Fall.

Chapter 11.

So here I was, practically running around New York City on New Year's Eve trying to find Luke. I had returned home from Boston three days ago and there was still no sign of him. He hadn't answered my calls or texts and hadn't randomly showed up at my apartment like he normally did. I understood that he was mad at me, but I was worried.

"Do you have any idea where Luke is?" I asked Calum, who was sitting on a stool at the front of the movie theater. I figured that if anyone else knew were Luke was it would be Calum.

"No, I haven't seen him for almost a week. I've been covering all of his shifts for him." Calum said, shaking his head. I came here as a last resort, after checking every other place that came to mind. I was beginning to lose hope, Luke had dropped off the face of the Earth.

I groaned, resting my head in my hands. All I wanted to do was talk to Luke, and he had to make it so hard for that to happen. "Has he talked to you at all? Is he okay?"

"He seemed alright when I talked to him on the phone today, he had kind of an attitude though. Are you guys in a fight or something?" Calum scratched the back of his neck.

"Something like that." I shrugged. "I really just need to talk to him."

"Does it have anything to do with the fact that you have a boyfriend now?" Calum raised his eyebrows at me.

"How did you know that?" I asked. The only other person I'd told about Ashton asking me out was Michael, and I knew for a fact that Michael and Calum didn't know each other.

"Luke came over to my house about a week ago and was asking for something to drink, as in, alcohol." Calum shrugged, running a hand through his dark hair.

"Did you give him any?" I questioned, remembering how Luke came over to my house the last time he got drunk.

"Yes." Calum grinned. "He got super wasted, and then told me everything that happened."

"So you know.." I let my voice trail off.

"I know that the two of you hooked up and then you ditched him for some other guy, yeah." Calum rolled his eyes.

I sighed. "I just want to apologize."

"Check his house, I don't think he's left it all week." Calum suggested.

"I was there earlier today." I said, remembering the sketchy subway ride I had to take to get there. "No one answered the door."

"Well then I don't know where he would be. Unless he has some secret hiding spot that neither of us know about." Calum sighed, and then it hit me.

"Oh, wait! He does!" I yelled, startling both Calum and myself at the same time. Flashbacks of the first time I was at Luke's house, from watching Toy Story on the couch to sleeping on that old mattress in the treehouse blew through my mind. I couldn't believe that I had been stupid enough not to check Luke's treehouse, of course he was there.

"What?" Calum gave me a confused look as I ran out the door.

"I have to go, but thanks!" I called over my shoulder as I ran away.

After about an hour I finally made it to Luke's house, after another subway trip and getting lost a couple times. This time I didn't ring the doorbell, but instead I walked straight over to the fence an let myself in. I wandered through the woods until I eventually found the clearing with the treehouse in it and began to climb up.

I entered the treehouse, praying that Luke would be in there. If he wasn't, I didn't know where else to check.

"The signed says no girls allowed, Stel." Luke's voice rang out through the treehouse. I turned to find him sitting up on the mattress, shirtless with numerous blankets surrounding him.

I walked over to the mattress, where Luke then covered his head with blankets and rolled over, his back facing me. "What do you want?" He mumbled.

"Can I-"

"Where's your boyfriend?" Luke sat up again quickly, as if he suddenly remembered.

"He's staying with some family for the rest of break." I explained quietly, feeling guilty again. I thought that I would have been able to walk in here, apologize, and have everything go back to normal. But I knew that with Luke normal was never possible.

"Alright," Luke paused. "So he's gone and you came back to fuck me over again?"

"I just wanted to-"

"You wanted to explain yourself? Do you even understand what you did?" Luke stopped me from talking anymore.

"Can you please-"

"Do you think your precious little boyfriend would like it if he found out what happened between us just seconds before he asked you to be his girlfriend?" Luke asked. He threw the blankets off of him and stood up, making his way across the room to me. He towered over me because of his height, making him seem even more intimidating than he should.

"Can you stop interrupting me, please!?" I yelled, frustrated with Luke.

Luke silently stared at me for a long time and when I still didn't speak, he yelled, "Okay, talk!"

"Stop being such a jerk!" I raised my hands to Luke's chest and pushed him backwards. "I'm trying to say that I'm sorry!"

Luke came forward again and grabbed onto my shoulders.

"You're sorry?" Luke scoffed. "You're not sorry, Stel, because if you were sorry you'd be acting a lot different right now. But that's okay, because whatever we had back there, back at your house, it's gone. I don't feel anything towards you anymore. Not as a friend, not as a dumb little fuck buddy, not even as a math tutor. There's nothing." Luke let go of me and turned around.

