Fall.

Chapter 9.

"I just need to do something really quick, then we can go to your house." Luke muttered while he fiddled with his keys to open the front door. It was Friday afternoon and we had been all set to leave for my apartment when Luke decided that he needed us to stop at his house.

"Nice lights." I said, looking up and admiring the thin strings of lights that wrapped themselves all around the front of Luke's house. That was one down side of living in an apartment, there wasn't much to decorate when it came to Christmas time.

"Thanks. I did them myself." Luke looked up as well, looking pleased with his own work.

Finally he opened the front door, letting us in to the warmth of the house. The inside of Luke's house was no where near as festive as outside. The only sign of Christmas I saw was the very small Christmas tree set up in the corner of the living room, and frankly it looked like a Charlie Brown Christmas tree.

"So you guys aren't very big on Christmas?" I questioned, slipping my shoes off as I entered further into Luke's house.

"Not really. My brother used to practically force us to set up a tree and lights and all that but now that he's moved out my mom doesn't really want to do anything anymore." Luke shrugged.

"Doesn't he come home for Christmas?" I asked, following him up the stairs. We turned down a narrow hallway that lead to Luke's room.

"No, he doesn't really like to. He usually goes with his girlfriend to her house for the holidays. I don't really blame him though, it's pretty boring around here." Luke turned into an open doorway and turn on the lights.

It surprised me that the walls of Luke's room were completely white, he seemed like he would have painted them a dark color. The rest of his room seemed to all fit together, from the dark painted furniture to the dark blue sheets on his bed. The white walls just stuck out to me, and I had to ask about them.

"Why are the walls white?"

Luke thought about it for a moment. "I can't think of a good color to paint them."

"It's really not that hard." I rolled my eyes. Even though I technically wasn't allowed to, I had painted the walls of my room multiple times. I painted them at least once a year, whenever I was feeling like changing things up. Eric and Michael always tried to help me, which had resulted in paint wars more than a few times.

"I haven't decided yet." Luke shrugged. He turned to his dresser and began opening and shutting drawers, pulling out various pieces of clothes as he went.

"How long have you lived here?" I asked, thinking that it would be reasonable for Luke to have not painted his walls yet if he had just moved it.

Luke paused. "17 years."

"Well, when you think of a color that you want let me know and I'll help you paint." I made my way over to Luke's bed and sat down on the corner, watching Luke as he continued to scatter his floor with pieces of clothing.

"I'll be sure to do that." Luke said, his voice muffled from his head being half way in a drawer.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"I'm sleeping at a friends house tonight." Luke blatantly answered over his shoulder.

"Who?" I asked again, even though I knew there was really only two possible answers.

"Well," Luke looked back at me and gave me a cheesy smile. "I was hoping that my good friend Stel would offer to let me stay at her house tonight."

I shrugged, seeing that there was no reason for Luke not to stay over. Mom was fine with him sleeping on the couch the first time, I'm sure that if he did the same she wouldn't mind again. Mom liked Luke, I think it was because she just didn't like Michael very much and she was happy that I was finally hanging out with someone other than him. "Sure, you can stay."

"Good, because I think I probably would have stayed over even if you said I couldn't." Luke gave a quiet laugh. He quickly picked up the clothes he had thrown around the room and stuffed them into a duffle bag he had laying on the floor. He slung the bag over his shoulder and walked over to where I was sitting on the side of his bed.

"Would you really?" I smirked, standing up.

It startled me how close Luke was to my body when I stood up, and I almost lost my balance and fell back on the bed. Luke grabbed my arm before I could fall, laughing almost silently at me as I regained my footing.

Instead of moving, the two of us stayed exactly as we were, perfectly still. Luke's breathing became heavier and heavier and I could feel it on my upper lip every time he exhaled. His chest rose up and down as he breathed and I watched as he swallowed hard before continuing to lean in to me. Before I knew it both our eyes were fluttering closed and I waited for Luke's lips to find their place on mine.

But that moment never came.

I felt Luke's hand on my shoulder as he gently pushed me away from him. "We should get going before my mom comes home." He whispered.

"Right." I whispered back, unsure of why exactly Luke had pulled away.

"I'm sorry." Luke said, his voice still hushed. His hand reached out and tucked a piece of hair behind my ear, leaving the skin that he touched along the way tingling.

"It's fine."


