waitress // lrh

03 // naked

Bubble bath. She wanted to take a bubble bath.

Sitting up, she started to take off her uniform, which contrasted heavily with her surroundings. The itchy collared grey shirt, the skinny black tie she struggled with, and the form-fitting dress pants, as well as what Luke assumed correctly to be uncomfortable shoes, all ended up either on the floor or on her bed.

There was a rapid knock at her door, scaring her into shrieking.

"Cate?"

Calum.

"Hold on," she yelped, grabbing her hoodie off of her desk chair and quickly slipping it on over her nearly naked figure. Pulling it down, it went past her thighs, thankfully, so it didn't show anything she didn't want it to. "Okay."

Calum opened the door, and stepped only about halfway into the room. He looked a little sheepish, and Cate was pretty sure she knew why.

"Cate, I- I'm sorry," he started talking, messing with hair almost nervously, "Aliyah asked me to help her paint her living room this morning, and I didn't think I was gonna be there as long as I was." He looked genuinely apologetic, which Cate knew was sincere. Calum didn't always mess up, and when he did, he always apologized to whoever he had wronged.

"It's fine, Calum," she told him softly.

"Did you tell Mom that I forgot to get you?"

She shook her head, sitting down on her desk chair. "She asked, but I made up something. Maybe think of a unique food, just in case she asks about it." He looked confused, but he brushed past it.

"Luke brought you home, right?"

"Yeah..." Cate chewed on her bottom lip, a little puzzled. She hadn't thought they were that close. "Do you know him?"

"We're...friends," he trailed off.

Cate froze. "He- he could have just called you?"

"What do you mean?"

Cate chewed on the inside of her lip. Luke had her standing out in the porte cochere for ten minutes, both looking for Calum's car, when he could have just phoned her brother. That's why he took the odd turn on the way home. He's probably been here before.

"I- it's nothing," Cate mumbled, ducking her head down. She was a little bothered and felt a little taken aback by how Luke hadn't been as forward with her as he really could have been. Calum quirked an eyebrow, his hand slipping off of the doorframe.

"Okay, thanks for saving my ass from Mom," he said quietly, leaving the room and graciously shutting the door behind him. "I owe you."

Maybe Luke couldn't tell how much fear he struck into her. But he seemed so irritated with her nearly all the time that they had been near each other; why would he purposely drag out that time when he could have just phoned her brother?

She was dwelling too much on this; she didn't even know Luke. Sighing, Cate retreated to her bathroom to take her long-awaited bubble bath, her only problem in the world being that she had left her slippers at her friend's house.

//

Luke entered his shitty apartment in a bad mood, not bothering to flip on the lights, but at least remembering to lock his door. Throwing his leather jacket onto the sofa- or in that direction anyway, he unbuttoned his dress shirt, collapsing into the cushions. His blonde hair was mussed even more as he rolled over onto his back, groaning wearily. He was tired of work, he was tired of driving. What he didn't tell Cate when he offered to drive her home was that he lived in the opposite direction by at least thirty minutes from the hotel.

He knew from their brief interactions that she would feel bad knowing this, and wait for Calum to come and get her so she wouldn't be causing the older man any grief. However, having her around had just set him on edge, though he tried his best not to show it. So letting her sit another hour in the hotel would have made him even more aggravated.

Luke didn't know why she set him on edge so much. There was nothing intimidating about her. There was something about her he wasn't familiar with, that he was almost frightened of.

It might have been her innocence. Or it might have been his frightful she was of him. But he liked it when people were afraid of him; people meaning other grown men. Not high school girls who looked like they'd never stepped foot into the city downtown at night.

Luke groaned again, mashing his face into the cushion. He needed some sort of disinfectant for his cuts. They stung like a bitch in the exposed air, but he didn't have any here. He could go out and get some more, but there was that risk of getting jumped again. There were always such desperate people in this hellhole of a neighborhood, just waiting outside of places like the pharmacy, or the bank in their dark little alleyways, waiting to take your money and leave you cut up and bruised on the filthy ground.

And apparently, for some of the thieves, his face had made him a regular, despite not going out often. But whenever he did, he was sure to end up with no cash, sometimes no wallet, and a fresh wound on his body. He looked like a scrawny guy when you weren't too close, and it was easy to take advantage of someone as exhausted as he was all of the time.

Luke never went to the hospital. For starters, the cuts didn't seem like too big of an issue to drive to a hospital and get lathered up with some cream and a bandage before being told he had to pay a ridiculous amount of money. And they would always pressure him to call the police, and try and get his money and his credit cards back. He only went there once; the first time it happened when his entire wallet had been taken.

Now he just kept his no longer working cards and whatever empty gift cards he had still stuffed in the leather pouch, knowing that if those were taken, he wouldn't give a shit.

What if I just used beer? Or some type of alcohol. Hand sanitizer? God, he was too lazy to look up how stupid of an idea that was, so instead, he just lay on his sofa in pain, hoping that when he woke up again, it would be gone.

That was not the case.

These wounds weren't even that fresh, so Luke was puzzled as to how it could have been bothering him that much. He awoke at two in the morning, many hours after he had gotten home, the sting of the cuts and bruises paining him immensely.

He mumbled a string of curses drowsily into the sofa cushion, before pulling himself to his feet. Luke dragged himself over to his bed, the small apartment barely illuminated by the moonlight streaming through the window, collapsing once more onto his mattress. Despite the external pain he felt, and the low quality of the cheap mattress, Luke managed to pull himself into the release of sleep again.

- -

heyyy

how are you ?? i hope you're doing super amazing, and if you're not- i'm always open to talk !!

i've decided that i'll only publish a new chapter whenever i have a new one written. that prolly doesn't make much sense, but what i'm saying is currently i have ten chapters fully written. this is the 3rd to be published, and because i finished writing chapter 10, now i'm publishing this one 

so basically if i run out of inspo i'll still have some chapters ready to be published :))

have a lovely day/night wherever you are, and if you're feeling a lil generous maybe vote ?? i don't like asking for votes but i feel like this story is going nowhere lol

:))

carolyne xx