I felt tears start to form at the corners of my eyes, and I knew I deserved them. I completely led Luke on. I knew he had some feelings for me and I had some feelings for him yet I still got together with Ashton. I didn't deserve to even have Luke as a friend anymore.

"Okay, fine! I came here to try and apologize for being such a bitch to you but if we aren't even friends then what's the point?" I shouted.

"Fine, I don't need you anyway! I don't need friends." Luke huffed, bending over to pick up a sweatshirt laying on the floor. He effortlessly pulled it over his head, not even breaking eye contact with me.

"Fine." I said shakily, tears now freely falling down my cheeks. I expected Luke to be upset about this but I never imagined loosing him as a friend because of some stupid mistake that I made. Whether I liked it or not I needed Luke in my life and now I had just thrown him away for another boy.

I tried to wipe my tears away without Luke noticing but I was too late. I refused to let Luke see me cry over this. I turned around quickly, beginning to head out of the treehouse when Luke's voice stopped me.

"Hey," Luke reached out for my hand and pulled me closer to him. "Are you crying?"

"Why do you care?" I sniffed. I stared down at the floor and tried not to focus on the fact that Luke was holding my hand after him telling me that he wanted nothing to do with me. "We're not even friends."

"Jesus, Stel." Luke groaned. He stepped forward and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me into him.

I buried my face in his chest, letting Luke rub my back and whisper things in my ear as I continued to cry. Once I was finished I looked up at Luke, only to have him grab my face in his hands and wipe away my tears.

"I'm sorry." I whispered, almost too quiet for Luke to hear.

"It's okay. I overreacted." Luke shook his head.

"No you didn't, I did a really mean thing." I protested, silently begging myself not to start crying again.

"It's fine, Stel." Luke said, leaning forward and gently kissing my forehead.

"Aren't you mad at me?" I asked.

"I didn't mean it, what I said. I'm sorry, I didn't mean it." Luke repeated, just to get his point across. This was such typical Luke, feeling one way one second and another the next.

"I'm sorry for what I did back at my house last week, I don't know what I was thinking-"

"What you were thinking was that the guy you've liked for years finally asked you to be his girlfriend, and you had no reason to say no. I understand, Stel, I really do." Luke said and gave my shoulder a reassuring squeeze. Luke swallowed hard. "We shared one little kiss, it didn't even mean anything."

"I'm sor-" Luke cut me off again.

"It's fine, stop saying that. Let's just start over, okay? Pretend this is the first time we've ever met." Luke said slowly, his hands still resting on either side of my face. I nodded. "Hi, I'm Luke."

"Lucas." I corrected, giving him a small smile.

"Shut up, Stel." Luke laughed at me, biting his lip.

Luke gave me a small smile as I wiped under my eyes one last time. I don't know what made him forgive me so easily - maybe it was the fact that he made me cry - but I was glad that it turned out like this. Like I said, I needed Luke.

"I didn't mean to make you cry." Luke said quietly, looking down at the floor.

"I didn't mean to start crying." I shrugged. I hardly ever cried, unless it was over something huge.

"I don't understand why you stick around me, I mean, when I do things like this.." Luke's voice fell and he let out a big sigh.

"I need you." I whispered.

"As a math tutor." Luke chuckled.

"No," I shook my head. "You're more than just a math tutor for me."

Luke responded by pulling me forward again and wrapping me up in another hug. He rested his chin on the top of my head, and I don't know how long we stood there but I didn't care. Because with Luke I could sit and stare at him for hours and never feel bored at all.

And that's what worried me, because I knew that I would never be able to feel that way with my own boyfriend.


~


"Luke, what are we doing here?" I asked as Luke dragged me through the crowds of people. I had agreed to let Luke to take me into the city tonight, stupidly forgetting that it was New Year's Eve.

"One more block." Luke called over his shoulder, his hand tightly gripping mine.

We continued walking until I started to get fed up with all the people around us. Normally I didn't mine crowds, but when almost everyone in New York was in the same place, it got a little too much for me.

"Luke, really - are you serious?" I asked, now seeing that we were standing in the middle of Times Square, waiting for the ball to drop.

Luke turned to me and smiled. "Merry Christmas!"

"This is my Christmas present?" I gave Luke a confused look. He was still standing in front of me with his arms outstretched, looking very pleased with himself.

"Well, I was talking to your mom and she-"

"You were talking to my mom?" I cut him off.

