Undercover Fangirl

Chapter 12

@FictionalEl:Happy Thanksgiving! And may the odds be ever on your food table.

TheMathews laid out an exceptional spread of Thanksgiving food for us.Mom and Dad were beside themselves when they told them not to bringanything to eat. There was enough food on the table for the countryof France. Charlie and Josh were already seated at the long dinnertable, staring at the food with their mouths open. Luc went on agrocery store run to pick up the pies from the local bakery.

"Eloise,how's the internship going?" Mrs. Mathews asks from over her wineglass.

"She'sa handful, but it's a great experience for my future as a writerand publisher. Plus she gives me a lot of helpful tips for my blog."And a lot of extra tweets for my fan account.

"Morepower to you," Mr. Mathews lifts his wine glass in a gesture ofsalutation.

Luccomes into the front door with three pies in hand. I excuse myselffrom the table to help him with the pies. He's dressed in his bestkhakis and dark blue sweater. He usually wears athletic clothes thatI'm not used to him dressing up. I smooth down my Thanksgivingdress: a deep red dress with a black corset. It's been myThanksgiving dress since junior year Thanksgiving. There was a lot ofwiggle room in the waist so I can stuff myself with all the food.

"HappyThanksgiving!" I sing, throwing my arms around Luc.

Ipull back, noticing his eye. It's bruised like he was punched orran into something. My hand goes to his eye, gently inspecting thedamage. He turns away from me quickly, opening the boxes of pie. Hedoesn't say anything to me; he stays quiet until I tug on his armto the back door. We stand on the patio. Luc glances down at hisshoes.

"Whatthe heck happened to your eye?" I ask.

"Nothing.I-" he looks into the distance, hesitating before answering. "Iran into the corner of my door this morning. It's no big deal.Really. Now can we go back inside so we can eat?"

"You'relying to me." I cross my arms.

"Damn,"he rakes his hand through his hair, "I forgot that you out of allpeople know my lying face." He sits down on the steps.

Carefully,I sit down beside him, entwining my fingers with his. "Rememberwhen I said I trusted you? Well, I want you to trust me to and tellme what happened. This isn't something that happened accidentally."

Lucmutters a swear word under his breath. "I ran into Andy at thebakery. He followed me outside and I wasn't thinking. All I couldthink about was how badly I wanted to kick his ass when we got icecream last week. So, he said something and I shoved him against thewall. Then, I'm sure you can guess what happened next."

"Dangit Luc! I told you not to worry about him and Bridget. I can handlethat myself. They said stupid things, but I ignore people like them.In the grand scheme of things, they mean nothing to me even afterthey said those awful things to me. You can't beat people up allthe time when someone says something to me."

"Butit wasn't just something," he continues to look out into thedistance.

Ilean my head on his shoulder, "thank you for caring about me, butI'm serious. I want you to stop beating the crap out of people. Heisn't worth it."

"You'reworth it though," he kisses me, hungrily taking my mouth in his.

Ipush against his chest, our lips still mere centimeters from eachother. "Our families are right through that door. Remember?"

Luclets out a groan. "What an inconvenience."

Wewalk back inside and Luc's mom and dad take Luc into the kitchen,presumably to ask why he has a black eye that wasn't there beforeleaving the house for the pies. I sit down next to Mom who looks atme for an explanation. I whisper that I'll tell her later away fromCharlie and Josh's ears. She pats my knee, taking a sip of herdrink.