hey there, it's good to see you again ; luka

[stella armstrong]

"TOGETHER WE'LL MOVE ON, JUST DON'T TURN AROUND; LET THE WALLS BREAK DOWN!" Stella groaned and rubbed her eyes, using a sleepy hand to try and find the button on her alarm clock that would shut it up. She gave it a prod a few times, expecting the music to end. But it didn't - not even when she knocked the damn thing off of the night stand that it usually sat on. It took her a few moments before she realised that the sound wasn't actually coming from her alarm clock. It was coming from her brother attempting to sing along to the All Time Low song that he was blasting from his stereo in the other room. She grumbled to herself and turned around to thump her fist on her brightly coloured bedroom wall. "HEY, JUST SO YOU KNOW; I'M AWAKE NOW!" She yelled, even though she doubted his ability to actually hear. It wasn't like she was actually going to be able to get back to sleep now, there wasn't really much point in it anyway considering what time it was. With a sigh, the sixteen year old climbed out of bed and pulled the covers straight, before walking around to the other side to pick up her alarm clock. As she placed it back onto the night stand, she saw the picture frame that sat there. The picture inside was two years old now, but as many as James took; it was the only one she refused to change. It was the only picture she had of the summer two years ago. She hadn't gone on holiday or anything, but she was actually glad that she hadn't - otherwise she wouldn't have met Luka, whom she was in the picture with. He was on holiday from Australia and he had a smile that, as dorky as it sounded, light up a whole room. Of course, the holiday had eventually ended and he'd had to go back home.

The pink haired teenager chewed her lip and padded over to her wardrobe, Luka now on her mind. She hadn't seen him since that day - and now she wondered if she ever would. Visions of him returning to England on another holiday and heading to her old house, only to see that great big "TO LET" sign by the gate, it made her heart sink. She opened the door to her wardrobe, looking through her array of rainbow-coloured clothes. Making sure not to crease them at all, she pulled out the seperate pieces that would make up today's outfit. Maybe he doesn't even remember who you are. This wasn't a pleasant thing to think about, but she found it passing through her mind whenever she thought about Luka. She wondered if he could still remember her name as she pulled her pyjama t-shirt over her head; and as she pulled her stripy Glamour Kills one over to replace it, she wondered what the chances were that he still had the necklace that she had given to him just before he left. She sighed quietly as she pulled on a pair of tights in a shade of pink that was similar to her hair colour, the sound of James' signing (and most likely, air guitar too) still managing to make its way through all of the plaster and stuff that made up the wall, into her ears. On top of her tights and her t-shirt she pulled a pair of dungaree shorts, shuffling around the room a few times until she managed to find her blue lo-top Converse All Stars; which were then pulled onto her feet. It took her a while but she managed to sort out her pink and black hair into something that wasn't the curly mess she had woken up with, clipping a bright green bow on the left side. By now Stella probably looked pretty weird to most people - but that was because they all strived to be normal. If the moment's most obnoxious celebrity hadn't been pictured wearing it, they wouldn't go near it. She, on the other hand, strived to be different - this was the whole reason she was attending MSA for fashion design.

Stella grabbed one of her many tote bags and held it open, scurrying around to collect random items that she thought she would need. Now, this made it sound like she took everything but the kitchen sink just to go shopping for a few hours on a Saturday morning - but actually, the amount of stuff that she carried around with her wasn't really much when you considered the actual size of the bag that she was carrying around with her. Her Sidekick; her wallet and her keys were all that she had on her person most of the time, maybe a magazine or something to keep herself occupied if she was thinking about stopping by somewhere like Starbucks - that was usually all. She had made it all the way from her bedroom down to the front door, and was about to leave until she realised that she hadn't had any breakfast. But really, she wasn't that hungry - and it wasn't like there weren't any fast food restraunts or anything in the city. "BYE, JAMES. IF YOU CAN HEAR ME." She yelled (her parents having already gone to work, or the gym, or wherever places that people of her parents' age liked to spend their Saturday mornings. Heck, they could probably just be in the backyard for all that she knew). She made her way out of the house, walking at a pace that was probably quite fast to some people; but was reasonably steady to her. Given this, it didn't really take her very long before she found herself walking through the big glass doors of the mall. Now she was edging towards believing she was hungry, but not quite hungry enough for an actual meal. Her solution to such a predicament? A Hippy Hippy Shake.

