Fall.

Chapter 18.

I felt a tap on my shoulder, causing me to drop a book from my hands onto the floor. It was just after my last class of the day, and I was packing up to finally go home. I turned around, facing the person that had startled me.

"Hey." Luke said, smiling softly. I hadn't seen Luke for about 4 days, after he left my house Sunday morning he didn't come to school at all. I actually had been starting to get worried about him. He looked almost the same as the last time I saw him; his eyes still red and tired and his clothes and hair still messy, like he hadn't slept for days. I wished he would just tell me what's going on.

"Hi. Where have you been?" I asked. Luke bent down and picked up my book off the floor at the same time a me, our fingers brushing as we both touched it. Luke pulled back quickly and stood up straight again.

"Home." Luke shrugged. "I was home today, too. I just came here to...get you."

"Why? Is everything alright? Are you okay?" I bombarded him with questions as always. I'm surprised Luke hadn't expressed any annoyance towards my constant questions yet. He seemed not to be bothered.

"If I answer truthfully you'll just yell at me again." Luke looked down at the floor.

"Then lie to me." I said, shoving the last of my books into my backpack.

"I'm perfectly fine. Everything's alright. There's nothing you need to worry about." Luke looked up, a small smile playing across his lips.

"Luke." I sighed. Luke stepped forward and grabbed my hand in his, twisting and untwisting our fingers.

"What?" Luke muttered, suddenly staring back down at the floor.

"You need to stop this, you get yourself all worked up over nothing." I shook my head.

"I'm sorry." Luke's voice came out like more like a squeak than anything else.

"You don't have to apologize."

"I wanted to say sorry for causing a fight between you and Ashton. Are you guys okay now?" Luke asked. I leaned up against my locker, pulling Luke with me as he continued to play with my fingers.

"We're fine." I answered. "We just got in a small fight, it wasn't bad at all."

Luke nodded. "That's good." He said, barely audible.

"You came all the way here at the end of the day just to come get me? You could have just called me, I would have just come over." I changed the subject away from Ashton, knowing that Luke really didn't want to talk about that.

"I just really wanted to see you." Luke mumbled.

"Aw, you missed me?" I joked.

"Psh, no." Luke scoffed. "I wanted to see if you had any math homework for me to do. I haven't been to school for four days, I've been deprived."

"You're really offering to do my math homework?" I laughed. Whenever Luke helped me with math he insisted that I do it all on my own, because that was the only way I was going to actually learn the material.

"Or I could just help you with it." Luke said, smirking.

"That's more like it." I laughed.

"Do you want to go to the library or something then?" Luke whispered. He had leaned in even more, until his forehead was pressed against mine. His lips trailed down from my ear all the way down my neck, where he left a few small kisses.

I looked around at the kids in the hallway, trying to determine where Ashton was. He usually met me by my locker after school, and I knew that he wouldn't be very happy to see Luke and I like this. He was already mad about Luke and I falling asleep on the same couch, imagine how upset he would he to see this. But, I guess what he doesn't know can't hurt him.