Together, We Rise

Chapter Seven: It's Not the Same

Chapter Seven

Melody

"This is boring!" I whined.

"How is this movie boring?" Luke asked, sounding completely shocked.

I scotted closer to Luke. "It's not the movie that's boring. Hiding because it's scary is boring!"

"It's not scary," Luke assured.

"That's what you think," I muttered. Just then, one of those stupid jump scares happened, causing me the shriek and hide my face in Luke's shoulder. Luke, however, just chuckled at my wimpyness. "Why did you make me watch this?"

"I never," Luke objected. "I said, 'Hey, how about we watch Ouija' and you said, 'Fine'. So technically, this is all your fault."

I frowned at his good memory. I did say that...... "What time is it?" I asked, resting my head on his shoulder and turning my attention back to the movie, which I had no idea why.

Luke grabbed his cell off of the bedside table. "Almost one in the morning."

"Don't you have basketball practice in the morning?" I asked.

Luke shrugged. "Possibly. Honestly, after Matt told us that even our team is trying to break us up, I could care less if we win Nationals or not. Obviously they care more about basketball than me, so they can win without me. Besides, my mind is still occupied with everything."

I turned to him and gave him a lingering kiss. "You'll get through it," I promised. "I know you will."

Luke reached for the remote and turned off the TV. "It is late," he said. "I should be going, even though I don't want to face my teammates."

"You could stay the night here," I offered.

Luke gave me a faint smile. "Don't mind if I do."

I snuggled in closer to Luke, resting my head on his chest. Being near him made me hate the fact that almost everyone, even people we didn't know, tried breaking us up. It hurt, a lot.

"You okay, Mel?" Luke asked softly. "You're a bit tense."

"Yeah," I said with a sigh. "I just hate what everyone's doing."

"Same," Luke said. "But we're doing good so far. Just keep ignoring everyone and we should be fine."

I nodded and closed my eyes, using Luke's heartbeat as a soothing lullaby to help me sleep.

*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*

One minute, I was listening to Luke's heartbeat and the next, a loud horn blasted in my ear. I sat up startled, as did Luke. I rubbed my eyes, trying to focus my eyesight. When I could finally see, my eyes fell on Matt with his thumb pressed on his phone.

"What the hell, Matt?!" I exclaimed.

"Sorry for the rude awakening," Matt said, "but we need our team captain for practice."

"You couldn't have just woken him?" I asked.

Luke seemed to be less awake then I was, still rubbing his eyes. "What time is it?" he asked groggily.

"Six," Matt replied. "Why? What time did you fall asleep?"

"After one," I replied.

Matt snorted. "Did you two have too much fun?"

I threw a pillow at him. "No. I'm not stupid enough to do......that with Uncle Daryl in the same hotel room. Luke just likes to sleep shirtless, even back home during the winter."