Her pretty pink head bobbed through the door of the orange and purple store, causing a small smile to cross her features at the sound of the blenders. She pulled herself up onto one of the orange stools that surrounded the counter, looking around at all of the Beatles, Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix posters that covered the walls and quickly scanning the great big menu board. She looked up as one of the persons behind the counter asked her what she wanted. "I'll have a regular Oreo milkshake, please." Her head nodded as the girl repeated it back to make sure it was right, digging around for her wallet. By the time she pulled her head out of the bag, the milkshake was already sitting on the counter infront of her. She gave the girl a smile and handed over the money, telling her to keep the change considering that it was only a buck or two that wouldn't be sorely missed. The straw was brought up to her lips, looking around again as she sipped the drink.

( TAG: luka OUTFIT: this. LYRICS: walls by all time low. GRAPHICS/LAYOUT: mine! POST STATUS: done! WORD COUNT: comingg MUSIC: - - - -. NOTES: d'aw! )

[luka mikel kusterbeck]

YOU PLAY MY NERVES LIKE STRINGS.
all upside down.

IGNORANCE IS YOUR NEW BEST FRIEND. IGNORANCE IS YOUR NEW BEST FRI-

"AHHH!" Thud. That was the sound of a nineteen year old male being woken up out of a deep slumbed by his alarm clock and... the wall. It was his fault, about the wall, he'd been the one to put his bed that close to the wall with no space left to not hit it every time the alarm clock woke him up. Though you probably would have thought that he'd learn from his mistakes by now, right? Well, no, not exactly. This happened almost every morning and he had yet to learn from the mistake of having a bed so close to the wall. It was a miracle that he hadn't knocked himself out from the pressure building up behind his skull after every hit to it. But Luka didn't seem to care all that much, most of the time he was still tired after having been woken up. Just like right now, as was evident from the fact that his hand was nowhere near his alarm clock; flailing around trying to look for the snooze button, only to find the wall. He rolled over, the wrong way and ended up falling. "AHH!" His voice was sleepy and slightly high pitched in the mornings, which made his current situtation a lot worse. Especially since, after he had moved, he was now stuck... between his bed and the wall. What a, uh, strange, predicament to be in. Now how was he supposed to get out of this problem, eh? Blowing his hair out of his eyes and looking up to the ceiling, Luka wondered if it was possible to reach his phone from this position. He stretched his arm across the bed, fingertips scrazing the side of his phone, but that only made everything all that much more worse. Instead of getting his phone, he got a face full of covers and ended up on the floor. Stuck even more. Mentally smacking himself on the forehead, Luka struggled to get up. Last time this had happened Kaitlyn had told him to crawl under his bed; but that wouldn't work, he didn't have one of those beds. He had drawers underneath it! However, his phone had fallen down as he had and he could just about reach it now. Luka picked it up with one hand and sent a quick text message to Kait: 'HELPI'MSTUCK!' then struggled to get free from the bed.

Ten minutes later, Luka was standing in the middle of his room looking at his bed with a most distasteful expression on his face. Mentally telling it off for being so damn annoying and trapping. It was a seductive bed, ha! Shaking his head at it, the tall male loped off to the bathroom for a quick shower before getting dressed. After wrapping a towel around the lower half of his body, the sixteen year old shuffled back into his bedroom; trying to avoid his puppy who looked like she was about to attack his leg, as she had done so, so many times before. Diving sideways into his room, Luka kicked the door shut with his foot and shifted over to his closet. He looked around for something to wear and settled on a 'Glamour Kills' t-shirt, and a pair of jean shorts. He didn't know what the weather would be like out there, but he didn't really care. Towel drying his hair, the male got on his knees on the floor and looked under his dresser for a pair of shoes that he was sure he'd kicked under there last night. There was a pizza box and a pair of boxer shorts under there, but no shoes. Oh, right. He had meant to clean that up the other day. Once he had located both of his blue DC sneakers, Luka shoved a wristband on his wrist, grabbed his cell phone, keys and wallet, left his apartment and decided to take a walk into Manhattan shopping district. There was nothing else to do and he was running dangerously low on glitter supplies. His house, rather conveniently, was located not five minutes away from the mall so he arrived there rather quickly in comparison to some other places. Within ten minutes, Luka was in the store that housed all of his glitter needs and had purchased more than enough tubs of glitter the be considered 'illegal'. Now... all he had to do was have some fun with them and everything would be right in the world. But, wait... hang on a minute! Was that his stomach that just rumbled?! Luka blinked and looked down at his stomach.

