Lonely Hearts Club // Book One

Chapter Six

"Reminding?" I chuckled as he came to a halt to set down his backpack and take of his thin jacket. I was preparing myself for scrawny arms like Greg, but Luke was certainly not scrawny. Anything but. He has biceps. I did the best I could to hide myself from blushing when he set his jacket over my shoulders.

"You looked cold," he joked but I played along and actually put the jacket on.

"Brrr," I am friends with two hot guys with biceps galore. And people say I'm not pretty? Pfft. Luke smiled and continued to walk along with me.

"Are you actually cold?"

"No, but your jacket smells good so I might just keep it." He almost snorted, but didn't object. Score.

"I smell good?" Luke asked, sarcasm creeping up in his voice. "Is that a compliment?"

"Well I'm not mean...maybe I am to Cal, oh well," I shrugged and hugged myself, to get another whiff of Luke's masculine smell. It's husky and wonderful and I feel like I have a boyfriend yet I'm far from it.

"I'll race you to the swings!" He said before taking off up the small hill. It didn't take long to catch up with him, yet I was out of breath and he wasn't. That little shit. "Hmm, what do I win?" Luke had already sat down on a swing, his backpack set somewhere to the side. "A kiss?"

"In your dreams," I rolled my eyes and joined him on the next swing over. "You get your jacket back,"

"Nah, I don't want that." He sat in thought, humming some sort of tune as he swayed up and down. "I don't want anything," he finally announced. "I just like how you're treating me right now, if you keep it up, it'll be just fine,"

His words felt like a thousand knives at my gut, because it was obvious no ones treated him right. I felt, special.

"I treat people how I want to be treated." Luke smiled warmly at my words before looking down at his feet again. "And what was that? Did you pretty much say I could keep your jacket?" I asked, leaning over to nudge him. He chuckled lightly.

"I don't mind, I have plenty of jackets. That one just happened to be my favourite,"

Come on Luke, don't make me feel guilty.

"If you really want it, I'm okay with giving it back, you know." I said, crossing my ankles and leaning back to look at the sky. Luke did the same but he was in motion.

"But I really want you to have it,"

Twenty minutes passed slowly, and I'm glad because usually when you have fun, time goes faster. It seemed like both Luke and I didn't want to go home. He looked so happy being able to let go, and I was thrilled that I was the purpose of his happiness. I still don't get that Calum says he doesn't like himself, yet it seems like Luke does. Maybe it's just when he's around me, I don't know. Like I said, I feel special.

Luke was managing to get himself across the monkey bars in 30 seconds, since that was my record and we've been timing each other. With all his strength, he did 10 seconds and I couldn't beat that if my life depended on it.

"Do I get a kiss this time?" He asked again. I sighed, stood on my tippy toes and gave him a peck on the cheek. His cheek was warm and when I pulled away I saw that he was blushing.

"Good enough?" I asked, tucking my hands into his jacket's pockets.

"For now," he winked and slid down the yellow plastic slide.

"Are you five?" I called down. He nodded and motioned for me to slide down. I gave in almost immediately. It's been years since I had been on this slide, so at the end, I fell off and Luke was there to catch me. "I got a boo boo on my butt," I pouted and fake cried. Luke stood me up and just shook his head while fighting a smile. "What? I'm cute! It's in my nature,"