t w e n t y f o u r
We won.
Middleton Oak's student body erupted into cheers and hollars when Calum made the final pass to Luke, who then scored. It had been such a close game since halftime had ended and just as we discussed, he had his defensive players carry the ball past halfway. Nathan had done his head trick perfectly when he was passed the ball, soaring it across the field impeccably and into the possession of another Middleton Oak player.
Our team was able to get tied up with Gridlake that way before Luke switched plays, sensing that Gridlake had been catching on. Which he was right about. And that's how we were able to get ahead and stay ahead.
So when Luke made the final shot and scored it, everyone except Gridlake, as well as those that had come to support Gridlake, erupted into overjoyed hoots and rushed out of their bleacher seats and towards the field, joining in on the celebrations of victory along with the team.
Ashton slung his arm around my shoulders as he threw his other arm up in the air, just as overjoyed as the rest of us. When I glanced over at Jaime and Michael, I almost squealed in excitment at seeing them lip-locked.
"Get a room!" Ashton shoved Michael as he followed my line of sight, only making the couple break away. Jaime's cheeks were bright red, and when her eyes met mine, I knew she was embarrassed, "It's time to party!"
* * *
The party was at Stephanie's house and after much convincing from Ashton and Michael, I made up an excuse and went home. I wasn't really in the party mood despite the teams' victory, and Jaime dropped me home.
When I walked through the door and into the kitchen, my mother was at the table, papers scattered across the surface as she worked. She looked up upon my entry, frowning before looking at the watch on her wrist, "It's only nine. Did they not win?"
I let out a small laugh, "They won, mum, I just didn't feel like going to the party tonight."
"Oh they won?" she absentmindedly hummed happily, glancing at me from time to time from her work papers, "That's great. Luke didn't want you to come celebrate with him and Jaime?"
I turned away and busied myself with grabbing a glass of water. Somehow I always forgot that she still assumed him and I were friends, "No, I told him I was tired and Jaime dropped me home."
"Oh that's nice." she hummed again.
I sipped from my glass of water, "Is dad here? Or Aunt Marge?"
"Your father is out with a few work colleagues and your Aunt went to bed already. I just have all this paperwork to get through and then I'm probably off to bed too. Did you eat while you were at the game?"
I sighed through my nose, "I had some popcorn."
She gave me a stern look but didn't press the matter further, chatting with me for a few more minutes before I finished my water and I told her goodnight, heading upstairs.
When I made it to my room I shut my door and unlocked my window. I didn't know what time he was coming but he did say he was coming. And that we would talk. But that made me weary.
Luke wasn't the talking type. He was secretive and didn't open up, when he was sober at least, and he didn't like to talk about the past or his feelings. Would I be doing all the talking? I hope not.
Sighing to myself, I removed Calum's jersey that I had forgotten to give him and stripped of my clothes. A shower would be good. A shower would clear my head as well as chew away some time. Luke was probably going to go to Steph's party and would be a couple of hours. Should I try and stay awake? Should I head to bed?
A shower. I need a shower first.
That being said, I grabbed my towel and went into my bathroom, stripping the rest of my clothes and hopping in. It wasn't a long shower, but I washed my hair and let myself stand for an extra minute longer, the hot water numbing my thoughts but not getting rid of them.
When I finished, I changed into some shorts and a t-shirt, brushed my teeth, and dried my hair. As I exited back into my room I let my eyes drift over to the clock on my night stand, seeing that it was almost ten now.
I guess I could always read to kill the time.
* * *
"Maddy. Mads."
I flinched awake at the feeling of someone's hand on my arm, shaking me awake gently. I used one hand to rub at my eyes before letting them flutter open, seeing Luke sitting on the edge of my bed.
He was clad in a long sleeved shirt and some black sweatpants, his soccer uniform no longer in sight. He looked showered and clean and his eyes flickered when they met mine.
"What time is it?" my groggy voice allowed me to know that I had been sleeping for maybe an hour or so. I couldn't remember ever dosing off.
I sat up in bed and he shifted to give me some space, remaining near me as I let a yawn out. I noticed him glance to the clock on my bedside table as he removed my fallen book that I had been reading from the floor, "A little past eleven thirty."
"You didn't still have to come if you didn't want to," I sighed, leaning against my headboard, "You must be tired."
"They forced me to at least make an appearance at the party and then they told me to make a speech," Luke sighed as well, standing from the bed and walking over to my desk. He retrieved something from it and when he turned I could see that it was a container, "And then they made me wait for the food to arrive so that I could make another toast."
I watched as the blonde soccer player made his way back over to me and I moved over so that he could sit beside me, leaning against the headboard as well, "So yeah. You didn't have to come."
Once seated, Luke pulled the lid off of the container and held it out to me, making me frown as I took a peak at the contents. I was surprised to see that inside it held a couple slices of pizza, samosas, a second smaller container filled with carrots and hummus, and some chips.
"You brought.. food?"
"You haven't eaten, have you?" he rose a brow, placing the container between us and reaching in to pull out a samosa, "I figured you'd be hungry."
"It's a little late to eat," I hummed, tired still, "I'm serious. It's late and you didn't need to still come."
"I wanted to talk," he shrugged, nudging my shoulder, "It's hawiian."
I scrunched up my nose, "I hate hawaiian."
"I know," I noticed a hint of a smile, "But you usually pick off the pineapples and give them all to me... and that's all they had."
I hummed in response, unsure what to make of this. It was close to midnight and it was only Wednesday. We still had school tomorrow, after all.
"We don't have to talk tonight," I yawned again, "We have school tomorrow."
