Taking Chances (Remember to Forget Sequel)

Chapter 9

Luke's POV

I wake up in the middle of the night to the sound of my phone ringing. I squint at my phone and see that Michael is following.

"Hey, is everything okay?" I ask quietly, sitting upright in bed.

"N-no," Michael stutters quietly.

I check the time and it's a little past midnight.

"What's wrong?" I ask, trying not to sound too nervous.

"I-It's just th-that..." He stops to take a deep breath. "I- I think I r-really like A-Ally."

I sigh and run my hands through my hair. Michael's going through exactly what I went through with Delilah. I know just how he is feeling.

"It's okay to like her, I promise. It's a good thing," I assure him.

"A-Are you s-sure?" he asks.

"Yes, I'm positive. It's not a bad thing to like someone."

"B-But I-I've never f-felt this way a-about someone." He tells me.

He explains to me how he feels butterflies in his stomach and how his heart starts beating quickly when she's around. I let him know that what he's feeling is completely normal and nothing to be afraid of. I feel like what I'm telling Michael is almost the exact thing Ashton told me a few months ago. It's strange how everything has shifted so quickly and how much I've grown. A few months ago I was just like Michael and panicking over having feelings for a girl.

After about an hour of trying to calm Michael down, I tell him he should relax and go to sleep. I'm going to call him when I wake up and head over to his house to talk to him in person.

When Michael is tired, he stutters. When Michael is nervous, he stutters. His speech was so jumbled, and I was having a hard time understanding him.

I just hope he doesn't shut down now and stop talking to Ally. I hope he doesn't make the same mistakes I did and push all his feelings away for a while because it will make him feel worse. That's how I felt when I didn't talk to Delilah.

I fall back asleep and wake up a few hours later. I call Michael, and he doesn't pick up, so I figure he's still asleep. I call Delilah and she picks up right away.

"Hey, Luke," she says. I can hear Lucy talking in the background.

"Hi. Wanna come over?"

"I saw you last night, but okay," she says laughing.

It's the day after Valentine's Day, so Delilah and I were together almost the whole day yesterday. Now Delilah has February Vacation for the next week, so she doesn't have to go to school. She comes over a few minutes after we hang up.

"Why'd you call so early in the morning? You only call when you're worried about something. Is everything okay?" she asks, walking upstairs to my room. I follow behind.

"I just wanted to see you."

"And?"

"And I need a ride to Michael's because he's having girl problems," I tell her. "But I really did want to see you."

She laughs. "You could've just said that in the first place, I would have said yes."

"You're the best," I tell her, hugging her from behind. She wiggles out of my hug and laughs quietly. We walk into my room and sit down on my bed.

I tell Delilah that Michael's feeling exactly how I felt when I started liking her. She helps me figure out some things I can tell Michael to help him. Delilah's always better with advice, and she's a girl so she can tell me how Ally might be feeling.