"Yes, when you were in Boston I came over to find out what I could get you for Christmas and your mom said that you've always wanted to come down here for New Year's Eve but no one ever wanted to take you." Luke spilled out, getting slightly out of breath.

"You came to find out what to get even though you were mad at me?" I tilted my head to the side, clearly confused.

Luke shrugged. "Sorry?"

"No, its fine," I laughed, "you don't have to apologize."

"Oh. Well, it's a good Christmas present, right?" Luke smiled.

"Have you done this before?" I asked, ignoring Luke.

"Yeah. I came down here last year with, uh, with Heather." Luke kicked at the ground.

"I see." I nodded, then added, "Thank you, by the way. This is something I've always wanted to do."

"No problem." Luke shrugged, fixing his beanie. "Are you hungry? Thirsty? Cold?"

"If we leave to get food we'll lose our spot." I said, seeing that we had a pretty decent view now, but as soon as we left it would be stolen from us.

"Don't worry, I have a better spot anyway, come on." Luke grabbed my arm again, pulling me out of the crowd.

We ended up at a small diner, not too far away from where we had been standing. Since we still had a couple hours until midnight, we decided to sit down and order some food instead of just taking it with us like we'd originally planned. Luke sat across from me at the booth, his long legs stretching out far enough so that his feet were touching mine.

"How was your Christmas?" Luke asked. He took off his jacket and beanie and shook out his hair.

"It was alright." I shrugged. My Christmas was average, just as usual. It mainly consisted of Eric and I hiding out in the basement, trying to get away from other members of our family. "How was yours?"

"Boring." Luke paused. "We didn't really do much."

"Did you get anything cool?" I asked awkwardly. I could tell that Luke and I were both trying hard to come up with something to talk about, but it was difficult.

"Not really, I got a lot of money so I can go and buy whatever I want." Luke said, shaking his head.

I opened my mouth to say something, but was interrupted by the waitress coming by to take our order. "What can I get to drink for you two?"

"Do you have hot chocolate?" Luke looked up at the woman with eager eyes.

"We do." She nodded, and Luke muttered something under his breath.

"We'll have two then." He answered. Luckily I was in the mood for hot chocolate.

"I'll be back in a minute." The waitress said, shoving her notepad back into her apron and turning away from out table.

"Are you going to want something to eat too?" Luke asked once she left.

I shrugged. "I'm not that hungry."

Luke ran a hand through his hair and flashed me a big smile. His feet slowly brushed against mine, which startled me and made me jump.

"Have you talked to Ashton recently?" Luke asked.

"Yeah, we've been texting on and off all this week. He said he'd call me later tonight." I said. This time the mention of Ashton's name made me nervous than anything.

Luke nodded silently. He sat back in his seat and picked at his nails, not making any more of an effort to carry on the conversation. Before long, I was full on staring at him. I watched the way he furrowed his eyebrows and bit down on his lip, like he was concentrating so hard on his hands. He was wearing a red hoodie, a color that suited him perfectly. I hated this, I hate that he was so...irresistible.

"You're staring at me again." Luke's voice broke me out of my thoughts.

"No I'm not." I said, flicking my hair off my shoulder.

"Yes you are." Luke smirked.

Our waitress returned with our hot chocolates and set them down in front of us. Luke pulled his forward right away and took a sip, not bothering to let it cool first.

"That's hot." Luke said, making a face and setting his cup down.

"Are you going to be ordering anything to eat?" The waitress asked, tapping her pencil against the table to get Luke's attention.

"Do you have popcorn?" He asked, and I rested my face in his hands, embarrassed by the fact that he just asked that.

"We have popcorn chicken." The waitress - Debby, is what her name tag said - sighed.

"No, like, real popcorn?" Luke stirred his hot chocolate with a spoon.

"I'm afraid we don't." Debby gave me a sorry look, like she was apologizing for the fact that I had to hang out with Luke all night.

"We'll just stick with the hot chocolate then." Luke said, looking very disappointed in Debby, as if the fact that the diner did not serve bags of popcorn was all her fault.

Debby nodded and turned away from us, muttering something about coming to check on us later. Poor Debby, she probably got so many annoying teenagers in here daily, and Luke just had to add to that list.

"Really? Popcorn?" I raised an eyebrow at Luke from across the table.

"You'd be surprised how many restaurants will actually serve it if you ask." Luke shrugged, taking another sip of his drink.

I swear, you eat popcorn like it's your job." I laughed. I took a sip of my own hot chocolate now that it was cool.

"My job involves popcorn." Luke smiled back at me. Somehow he was in a much better mood than usual, but I didn't mention anything in fear that I'd ruin it.