"But I said that we'd-"
"-Talk, I know," I reached down and grabbed one of the smaller pizza slices, looking it over before picking off a few of the pineapples. I set them down on another pizza slice, knowing Luke would eat that one, "Okay. What did you want to talk about?"
"You're the reason we won today," he mumbled as he cast his gaze down to the samosa in his hand, his breathing soft, "Thank you."
I could feel my face heating and I did the same, finding intrigue in my food as well, "You knew what to do. I just talked you through it."
"We would've been screwed, had it not been for you." he ran his free hand through his hair, the tips of his ear tinting pink.
"Actually you were screwed because of me, remember?" I cleared my throat, thankful that he wasn't looking at me.
"I guess so," he shrugged, "I don't like fighting with you."
A smile twitched at the corner of my lips and I removed the remainder of the pineapples from my pizza before taking my first bite, "Yeah, well, we've been fighting for the past four years and haven't stopped."
"But it just... it just feels different now," he huffed, "Because I get.. jealous or whatever."
Even though he had admitted this during halftime, I still felt my heart flutter at the confirmation. No one's ever gotten jealous over me before, or even shown me an ounce of attention. That was accredited to Luke, including what had happened with Stanely.
I watched him avert his gaze in embarrassment as he continued, "That's all I got."
I had to bite back my laughter, "That's it? That's all you wanted to talk about?"
"Well," he shrugged his shoulders, "I figure that that's the elephant in the room."
"I-," I shook my head, unsure why that was all he had to say, "The elephant in the room is more than the fact that you get jealous."
When his brows furrowed, he shifted beside me, "No, no. It's definitely that I'm jealous-"
"You're closed off," I refrained from raising my voice, not wanting to risk my mother hearing, and I had to adjust my sitting position so that I was facing him, "You think that every little thing that happens to me I have to tell you. And then every time I turn around and ask you something, all you tell me is that it's none of my business."
"Because it's not."
"Then why do you get mad when I act the same way?"
"Because I get-"
"No," I cut him off again, whining as I placed my pizza back in the container, "No. That's not the same thing as jealousy, or being jealous."
"Yes it is." he defended.
"That's called being secretive." I crossed my arms over my chest, straightening.
Luke pinched the bridge of his nose, doing the same and returning his samosa back to the container, "I'm just not an open guy."
"Then you can't throw a fit every time I don't want to tell you something." I rose a brow, watching with narrowed eyes as he mirrored my actions and gave me a narrowed glare back.
"Why do you keep saying that? I don't throw a fit," he looked off, only seeming to prove my point, "Look, I'm admitting that I get jealous. Isn't that worth something?"
My eyes only seemed to narrow further. How could he come here and think that everything would fix itself just because he admitted that among other things, he was the jealous type? There was more to it than his jealousy and even now, he was too stubborn to admit it or tell me.
So I hung my head with an annoyed sigh, turning to lean back against the headboard again and crossing my legs. I rested my elbows on my thighs and I turned my head to stare at him, waiting for him to say more. This couldn't be the only thing he had to say.
"Look. This," I gestured between the two of us, "Isn't working. We can't keep this deal up if we can't... I don't know.. have a better system."
I noticed Luke's annoyed gaze switch like a light switch into a different emotion. It was that one that I didn't really recognize, one that made my stomach churn in a way that urged me to look away from him yet I didn't want to, "A better system would be if you trusted me."
"Actually I think we've already established that a better system would be if you trusted me."
His sky blue eyes flickered challengingly, yet I didn't back down from my stare. I wasn't wrong and we both knew it.
After a few minutes of our staring contest, Luke backed down, looking off with an annoyed huff, "I do trust you."
I rose a brow, refraining from laughing without any of the humor, "What happened between you and Jared?"
Again, I was met by his challenging, narrowed eyes, "That's not fair."
"Case in point."
"That's. Not. Fair," Luke moved the container of food from between us and placed it on my nightstand, standing from the bed, "Why is it so weird that I have things that I just don't want to talk about?"
"Because you keep forcing things that I don't want to talk about out of me!" I snapped, "When you saw my cuts I begged you to just drop it and you didn't. You got it out of me."
"That's-..." he pursed his lips, refraining from telling me that that was different because he knew that it wasn't. Just as he knew that it wasn't fair. He turned away from me and shifted on his feet, unsure what to say next.
"Good talk," I drawled when the silence became too much, rolling my eyes and getting up from my bed as well. I stalked over to the window in which he had come through, turning and gesturing to it, "Feel free to get out."
He didn't budge, "You don't even know what I was going say."
"Were you going to tell me?"
Met with silence, Luke looked away from me for another moment, contemplating how he wanted to answer. In this bubble of silence, he chewed on his lip ring and took a seat back on my bed, resting his elbows on his knees and exhaling deeply.
I took that as my cue to head back over slowly and sit beside him, only a couple inches between us as we sat, and I awaited whatever it was it looked like he was going to say.
"You get one question."
I felt my heart spike in pace. This was the most he had ever given me; This was the closest he had ever been to telling me something that he had been hiding. And with this opportunity I had to choose my question carefully.
I wanted to ask about Jared. Why did Luke and him hate eachother so much? What was the issue between them?
But I also wanted to ask about Harmony. Why did he hate her so much? Why was she so into him despite him acting disinterested with her back? Why did she take his side all the time.
And then there was the question I had been dying to know for years. The question that was always on the tip of my tongue. Always in the back of my mind. The one he always shut down, along with the others.
What happened between the two of us?
Why did he suddenly start to hate me, all those years ago. What did I do? What was he blaming me for?
I took a breath, drumming my fingers on my thighs as I narrowed down my choices.
And out it came.
___