My alarm wakes me up. I groan as I roll over to shut it off. It's seven am and I need to get up because it's my first day of senior year. I'm a bit nervous to start at a new school but Brooke told me she would introduce me to all of her friends, so that eased my anxiety a bit.

Luke hadn't come to talk to me yet. Maybe he won't. Maybe everything with us is done. I guess he lied when he said we wouldn't just be a summer fling because summer's over and so are we.

I push my thoughts aside. Not even Luke is going to ruin this day for me. I need to focus on school now, not Luke and our never ending drama. Just then there is a knock on my door. I walk over and open it to reveal Brooke.

"Are you ready for your first day?" She squeals. Why was she so excited about school?

"I guess so. Let me just tell Michael i'm leaving." I say as I walk over to Michael's room and knock on the door before opening it. "Michael, i'm going to school. I'll see you at three." I say. He just groans in reply so I shut his door and walk back over to Brooke.

"Ready?" She asks and I nod.

We take the elevator downstairs and get into her car. The drive to school is around ten minutes, since it is on the outskirts of our small town. She pulls into the parking lot and parks the car. We get out of the car and walk to the doors in silence, before Brooke speaks up.

"We need to go to the office to get our timetables." She says.

We walk over to the office and get our timetables. We learn that we have multiple classes together. We also have our lockers right beside each other, but that's just because it's alphabetical order and her last name is Cloman. Thank goodness i'm beside someone I know. We walk over to our lockers and I open it up, quickly putting the binders I don't need inside.

"Look who it is." Someone puts there hand on Brooke's locker. I look up to see a boy. A cute boy. He has quiffed brunette hair, and warm brown eyes.

"Travis! Oh my god i've missed you!" Brooke says to him as she engulfs him in a hug.

"Me too. Two months is way too long to leave the country." He laughs as he pulls away from the hug.

"How was America?" Brooke asks him.

"Same as every year. Spent with my father's maid because he's too busy with his wife. He's on wife number five now." He laughs.

"I thought he was totally in love with wife number three?" Brooke asks, laughing.

"I thought so too!"

Their laughter dies down and Brooke turns to me.

"This is May." Brooke introduces me.

"Travis." He says as he sticks his hand out for me to shake. What a gentleman.

"Hi." I smile.

"Are you new here?" He asks.

"Yeah, I moved here last month."

"She's Michael's sister." Brooke explains.

"Michael Clifford?" Travis asks sounding surprised.

"Yeah. Do you know him?" I ask.

"I know of him." He says.

Whatever that means. I just nod and smile.

"Where's everyone else?" Travis asks Brooke. I assume he's talking about the rest of their friend group.

"I don't know. We'll see them at lunch though. Come on May we need to get to class." Brooke says.

"Oh, okay. Nice meeting you!" I say to Travis as Brooke pulls me down the hall.

"He's nice." I say to Brooke once we take our seats.

"And cute. And single." She adds.

"Brooke!" I shriek as I push her arm playfully.

"Just saying." She winks and I just roll my eyes.

-

The bell rings for lunch. Luckily I had class with Brooke so she could take me to the cafeteria, otherwise I would for sure get lost. We walk to the cafeteria and sit at a table with a few other people.

"Guys this is May. May, this is guys." Brooke says.

"You're such a shit introducer." A girl laughs. "I'm Zoey. This is Sophia, Josh, and Travis." She introduces them.

"We've met." Travis smirks. I blush and look away.

"What brought you to Sydney?" Zoey asks.

"Um, my brother." I say. I decide to leave out the fact that I moved to be closer to my boyfriend as well but we're now broken up because my brother was his best friend and didn't approve but now he does and he still hasn't called me.

"Her brother's Michael." Travis says to the group.

"Clifford?!" They all say at the same time. What was it with everyone in this town asking that. How did everyone know him?

I nod. "How does everyone know him?" I ask.

"He uh―he used to go here." Josh says.

"Oh yeah." I nod.

"Wait! Are you May as in the girl who's dating Luke? Brooke told me all about you!" Sophia says as she claps her hands together.

I turn to Brooke immediately and she gives me an apologetic look. I don't like that she's telling my personal business to people I don't even know but, that's Brooke the blabber mouth for you.

"Uh, I used to." I say.

"What do you mean used to? Sophia asks.

"We broke up." I say quietly. I didn't like talking about Luke. He's the one topic no one should bring up to me.

"Good thing you got outta that one am I right?" Travis laughs and bumps Josh's shoulder.

I furrow my eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

"Oh I just mean like, 'cause of how he is."

"Excuse me? What's that supposed to mean?" I ask.

"Well with everything that happened, I just figured he'd never get a girl again. Especially a nice one like you. Well, you seem nice at least." Josh says.

"Guys, shut up." Brooke says.

"No, tell me what you're talking about."

"The Amy thing." Josh says, as if i'm supposed to know what that means.

"Drop it guys." Brooke warns.

"No! What Amy thing? Tell me what happened!" I say fairly loud.

"Well like, two years ago Luke was dating this girl, Amy. Then Luke cheated on her with a bunch of other girls and she found out. And then he started hooking up with this Christie chick the day after they broke up. Amy was devastated and Luke didn't even care. Then Amy's brother went to go beat Luke up, but Luke and his crew beat the shit out of him. I'll never forget that day. They were so high on drugs, everyone was crowded around watching the fight. Luke probably would have killed that kid if a teacher didn't step in."

