cool » l. hemmings

xxxiv.

I used to think you're cool and I believed you had a wonderful vision

"Didn't think you knew this song," I said, smirking a bit when he turned the volume up.

"Figured I would stop putting off checking out more than one song by my girlfriend's favorite band," Luke said.

"I thought I had to wait two days for the oh-so-important girlfriend title." Not that I was going to stop him from calling me it, I liked the feeling in my stomach when I heard it and the simultaneous squeeze of my hand he gave me when he said it. This felt nice.

"Future girlfriend," Luke said, but even through the correction he was smiling.

Fighting off a smile of my own, my head shook, "I mean, I didn't say I minded."

He bit down on his lip, fiddling with the ring around it, "I was going to keep doing it anyway."

† † † † † † †

I love the sound of waves. I love the colors of the sky when the sun is almost gone. I love both of those together, especially.

"Why do you always get so tired when I take you here?" I heard Luke chuckle, interrupting me from my deep thoughts and drooping eyes.

"It's relaxing, and that's the reason you keep coming back to it, so I figured I would, too." Sitting up a bit, I used my elbows as support. Luke was sat not too far away, and the reflection that the setting sun was giving off on his figure was truly unbelievable. He was just simply looking straight ahead, setting his elbows on his knees, which were brought to be level with his chest. But he did look fascinating, and I don't know if it was just the lack of sleep I'd been getting but I'm sure even a person with a normal sleep schedule would think the same thing.

"Come here," I caught him mumbling, grabbing my wrist lightly to scoot me over to him. "You know, you're the first girl that I think I've ever really liked. I was pretty desperate when I dated Brooke."

"Must've been beyond desperate," I mumbled with a smirk, not being completely serious but also, really, kind of meaning it. Just a little.

"Hey, I heard that!" My back, which was leaning against Luke's chest, had fallen back a bit at the loss of contact from Luke moving. He was looking down at me and trying to fight a laugh of his own, I let mine out willingly and he pouted.

I moved my head up to leave a kiss on his cheek. "I still like you," I half-whispered, even though there was no reason to.

"Good, because I like you a lot," Luke repeated my volume, but instead of kissing my cheek he stopped in front of my lips for a while. "Even though you refuse to stop picking your lip," he added once he'd pulled away, running his index finger over my bottom lip softly. It wasn't as bad as it had been, because the only thing I've been nervous about was the Michael thing, and final exams. Now that those were over and out of my way, the habit was slowly starting to disappear.

"I'd be with you twenty-four-seven if I came to you when I was feeling nervous," I mocked him, repeating what he'd told me before.

"Doesn't seem like you'd mind that much," he smirked.

"How do you do that?" I questioned, furrowing my eyebrows.

"What?"

"Act confident and then doubt everything about yourself." I'd noticed how often he seemed to do that, and I've never really seen anyone be both confident and unsure at the same time.

After thinking for a minute, Luke shook his head and looked straight ahead, "I don't know, it just happens."

Now that I thought about it, I had been denying the fact that I actually liked Luke, and even when I was telling him I didn't and we couldn't, I did things that completely went against that. So I wouldn't be surprised if I made him doubtful -- which he shouldn't be. "If it's my fault that you don't think I actually like you, I'm sorry," I sighed.

"No, no, it's not. I've always done it, it's no big deal really," he explained, and even though he tried to give a small smile to assure me, I didn't believe it. "I'll get over it soon."

"Why've you always done it?" Luke's arms moved over my shoulders as I asked him.

"I'm not exactly very appealing, I'm just as much of a dork as my brother, so it's kind of easy to assume things. I've always been the one to be more interested in whoever it was I was dating or whatever and even then, those people tried to tell me what you're trying to right now."

"Hey, Luke," I move to sit directly in front of him, so he's looking at me and not just the water, "it's not your fault other people haven't realized that even though you're a dork, you're a pretty great and cool one."

"How do you do that, then?" he questions, the same way I did to him.

"Do what?"

Before replying, Luke chewed at his lip, "Even when trying to help people you can't resist making it into something funny."

"Laughter is contagious, it's bound to make you feel better." I've always done this. Every time I tried to comfort anyone when I was younger, I always felt awkward and like I was just making the situation worse. As I got older, the fact that I was barely ever serious came in handy whenever I had to help people. Instead of feeling as if I made them feel even worse than they were, when I cracked some sort of joke or just started kidding around, I saw their smile or heard their laugh and it made me feel like I wasn't completely useless in the situation. At least I made them forget temporarily. You can never forget totally forget something, so I always reminded myself of that when comforting people, too, so I didn't try and get rid of the whole thing that was bothering them.

"It's a good thing you make me laugh a lot, then," he smiled softly down at me before both of us turned to look at the sky, which was still swirling with different colors of oranges and reds and sometimes pinks in between.

"That's actually kind of a sad statement," I could feel the frown settling on my lips. I leaned into Luke again,

"I know," he airily chuckled, "it wasn't meant to be, I swear."

Somehow I think it was.

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the book i'm focusing on after this is finished is up :-)) not that a lot of you care but ya know knowledge is power

such a filler it hurts but don't worry your lil hearts will be dead in a few chapters >:)

song; so far (it's alright) by the 1975