By ObsessivePerfectionist (Ally)
Disclaimer: I only own Madison.
It wasn't like falling in love with Julie Cooper. Not in the slightest.
That's what Luke kept trying to tell himself, anyways, as he slowly fixated on one person across the party.
Strange, wasn't it? Twenty-five and visiting Newport Beach with his fiancée, Madison, a prominent ad executive back in Portland, he had run into Kirsten Cohen. Of all people. Honestly, he was surprised that Mrs. Cohen had remembered who he was—there was never any real familiarity or connection between them. The seven years without seeing Newpsies regularly, Luke had tried to erase all the memories about the earlier years. Sure, there had been blasts from the past every once in a while—like when Marissa called him, drunk, late one night their senior year in college—but on the whole he hadn't actually talked to anyone from Barbie World, as he now privately referred to it. Naturally, agreeing to attend Mrs. Caleb Nichols' anniversary party was digging up the past—more than a little.
Obviously, Kirsten had found out about Luke and Julie's brief affair—if you could call it that—or she never would have invited him to her father and stepmother's (ew!) party. Of course, there was always the possibility that Kirsten had never known. Whatever happened, Luke was glad to be going: he wanted to show Julie that he had moved on and forgotten her. Madison was beautiful, witty, and overall intelligent—better than a money-obsessed Newpsie by far. It still scared Luke when he realized that if he hadn't moved to Portland, he very likely would have married some plastic-beautiful Newport child. Certainly Madison wasn't as universally bewitching as Caleb's wife, but that was more than forgivable.
However, now that he was actually at the party, the former Julie Cooper seemed somewhat attractive, but irrelevant. Kirsten had taken a liking to Madison, far more her equal than the other women, and was taking her around to be introduced and admired. Luke was, for the moment, free to stare. He had originally been stuck in a flashback to high school, talking with Seth and Ryan, but finally Seth and gone off in search of Summer, and Sandy had popped up, needing to speak to Ryan about something. Fine by him—he was in an anti-social mood that night, anyways.
Across the room, Hailey, not noticing Luke's unbroken gaze, was murmuring in Jimmy's ear. The two had avoided marriage for seven years; according to Kirsten, they'd been living together five. In this world of endlessly fertile women, it was a miracle that Hailey wasn't a mother by now—no one living in Newport Beach practiced abstinence until marriage.
On the contrary to images of a plump housewife—Hailey had never really found a job that could hold her interest; only sporadic interior design—her body was almost sickeningly flawless, with a deep-honey tan covering her body. Luke blushed a bit, realizing that there were no tan lines whatsoever. In Portland, such things were not nearly so common. Hailey's ivory, nearly backless dress that was clinging to her left hardly anything to the imagination. More radiant than Luke had ever seen her, Hailey effortlessly outshined Julie. She must be pissed, Luke realized, remembering for the first time in years the two women's intense dislike of each other. He had to stifle a chuckle. Julie's a bitch when anyone outdoes her, especially when it's her ex-husband's girlfriend.
For his own part, Luke didn't look nearly as radiant as to be expected. He was engaged to a beautiful young woman, and yet—well. Being with Madison always made him happy, but coming back to Newport Beach had been different. Whatever it was, it had caused Luke to become somewhat depressed. Through it, he still loved Madison—it was just that here, he didn't light up when he saw her across the room.
That's why this brief fascination with Hailey was exactly that: brief and a simple fascination at seeing someone from his adolescence. Because Luke loved and was marrying Madison. This was completely different from Julie. He and Hailey were never involved in any way, and never would be. Luke wasn't sure that he'd ever even had a real conversation with her. Most of the party was spent remembering that.
Later on that night, it took all of Luke's might not to draw every parallel possible to his last Newport Beach party. A couple of hours after he had arrived, Jimmy and Hailey announced their engagement.