~


By the time we arrived at my apartment Luke and I were over the awkward experience in his room and back to our normal selves. I wasn't sure why I was suddenly feeling this way about Luke, but I did know that I didn't like it. I'd had my heart set on Ashton for the past three years and I didn't want to give it all up for some boy I had met only a couple months ago.

It was late at night now, and Luke, Eric and I were curled up on the couch watching re-runs of Friends. We learned that Luke and I shared something in common, and that was that we both shared a love for Friends.

Luke hadn't talked much since we got here, not even at dinner when Mom asked him countless questions about grades and his family and plans for college. He answered everything as simply as possibly before going back to concentrating so hard on the food in front of him. I didn't think anything was wrong, he was probably just in a mood again. I wouldn't be surprised.

"Ugh," Eric groaned, stretching his arms above his head, his muscles stiff from sitting for so long in one place. "How many episodes have we even watched?"

"Almost 6." Luke replied quietly, his eyes still fixated on the television.

"Stella, how are you not asleep by now?" Eric asked. He knew that I had a tendency to fall asleep on people when we were watching movies, I had done it to him many times.

"I'm not that tired." I defended myself. It was only one in the morning, I could go a lot longer.

"Well, I am. Goodnight, guys." Eric stood up and gave us a small wave before disappearing down the hallway and into his room. I never understood why he was always so tired, it's not like he did anything during the day worth exhausting him.

I turned my attention away from the TV and let myself stare a Luke for a minute, getting lost in the way he stared so intently straight ahead of him. The dim light coming off the TV was enough to shine on his face, illuminating all of his seemingly perfect features.

"What are you staring at?" Luke turning to me, a smirk tugging at the corner of his lips.

I flinched, not expecting to hear Luke's voice. "What? Oh, nothing." I tried to cover myself up, but I knew that it was really no use. Luke had caught me and there was no way to get around it.

"You were staring at me." Luke said. He licked his lips as he discreetly shifting his weight on the couch so he was about 2 inches closer to me than before.

"No." I shook my head, dismissing Luke's comment. He fixed his hair with his hands, pushing a few stray pieces out of his eyes. I liked it much better when Luke wore his hair down rather than up, he looked too old with it styled that way.

"Then what were you looking at, Stel?" Luke whispered.

"Nothing, I was staring off into space." I paused before adding, "Lucas."

"That's not my name." Luke groaned. He scooted even closer to me, not even trying to be discreet about it this time.

"Stel isn't my name either." I smirked, leaning away from Luke.

"Haven't we had this conversation before?" Luke continued to lean in closer to me and I continued to lean back until he was hovering over my body, holding himself up in a push up position.

"I mean.." I let my voice trail off. "It doesn't hurt to have the same conversation more than once."

"You just can't get it through your head how much you like when I call you that." Luke smirked. I looked up at him, staring into his eyes that were concentrating on me. He blinked a few more times than necessary, giving me a soft smile as he stared down at me.

"But I don't." I countered back at Luke, even though I had taken a liking to him calling me Stel in the last couple months.

"Okay Stel, keep telling yourself that." He smirked.

"Alright, Lucas." I chewed in on my bottom lip as Luke's face inched closer to mine.

"Stel." Luke whispered. This was the second time we were in a position like this today, and I was wondering if this time something was actually going to happen. I was also wondering how I felt about it.

"What?" I asked, knitting my eyebrows together.

"If I kissed you right now, what would you do?" Luke rested his forehead against mine and peered down into my eyes.

I stayed silent for a moment before speaking again. I wanted to make sure that I knew exactly what I wanted to say before I said it, and that I was sure it was the right thing to say. "I think... I think I would probably kiss you back."

I hadn't imagined myself feeling this way about Luke, but there was no way for me to control it. I just felt something so different when I was around Luke, different than any other guy I'd met before. I didn't blame myself for letting this happen, I even said before that I knew one of us would fall for the other.

"So," Luke breathed out, "should I do it?"

"Do you really want to?" I questioned. I tried to prop myself up on my elbows but Luke stopped me from moving any further.

"What kind of a question is that?" Luke asked. He continued to whisper even though we both knew everyone was asleep and couldn't hear anything we were saying.

"I was just asking." I said shyly, trying to avert my gaze from Luke.

"I haven't kissed many girls, but usually when I'm about to this doesn't happen." Luke laughed nervously.

"What, you're not supposed to argue before kissing?" I laughed quietly along with him.

