Converse ·· Luke Brooks

Chapter 28

Chapter 28

“So how was seeing your parents?” Luke asked. I felt myself squeeze Luke’s hand tighter as he bought the topic of my parents up. I suddenly felt stiff, slowing my walk down. “I’m guessing it didn’t go too good then.”

“No!” I quickly replied. I pulled my hand out of Luke’s hand and quickly wiped a bead of sweat off of my forehead. “No, no. Everything went….swell,” I lied. I knew Luke knew that I was lying.

My hands were slightly sweating and I felt myself staring everywhere apart from Luke. I can’t make eye contact. I kept my eyes concentrated on the graffiti walls in front of me. “So, everything went…swell?” Luke asked, raising an eyebrow at me.

I nodded my head hesitantly. “Yep, swell. Nothing could have gone better,” I replied, looking down at my shoes. I was wearing my red converse. My Auntie had cleaned them all up for me and they almost looked as good as new. Almost.

After class finished, I had quickly raced up to my room. I had gotten changed and quickly flung myself out my window and down the ladder to see Luke already waiting for me. We had no idea what we were going to do. We just wanted to be with each other. When I was around Luke, it was like, all of my problems disappeared.

Apart from one. The kiss. The kiss we shared seemed so long ago, even though it was yesterday. It’s like, he had totally forgotten about the kiss. Neither of us have brought it up. I didn’t want to be the one to bring it up, in case it was the heat of the moment thing. But…I swear it wasn’t. He said he liked me.

“Well, I’m guessing it didn’t go very well. So, did you want to talk about?” Luke asked. I shook my head, erasing all my thoughts.

“Uh…-“

“You don’t have to. It’s just, I know when I have problems, I always like to have someone to listen to me,” Luke said, cutting me off. “You do realise you can tell me anything? Don’t you?”

“Of course…it’s just…I’ve never really spoken to anyone about my parents…and what they do,” I answered. “To me,” I mumbled, only so I could hear. Luckily Luke didn’t hear me.

“There’s always a first time for everything,” Luke encouraged.

“Well, my parents aren’t exactly the easiest to get along with,” I said, chewing my lip slightly. Should I really be talking about this? What happens if I say the wrong thing? What’s done is done. Past is past. I’m away from my Dad now. Just pretend it never even happened.

“I know you say that a lot Avery, but what do you mean. You always say you don’t like them and you hate your Father. You always say your Mother is controlling and you can never say anything around your Father, but what do you mean? Why is it like that?” Luke asked. I knew from the tone of his voice, that he was worried about me. I can’t tell him though.

“I-I don’t…know why they’re like that. They just are,” I lied.

“You’re lying,” Luke smirked. I smiled at him, knowing he wasn’t being all that serious. I liked how he could joke around with me with this sort of stuff and not take it too seriously, but he would take it seriously at the right times, when it was needed most. And right now, he was joking with me, which made me relax a whole heap more.

“I am not lying,” I argued back, hitting him slightly on the shoulder.

Luke fake gasped. “That hurt!” He stomped his foot.

“Stop being such a baby,” I laughed. Luke laughed along with me, his eyes looking directly at me. I slowed my laughter as I noticed he was staring at me. I chewed my lip as I watched him. His eyes were concentrated on my eyes, flickering slightly to my lips. “Are you okay?” I asked.