It rumbled again. Luka distinctly swearing that he heard it say 'feed me. feed me.' Turning on his heel, the sixteen year old skipped over to the food court and shuffled into Hippy Hippy Shake; it was a purple and orange store that looked rather strange to the young boy. He tilted his head at it slightly as he wandered in, placing his hands into the pockets of his shorts; feeling a strange, cold, metal item in there. Chewing on the inside of his lip, Luka pulled it out and stepped into the store, unnoticing of the pink haired female just a few steps away from where he was standing. "Uhm, one... oreo milkshake please." He told the person at the counter, taking a seat next to the pink haired female and placing his hands on the counter, looking at the necklace. A faint smile crossed his lips as he looked at it - a reminder of his summer romance with the beautiful Stella Armstrong. He wondered when he'd see her again and looked up when his milkshake came. "Thank you." He mumbled quietly, digging some money out of his pocket and handing it over. His change came back to him and when the clerk wasn't looking, Luka sat up, leaned across the counter and stuffed the change into the charity box, before picking up his milkshake and looking around the store.

[stella armstrong]

Nobody ever really seemed to notice this trait about Stella, but she was rather insecure most of the time. Not just about how she looked or what people thought about her like most girls her age - even though she was insecure about these things, she tried to block it out by attempting to have a very 'stick it to the man' attitude about her. It kinda made some people instantly think that she was some sort of rebel bitch, even though she could only just manage to be mean to the people she disliked, never mind it being a general thing. She tended to worry about whether people genuinely liked her or if they were only leading her on; if they were really going to call her when they said that the would or not. Really, it would be better, easier, more accurate, correct, whatever you wanted to call it; to say that she tended to be more 'worried' than 'insecure'. Whichever word you did want to label it as, it was still the reason for all of her thoughts about whether Luka still felt about her in the same way that she believed she did him, or if now he had a girlfriend back in Australia, or wherever he was living now,; and she was just 'that chick he kissed on holiday in England'. She didn't think that he was that kind of person, but people could change a lot in two years. Sigh.

It would be true to say that she hadn't really had a boyfriend; and in the two years that had passed since she had her first kiss, with Luka, her lips had not once come into contact with somebody else's. She wasn't quite sure about the reason for this, but the girl had one or two theories as to why. The first was just that she hadn't met anybody she liked, considering a lot of the guys that she went to school with were all up themselves and thought the sun shined out of their own rear ends. The second was that somewhere in the back of her mind she believed that she would bump into Luka once again someday. She imagined that he would still remember who she was, he still maybe felt the same was now as he had done two years ago. She doubted this slightly in her mind, although she wasn't sure about which part; whether it was the chances of ever bumping into him again, or if she did, whether he would still like her how he had done. Stella looked around the Hippy Hippy shake once more, stirring the milkshake with her straw and gently swining her legs underneath the counter. The only advice that anybody seemed to give her - the few that actually knew how she felt for a guy that she had known for a few weeks two years ago, at least - was that she should just forget about him. On one or two occasions she had tried, but failed miserably. She always felt bad about it, especially because she knew how she would feel if he forgot about her just like that. It would probably be a little better if she didn't think about him quite as much as she did, and right now was probably a very good example as to why she should do so.

Her eyes looked down at the brightly coloured counter, drawing small transparent pictures on it with her finger. Stella didn't bother to look up to see who was there when she heard somebody order the same thing as she had, since it wasn't exactly a strange occurance (considering that the Oreo milkshakes were probably most popular; the Reese's Peanut Butter Cups coming a very close second.) It wasn't until when she noticed the very familiar, shiny, silver necklace that whoever it was - she decided that it was either a guy or woman whom had rather wide arms - had in their hands that she looked up slightly, attempting to hide behind her bright pink and black bangs so that they wouldn't notice she was doing so. She looked up to the person's face, realising that it was in fact a male. One specific male, in fact, who made a rather large knot form in the girl's stomach. Instantly her mind began to try and convince her that she was dreaming, or that the guy currently sat next to her just looked like a whole lot like Luka; but if the latter was true then how on earth did this person have the exact same necklace that she'd given to him two years ago? Her top row of teeth bit down on her lower, clearing her throat slightly and arguing with herself. After a few minutes she finally decided to take a leap of faith, carefully spinng her stool around ninety degrees so that she was facing him. "Uhm, L-Luka?" Her voice wasn't at its usual volume, but she hoped that it was still audible to him.

