short skirts ➳ l.h.

f o u r

f o u r :

If you would have said that in that moment, time froze, you would be on point.

"W-what?" My lip trembles and tears quickly come to my eyes.

He stands up out of his office chair and walks to me, his arms open.

I forget about everything and hold him tight.

Why would she do that?

She was my mother for god's sake.

I loved her.

Luke runs his hand over my hair, and bury myself into his sweater.

After 10 minutes of crying, and having Luke coo to me that it’s okay, even when it’s not, I pull away from him, pressing my palms to my cheeks knowing that my mascara has smeared.

“Hey.” Luke says to me, his hands on the side of my head, his thumbs swiping underneath my eyes. “It’s gunna be okay, we’re going to be okay.”

“Promise?” I ask, looking into his beautiful sky blue eyes.

“I promise Lottie.”

And so a week later, after a lot of movies and crying and ice cream, the bruises on my skin slowly started to fade and the time was coming up for my mother’s funeral.

Danielle had brought me the school works that I was missing but all of the words seemed to blur together when I tried to look at them.

I cast the sheets of paper aside and decided to go watch another movie with Luke.

As much as Luke tried to isolate himself, when I asked him to watch a movie with me, he never told me no. It didn’t matter whether it was 2am after I had a nightmare or it was 2pm right after I decided that eating was for fat people. He stayed by my side.

But only when I asked him.

Five nights after we had gotten the call, and two until the funeral, I had another nightmare.

My own screams woke me.

I got out of bed and dragged my comforter with me to the master suit down the hall.

I was about to open the door and talk to Luke when I heard him talking to himself.

“It’s all my fault.”

He repeated that a few times.

“I should’ve known.”

“I should’ve been able to stop her.”