Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
Unknown Number
Hey Luka!
It's Reno, sorry forgot to say before.
Is this right number?
Luka stared at his phone like it had personally wronged him.
It sort of had, since it had distracted him mid-call and made him stutter on the line to a customer.
Not that it really mattered; the loans sold themselves.
No one called them unless they desperately needed money, which made his job both ridiculously easy and extremely depressing.
He didn’t know how to respond, or if he should.
He really wished he had stuck with the original plan of turning off his phone for the next two days before the concert, but his willpower wasn’t that strong.
What if Maria worried, or heaven forbid Xavier hit him up again?
He hadn’t in weeks, but there was always the chance that Mister Long Legs, Long— Luka clicked his phone off again.
No one who mattered was texting him right now and he had a job to do.
The lady on the phone was crying and Luka tried to be patient.
It was unfortunate that so many people wound up crying on these calls, but stories of impending financial ruin were just part of Luka’s everyday work life.
She hung up on him and a message on the work chat popped up telling him to, ‘nail the next one; you’ll get them next time! ’.
“Sure," Luka muttered to himself before typing ‘thank you’ to his coworker. He hated the system they used. It felt like a breach of privacy that everyone could see everyone else’s stats as they worked.
Thankfully, no one was usually rude about it, but even remarks like that one felt thoughtless to Luka most of the time.
Unknown Number
I rly hope this is the right number (???,)
I am working. You have the right number, tho.
??`o(≧U≦)o′??
“Oh my god.” Luka pinched the bridge of his nose.
Cute. It was cute, in a ridiculous way that should have been left in the past, ten years ago.
“I can’t believe this.” No one else would either.
What would he say? Yes, the ultra-famous rock star guitarist Reno got my phone number through my roommate and is now sending me kaomoji. That was too much.
Luka swiped on his phone to turn on ‘do not disturb’ and went back to working, hoping that when he opened his phone later, this all would make slightly more sense.
He was only somewhat lucky when the clock hit six p.m. and he got to log off of the work chat and take his headset off; his phone had only mildly blown up.
There were several texts from his friends, asking what he was doing that weekend, seeing if he was free for a drink or games, and unfortunately, a few asking what was going on with Reno.
He hadn’t had the courage to log back into Twitter since the whole debacle started that morning, but apparently, Reno had not taken the post down and now several people he was friends with online were filling his WhatsApp with questions and excited yelling.
[Wulf0025]
Dude i just woke up, what is going on??
[Kero]
i just saw a screenshot on twit with a post from Reno and one of ur selfies yelling… this fake?
tell me its fake
[image attachment]
[Kolliedollie]
lmaaaaooooooo look
[Link attachment]
ur in a buzzfeed article skjhfhfhff
what…
He clicked the link and at the top of the article was the same screenshot Kero had sent him. It was the post Reno had left up, like an idiot, and then his most recent mirror selfie, from before the concert last weekend.
[Unknown Number]
Please delete that post…
Huh?
The response came so quickly, Luka had a sneaking suspicion Reno had their chat open already.
[Unknown Number]
The post of you trying to find me. I'm not used to the attention.
Oh! Sorry. Done. Can I do anything else?
“Lose my number," Luka mumbled but knew he was just overwhelmed. Really, he didn’t want Reno to stop talking to him. He just wanted the flood of messages to stop.
[Unknown Number]
I told my PR manager to get the articles down.
Articles, plural. Luka shook his head and had to close his eyes for a moment before replying.
[Unknown number]
Thanks, I appreciate it.
What are you doing? We're going to get drinks with Hearts n Hell since we have nights off.
Friend invited me for the same, but I'm a little worried about being in public after today.
Wondering if I should shave my hair off.
Please dont. I like the long pink.
It looks nice.
August
hey, can u run by the store?
We need milk, and toilet paper.
Oh, and pretzels too, please. I'll be back a bit late. Working overtime.
Yeah, no problem.
Luka stood and stretched, feeling like his skin was buzzing.
He couldn’t deny it was a rush, a weird one, but still.
Reno thought his hair was nice. It made him feel like he was in middle school all over again, dealing with a first crush and knowing everything about it was wrong.
He was almost grateful for August pawning off errands onto him.