And that he wouldn't look up and stare at her like she just asked him if he liked bananas.

( TAG: luka OUTFIT: this. LYRICS: walls by all time low. GRAPHICS/LAYOUT: mine! POST STATUS: done! WORD COUNT: comingg MUSIC: - - - -. NOTES: d'aw! )

[luka mikel kusterbeck]

YOU PLAY MY NERVES LIKE STRINGS.
all upside down.

There was probably something strange about the way Luka acted around females, especially ones that decided it would be a good idea to hit on the male; because he was cute. For starters; he didn't really like it when random girls went up to him and tried a very cheesey chat up line on him, and then he didn't like it when the girl got upset and told him to 'fuck off' because she realised that he wasn't even interested in her. It annoyed him to no end, plus it was also rather frustrating, which just annoyed him even more - those who knew Luka, knew that he was a total sweetheart, and would never do anything to hurt another human being. Only problem was, that every time these girls chatted him up and he blew them off, Luka couldn't help but feel guilty about doing so, and would; more often than not, attempt a reconciliation of some sorts. Though there had only ever really been one girl whom he had not blown off - Stella Armstrong. He'd met the lovely Stella down in England, whilst he'd been on holiday with his parents and older sibling, Lucille. They'd hit it off almost immediately during the first week of his three week holiday. No-one was ever going to replace Stella from his heart, which had started to split the nearer he got to the end of his holiday. It had saddened him to know that there was a chance that he would never, ever, get to see her again. She had been his first ( and only ) kiss and there was no way in hell that he was ever going to forget her.

Though he wouldn't be surprised if Stella forgot him, Luka knew that he definitely wasn't going to forget her; not since she'd given him the necklace as a keepsake, to remember her by. Ever since that necklace had been placed in his rather sweaty palm, the day before he was due to go back to Australia, had also been the day Luka realised that he was probably never going to see her again. On the plane going back to Australia, he couldn't stop thinking about her; about her hair; how her eyes twinkled; how she shimmered and glistened; how her whole smile just lit up the room; how she sparkled whenever she giggled/laughed at something he'd said (that probably wasn't even that funny); how her hand had felt in his own; how his heart had started to shoot up his oesophagus; how the butterflies did a funny dance in the fit of his stomach; and how his head had started to fuzzle up the moment he'd dared to kiss her, for the very first time. That was a lot of reasons why he didn't ever want to forget Stella, and a lot of reasons why he hadn't wanted to get together with another girl, because he'd day dream about the time where he and Stella would meet up again. It would be a fantasmagorical meeting; there would be unicorns, rainbows, leprecha-- okay, so maybe there wouldn't be mythological creatures/beings, but it would still be fantasmagorical, at the least.

His thoughts had automatically shot back to the first day he'd met Stella as soon as his hand had closed around the necklace in his pocket. A faint smile danced across his weather beaten face upon entrance to the Hippy Hippy Shake, milkshake store. Luka had ordered an oreo cookie milkshake - one of the very few things that he'd not forgotten, that Stella liked, even though he didn't particularly like oreo's himself. It was just a little reminder that she had, in fact, been real and that their time together had been pretty darn spectacular. He'd then seated himself on the counter next to the pink haired female, the necklace wrapped around his slender fingers, the faint smile still dancing across his face as he waited for his order. The oreo milkshake came; the change was stuffed into a charity box and the male got himself comfortable on the stool a little more. Out of the corner of his eye he caught sight of something pink, but just decided to play it off; thinking that it was probably just the sun reflecting off of the purple walls, onto something else, making it pink. But then... was there really anything that was that particular shade of pink. It all seemed so familiar to him. Luka was about to see what it was when someone cleared their throat and spoke out to him. At least he'd thought that he'd been spoken out to; the person had said his name, afterall. Spinning in his chair, a little too fast, Luka had a mere fraction of a second to see the oh-so-familiar face next to him, before it'd become a blur and he'd done a full three hundred and sixty degrees turn on the stool. Then, once he'd ceased spinning, Luka had to do a double take at the person sitting next to him. Whether it was because he was dizzy or because he thought he'd recognised the girl, Luka didn't know... or maybe it was both. He looked at her incredulously, confused. His heart skipped alternative beats and his mind flooded with images from England, of the girl. Of her.

