Toxic - Luke Hemmings

Chapter 61

"Thanks for that." I giggled, doggy-paddling the rest of the way over to him while he opened his arms. "Watch out-" I cut my sentence short as I saw a last minute swell in the water come up and over his head, and I couldn't help but laugh as I watched karma doing its work.

"A little late on that warning." He said, completely unamused as he wiped the water off of his face.

"Maybe if you paid attention you wou-" Luke got up and tackled me before I could finish, and I went under the water in a huge splash. I felt for his body and latched onto it, holding onto his torso for dear life.

"We're even." He told me once we resurfaced, a small smile on his face.

It was times like this that it hit me how different things were now. Luke was such an arrogant asshole in the beginning, and I don't think I saw him smile once until we actually starting dating. Seeing him goof around and be a normal 21 year-old was a treat, and one that I never thought I'd get the privilege of witnessing. He was just so intoxicating when he was like this, and I wished we could always be.

"We're not even, but if that helps you sleep at night then by all means." I laughed and he glared at me, but it quickly turned into a wide grin. He pulled me toward him as he wrapped his arms around my waist, and I threw my arms around his neck in return.

"Did you hear anything about your internship, by the way?" He asked, changing the subject completely.

"I tried to email them and ask if I could still get in, but all I got was the 'unfortunately, we can't make exceptions' bullshit." I sighed, looking at him with a frown.

"What are you gonna do, then?" He asked unsurely. I stared at him for a moment while I bit my lip, knowing that I already had a plan but couldn't tell him.

"I'll figure it out." I said, choosing to leave it at that.

"If you need me to talk to Killpack, I can see if she has any strings to pull in the lab." He said optimistically. Killpack was one of the biology professors on campus that worked with a lot of extracurriculars, but he was close with her since he had done a big project with her.

"It's fine, I don't want to bother her during the summer. I know she doesn't have any classes right now." I told him, watching as he looked at me like I was foolish for not taking the opportunity.

"If you change your mind just let me know." He waited for me to nod so he could plant a loving kiss to my lips.

"Are you two just going to fuck while the rest of us just sit here." Calum called out to us, making me pull away from Luke completely. He frowned at me, but I splashed him lightly and swam toward the rest of the group.

After playing around in the water for another hour, we all got out and walked down the beach so we could air dry. This end of the beach wasn't packed at all, so we walked uninterrupted until we couldn't even see our stuff anymore. Once we realized how far we'd gone, we turned and made the twenty-minute hike back. I plopped down on my towel, noticing that the sunblock was still on Sophie's.

"Shit, do I look like a lobster?" I cursed myself for forgetting to put it on when we first got here. I blamed Luke, though, since he was the one who distracted me.

"No, you're fine." Luke chuckled, sitting down on his towel after moving it next to mine.

"It never looks bad until you go inside." Ashton stated, making me pout.

"Want me to put some on for you?" Luke whispered. I rolled my eyes at him, but I handed it over nonetheless. This was one of the most cringy things we'd ever done, but I could tell he couldn't resist the idea of rubbing all over my body.