THE MOONLIGHT SEEPED through the curtains as a silence flowed the air. The sudden noise of the front door opening caused the calming silence to break slightly, but no one reacted. The culprits of the door opening were David and Natalie, as David wanted to film a quick bit for the vlog, as his hundredth attempt to scare Talia. Which worked almost every single time.

Natalie was hesitant to go, knowing the girl would not enjoy the harmless prank. "David are you sure about this?"

David groaned quietly, trying not to cause too much noise, "Yes Natalie, I hear the tv going, so she must be in the living room,"

Natalie internally groaned and begrudgingly followed behind her tall best friend. As they rounded the hall and were close to the living room, Natalie was even more hesitant, "David I don't think this is-"

David soon slapped a hand over her mouth, shock filled David's face watching the scene in front of him. Natalie was very confused at first but soon was practically fainting with joy as her eyes fell on the small scene.

Both Luke and Talia were passed out on the couch, but that wasn't the reason they were shocked. The reason was that Talia's head was delicately placed on Luke's shoulder, and her hand was tightly gripping the material of his sweatshirt. And Luke didn't seem to be uncomfortable with her closeness at all, as he had an arm wrapped tightly around her waist, keeping her in place, and not to mention the motion of his head resting softly on top of Talia's.

The moment was too much for both her best friends to handle, while David was ready to leave, a soft shutter broke the silence. David snapped his head to Natalie in surprise, "Did you just take a picture?"

Natalie shrugged but nodded nonetheless, "This is absolutely adorable how could I not?"

David didn't reply, only rolling his eyes in response. But he soon dragged Natalie away from the scene before them, knowing that Talia would feel uncomfortable that they had even seen it.

But David knew he was gonna ask a million questions tomorrow. Starting with, why the hell was Luke Hemmings at her apartment in the first place?

↝↝↝↝↝ 𝐓𝐀𝐘𝐋𝐎𝐑 𝐒𝐀𝐘𝐒... ↜↜↜↜↜

GIF MADE BY THE LOVELY sunsetswerve

DOUBLE UPDATE CAUSE I HAVEN'T DONE ONE IN A WHILE!!!!

and I'll say this now, I love Luke and talia with all my mf heart. They are just sweet and soft and secretly in love with one another. But shhhhhh don't tell them i said that. 🤫🤫🤫

They are adorable and I love them, and we gotta love Natalie taking a photo of them. She ships it hardcore.

I hope you enjoyed!

BUT IMPORTANT THING.

What did you all think?

I really would like your feedback on this, so please leave a comment.