balmy || l.h.

twelve

Luke and I gingerly tip-toed into the house, opening the front door as quietly as possible so we wouldn't wake our parents. It was pretty late, and they were the type to go to bed early anyways.

I watched as Luke went into the kitchen and carefully opened the silverware drawer, the gliding of the tracks seeming like the loudest sound on the planet right now. He grabbed two spoons before motioning to go upstairs.

I had the bag with the face masks and Luke had the desserts, so clearly we had our priorities sorted out. When we made it up to the landing I whispered to him, "My room or yours?"

"Yours," he replied, voice equally as low, "It always smells really nice in there."

I rolled my eyes and chuckled, "Well that's because I'm not an animal and I use lavender rose scented room spray."

We entered my bedroom, shutting the door behind us before I picked some loungey clothes out of my dresser to change into. Luke saw them in my hand and nodded, "You know, that's a smart idea, I'm gonna go change too. Be right back."

He hopped off the bed and left. I took off my swimsuit and threw it into my laundry hamper before putting on some white cotton shorts and a red camisole tank.

Luke came back in wearing gray joggers and nothing else. I thought for a moment before looking up at him, "Luke can I borrow your hoodie?"

He rolled his eyes with a smile, "Oh this is already starting?"

I raised my eyebrows, "Technically it started when you gave me your jacket when you picked me up from the parking lot."

"Well yeah! I wasn't going to let you suffer like that in the rain with no clothes!"

I twisted my lips, "So...is that a no?"

He sighed, leaving the room and returning a few moments later with a black zip up hoodie and I beamed, quickly putting it on, "Thank you. Much better."

I patted a spot on the bed next to me for him to join and he did, lifting the bag with our ice cream. He gave me mine as well as a spoon and he was already into his.

"Do you want to talk about what happened today?" He asked on a serious level.

I shrugged, "I guess it would be good for me to get it out...I just...she knew, Luke. She fucking knew."

His brows furrowed, "Hailey knew what happened with you and Daniel? And she still came with him?"

I smiled bitterly and nodded, "Sure did. I didn't tell her that I changed my mind to come, because I assumed she wasn't gonna be there anyway, so why should I?"

He nodded, "Yeah I get what you're saying. How did he even get in contact with her?"

I snorted, "I'm no FBI agent, but it isn't that hard to go to someone's Instagram profile and look at tagged pictures with others."

He took a bite of his ice cream, "Hm. Didn't think of that."

I felt a knot start to form in my throat as the truth hit me, "I'm not...I'm not gonna have a friend when I go back to school..."

Luke pulled me in and rubbed my back comfortingly, "Hey, babygirl, it's okay. It's easy to make friends. And you have me right now, yeah?"

I sniffles, burying my head into his shoulder, "You're gonna leave...when you go back to college I'll be alone."

He pet my hair and then held me out with a hand on each of my arms, "Nat, look at me. We're not gonna think about that right now. And you won't be alone, FaceTime exists, and I'm not that far away. Only a few hours. But what we need to worry about right now is skincare."

I laughed, wiping my eyes and smiled, "You're right, you desperately need it."

He pretended to look offended as I took the plastic protectant off of the jar of clay mask, unscrewing the lid. Luke's nose scrunched up in disgust, "So you want me to just rub mud on my face?"

I rolled my eyes, "Oh come on, it's really good for your skin, it detoxifies and corrects imperfections in the skin like fine lines and pores."

He stared at me blankly, "Alright yeah I'm gonna pretend like I comprehended what you just said."

I laughed as I took some of the gray-green goop on my finger and pulled his head towards me. I smeared the mask over his cheeks and nose before bringing it up on his forehead.

"This feels so weird," Luke commented, reaching to touch it.

I smacked his hand away, "No, you'll get it all over you. Let it dry."

"And how long does that take?"

"Bout thirty minutes," I replied, looking at the instructions on the jar.

He groaned, "I guess that's the price you pay for beauty."

I laughed as I applied some of the mask to my own face, doing a thick layer because my skin was desperate for assistance. I set a timer on my phone and while we waited, we finished off our ice cream and I glanced down to notice the can of whipped cream.

Pointing at it slightly I nudged Luke's arm, "So uh...what's the deal with-"

"Later."

I bit my bottom lip anxiously, "How later?"

Luke picked my phone up and looked at the timer counting down on the lock screen, "Bout 27 minutes and 43 seconds later."

My heart began to speed up a little at the thought of all the possibilities. He clearly had one in mind though. And I mean...he must know I'm a virgin. I mean he knows I'd just recently had my first kiss, so yeah the two are kind of mutually exclusive.

While the masks hardened we talked some more about everything it seemed. What I wanted to do in college, where I was thinking of going, what Luke wanted to do after college, etc. etc. etc. But in the back of my mind the whole time was one thing: whipped cream.