Petals and Thorns / l.h ✔️

14

~Juno's POV~

"Hey, Re." I grinned at her as I shut my locker, not surprised to see that she had popped up beside me while I was putting my things in my locker. "Hi." She chirped, leaning against the locker beside mine.

I looked around and a frown formed on my lips, curiously cocking my head to the side as I looked back over at her once again. "Where's Knox?" I asked, confused. Being that it was lunch time and Knox and Reba shared their class together before lunch, I had assumed he'd be with her. Usually they walked to the cafeteria together from class, which was why they often got there together before I did. I don't think I had ever arrived before either of them, come to think of it. Because of the fact that they shared their pre-lunch class together, I had assumed he'd just be waiting by my locker with her. However, I didn't see him around anywhere.

Reba shrugged her shoulders as I pulled my backpack on all the way, looking over at her with my brows raised. "I dunno. He's probably already waiting for us at the table." She answered, causing me to nod my head. "Then let's not keep him waiting." I smiled, slamming my locker shut.

She and I headed down the slightly crowded hallway, making our way towards the cafeteria. When we reached the table, I saw that Knox was sitting at the table all by himself, already eating his food. Reba sat down beside him and I plopped down across from them both, taking off my backpack and slinging it across the back of my chair so it could hang there. "Hi." I greeted him happily, pushing a hand through my silver hair.

Knox glanced up at me with his cheeks full of chicken, giving me a brief nod of his head as he chewed his food. "Hey, Ju." He grumbled out after he swallowed the food in his mouth, sending me a grin. I scooted my chair in beneath the table more and opened up the juice pouch I had after I zipped open my lunchbox, which I had decided to bring today instead of eating the school food.

Humming happily, I sucked down some of the juice in the pouch, peering down at the turkey sandwich in my lunchbox with chips and fruit snacks. I set the juice pouch on the table and looked up and Knox and Reba once again, both of who were eating their lunches. "What took you two so long to get here?" Knox asked, popping two more strips of chicken into his mouth. I popped a chip into my mouth, chewing it as I spared Reba a glance, hoping she'd answer him since my mouth was currently full. However, she did no such thing.

Rolling my eyes, I looked back over at Knox and shrugged. "We were just at my locker." I answered simply, taking a bite of my turkey and cheddar cheese sandwich with miracle whip on it. He hummed in response, letting me know that he had heard what I said, and then downed some of the milk in his carton.

While I ate my sandwich, Reba looked over at me, tapping one of her thin fingers on the surface of the table. "How's things with Luke?" She grinned, her question catching me completely off guard. I choked on my sandwich and burst into coughs as I tried to either get the food to come up or go down, holding my hand up to tell her to wait one moment while I grabbed my juice pouch. After I slurped down some juice, I managed to get my food down and gasped softly, placing a hand over my chest as Reba stared at me with amusement while Knox looked concerned. "You good?" He asked, raising a brow at me.

I nodded my head and let out a breath, setting down the juice box. "Yes." I sighed. "Just...Surprised me, that's all." I answered awkwardly, pursing my lips. Reba snorted and took a bite of her own chicken, an amused smile on her lips as she continued to look at me.

"So?" She said expectantly, acting as if I hadn't just nearly choked to death because of her. "You and Luke? How's that going?" She asked again, raising a brow. I managed to continue to eat my food without choking anymore, my cheeks flushing slightly as I looked down at the table. Thankfully, neither of them could see my blush because of the makeup on my face. That would've just made me even more embarrassed.

"Things are good." I answered vaguely, picking at the plastic bag that had held my sandwich in it. Not surprisingly, Reba just raised a brow at me, my words not impressing her whatsoever. "Wow. That's totally not vague at all." She said flatly, making me giggle softly.

"Fine, sorry." I laughed, a smile on my lips as I rolled my eyes. "But I don't know what else to tell you. He and I aren't exactly dating yet, but I think...I think that we're becoming closer, for sure, so maybe at some point in the future." I explained, trying to be as casual about it as I could. I really didn't want to seem desperate or like I was expecting too much from Luke so early on.

"Wait, so you actually want to date him? Like, you'd say yes if he asked you?" Knox asked, deciding to butt in on the conversation between Reba and I. The thought made me grin slightly, forcing myself to control it so I didn't look too excited at the idea. "W-Well, yes..." I nodded my head, biting my bottom lip. "Why?" I added, cocking my head to the side curiously. I thought it'd been rather obvious that I was very into Luke, especially to them.

Knox gave a casual shrug of his shoulders, peering down at his tray with his lips pursed. "No, it's nothing." He said simply, pushing around the peas on his tray with the spoon in his hand. "It's just that I sort of thought you and him were kind of...just fucking around with each other, you know? Kinda like fuck buddies or something." He admitted, surprising me greatly. I wasn't sure at all where he'd gotten that thought from, because I had never said anything even close to that. I couldn't help but to frown, slightly furrowing my brows at him. "Oh, um...no. No, we're not anything like that. You know that's not necessarily my thing." I stated, shaking my head.

He gave me a light nod of his head and his lips twitched up. "Sorry, Ju." He apologized, seeming to know that he had made me a little bit uncomfortable with that assumption. I just gave him a tiny smile, silently letting him know it was perfectly okay.

Thankfully, Knox nor Reba decided to press anymore on the subject of Luke and I that day.

**

When I got home, I walked into the living room and found Luke sitting on the couch with Anais in his arms, rocking her gently. It looked as though she was right on the verge of falling asleep in his arms, which I couldn't blame her for. Having been held in his arms before, I knew that his embrace was a comforting place, especially to fall asleep in.

My lips twitched up and Luke looked up at me as I stood by the wall, not daring to go over and sit with him. I didn't want to possibly ruin this, to possibly wake her up when she was so close to falling asleep for him.

A smile graced his handsome face when our eyes met and he gave me a playful wink, making me roll my eyes and shake my head. I couldn't help but to flip him the middle finger as I walked towards the stairs, heading upstairs and down the hall to my bedroom. The door to my room creaked softly as I pushed it open and headed inside, setting my backpack down on the floor at the foot of my bed.

I kicked off my combat boots and debated changing out of my clothes, but then I decided against it because it wasn't that big of a deal. They weren't really uncomfortable anyways, so I could just change later. However, I did decide to take off my makeup, because I simply didn't feel like wearing it all anymore. When my face was bare and I had washed it in my bathroom, I tossed the makeup wipe in the trash and returned to my room, which was no longer empty. Luke had come in at some point after I'd gone in the bathroom, and he was now sitting on my bed, waiting patiently for me.

"Anais fell asleep already?" I asked as I crawled into my bed and directly into his lap, a little bit surprised. He grinned and nodded his head, wrapping his arms around my waist as he kissed my jawline. "Mm, she did." He affirmed softly, one of his hands brushing through my strands of hair before he gently grabbed them in his fist. I had noticed that he seemed to love touching my hair, playing around with it. And I loved when he touched it, too.

I loved when he touched me at all.