Wattpad // l.h.

six

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Claire liked a lot of things: soft blankets, food, Netflix for the iPad, bubble wrap, boy bands, navy nail polish, et cetera. But as many things as Claire liked, there seemed to be twice as many things that she hated. And although Claire had the tendency to create one herself, she knew a disaster caused by a lie when she saw one. Montgomery might be fine with leading Luke on, but Claire was most certainly not. This situation only ended one way. And that was when Claire decided on something.

Now was the time for action.

"Hey, Luke, wait up!" Claire called as she raced to catch up with the giraffe-of-a-boy.

"Oh, hi there, Claire. Is there a problem?"

"Does there need to be a problem for me to talk to my favorite guy?" To emphasize her point, she slung her arm around his shoulder. Or tried to, at least.

Luke looked uncomfortable. Like, really uncomfortable.

"Um..." he mumbled, and tried again to speak to Claire, who was obviously intimidating him. "Do you know where...uh...Montgomery might be?"

Claire internally rolled her eyes. This was going to be harder than she had previously thought.

"In the cafeteria, silly!" Claire said and forced a laugh, clenching her teeth.

"Are you... Are you okay?" Luke questioned, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"Luke! Claire!" Montgomery called, almost magically appearing in front of the happy couple.

"Just peachy," Claire stated bluntly and frowned.

Montgomery ignored Claire's resentment and continued to parade into the cafeteria, expecting Luke and Claire to follow. Luke followed Montgomery everywhere, as if he was being pulled from the nose, so it was no surprise to Claire when she saw Giraffe awkwardly waddle through the crowd to get to Montgomery.

Claire needed to execute a plan immediately. Right then, Claire's brain took the perfect moment to hatch an idea.

She had to make Luke have a distaste for Montgomery.

She had to tell him the truth.

Claire does her best to casually slide in between Giraffe and her best friend. "Hey guys," she says and smiles wide. "What's crackalacking?"

Montgomery started, "Not much, Claire, just--"

"I can borrow Luke for a second? Is that what I just heard?" Claire said and latched her hand onto Luke's forearms. He fidgeted in pain. "Wow, Monty, you're the best. Love you!" She starts dragging Luke away. She quickly turns around and asked, "Oh, and can you buy a bag of chips for me? I'm starving. Thanks." She then continued to drag Luke out of the cafeteria and into the empty stairwell, where she knew no one was.

"What was that?" Luke angrily asked and ripped his arm out of her grasp. He rubs it and glares at her.

"Sorry if I took away your Awkwardly Flirting with Montgomery Time but there are some things you should know."

Luke's eyes widen in shock at what she had said. "How... How did you--"

"I know people and stuff. It's a thing." She waved her hand in dismissal. "But that's not the pressing matter."

"What do you just have to tell me? Why did you just have to drag me out of the lunchroom against my will? Like some sort of... Sort of... Sort of hostage!"

"If I was into taking hostages and crime and stuff, I wouldn't be in school right now, okay? But I want to get an English degree so I'm here. And I'm sure glad I am because there is something you should know."

"That's the second time you've said there something I should know and yet, somehow, I don't know anything yet!"

"Well maybe if you'd stop sassing me you'd have the chance to learn." Claire exhaled deeply as if she was going through a very traumatic time. "I'm not going to sugar coat it, okay? I'm pretty good at being blunt so I'm going to use that now."

"What, being blunt?"

"Yes, being blunt I just said--you know what? Never mind. I'm just going to say it. Right here, right now." Claire pauses to add suspense and to give Luke time to either gulp, run away, or fight. When he did neither of these things, she knew it was time. "Someone has been lying to you."

"About what?"

"About who they are. Well, in specific, who they are to you."

"Not catching your drift."

"There isn't a drift to catch yet."

"Oh."

"Listen: this may be hard to believe. You may hate me, you may hate the person I'm talking about, whatever. But you deserve the right to know." Claire fidgeted with her hands. "It's... Montgomery."

"I still don't..."

"Do I really have to spell it out for you?"

"I guess so."

"Montgomery is M, okay?"

"Montgomery is him? What are you talking about?"

"Not 'him'! M! As in the letter? L, M, N, O, P?" Claire says, exasperated.

Luke freezes. "Are you sure?"

"As sure as I am that the sun is a ball of flame and you're part giraffe." Luke cocked his head in confusion. "Which means I'm one hundred percent sure."

"That explains her weird behavior..." Luke said and started to pace the floor and piecing together the evidence. He mouthed other words to himself as he paced but Claire hadn't heard what he said. Luke suddenly stopped in his tracks and looked up at Claire solemnly. "Thank you for telling me," he said without feeling. "I did need to know."

"I'm sorry for telling you so late."

"It's fine." Luke waved it off. "I'll see you later, then."

As he started for the door, Claire grabbed his arm, which caused him to turn back around. She bit her lip before murmuring, "Are you upset?"

He tore his arm out of her hands and he opened the door. "What do you think?" He walked out and removed his hand from the heavy wooden door.

As the door slowly shut Claire sheepishly guessed aloud, "Okay, then?"

Luke turns around once more--for the last time--and says, "I'm heartbroken."

Then the door slams shut in Claire's face.

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got a little dramatic toward the end whoopsies

i hope this chapter is longer than the others lol

question: do you think claire made the right decision by telling luke (aka giraffe)?

just wanna know what you think :))

heyyy look at that it's been exactly a month since i updated i didn't even plan that

ALLIE