invisible string ✾ lrh

0.3 - started

"Yeah," he whispered, "I like her. I like her a lot. But I don't think she likes me back."

What Luke didn't know was that his bandmates were also friends with Marigold Insley, and they had had a similar talk with her already. However, after she had admitted to them that she had liked Luke for much longer than he'd even known she existed, she had sworn them to secrecy using the girl code, and they had attempted to argue multiple times that none of them were women so inherently, her code didn't mean much to them, but they knew she didn't have many girlfriends to use the girl code with, so they went along with it.

By the girl code, the three boys were not allowed to tell Luke what they knew.

Ashton stood from his drum set and walked the few feet to his friend. He shook his hand and smiled to him, "We're cutting band practice short for the day, under the pretenses that you-" He spoke in a jokingly sophisticated announcing voice before he giggled, breaking character, "Go get your girl, Luke."

Luke handed the drummer his guitar sluggishly, nervously glancing at the encouraging smiles on his friends faces. And then he nodded, took a deep breath, and opened the garage door.

When he arrived at home Maggie wasn't there, and his confidence seemed to have disappeared along with her.

His mother told him that she had gone home for the night, because her father had finally left and her mom wanted to spend the rest of the day together, just the two of them, in an attempt to rekindle their mother-daughter relationship.

Without giving himself enough time to think, Luke grabbed this bike and trekked over to her home.

Maggie's house was nice. If things were better between her and her parents, she probably would've had Luke come over more often, but he had only tagged along with his mom to drop her off a handful of times. It was a one story home, similar to Luke's, but it was bigger.

Both of her parents had high paying jobs and seemed to be constantly adding new additions to the house, but Maggie's favorite part was the garden in the backyard. So when Luke arrived at her house, that was the first place he checked. He didn't bother to walk up to the front door or greet her mom with a fake smile and pretend that he had heard anything necessarily nice about the woman, so he let his bike fall in the driveway and walked around the side.

When he turned the corner and the garden came into view, he wasn't surprised to see the pretty red-haired girl knelt down on the cobblestone pathway, her fingers wrapped around the handle of a watering can as she smiled down at a bunch of flowers planted in the dirt. Her hair was wrapped in a bandana and crinkles by her eyes were barely noticeable because of the slight smile on her lips, but he noticed because he noticed every little thing about her.

"Mags," Luke's voice was ragged and he tried to clear it as he spoke.

She turned to him, clearly startled, and shot to her feet. She was wearing a pair of blue jeans and a white tee shirt, and she looked like she belonged on a farm. Luke thought she looked adorable, but he found the way her eyes seemed to light up when she saw him even more adorable.

"Luke!" She squealed, and excitedly ran into his arms as if she hadn't woken up in them that morning.

He wrapped his arms tightly around her and planned to never let go.

She pulled back, just slightly, still wrapped in his arms, and smiled up at him, "I missed you."

He blushed, but made no attempt to hide it from her, "You saw me this morning."

"I still missed you."

"I missed you, too."

She smiled lightly and put her head back on his chest. They stood there for a few seconds, simply enjoying each others warm.

"Is everything okay here?" Luke asked.

She looked up at him again, not bothering to remove her arms from where they were wrapped around his middle because he had yet to remove his from around her neck.

"I think so. We ate dinner together and I think my mom wants to watch a movie later. She seems like she's doing a lot better."

"I'm happy for you, Mags."

"Do you want to join us? I could always ask! I think we're watching a Disney movie-"

"No, I don't know how long I can stay, actually."

"Oh," Maggie tried to sound less disappointed than she was, "Why did you come?"

"Maggie-" Luke's voice cracked, heavy with emotion.

"Is everything okay?" She asked, "Did something happen at band practice?"

Luke's heart swelled, knowing she was worried about him, knowing that she cared. And he really hoped she'd still care after she knew how he felt.

His heart was beating out of his chest as he shook his head, "No, nothing happened at band practice."

Maggie furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.

Luke took her hand and led her over to the flowers she had just been watering, attempting to calm his nerves in any way possible.

"What are these flowers?" He changed the subject, reaching out to touch a petal.

Maggie smiled at him excitedly, "Petunias. My favorites. I really like the way-"

"I really like you," Luke blurted out.

"What?" Maggie froze, sure that he could see the way her heart was about to beat out of her chest.

"I-I'm sorry. I don't know- I didn't know how to tell you but I think you're really pretty and I really like the way you laugh at my jokes even when they aren't funny and I like your personality and your love for flowers and I like everything about you and I don't know what to do about it."

"Luke," Maggie spoke softly, taking a step towards him.

"I know- I-I know this is probably messing everything up and you probably won't want to be friends anymore and I understand that and I'm sorry but I don't know how much longer I can go without you knowing how I feel."

There was a silence, and Luke finally looked up from the petunias he had been staring down at. He had tried his hardest to not meet Maggie's eyes as his heart seemed to bleed from his mouth and spout words that he didn't even plan on saying.

"You're right," her voice was quiet as she took another step towards her blonde friend.

"I-I'm right? About what?"

"I don't want to be your friend, Luke."

"Oh," His shoulders sank, his somewhat hopeful mood deflated instantly, "I'm so sorry. I feel like I messed everyth-"

"Luke," She interrupted his rambling, closing the space between them with another step. She looked up at him and smiled playfully, "I don't want to be your friend," She repeated, and Luke almost wanted to jump in and say, yes, I heard you the first time, I don't need to hear about how you hate me again when my pride is literally all over the petunias in your garden like the water from your watering can, but then she spoke again.

"I want you to kiss me," Her voice was almost a whisper, but he heard the words, and his blue eyes met hers.

"You want me to kiss you?" He asked, confirming that hadn't imagined the words falling out of her mouth.

"Yeah," She spoke breathlessly, "I really, really do."

And then he kissed her.

- - -

maggie and luke are literally my children and i love them so much but soon we'll all be joining forces to beat some sense into luke so don't get too attached to him NOT being a dick :/

ANYWAY this is crunch time and i'm trying to update at least one chapter of each of my fics before i leave for school next week. when i get to school i'm planning on updating at least one story once a week so pls don't give up on me college is time consuming man.

i love you guys and i hope you love maggie and luke as much as i do :)