Tongue Tied *UNDERGOING EDITING*

22. The Presentation

Luke's POV

I was more nervous about my dinner tonight with Ariel than I thought I would be. But I had a really nice time. Ariel was more interesting and funny than I thought. And she looked...

Oh who am I kidding? I should really stop hiding it from myself. She looked gorgeous. But afterwards, on the car ride home, everything went bad.

"Well you thought wrong." she says sadly, gets out of the car, and slams the door shut. Ouch.

I tried to fight back, to see what was wrong with her, but she just shut me down and pretty much said we weren't friends anymore. I watch her as she walks inside her house and closes the door, cutting off my view of her.

What just happened?

I start the car back up, feeling a rush of emotions course through my veins as I pull away from her house and drive home. I feel alone. I think Ariel hates me, and I haven't done anything wrong. Or at least I don't think I have. Maybe she was just being an emotional girl. And I don't need that. I pull into my driveway and then do something that I know I will regret later.

I call Alyssa.



~-~-~-~-~



Her lips are pressed against mine, her hands tangled in my hair, her body pressed against the wall behind her. "Why did you want to take me back?" Alyssa asks between kisses. I don't answer. I don't even think I want her back. I still have feelings for Ariel. But Ariel hates me so that's out of the question. The only thing I could think of as a response was Alyssa. I had no idea why, because I wasn't feeling anything.

She pulls me closer and I slide my hands down her hips. She jumps into my arms without me giving her a response to her question. I hold her against the wall, continuing to kiss her. No sparks, no fireworks, nothing. I wish this was easier.

She pulls away suddenly, breathless. "Why did you want to take me back?" she asks again. I release her from my arms, but she keeps her arms around my neck. I try to dodge her repeated question by connecting my lips with hers again, but she pushes me away. "Luke, answer my question or I'm not kissing you." she says. I push away from her and walk off into my living room.

"Luke? What's wrong?" she asks, sitting beside me on the couch. I can't tell by her tone of voice if she really cares or not. "I just have a lot of things on my mind right now, and you asking me questions is not helping me." I say, frustrated. I put my head in my hands and sigh. "I'm sorry if I've made anything worse, but I have standards too." she says.

Yeah, alright.

"I'm not going to kiss someone who broke up with me for no reason without them explaining to me why they did it. And I'm not going to kiss someone who won't tell me why they want me back. Do you even want me back, Luke?" she asks, trying to look into my eyes.

"I don't know." I say quietly. She sighs and then its silent for a moment. "I'm going to go. If you change your mind just let me know." Alyssa says. She stands up and walks outside, closing the door quietly and slowly on her way out. Great. First I make Ariel mad and then I mess with Alyssa. I don't love her like that , but I don't want her to get hurt.

I go upstairs to my bedroom and look at the clock. Seeing that its nearly 9:00 and Ariel and I have a presentation tomorrow, I change out of my clothes and climb into bed.

Tomorrow is going to be hell.





Ariel's POV

The next morning, I get up with a strange sense of guilt. I shouldn't have yelled at Luke last night. He didn't do anything wrong and I told him we weren't friends. Now I have to present our project with him today. The project we've been working on for so long. The project that pulled us closer to each other. The project that brought out my feelings for him. I wasn't so sure about Luke's feelings anymore.

If he even had any.

I get dressed in a jean blouse that ties in the front, cream colored floral shorts, and my second pair of blue converse. I lace them up slowly, not wanting to go to school. My stomach is churning with nervousness about this presentation. I'm not sure if I want it to be over, but in a way, I'm more than ready to be done.

After brushing my teeth and hair, eating breakfast, and saying good morning to my parents, I get in Cameron's car and he drives me to school. "I'll see you this afternoon! Good luck with your project!" he calls out the car window. I nod my head, smile, and wave back at him from across the street. Then I turn around and take a deep breath. I walk up the front steps of the school slowly and then go inside, making a beeline for my locker.

Thank God, no one's ther-

I'm about to breathe a heavy sigh of relief when I see that there's no one standing in front of my locker this morning, but I guess I sigh too soon, because in less than a second, Luke steps out from the mob of people and spots me right away.

Great.

I don't know if I can talk to him without saying something stupid or hurtful again. It's better to let him think that I actually don't want to be friends with him.

"Hey Ariel." he says, but I make myself ignore him. I need to make him think that I don't want to talk to him. "Ariel?" he says again, but I busy myself with getting my books for the day. "Ariel." he repeats, but I shut my locker door and walk away.

"Ariel."

A firm hand grabs my own and pulls me around. I'm sure I looked shocked because that's how I was feeling. He doesn't release my hand. "Why are you ignoring me?" he asks. "Did you forget already?" I say, my voice sounding much harsher than I meant.

"No, I didn't forget. I just thought you might want to talk to me a little before our presentation this morning. Are you nervous?" he asks. He sounds concerned, but I can't tell if he's faking it for my sanity or if he's really truly concerned.

"No I'm not nervous. I don't need you to comfort me anyway." I say. "What the hell is your problem?" he spits out. My eyes widen and I take a half step backwards. "Excuse me?" I say. "You know exactly what I'm talking about. You keep shutting me down and snapping at me like I've done something wrong. Have I done something to upset you?" he asks.