Of Stella.

"S-S-Stella...?" He asked, blinking rapidly. Unsure as to whether or not this was a dream. "Has the oreo shake gone to my head, or am I really seeing you?" He asked, then sneezed.

[stella armstrong]

Stella found that the way karma happened to work - if you actually believed in karma to begin with - was very, very unfair. Those two years ago, during that summer holiday; she'd had the three most... well. How could she really put it into words? She wasn't even sure if there was one in the English dictionary that would adequately describe the three weeks that she had spent with Luka during his holiday in England. The whole thing had been like some kind of dream to her - of course, when his holiday came to an end, reality eventually kicked in. When she had been saying goodbye to him before he left for the airport, she'd tried her utter hardest not to cry; not wanting his last memories of her to be her snivelling like a baby. Straight after he had left, however, she had shut herself away inside of her bedroom, curled up under her covers and refused to go downstairs for four days straight; no exaggeration. The only time she left was to use the bathroom or to shower. Her mind was filled completely with thoughts of him. From those cute little habits Luka had, like the way he shook his hair out of his face that she found simply adorable; to things like how she could hear his heartbeat whenever he hugged her, or when her lips had tingled just after he kissed her. Then along would come those little gremlins just to remind her that she would most likely never see him again. When the girl had finally decided to leave the confines of her bedroom, she looked terribly fragile, as though the miniscule force of somebody brushing past her would consequently make her fall to pieces. So; it was only typical for her little brother James - who had only just turned thirteen at the time - to go and as her how her boyfriend was doing.

Stella's brother had apparently learnt from that incident after watching his sister ask to be excused from the table, hearing her burst into tears on the way up the stairs. Now he never dared to mention the name, her parents were never around to speak of him anyway. She skipped anything like dances that were held at the school because she didn't want to see everybody being happy. Not once did she have to worry about having to turn people down, because nobody bothered to ask her. It was probably pretty foolish, what she was doing - holding out for a guy that she wasn't even sure that she would ever see again. It was like she expected that one day he would randomly fall from the sky and land right in front of her. When she'd been told that the whole family was moving to Manhattan, she hadn't really thought about the possibility that she would bump into him there. No, things didn't like to work out for her in that way. If she did bump into him again, she believed that her luck probably meant that he wasn't going to be staying long again - he would walk back into her life for a few days and walk straight back out again. This was probably the reason why she didn't quite believe that the person who was sitting on the bright orange stool next to her wasn't Luka, just somebody who happened to be holding a necklace that was practically identical to the one she had given to him two years ago.

After several moments of arguing with herself about the likelihood of it actually being him and clearing her throat in some foolish attempt to maybe make her notice her, she gathered up the courage and said his name aloud. Okay, so it wasn't exactly 'loud' loud, but she hoped that he would actually be able to hear her speaking. Her eyebrows carefully knitted themselves together as she watched him spinning around on the stool, she didn't actually know that they could go quite that fast. She chewed her lip a little harder and waited for him to finally slow down, looking at him. He still looked like he had done two years ago, but at the same time he looked different. She wasn't entirely sure how that actually worked, but it did. Stella smiled gently at his reply and went to answer, her train of thought interrupted by his sneeze. "I-I think I'm real? ... and, erm, bless you." There was so much that she wanted to ask him, so much she wanted to tell him; she tried to leave it at that - but she couldn't help herself asking about the necklace that was wrapped about his fingers. "... You still have that?" It made her smile to think that he still remembered her, he still thought about her, he possibly still felt the same way about her that he had done two years ago.