It would at least get his mind off things for a moment.
He pulled a light hoodie on and rifled around August’s messy room for a bit before locating the beanie he’d asked to borrow for the upcoming concert and shoving all of his hair up under it.
He grabbed his Corolla’s keys and his last cigarette from the pack to tuck behind his ear before heading out, patting his jeans pocket to make sure his wallet was on him.
The car started up without a fuss, thankfully, and the grocery store was only somewhat busy. He blasted music through his headphones while searching for the brand of pretzels both August and he liked, only to yank his phone out to skip over Voltage’s new single when it came on.
He clasped a hand over his mouth; what if he couldn’t listen to them anymore?
He spotted the bag he wanted and threw it into the cart as he let the next band’s track play.
It really would be a shame to lose all the music that he’d kept so close to his heart for so long.
His hands tightened around the grocery cart’s handle.
Was talking to Reno worth potentially losing that, or should he just go to the concert, then ghost?
He couldn’t answer those questions yet, not without meeting Reno face to face.
[Unknown Number]
[Image attachment] Christoph says hi!
Luka’s eyes widened at the photo of Reno, half in the lap of the lead singer from Hearts n Hell.
They were both pink in the cheeks and smiling.
Almost out of frame, Luka could make out the back half of Zana’s head, his bleached blond hair wavy where it had come undone from its braids.
Reno was blue-eyed, smiling widely and throwing up matching devil horns with Christoph.
Who, quite frankly, looked particularly too comfortable having Reno nearly in his lap.
Not that Luka would mind being in his position.
He got it. It looked comfortable. He did not blame Christoph in the slightest.
[Unknown Number]
Do you text everyone like this?
I'm not complaining, btw
No! T-yan has been making fun of my phone time. I'm usually not on it. Is it ok I sent you some picture?
Yes, that's okay.
More than okay, actually. But Luka didn’t want to come off as obsessed. Someone coughed and he realized he had just been standing in the middle of the aisle without moving, blocking the way with his cart.
“Sorry," he said to the lady behind him, who scanned him up and down through her false eyelashes before giving him a dirty look and passing by. “Or, not.” Luka rolled his eyes.
[Unknown Number]
Were you talking about me to Christoph?
Even the concept of Reno talking to another famous musician about him was daunting, so before he could get a response, he tucked his phone into his pocket and moved to check out from the store, grabbing a drink from the fridge when he did.
He cringed at the cost of everything before lugging the bags to the car and driving home.
“Hey, need a hand?” August pulled into the driveway at the same time as him and rushed over to his car to take the milk and toilet paper before leading the way inside.
“You would not believe how rude everyone was to me today. I mean, me, littlest guy on the planet, and yet somehow I’m at fault for not having the shipment of powder blue one hundred and ten pound cardstock on the shelves.
We told the guy that he just ordered it yesterday, things don’t ship that fast!
And what does he do?” August set the milk on the counter a bit too forcefully.
“He pointed at the only white man working in the art store and went, ‘hey you! Tell your employee to stop giving me sass’.”
“Ouch," Luka said, putting the bag of pretzels into the basket on the counter.
“Sass? What year is it, nineteen ninety-nine? Eighteen ninety-nine? Can’t a white guy be my employee?”
“He’s not, though.”
“Well, no! But it’s the principle of it. Why assume just because I look like a woman, I’m not in charge?”
“I think it’s because you look fourteen.” Luka shrugged then dodged the roll of toilet paper August hurled at him.
“Don’t you start, mister five foot six, can’t grow facial hair.”
“You’re so mean to me.” Luka picked up the toilet paper and handed it back to them. “I am five foot six and a half, thank you.”
“That half inch isn’t doing you any favors.”
“That’s not what he said.”
“Horrible. I know you don’t top a damn soul.” August stormed out of the kitchen, leaving Luka laughing alone.
“You don’t know my life!” he called after them and heard the bathroom door slam. He leaned his elbows onto the kitchen island and pulled out his phone again, only to find four texts from Reno, three of which were photos.
He craned his neck to peer down the hallway, but August was busy doing something in the bathroom, so he opened the first one, tilting the phone away from the hallway slightly, just in case.