the bucket list | lrh

48 - skipping a step

"She should be! That's what she usually does. And then I'm the sad one, huh?" Valentine wondered aloud, tilting her head at Luke who was desperately fighting the urge to look over at her. He had gone completely power hungry then, he just wanted to make her smile.

"You're not the sad one, you're more like the brooding one," Luke gave his humorous input. Valentine fought back a grin at his seamless words, and how cutely they had rolled off of his tongue. It was deep into the night then, and Valentine felt everything. The wind from outside spilled in the crack in her window, just how she'd requested it be. She felt timeless.

"I think you're the brooding one," Valentine joked back, choking on the coffee that Luke still hadn't noticed she'd stolen. She didn't exactly ask, but she figured it'd be fine because he was an adult, and he had money, however he did that.

"I am not! Either way, you don't have to be the sad one. Why don't you be the single sane person in that town?" Luke joked, earning that golden smile he had been hoping and praying for. He could feel the warmth radiate throughout his body and lucky for him, he arrived at a red light and could flash his eyes over to see her grinning like a child.

"Because that would leave the chaos of Elgin unbalanced, Luke. Obviously, what are you thinking?" She poked fun at their current state of emotion, laughing quietly and bringing her mouth back up to the glass bottle. If she was going to get through that drive without falling asleep on Luke, she'd need to put that stolen coffee to good use.

"Sometimes... I hate that town," Luke breathed out heavily, his hands faltering from their perfect drivers test worthy location on the wheel. He leaned back a little on the girl who had kept him sane through everything. Truthfully, in that moment, Luke felt like he would do anything just to return the favor and help the girl through her lowest points.

"No you don't," she shook her head, not having much patience for the blonde's typical comments. See, she saw through that act Luke tried so desperately to keep up as a protective mechanism. She saw through the way he helplessly threw out any moody sentence he could muster and she saw some light behind it.

"What? Yes I do," Luke defended himself dramatically, playing into the moment and where the girl was headed.

"No, you don't. Or you would've left with Mariam when you graduated. No, you like it here. You like Rowdy's, and you like Austin. You like knowing where everyone's houses are. You like that town and you know it, else you wouldn't be there," Valentine rambled on. Luke may have gotten offended by the words had they come out of anyone else's mouth. Her words were just so light, despite her nagging he was taken aback by how entranced he was.

"You didn't have to read me like that," Luke huffed, crossing his arms dramatically at a stop sign as if to show that he was protesting, for what he wasn't sure of. Valentine found this all too funny, and it granted him another beautiful smile from the girl that had his heart beating rapidly.

"Do you still talk to Mariam? Like a lot? You guys had a lot of tension when we were there..." Valentine rambled off, mind wandering from the bigger picture yet again.

"We talk usually every week... and you noticed that?" Luke shrugged nonchalantly, but it didn't phase the little girl at all. Alas, Valentine Leonard was just not naive.

"Of course I noticed it, why wouldn't I? She had me wear clothes to get your attention, and you always seemed so uptight when she would suggest something," Valentine explained, elaborate hand gestures helping her prove her point effectively.

"I didn't know you noticed, or I would have explained it sooner," Luke sighed, shrugging again as a default gesture to show his adamancy.

"Well, why? Was it because I'm Adeline's sister?"