( TAG: luka OUTFIT: this. LYRICS: walls by all time low. GRAPHICS/LAYOUT: mine! POST STATUS: done! WORD COUNT: comingg MUSIC: - - - -. NOTES: this sucks. )

[luka mikel kusterbeck]

YOU PLAY MY NERVES LIKE STRINGS.
all upside down.

For some people, there are memories that they wished they could keep in their minds forever; first kiss, first marriage, first boyfriend/girlfriend. Then there are those memories that you'd really rather forget; prom night, first date, among other things. For Luka Mikel Kusterbeck, asking Stella Armstrong if she would like to be his -first- girlfriend was a memory that he loved to hate and hated to love. It had been a memorable experience for both of them, definately. Yet, it had also been one that Luka - he was sure Stella would agree - would have, very much, like to have forgotten. It had been on the last day of Luka's first week in England when he first plucked up the courage to ask her out. Luka had gone to visit Stella at her house, where they were to have a mini-picnic, just the two of them. Unfortunately, when the time came for Luka to ask Stella if she would be his girlfriend, his hands became very sweaty and shakey. He stumbled over the air and spilt his Lucozade all down his shirt, then practically yelled at her; asking if she liked clouds, before accidentally pushing Stella into the little kiddie pool and storming out of her house; wondering what the hell he'd just done. Luka had then spent the rest of that day and the majority of that night working out an apology in his head, for Stella. He was, for certain, sure that she probably wouldn't accept it, but it was worth a try. Well, it was in his books, and anyway, Luka wasn't one for not apologising after being mean.

The next day, Luka had woken up really early in the morning, had a shower and dressed himself in clean clothes. Then he'd spent the better part of his morning trying to work out what to say to her, once he arrived at her house. On his way over there, Luka had stopped at a little corner store and picked up a single pink rose. The closer he got to Stella's house, the more nervous he became about trying to attempt an apology; because he was so sure that she would probably slam the door in his face and shout, through the letter box, that she never, ever, ever, wanted to see him again, because he was suck a jerk. This single thought scared Luka so much that he'd almost turned around and ran back to his hotel room - he'd been at the end of Stella's street at the time. But the little voices in his head told him that he needed to get it over and done with as soon as possible. Okay, so maybe that sounded a little schizophrenic, but, in all truth and honesty, had he not listened to those voices; Luka wasn't so sure that he would have been able to spend the rest of his holiday with the amazing Stella. After several moments of quietly deliberating, Luka had found his feet, and his courage, and had walked right up to Stella's front door. He'd rung the bell and stood on the porch with the pink rose behind his back, waiting patiently for the door to be answered. When it was answered, Stella was there and she looked unhappy. Luka had then started to chew on the inside of his lip before he took one step closer to her, placed his hand, gently, on her arm and pressed his lips against hers; in a soft kiss. Once that was over, he presented her with the pink rose and an apology; mixed with a question about whether or not she would like to go out with him.

During the next two years, though, Luka would spend every night dreaming about the very first time he'd kissed Stella. He would never forget a face like hers, or her hair - not that anyone could possibly forget hair like that. The necklace that she'd given him was never put out of his sight. Luka would sleep with it under his bed and either keep it in his pocket or wear it around his neck; hidden under his shirt, to remember Stella by. He didn't ever want to forget her and was going to make sure that he wouldn't; though he couldn't help but have a feeling that the sinking in his gut was telling him that he wouldn't ever get to see her again. He did live in Australia and she did live in England that was a whole days difference between the two countries. It was too long and Luka had wished that he'd asked for her cell phone number and/or email address. Spending time away from Stella was like Kaitlyn telling him that she hated him. So, imagine his thorough surprise when he realised that he was sitting next to Stella in Manhattan, in Hippy Hippy Shake. It was so surprising that he ended up doing a full three hundred and sixty degrees turn on the stool and sneezing. Luka then had to find a way to not fumble over his next set of words as he looked at Stella, closing his palm against the necklace she'd given him and chewing on the inside of his lip. "I hope you're real..." He mumbled, looking back at her face - she looked different, older, two years had passed and she had grown more beautiful than before. "Yeah, I kinda do, it never let me forget the time we spent together, in England." As Luka spoke his hand came up too Stella's face, gently brushing away a strand of her hair. "I missed you, terribly... and I hope to God that you're not just here on a holiday, because.. well, because I hope we can, erm, yknow... pickupwhereweleftoff?" Luka chewed on the inside of his lip as he placed the necklace back into his pocket, waiting.

