Treat Me Like a Game, and Ill Show You How Its Played

Chapter 21: Living in the Moment

"I liked it." I smile.

"Good, because I didn't know what I was going to say after I showed you the picture." We both laugh. I sigh in content and close my eyes when he starts to run his fingers through my hair. After what could've been a few seconds, or minutes, or even an hour, I open my eyes and sit up, "Where are you going?" Luke raises a eye brow.

"Well, if you are gonna show me your picture, I might as well show you mine." I swing my legs out of the bed and walk across the room. I wrap my fingers around my sketch book and wrap my arms around it- as if to protect it. I bite my bottom lip worriedly as I sit back down on my bed. I swing my legs back onto the mattress and move back to my original position: next to Luke, "Don't laugh." I say seriously.

"I won't laugh. You didn't laugh at mine so I won't laugh at yours." I drop the book on his lap and he looks at me curiously, "Do you want me to see it?"

"Not really." I admit.

"I don't need to see it if you don't want me to."

"I could see in your eyes that you really wanna see it, Luke, don't lie." I tease, "Its the last drawing." He flips open the book and flips through the pages of my drawings. Colors flash on some pages while black and white flashes on others. I watch his amazed face, smiling, feeling accomplished when I know I have his approval. That I've impressed him.

"Why are you smiling? Not that I mind." He reassures

"Because you seem impressed by something I did. Usually it's the other way around where I'm impressed with you." I nod, my lips twitching up into a small smirk.

"I'm impressed by a lot of things you do and how strong mentally you are." He looks at me, before his hand goes to flip the page over to reveal the drawing I showed Jade earlier- or what she saw, "Lets see... is it my name in fancy lettering?" He teases, "Apparently, you can't draw people which- based on at least two drawings of people- I think you can."

"Just flip." I say. Luke peels the paper away slowly, as if to increase anticipation. When he begins to see the trees and the rock wall, he moves faster to reveal a smiling me and my arm wrapped around Luke's waist while his arm was draped over my shoulders. He traces the lines I've scratched onto the drawing paper.

"You drew- I remember this day like it was yesterday." He continues to stare at the drawing of him and me and runs his finger mindlessly over each object. When I was drawing it, I left out all the strangers walking around and just focused on us and the trees. The wooden bench was facing the camera as our feet rested on the seat and we were propped up on the rock wall. My hair in the photo was curled- like it was in Luke's photo- and he had a baseball lying next to him. My leg was tossed over the other in the photo when Luke had both feet resting on the bench. Luke's newly trimmed hair was on view that spiked up a little and the sun created highlights in both our hair. His eyes sparkled in the drawing and flowers lied behind us creating the perfect picture.

"This is amazing." Luke smiled, running his finger up a tree and circling his finger around the tree leaves before dropping his finger to trace our faces, "When did you draw this?"

I hesitate for a few seconds before I say, "La-Last Weekend." I stutter.

"Where did you get this?" Luke picks up the picture.

"I um... I've had it framed on that dresser over there." I point over to the dress across the room, "I was looking for something to draw when I remembered that picture. I wanted to try and draw it." I admit.

"Why me only? You had another picture of all four of us, I'm sure."

"I felt like, with everything you've done for me, I owed you something. I owed you appreciation, something I don't give you a lot of the time. This drawing, I know, could never disappear. You could never fade out of this drawing. When you ditched us in middle school, we lost a best-friend to the Assholes we always despised in elementary school. It hurt. And, I thought, if you decided to leave again, I'd still have this, the drawing, hidden away. Of course, I'd make everyone think I ripped it up to make them think I didn't care because it'd be easier and they wouldn't feel pity for me, when really, I'd always stare at it after I'd come home from school, if you did leave us again. If you left me." I give a sad smile.

"I'm sorry, Claire." Luke said, beginning to close the book, "I never meant to hurt you. I never meant to hurt anyone." He wrapped his arm around my shoulder and I wrapped mine behind his back, like we were back in the picture.

"I may not show a lot of my feelings, I might've not showed any back then, but it doesn't mean I'm not affected by somethings. I've had them under lock and key and I was stubborn. I continually thought you were trying to hurt me again. I tried to protect myself and built this giant wall, but it all came crashing down." I say,

"When?" Luke questions.

"I don't know." Luke laughs at my confession.

"I've realized that my problems are washing machines. I've been twisted around, I've been spun and I've been knocked down, all because I was stupid in the beginning. But, now, I've come back brighter and better than before. I've realized my mistakes and I know what I've done- what I've lost. But now, I've got it back and I've got what I originally wanted." Luke smirks, "That was very cheesy. Jeez, Claire, look what you're doing to me."

"Better be careful, your giant ego is starting to show." I laugh. We lied in silence, my head rested on his shoulder and his hands running through my long brown hair. I smile in perfect content and relaxation. It feels, natural. It feels right. His fingers reach for my hand and he slowly wraps his fingers around mine, hesitant at first but then sure of action. He grips my hand tight, as if to make sure this isn't some dream. To make sure I don't magically melt away or run away from him. My hand fits perfectly in his, comfortable, as if it was the perfect pairing.

"I've missed you." Luke whispers into the silence, as if his voice could ruin everything, could make us both wake up from this dream. But it's not a dream, I'm sure of it. This is called living in the moment while we wish we could stay here forever. My eyes slip closed but then, Luke's phone rings.

He digs for it in his pocket, and without looking at the ID, clicks ignore and powers down his phone, not wanting anything else to interrupt the silence. I smile at his actions, "Can't let anyone else call." Luke smiles.

"What if it was important?" I question, now running out the possible situations it could've been about.

"Don't care, I don't want anything to ruin this moment. I don't want something as stupid as a phone call to interrupt us." He smiles in content and I lay my head back down on his shoulder, finally smelling the little bit of Axe he has on. It smells... sweet, he doesn't smother his body in the Axe like other guys do. I shift a little and wrap both my arms around his neck and he moves his arm to my waist, pulling me close. I smile at the gesture. Surprisingly, I don't feel embarrassed about my actions, I feel confident in myself, like this is the right thing to do. He turns in my arms and wraps his other arm over my waist and pulls me closer. So this is the fabulous cuddling everyone enjoys. I now see why it relieves stress.

I lie my head on his chest and he shifts in my arms so we face each other and he bends his arm- which is still drapped over my waist- and runs his finger through my hair, my arms still around his neck. After what could be seconds, or minutes, or an hour, he pulls me impossibly closer and something washed over his face- like he's debating something. He lifts one arm off my waist and pushes my hair behind my ear as I lie my head against his chest.

"Claire?" He scoots back a bit so I can look up at him, after lying his arm back around me.

"Yeah?" I ask.

"I have a question..." He whispers, sounding like he is about to ask the biggest question yet.

"What is it?"

"Wou-would you like to... maybe... go on a date with me?" He smiles hopefully.

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The picture of Claire that Luke based the drawing off of is shown. Check it out. Sorry for the cliffhanger-- not sorry hehe. Until next time, enjoy the agony of waiting for the next chapter. Love you all