My jaw drops. They couldn't possibly be talking about the same Luke. They couldn't be talking about the Luke that calls me baby and rubs my stomach when it's my time of the month. They couldn't be talking about the Luke that showed me his secret hideaway place that no one else knows about, or the Luke that told me everything that happened with his dad. They couldn't be talking about the Luke that tells me he loves me every second of the day. They just couldn't be.

"You're probably talking about a different Luke." I say.

"No, i'm talking about Luke Hemmings. The one that's best friends with Michael." Travis says.

"But―he, he―" I struggle to form a sentence. Tears form in my eyes and I look back and forth between Travis and Brooke.

"Is this true?" I ask Brooke.

"May, I told you to drop it. He's different now. He's not the same Luke he was back then." Brooke says with saddened eyes.

"But, Luke and his friends would never do that. Calum and Ashton are too nice." I say, choking back sobs.

"Calum and Ashton?" Travis raises an eyebrow. "I'm talking about Jace, Michael and them."

Jace? What does he mean Jace? And Michael? I thought Michael and Luke hated Jace. Jace was the one Luke almost got in a fight with that night at the party when he tried to come onto me. Michael said Jace's group was just a stoner group that crashed their parties, he never said he was friends with him.

"What do you mean Jace? Jace and Luke aren't friends." I say.

"Maybe not anymore but back in the day they used to be tight. Man that group was scary as shit. Was Michael the same way at home as he was at school?" Josh asks.

"What are you guys talking about? Michael isn't scary. And Luke's the furthest thing from." I say with tears streaming down my face, but I quickly wipe them away. I really don't want to start crying on my first day at a new school.

"They used to scare the shit out of everyone. Well expect the girls. Man, Luke had them all wrapped around his finger. It had to been his quiffed hair that made them swoon. Or maybe his fucking crystal blue eyes." Travis laughs.

"Remember that one time him and Christie were making out in the hallway and then that girl Jenna slapped Christie because she was hooking up with Luke too!" Josh laughs hard.

Have they completely forgotten that i'm sitting right here!?

"Would you guys shut the fuck up!" Brooke yells at them.

"Shit, sorry." Travis says and stops laughing.

"Did you really not know all of this?" Josh asks, but I don't answer.

"I guess Luke hasn't changed that much. Still with those secrets of his. Luke always loved secrets." Sophia says as she looks at Brooke.

What is that supposed to mean?

"He's not like that! You clearly don't know him so don't worry about shit that doesn't concern you!" I come to Luke's defence. He shouldn't be spoken badly about when he's not even here to defend himself.

They all widen their eyes at my outburst.

"Sorry, I didn't mean―I gotta go." I say as I rush out of the cafeteria and into the bathroom. Thank god I knew where it was. I walk in and go over to the mirror. Mascara has fallen all under my eyes and my cheeks are stained with tears. This isn't exactly the greatest look for my first day. I wipe my face and splash water on it. I silently thank myself for not wearing face makeup today.

I can't believe what they were saying. They have to be lying, or pulling some sort of joke of me. Luke is nothing like that. He's the complete opposite. And they mentioned Michael, too. Michael is nothing like that either. They have to be talking about the wrong people. But Brooke kept telling them to shut up, so she must know something.

-

I struggle to get through the rest of the day. The last bell finally rings and I rush over to my locker and quickly start putting my binders into it.

"May!" Brooke calls from down the hall.

I shut my locker and quickly start to walk the other way.

"May wait!" Brooke yells and she runs to catch up with me. She grabs my arm and I turn around.

"I need to go." I say.

"I drove you here though. Don't you need a ride home?" She asks.

Shit, she's right. I would walk but it's way too far. I nod and walk out to her car with her. Most of the car ride is silent, until she breaks it.

"May I―"

"Stop talking." I say, looking out the window.

"May, please. I didn't know they were going to say that stuff."

"So it's true?"

She sighs and nods her head. "They aren't like that anymore though. They've changed so much!"

"They? Meaning Luke and my brother, right?" I ask.

She nods. We pull up to my apartment building and I get out of the car without saying another word.

"I'm sorry!" She calls out the window, but I ignore her.

I go upstairs and unlock my door. I open it to see Michael and Cora making out on the couch.

"Oh god!" I yell as I shield my eyes from the horrific sight.

"Shit!" Cora says as she gets off of Michael and stands up.

"Sorry, why are you home so early?" Michael asks.

"It's three o'clock.." I say.

"Oh, I guess I lost track of time." Michael says as he tries to fix his messy hair. "How was your first day?"

"I uh―I gotta go." I say as I open the door.

"Wait what? You just got home though." Michael says.

"I need to be somewhere."

"Okay, where?" He asks.

"Just somewhere, okay!" I yell as I slam the door and walk onto the elevator.

I need to see Luke.

A/N PLEASE VOTE AND COMMENT HOW YOU GUYS ARE FEELIN' ABOUT EVERYTHING! Btw 'Choose' is #187 in Fanfiction! Thank you guys soooo much that's amazing!! x