Fall.

Chapter 37.

"Hey." I pouted, backing away from Luke.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I meant to say 'No, Stel, I asked you to come with just because I enjoy your company'." Luke laughed, putting a fake, cheesy smile on his face.

"Idiot." I laughed, rolling my eyes at him.

"Don't be so rude, Stel." Luke whined. He tried to reach out for me again but I stepped back again, just to tease him a little.

"Go try on your shirts." I laughed, pushing Luke away from me. I knew that I had to literally push him to get this over with, otherwise we would never be done here.

He turned around and headed off into the direction of the dressing rooms and I followed, hoping that this wasn't going to take much longer. We waited in a short line for only a few minutes and then Luke went into the dressing room, forcing me to stand outside and wait for him to show me the shirt. I was bored, to say the least.

"Stel?" Luke called after a few minutes and I turned to face the door, having been leaning against it a few seconds before.

"Yeah?" I asked, assuming that he just wanted me to see how he looked in one of the shirts. Luke slowly opened the door and pulled me inside with him, shutting it behind me once I was in all the way. "What are you doing?"

"I don't like this." Luke pouted again, crossing his arms over his chest.

"The shirt?" I questioned. I actually really liked how it looked on him. At the moment he was wearing the blue one, and it makes his eyes look brighter than they usually do.

"No." Luke mumbled, "Graduating."

I stayed silent for a few seconds before finally speaking. "No one's really forcing you to."

"I'm forcing myself." Luke answered quickly, like he had been prepared for me to say that.

"But why?" I asked.

Luke started pacing back and forth in the dressing room, which really just meant he would take two steps, turn, and take another two steps since it was such a small space. He ran his fingers through his hair, tugging at the ends of it. He was getting all worked up over this, and while part of me understood why, the other part didn't. It was completely up to Luke whether or not he wanted to graduate, but lately he's been acting like he had no choice.

"I'm just a little overwhelmed, I think." Luke said, looking down at his feet as he walked back and forth. His breathing was getting heavier and I was afraid that he was going to have a panic attack again, in a really inconvenient place.

"About what?" I asked.

"Part of me is just having it's doubts about all of this." Luke said slowly.

"Like what?" I questioned. I figured that it would be better to really talk with Luke about this, it could distract him enough so he didn't start freaking out right now.

"I just - I want to leave New York so bad and just completely start over, but I also know that I have a life here that I don't want to leave behind." Luke sighed.

"You won't be completely leaving your life here behind," I said, "You aren't leaving forever."

"Yeah, Stel, I know, but I would still be leaving a lot." Luke ran his hands over his face as he continued pacing back and forth.

"Luke," I said, letting out a big sigh as I said his name. "Haven't we already talked about this?"

"We have, yeah, but I'm just worried. I'm so sorry that I'm worried." He snapped.

"That's not what I meant." I crossed my arms over my chest as I stared back at Luke, who was still furiously walking around the dressing room.

"Then what did you mean?" Luke asked.