[stella armstrong]

Stella had never really been the most popular person when she had been at home in England and at the moment, she hadn't really made very many friends in Manhattan, either. But her lack of friendship meant that she usually skipped out on any school functions or after school clubs; anything like dances, she would make sure to stay well away from. Nobody ever asked 'the weirdo girl with the pink hair' to the dance, even if anybody did she would only end up turning them down. Really, she didn't have many fond memories of being at school - no, it was what happened between terms, away from school, during the holidays that she liked to remember the most. Actually, like probably wasn't the most accurate word to use to describe it. More like... memorable? Never would she forget the day before Luka asked her to be his girlfriend, it had confused her thoroughly when he spilt Lucozade down his own shirt; randomly asked her if she liked clouds and pushed her over into the kiddie pool (she wasn't even sure why it had been filled up in the first place, to this day she didn't know who had filled it up) before finally walking out of the house and leaving a soaking wet Stella sitting all alone in her backyard, half expecting Ashton Kutcher to jump out of the shrubs with lots of camera men to tell her that she had just been Punk'd.

The rest of the day she had spent sitting on the back porch in some attempt to dry herself out; glaring at the kiddie pool that the invisible man had filled up and tried to work out what she must have done or said to Luka to deserve all of that. She thought that things had been going reasonably well. Stella decided that whatever she had done to him, he didn't really want to be her friend anymore. The next day she had the house to herself - her parents had gone out on some day trip or something with their friends and James was out with his friends. As much as she herself wanted to go out she didn't dare, just in case she ended up bumping into Luka. Obviously, she hadn't been expecting him to turn up when this kind of thing happened. She was unsure of what she was supposed to do in such a situation, the poor girl simply standing there and trying to work out why he was there; right up until the moment he kissed her. Most people would have pulled away and asked for an explanation, but she didn't. You had to cut her some slack, gived the situation that she was in - it was her first kiss, ever, with a guy that she did have a crush on; even if she was confused about whether he liked her or not. When she saw the rose, well... You couldn't honestly expect her to say no to him now. He'd pushed her into a kiddie pool then stormed off and left her there, but he had come back the next day to apologise for what he had done. In her opinion, it would be mean to turn him down now, and she didn't do mean.

Stella was quite happy that she had chosen forgiven Luka. She couldn't imagine staying mad at him for what was left of his holiday (truth be told, she wasn't sure if she actually had the physcial will power to stay mad at him for that long) and she knew that she didn't want him to return back to Australia thinking that she hated him. After the past two years that she had spent convinced that she would never ever see him again, but deep down hoping that some day she would; she wasn't entirely sure which would be the worst to endure. When the time came for him to leave she had never thought about asking for some kind of way to keep in contact with him, because she wasn't entirely sure how when there was practically a twenty-four hours time difference between their two countries. If some random person had walked up to her and said that she would see Luka again two years later in a Manhattan smoothie bar, she would have stared at them and began to slowly walk away. Now, just look where she was and who she happened to be sitting next to. Stella watched him carefully, still smiling even though she was sure that her cheeks were slowly turning pink at the thought of him believing that she was some kind of dream. She had to admit, she had dreamt about bumping into him again and thought that it was real the next day - not once had she thought that he might have done the same thing. "It's kinda hard to forget." There was a hint of laughter in her voice as she thought back to that summer yet again, not sure that she was blushing as he moved her hair out of her eyes. Her heart stopped the moment that his words registered in her mind, then suddenly sped right back up again. "I missed you, too..." Her voice was somewhat quieter, more sheepish that it had been a few moments before. "We actually moved here a few weeks ago. And, Iwouldlikethatalot."

Moving to Manhattan didn't seem to be so bad after all.

( TAG: luka OUTFIT: this. LYRICS: walls by all time low. GRAPHICS/LAYOUT: mine! POST STATUS: done! WORD COUNT: comingg MUSIC: - - - -. NOTES: bleess. [: )

[luka mikel kusterbeck]

YOU PLAY MY NERVES LIKE STRINGS.
all upside down.