"Well you're not really supposed to argue at all." Luke shrugged, giving me a smug look.

"So now you're the relationship expert?" I asked. I didn't care that we had drifted into a new conversation, because I honestly wasn't sure if I was ready to kiss Luke.

"I've been in relationships!" Luke defended himself.

"Seriously?" I raised an eyebrow, surprised by this sudden news.

"Okay, one. And it didn't really last that long. But it still counts!" Luke chuckled.

"Okay." I paused. "So are you going to kiss me?"

"Are you really - your phone is ringing." Luke cut himself off. Sure enough, my cell phone was quietly buzzing on the coffee table in front of us. Luke climb backwards off of me so I could roll off the couch and grab my phone.

I picked up the phone and placed it to my ear, already knowing who it was. "Hello?"

"Hey, you're still awake." Ashton's voice chirped on the other end of the phone. I wasn't sure how I sounded, but he definitely sounded like he was wide awake.

"I was actually just heading off to bed." I lied, even though it was late and I should be getting to sleep soon.

"Oh, do you want me to call back in the morning? I was just bored and wanted to talk for a little bit." Ashton said, sounding disappointed that I might not be able to talk.

"No, it's alright," I let the next half of that sentence slip out before thinking, "I'm just sitting I the couch with Luke, we aren't doing anything."

"You're with Luke?" Ashton asked.

"He just needed a place to stay tonight." I said quickly, hoping that Ashton would understand. He knew very briefly about Luke's life at home and hopefully he would get that Luke needed to get away sometimes.

"Oh, I understand. It's nice that you're so nice to him, since no one else really is." Ashton sighed.

"Yeah? Well he's a nice guy, so I'm nice to him." I said, even though Luke was not a very nice guy when we first met. It took a lot for me to even get him to touch me, much less lay on top of me. I looked at Luke from the other side of the couch and gave him a big smile, which he returned.

"You're just such a nice person, Stella. That's one of the many reasons why I like you so much." Ashton laughed, causing a redness to form across my cheeks.

"Thanks." I replied.

"Well if Luke's over then I'll just get going, okay? I'll call you tomorrow morning and maybe we can go do something together - but not with Luke, just you and me." Ashton said, laughing at the last part.

"Alright, I'll talk to you tomorrow." I nodded to myself. Ashton and I then said our goodnights and I hung up the phone, throwing it back on the table.

"So, where were we?" I asked.

"I forgot about Ashton." Luke said quickly and quietly, his head snapping up at the sound of my voice. "I shouldn't have done that, I don't know what I was thinking."

I chose to just change the subject instead of trying to argue with Luke about it. "I think I should get to bed." I stood up from the couch and went into the bathroom without saying anything else to Luke or waiting for a response from him.

I finished getting myself ready for bed before walking back out to the living room. I found Luke sitting in the same position I had left him in, seeming like he hadn't moved at all.

"Are you coming?" I asked. Luke looked up at me, his eyes looking slightly glazed over from staring into space for so long.

"I'm not sleeping on the couch?" Luke questioned. I had assumed that he'd want to sleep in my bed with me, the same way we slept in his treehouse.

"Unless you really want to." I said, ad with that Luke got up. He followed me into my room where I pulled down the blankets and crawled under them without saying anything more to Luke.

The two of us immediately found each other's bodies in the dark room, molding to each other like we had done this a thousand times, when really it was only once before. I laid my head on Luke's chest while he wrapped both arms around me, keeping my body as close to him as possible. My head fit in such a way that Luke was able to rest his chin on the to of my head.

It felt a little strange to be laying this close with a boy that was supposed to be just my friend, but that's what Luke and I were. We were strange, our whole relationship was strange and there was nothing that either of us could do to change that fact. It didn't matter to me that Luke and I didn't always get along or acted a little too close, that was just us. And that was exactly how I liked it.

"I'm sorry about what I did back there, I forgot about Ashton." Luke whispered, allowing me to feel the vibrations of his throat against me.

"It's fine." I answered plainly, not exactly knowing how I was supposed to tell Luke that I may have wanted him to kiss me back there.

"It's late, you should sleep." Luke said, his cold fingers leaving patterns on the exposed skin near my hips.

"Okay, goodnight Lucas." I giggled.

"Sweet dreams, Stel."


[chants] OTP OTP OTP
I'll spell check in the morning it's literally too late for me to even be writing right now