when we collide ✰ l.h.

Chapter 13

"Like what?" I asked as I stopped in the middle of the room. He patted the empty counter next to him, signaling for me to go and sit up there. I hadn't questioned it since asking Luke what he was up to never worked out for me since he was quite vague.

"Things." He stated, shrugging his shoulders. I started swinging my legs back and forth as he pulled out a plastic bag from one of the drawers. "Such as how you have a nasty bruise from running into an inanimate object." He said, opening the freezer and digging out a handful of ice. I cringed from the idea of straight up ice on my finger tips, I was never the one for the cold which was ironic since I did live in New York.

"Very funny." I sarcastically said. He wrapped the bag of ice in a paper towel and brought it over to me as I held my hand out for it, but he had pulled it further away from my reach.

"Let me see." He raised an eyebrow at me and looked down once to my hip.

"It's not that bad." I assured him. Even though the bruise actually was pretty bad and I flinched when it had gotten even a few inches from anything that came near my body.

He gave me a disapproving look since he knew I was lying, I was never too good at it. I rolled my eyes and peeled up the hem of my shirt gently, exposing the purple spot to him.

"Jeez, Autumn. Did it hit you back?" He questioned as he carefully put the ice down over the spot.

"It's an inanimate object." I taunted, mocking his words from before. I noticed he was about to drag his finger from his free hand over the bruise, making me slap it away. "Don't touch it." I demanded.

"It goes even further down." He pointed out, glancing up at me quickly. "Move your waistband down." He said.

"No?" I furrowed my eyebrows at him, as he stood straight up yet still held the ice in place that I was sure I could do myself.

"Come on."

"I'm not standing half naked in my kitchen. We eat here."

"You won't be half naked, it's just your hip." He explained. I rolled my eyes at him, giving in and stretching the side of my leggings down just an inch or two further down which is luckily where the bruise stopped. "And besides," He began, examining my hip. "I've already seen you naked." He smirked lightly without breaking his focus.

"Why do you always bring that up?" I groaned. I buried my face in my hands and he referred to the embarrassing moment after I was changing from a shower I had taken when we were back home. Even though I told him countless times I was only half, he didn't care. He still thought it was funny.

"Because it bothers you." He told me. I grabbed the ice in his hand, snatching it away from him. He glared at me just before he took a step back from me and placing a hand on either side of my knees. I continued to swing my legs back and forth, careful not to kick his chest even though I felt as if he needed one right now.

"So," He started. "I'm leaving in a few days." He stated. I already knew this, but Luke was very good at stating very obvious facts. "What are you going to do without me?" He wiggled his eyebrows at me and received the well deserved kick to his chest. It wasn't hard at all since I could never really hurt him, but just enough to tell him I wasn't taking his jokes.

"It's 3 days, Luke." I matter-of-factly said. I shooed his arms away, making him stand up as I jumped off the counter as I pulled up the side of my leggings. "What could actually go wrong?" I asked over my shoulder, more as a rhetorical question than anything. I waltzed towards my room, feeling much less tired than I had before.

He followed behind me as I suspected and I flopped onto my bed, waiting for him to appear in my doorway. I let my chest rise and fall as I stared at my ceiling with empty thoughts. With everything that's been preoccupying me you would think a break would be nice. A few moments later Luke peaked his head around the corner of the door.

"Hey Autumn?" He softly asked. I picked my head up that was resting on my pillows.

"Yeah?" I chirped.

"Are you okay?" He tilted his head to the side as he asked his question, one that I wasn't necessarily expecting.

"I'm alright." I smiled lightly at him and the rest of his body dragged into my room.

"Okay." He plainly said, now stopped in the middle of my room. He stared down at the ground for a second then back up to me. "Are you sure?" He was fiddling with the bottom buttons on the flannel he was wearing and it was rather distracting, but I finally pushed a real answer out of me.

"No." I shook my head as I sat up. My eyes trailed up from his fingers and to his eyes that looked more pained than anything.

"Okay." He blankly repeated.

Luke walked over to my bed and I moved the bag of ice I had laying by the foot of my bed. It seemed we'd been here a hundred times, silently sitting in the comfort of each other's presence. I scooted over to him as close as I could and leaned my head on his shoulder as he wrapped an arm loosely around my waist. We had sat there for as many minutes as I could count on one hand and eventually he broke to silence.

"Do want to talk about it?" He slid back from me and glanced up once at him, shaking my head a few times. I knew that Luke knew I was beginning to get overwhelmed by a few things, but he still hadn't know that the thought of me being in love with him had crossed my mind more than a few times.

I sat beside Luke for the longest amount of time, just silently making up my mind, feeling his fingers caress my skin that was barricaded by my thin t-shirt. His touch was more sentimental than sympathetic and that's what made me realize that this, or us, was something he really wanted. He hadn't had said it to me, but things like that weren't needed to be said, they were meant to be felt.

Being with Luke was something I wanted everyday and for the rest of my life and whether we were friends or more would be determined later on. I wanted to give this a try, though. Something in the back of my mind was telling me to go ahead, take a risk. But the more I thought about it, maybe Luke was that something. Maybe Luke was metaphorically the voice in my head telling me that maybe, just maybe, I loved this boy.

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A/N:

sorry if this was a little boring, it was more of a filler chapter, but this kind of cleared up her feelings about luke :~)