The thing about Luka was that he was a total sweetheart and when he liked someone, he really liked them. Well; that was all about the girls anyway, but there had only been one girl that had ever really caught his eye and at the moment he was having the pleasure of being in her company, in the milkshake store, sitting next to her and talking about.. well, asking her if she would like to continue where they had left off. It was a long shot, but Luka had figured, that if he really liked Stella; he would apologise and hopefully they could still be an item. He really did like her and those two years that he'd been apart from her had been the hardest years of his life - not even his younger Canadian cousin had been able to cheer him up; and she was pretty darn good at making people laugh when she felt like it - without even trying, to be honest. Though there had been a pretty long distance between the two of them, Luka had talked with Kaitlyn online every night, explaining to her, exactly how he felt about Stella, whilst she just sat there at her laptop, trying to work out what he was going on about. Sure, he knew that he'd confused Kaitlyn about his feelings for Stella and his guilt for having not been able to keep in touch with her, but he'd also confused himself.. a lot, and that was never a good feeling for Luka to.. uh, feel. Him being confused was like trying to teach a dog to tapdance, or some other thing like that. It wasn't a very pleasant experience and most of the time he'd forget what he was confused about, try to tell Kaitlyn something, confuse her more; which confused him more, which, in the end, made him upset if he were to tell the truth. However, thoughts of Stella had always brought him back to the land of the happy people and he would cheer up quicker than you could say 'cherry pie'.

The fact that Stella had blushed when he'd brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes, made Luka go 'aw' on the inside; smiling faintly and trying not to let it show that he'd seen her blush. Though, it wouldn't be the first time that he'd made her blush. An exchange of 'I missed you's, echoed through the walls of the milkshake store as the two sixteen year olds sat on the stools with their milkshakes, completely oblivious to the world around them. If they had been to notice, they would have seen the customers in the store (and the workers) looking in their direction; apparently interested in this heartwarming reunion of two lovers, whom had been seperated two years earlier, for reasons unknown to the spectators, but for reasons known to both lovers. There was a slight silence between each sentence. It seemed to Luka like they were both trying to work out what to say and what they were feeling; hence the silence. It was a little awkward, but not as awakard as one would like to think. He could practically hear his own heart beating harder and harder against his ribcage as the moments ticked by. Losing Stella due to his own stupidness had been something that Luka was never going to forget - however, finding Stella out of the blue had been something else that Luka was never going to forget. He would treasure this moment in his mind for as long as he could walk, talk and breath. Forget about Stella? Never, he knew that he would never, ever, ever be able to forget her. C'mon, who could forget the pretty girl with the awesome pink hair and the truly remarkable fashion sense, eh? You'd have to be pretty damn daft to do that. Luka bit the inside of his lip a little as he looked up at Stella, ignoring his milkshake.

So, she had moved to Manhattan a few weeks ago, eh? Well, Luka had been here slightly longer than that. He nodded slightly and took a sip of his ignored milkshake. "We moved here a few months after we got back from our holiday in England." He told her, placing the milkshake back down on the table and turning in his stool a little more to face her properly. When Stella told him that she would very much like to pick up where they had left off, before the end of his holiday had ruined a perfectly perfect relationship, he felt butterflies dance around in his stomach. There was a feeling of elation in his body; it made him feel as though he were floating on clouds. He could feel his heart thumping against his ribcage, trying to burst out through his chest and fly into Stella. That would have been an interesting way to die, but Luka liked the idea of his heart staying in his chest for the moment. Though, his heart would always belong to Stella, no matter what happend. She was his first girlfriend; his first love, his first kiss and he could still taste her lipbalm on his lips. Without realising what he was doing, Luka placed his fingers against his mouth; he could remember the way she had tasted. Removing his fingers from his face, the sixteen year old then realised that a whole two minutes had passed since either of them had said anything. Not really knowing what to say now, the sophomore chewed on the inside of his lip for a moment before getting up from his stool and wrapping his arms around Stella; planting a very gentle kiss on her lips. After a moment he pulled back, lips tingling, sure he was blushing now. Seems like his little cousin had been right afterall; Stella did still feel the same way about him that she had when he'd been in England, two years ago. It brought a smile to his face as he simply looked at her.

"My heart, belongs to you, Stella; it always has ever since the day we first met."