"How could I forget?" I joked. Luke tilted his head back to get the last of his hot chocolate, how he had finished already was beyond me.

"I would have quit a long time ago if it wasn't for Calum." Luke laughed quietly.

"Why?" I asked. I had actually thought that Luke liked his job at the movie theater.

"I don't really need a job." Luke said, "I don't need the money. I don't know, sometimes I just feel like it's a waste of my time, like, there could be someone else out there that needs the job more than me."

"How would your mom feel if you quit?" I took another small sip of my hot chocolate.

"She'd kill me." Luke said plainly. I shrugged.

"That makes sense."

"She's still not over that one day that you came over and ran into her on your way out." Luke explained.

"Right. Sorry about that." I apologized, remembering how much trouble Luke got in.

Luke ignored me and stood up. "Are you done?"

"Yeah," I nodded, even though I really wasn't. I didn't mind though.

Luke threw a $20 bill down on the table, again ignoring me when I offered to pay for myself. He put his beanie back on his head and grabbed my hand, pulling me out of the diner. It was now almost 11:30, and the crowds of people were even bigger than before. Luke kept a right grip on my hand as we wove in and out of people, until finally we reached the sidewalk.

"What are we doing?" I asked.

"You'll see." Luke smirked and looked up.

I must have blinked and missed it, but suddenly there was a ladder coming down from one of the fire escapes above us. Luke stepped back, a huge grin on his face.

"We're going up there?" I questioned, hesitant to climb up that high.

"Why not?" Luke shrugged, and began climbing up the ladder. I followed after him, more scared of being left alone down here than falling. I told myself it wouldn't be so bad, the ladder only went so far until it got to the stairs, then I would be fine.

"What if we get in trouble for this?" I called up to Luke.

"We won't." He yelled back, quickly climbing ahead of me.

"I thought you were afraid of heights?" I yelled, I tried my best to keep up with Luke, feeling that if I was closer to him I'd have less of a chance of falling.

Luke didn't answer until we'd made it to a landing, where the stairs started up. "I'm afraid of falling."

"Isn't that the same thing?" I leaned against a railing, slightly out of breath from the climb. Luke shook his head, and started going up the stairs. I didn't know how far up we were going to go, but I figured that Luke would not take what I wanted into much consent.

"It's not the same at all. Jesus, Stel. Do you know anything?" Luke scoffed. We climbed up six more flights of stairs until Luke stopped. "This one looks good."

He was right, the landing that we had stopped at had a perfect view of all of Times Square, especially the big ball. It was nice seeing the city lit up from this high, I hardly ever even looked out my windows back at home, it was a surprise to see what I was missing.

Luke and I both sat down and dangled our feet off the edge of the landing, since there was really no where else to sit. I decided that we were safe up here, since it was a fire escape after all. These things have to be safe.

"Look at that guy down there." Luke said, leaning into me and pointing down at the ground. I took a second to find the man that he was pointing at.

"What about him?" I asked, amazed that I could actually see people so clearly from this high up.

"He's going to propose to his girlfriend at midnight." Luke observed.

"How do you know that?" I laughed, giving him a puzzled look. Sometimes I just didn't understand Luke.

"He keeps taking a box out of his pocket and opening it when she's turned around. See, look." Luke pointed again, just as the man took what looked like a small box out of his pocket and opened it.

"God, I would never be able to do that." I shivered, not sure whether it was from the cold wind blowing by or the idea of being proposed to in such a public place.

"Do what?" Luke asked.

"Have someone propose to me in front of a ton of people. I'd be too embarrassed." I said, shaking my head.

"I'll make sure to tell Ashton that." Luke shifted his weight, leaning closer to me again.

"I've only been dating Ashton for a few days, we're not going to get married, Luke." I laughed.

"You never know." Luke shrugged.

Suddenly the music all stopped and everyone down below us started cheering, and the ball started to drop. Luke stayed still and I did the same, neither of us chanting along with everyone else.

10

9

8

I felt a vibrating in my pocket, my phone was ringing. I knew it was Ashton, but this time I didn't answer. I let the voicemail get it, because Ashton had interrupted me with his phone calls too many times.

6

5

4

3

2

1

Luke turned to me and smiled. "Happy New Year."

But I didn't answer. I knew it was wrong, but instead I grabbed onto Luke's jacket and pulled him forward, pressing his lips against mine. And to my surprise, Luke kissed me back.








Okay I swear to god I know this boy that eats popcorn like nobody's business omg I hope you guys enjoy this chapter I'm sorry it took kind of long :)