I stand at him, a little speechless. "No, you haven't done anything." I choke out quietly. "Then why are you acting like you hate me so much?" he asks. "I don't know." I say, ripping my hand from his and walking away. You could have apologized and had that be all over with, but no you just had to make it worse.

I slap myself internally while I walk into the classroom five minutes early and take my seat. I'm the only one there, besides Ms. Brooks.

And of course, Luke walks in right behind me. "Ms. Brooks, would it be alright if I sat behind Ariel today? I need to talk to her about something." he says. "Sure." she answers with a smile. "I'm not talking to you." I mumble quietly as he sits behind me. "Whatever, you don't have to talk." he says. I turn around. "What?" I ask, confused. "Your talking." he says smirking. "Shut up." I say, trying and failing at stifling a laugh.

"Ha, I got a laugh out of the hormonal bitch." he says, laughing. "I'm sorry." I blurt out suddenly. He stops laughing. "I know." he says. "What's that supposed to mean?" I ask.

"I knew you couldn't stay mad at me, babe. You're too in love with me." he says, smirking again. "OK two things. One, I am not in love with you. And two, I thought you were done calling me babe." I say. "Oh, that was when we were friends. But since you said we weren't I thought I could call you babe again." he says, the devilish smirk still plastered to his face.

"So it's either we're friends or I keep calling you babe." he adds, crossing his arms. I don't reply. "Is being friends with me that bad?" he asks. I shake my head slowly. "Well, then I forgive you for snapping at me for no reason and I'm willing to be your friend again." he says.

Oh but Luke I want you to be so much more.

"Fine." I say blankly. Luke smiles and rests back in the seat. I turn back around in my seat too, hiding the smile that has suddenly appeared from Luke.

"Do you two want to set up for your presentation?" Ms. Brooks asks suddenly. "Oh, yeah." I say. I get out of my chair and get our things. Luke follows me up to the front of the room and helps me set up the poster. I fish my index cards out of my shorts pocket and fix them just as the other students file in. The bell rings, signaling that class is starting.

"Good morning class. Luke and Ariel are the only two that haven't presented their project yet so they're going to do that today. You can start when you're ready." she adds at the end. I nod my head, clear my throat, and take one last glance at Luke before starting the presentation.

~-~-~-~-~


Luke and I hand our reports to Ms. Brooks and then take our seats. "That went well." he whispers to me before sitting down. Goosebumps cover my skin and his words send a shiver down my spine. I look down at my lap and feel myself blush before a wave relief washes over me. We're done. With everything. Now all that's left is prom and graduation and I'm out of here. I know that's not the first time I've thought about that, but its finally sinking in.



"We're done, you know. We really don't have anymore school projects or stuff like that. Just graduation. And prom." Luke says after class. "Yeah, prom. You know you never told me who your going with." I say, turning to look at him. "I haven't asked anyone yet." he says. "Are you serious? Its this weekend. How do you expect to have a date by then?" I ask.



"I'm hoping there's still one or two girls left that don't have dates." he says. Like me...I think to myself, but I don't say anything. Luke doesn't want to ask me. And I'm pretty sure he knows that Zoey doesn't have a date. He'll find a way to ask her.



"Well, nobody's asked me, but I figured that was going to happen." I say, hoping he doesn't think that I'm hinting at him to ask me. "Why did you figure that?" he asks. "I don't know, nobody's really ever taken any interest in me like that before. Except for Dylan, but look how well that turned out." I say sarcastically. He laughs a little. "At least you can joke about it." he says. "Yeah, I guess that's better than moping about. But anyway, I'm fine with going by myself." I tell him.



I'm seriously praying to the heavens right now that I don't sound to eager.



"Cool." he says, ending the conversation abruptly. Until he brings something up. "Do you know if Zoey has a date?" he asks. Bam. Hit! I've been hit! OK, so maybe I'm overreacting, but in that moment, it felt as if something slammed into my stomach. Right then and there, my suspicions and my facts were proved.



Luke liked Zoey and was planning on asking her. I think.



"Why? Are you gonna ask her? Do you have feelings for her that I don't know about?" I ask jokingly, hoping for some sort of reassurance, good or bad.



"Um, I don't know. And no, I was simply wondering for your sake. If she doesn't have a date, then you two could go together as friends." he says, giving me a weird look that confuses me a little. "But I thought..." I say quietly.



"You thought what?" he asks. I look up from the floor and into his eyes. "I thought I heard you talking to her." I say. His face goes pale and stiff. "Luke? Are you OK?" I ask, waving my hand in front of his face. "Oh, uh, yeah I'm fine." he says, some of the color returning to his facial features.



"What was I saying to her?" he asks. "You should know, your the one that said it." I say, continuing to walk forward. "Well I forgot." he says. No he didn't. He was telling someone that he had feelings for them, but who? "Whatever." I say, trying to drop the subject. I didn't feel like talking about that right now.



"I have to go. I need to get to second period." I say, turning away from him and walking down the hallway. "Hey Ariel?" Luke asks me suddenly. I turn around to face him and wait for him to say something. He shifts from one foot to the other and clears his throat. "Wait up for me at lunch, k?" he says. "Sure." I say smiling. I turn around and continue to walk to my next class.



Lunch could not come soon enough.