tired || l.h.

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Luke paused with his lips just a hair away from the inviting call of his current obsession. Soft sobs reached his ears just before the whisper of a Yes came from the girl across from him. Luke recognized those sobs. He had heard them at first when his best friend finally opened up to him after the beginning of ninth grade. Her mind was a broken mess that he had tried to piece back together, pulling demons off one at a time. Olivia.

His hands dropped from the brunette's hair as his body tensed with the need to protect.

"Luke?" Margaret questioned with a soft flutter of her lashes.

"Give me a minute," he muttered distractedly before moving to find the source of the crying.

His lanky moved quickly as his mind raced as to why Olivia could become so distraught. If someone hurt her...I'll blind them.

Luke found her crumpled against the wall of the music room, her makeup running and her hair clinging slightly to the wall behind her.  The light from the hallway cast shadows from the instruments across her face. He let out a staggering breath, "Olivia?"

Her eyes opened, but they moved to the floor as she tried to sit up properly. She ran her fingers through her curly bob before running them under her eyes to remove makeup stains. "Yeah?"

Olivia's voice broke, yet Luke couldn't help but join her on the floor. He pulled her close to him, and a sniffle escaped his best friend.

"What happened?" He whispered in the silence between them.

Olivia looked up at him as if she wanted to tell him something important, but the only words that left her mouth was, "What were you doing with her?"

Absentmindedly Luke looked down at her to see the color of her eyes. He loved the swirling colors of green in them, but the shining tears collecting in her eyes reminded him of her purity. She was too good for him, and he knew that. He recognized a long time ago that having her by his side was a blessing, for no one else had looked at him like he had potential. "That's the girl I was telling you about."

Olivia moved away from him, and her eyes looked down at the floor again. Luke moved to glance at her fully.

The bell rang, and she moved quickly to get back to class, "See you later, Luke."

•••

Luke hadn't spoken to Olivia in over three weeks. He was becoming desperate.

He had never really cared as to what people did or how they thought of him. He even did as he told Olivia with the brunette. They had sex in the back of his car, and now she was dating some soccer player with tan skin. He couldn't make himself fall for someone like her, and he definitely didn't understand why he yearned to have Olivia by his side.

She was wearing less jeans and more dresses. She wore her hair in soft curls or a layered bob, and her nails were always painted a soft pink.

Luke could see her everyday across the courtyard at lunch, and spent most of his third period trying to get her attention. She managed a hard exterior though, and she never broke her determination to ignore him. She was quiet and unnoticed just as everyday, but Luke couldn't  help but spot her through any crowd.

He felt the stabbing feeling of her leaving him behind, and he could barely handle the empty feeling in his  chest.

•••

Monday rolled in with Luke having left thirty voicemails, fifty calls, and over one hundred texts on Olivia's phone.

All ignored of course.

His blood was pounding as he relayed their last conversation over and over in his head. He had fucked up but how? Why did he care so fucking much?

He saw her before she noticed him, and the sight sent another stab of pain throughout his chest. She was leaned casually against lockers while Steven Fredricks hovered over her with a soft smirk on his face. She laughed at something he said, but Luke noticed the shaking of her hands and the nervous look in her eyes.

He was already next to them before he even recognized that he had moved. He had pushed Steven against the lockers and stood in front of Olivia. "Stay the fuck away from her, Fredricks."

Steven let out a loud laugh, "Forgot she was your bitch, Hemmings."

A soft growl escaped his lips, "Don't make me shut you up."

A delicate hand rested on his raised gist, and he saw the tearful eyes of Olivia looking at him. "Luke. Luke let's go."

•••

He never thought that having her in his arms again would be his saving grace. Her eyes were tired, and he could see the dark circles under her eyes. His fingers brushed delicately underneath her long lashes. She's become who I was a few months ago.

Luke had followed her to the empty picnic table they had shared fries at when he was still smoking behind the school at the end if the day. He sat next to her in the silence of the morning, and the sunlight only heightened how quickly she had changed.

"I had sex," she said bluntly as she sat delicately on the table top. "I was going to do it with you. However, I figured that was a wasted dream."

A surprised cough escaped his mouth, and she chuckled darkly when he looked over at her. "Never realized I am in love with you? Nah, I figured you didn't."

She looked down at her shoes, and Luke gazed at the way everything about her had dimmed since they had last spoken.

"I mean it's not like I wanted to wait forever. On you, I mean. You don't care for people usually anyway. I just thought I might have been special, you know. But that was thrown out the window when you said you liked Head Cheerleader Margaret. So, it went really bad for me. Obviously the shit in my head didn't leave me alone."

Olivia paused as she studied the swirling patterns on her fingernails. Luke pulled softly at her wrist until she moved closer to him. His eyes gazed down at her delicate face, and he finally understood why she was so worried for him all of the time.

Olivia had cared.

She let out a heavy sigh before leaning away from him. "So, I had sex with Steven Fredricks. I figured it would piss you off the most. Guess I was right."

Luke didn't know how to respond. Had he broken her beyond repair? Where bad his Olivia gone?

"I had no clue," he whispered as he looked over at her cautiously. "If I had-"

"You would have swept me off my feet? Tried to spare me? Let us be realistic, Luke." Her voice was edged with anger, and the venom dripped dangerously over his damaged heart.

Luke stood before her and nudged her chin until she glared up at him, "I would have done what I have waited five years to do."

His lips were latched to hers almost immediately. He breathed her in before cupping her face delicately in his hands. The feeling of her molding into him sent his mind into overdrive.

Olivia was melting the hard exterior she had built up for months underneath his touch. The fire burned into her skin. Her mind reeled at the fantasies she had only dreamt of coming to life.

She leant back to look at him, and a soft giggle escaped her lips, and for once she realized she had been wrong all along.

Luke cared for her.

Author's Note: IT IS FINISHED! I am so proud of this short work. I hope you all enjoyed it. I personally relate to many moments in this story. Vote and comment! Thanks for reading!