delicate • a collection of the music freaks oneshots

Familiarity

💗: Lander
The confession from Zander's POV.
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I guess I should've known.

My feet stopped just under the tree. I could hear Luke panting behind me. Why did he run after me? I can't stand this. I wish I could tell what Luke was thinking, like all those times before.

"Heh, you're fast."

"Why are you running after me!?" I said without thinking. "Weren't you about to just accept that girl's feelings?"

He said something, but I wasn't listening. "You should get back to her. Don't let me get in your way."

"Zander..."

I wrapped my hands around myself, as if to shield myself from the pain. I'm glad I'm not looking in his direction.

"Just leave already!"

"I don't like that girl Zander, I like you!"

For a moment, I froze. For a moment it felt like I couldn't breathe at all.

"What?" was the only thing I could blurt out.

Luke looked scared, like he'd said something he wasn't supposed to. He sighed, looking down.

"Zander, I'm in love with you. I have been, for a really long time. That song Hailey sang for me, I wrote that about you!"

"I thought you just saw me as a childhood friend..." I breathed, a little scared, a lot of hope.

"You've always been more than that! I wanted to tell you for so long but... recently, it seems like all I do is make you uncomfortable. I could never seem to find the right time, or the right way to tell you." His eyes were downcast, his fingers fidgeting with his jacket. "And I'm probably making you uncomfortable right now—"

"You're wrong!" I yelled, louder than intended. "You've never made me uncomfortable! When you would get close, I was scared because I didn't want you to notice how I really felt about you. So I... pushed you away. I just wanted to protect our friendship. I..." I mumbled the last part, "...didn't want to lose you."

It almost sounds stupid now. Even if Luke didn't feel the same, he would never let something like that get in the way of our friendship.

Luke was thinking the same. "Zander... you'll never lose me."

I finally lifted up my head and my eyes met Luke's. His eyes shined, brighter than diamonds, smiling as if he was endeared. What did I ever do to deserve him?

He stepped forward, and I gulped. Did I really deserve him? He deserves better. The most beautiful person this world has to offer, second to him, of course.

When he was right in front of me, I could barely think, just throwing out words I was thinking. "I'm not like Stacy, you know. I'm uptight, and I'll probably call you names a lot—"

Luke chuckled. "I know."

"I'm stubborn, a little selfish at times, and I get jealous eas—"

I was interrupted by Luke cupping my face tenderly, like I was glass, breaking if not handled carefully. When those lips I've been dreaming about for so long finally closed against mine, I was deafened. I couldn't hear anything, except Luke's warm breathing, and my own heart going haywire in my chest.

This... this boy is mine. The boy who looks like he came out of a dream. The boy who made me the happiest boy in the world, just with a simple smile. The boy who isn't perfect, whose every imperfection is so beautiful I couldn't imagine him any other way. The boy who had been my only will to live at one point. He's mine.

When he pulled away, he looked at me with that same fond gaze which made me feel like I was the center of the world. I wonder if I'd always been returning that gaze, unknowingly, because this love blooming in my chest, it's nothing new.

Being in love with Luke Peterson isn't a foreign feeling. It's the closest thing to home in this world. I've loved him for so long, I couldn't imagine a world where I'm not head over heels in love with him.