Tangled Strings (sequel to Red Strings)

Chapter 25

Luke's half asleep on the couch and I look at him fondly his quiff was slightly flatter then usual and was sticking up in several different directions. I walk up to him and run my fingers through his hair and Luke's eyes flutter open and a lopsided grin appears on his face.  "Hey." he says stretching out. 

"Hey babe." I whisper back still touching his hair.  "I wanted to wait up for you." he explains.  "I kind of got in an argument with Nat, no big deal though." "What do you mean no big deal!  Do you want to talk about it?" I stare at him for a moment in awe of how genuine he was. 

I shake my head pressing a kiss into the corner of his mouth, his cheeks redden "What?" I question Luke shakes his head.  "Nothing." "Well now you have to tell me!" I push, Luke sighs sitting up. "Alright come with me." he says standing up and holding his hand out I raise an eyebrow but take his hand. He leads me upstairs to his bedroom which now had twinkling lights hanging by the door.  

"Luke?" I say barely audible he grins nervously opening the door.  Calum's bed had been pushed into the corner and Luke's was now in the middle of the room covered in rose petals. The room was lined with candles of all different sizes that I could tell must have been lit for a while because most of them had wax dripping down the sides. 

"Oh my god" I say amazed taking a step into the room.  "Lame, I know I kept trying to think how I could make it really special and this is the best I could come up with... I even asked Michael for advice which was a wrong call should've gone to Ashton and then I kept thinking about it was all bad timing and I-" I cut him off with a kiss but he pulls away.

"Sky you don't have to, I don't want you to feel like you have to." he mumbles his eyes now focused on my hands that were currently unbuttoning his shirt. "I love you" I tell him confidently reattaching our lips "I'm not sure it's possible for me to ever stop." "So?" "so... I want to." I respond letting out a nervous chuckle as we move onto the bed.    

Natalie's POV

God I felt bad for snapping at Skyler but I knew that she had made a point.  Both of us had gone through our fair share of Natalie-runs-and-Skyler-cleans-up-after-her experiences.  But I had always come back around again.  Eventually.

I laid in bed, tossing and turning a bit thinking about what to do.  I looked at the time to see it was 2:30.  I bit my lip and then decided on going for a walk, just to clear my head.  I grabbed my hoodie and kept my lounge shorts on, hoping it wouldn't be too chilly outside.  I quietly tip toed out, knowing Sylvana was asleep due to the couple snores from her room.  Finally I got to the door, grabbing my key and slipping out into the night.

I could see a couple stars in the sky as I walked down the street seeing that there were still a couple clubs open at this time.  I kept walking, walking by the 24 hour gas station, the local sushi bar, the pizza place.  I probably walked for a good half hour before finally stopping as I sat on a bench.  

"Heyyyyy babbeeeee....." an unknown voice slurred and I looked to see a drunk guy, maybe a couple years older than me, stumbling towards me.  "Waaaazzzzuuuppppp??" he asked sitting down beside me and trying to put an arm around my shoulder, and I immediately flicked it off and backed away.  

"Yeah can you leave me alone?" I said getting up and beginning to walk away.  "Oh come onnnn don't be like that!!" he yelled after me and I turned around and flipped him off.  After my quick sass I picked up the pace and decided I had enough of the early morning hours of Los Angeles.

I walked all the way back.  It was slightly cool due to the breeze that was rustling the branches of the nearby trees, and I pulled my sweater closer to myself as I finally got back to the apartment, sneaking back in undetected and finally going to sleep.