“Do you want to talk about it?” Luke asks me. I shook my head no and sat up. Luke opened his mouth to say something but he quickly closed it. He gave me a strained smile and turned towards his suitcase and picked up his PJs. He walked into the bathroom and slammed the door shut. I moved to my side of the bed and sat, leaning against the headboard. I waited for Luke and he finally came out of the bathroom after 5 minutes. “Luke?” I said. He looked at me and raised his eyebrows. “Did James ever tell you about our bet?” I asked him. Luke furrowed his eyebrows together and shook his head.
“Oh,” I said. I pulled my legs up to my chest and wrapped my arms around my legs and started talking. “Back in January, me, James, and Beth, we worked together on a group project. One day, we were kind of flirting and I told him that I thought that boys and girls can’t be friends without one developing feelings for the other. He made a bet with me that me and him could be friends without all the extra,” Luke took a seat on the bed and faced me. He was looking at me intently. “So I agreed. The only thing is that he had already lost the bet because I’ve liked him since freshman year. He never stood a chance. And, after we begun hanging out and stuff, I began to like him even more. At times, it seems like he likes me back but then Carly comes back into the picture and I’m just so confused.”
Luke was listening to me silently and nodding. “And now, Carly said that James cares about me more than her but now, I’m in a bigger hole because of you.” Luke’s eyes got big but he did not say anything. “Hanging out with you is so much fun. It’s less drama, you make me smile, you make me laugh, and I just love being around you. But I still also like James. I mean, it’s hard for me to completely forget about him because I like him so much, but now, I like you too.” I confessed to him.
Instead of saying something, Luke continued looking at me, thinking about what I had just told him. “Well, it seems like you’re in a pickle.” Luke finally says after several moments. I wanted to be upset about what he said but I couldn’t stop the smile from spreading on my face. “Luke, you’re stating the obvious.” I say, smiling at him. “I know. Well, since I like you, I would advise you to choose me but I understand where you’re coming from and if you think that being with James will make you happy, I will support your decision.” He says seriously. “I won’t be exactly happy but if you’re happy, then I’m happy.”
I take a few minutes to think about my reply. “I don’t know if I want to be with James anymore.” I say to him. It wasn’t necessarily the truth but I couldn’t bring myself to tell Luke how I really feel. “Oh.” He simply says. Before I could continue talking, there was a knock at our door. “Yes?” Luke calls out. The person opened the door and James looked into the room. “Oh, sorry. I thought you were only in here.” James says glancing at me. “What do you want?” Luke asks James. “Nevermind.” James murmured, closing the door.
“I think I should go talk to him.” I say to Luke. “Oh, okay.” Luke says. “Thanks for listening to me.” I say to Luke. “No problem.” He says giving me a small hug. I get up from the bed and walk towards the door. “You’re sleeping in here tonight, right?” he asks me. “Umm, yeah. I guess.” I say to him. “Okay.” He says getting into the bed.
I walked out of the room and noticed that everyone had gone into their rooms. I walked across the hall and knocked on James’ door. “Come in!” I heard him yell. I opened the door and stepped inside. I saw James standing outside on his balcony. He was still wearing the same clothes he wore earlier. He saw me and frowned a little bit. “What do you want?” he asks me. “I just wanted to see you and talk.” I say to him, walking out onto the balcony. I stood next to him and faced him. He continued staring out into the backyard.
“What happened tonight with Carly?” I asked him. “You saw what happened. Your best friend punched her in the face and made her storm off!” he said, slightly raising his voice. “Oh no, no, no. Don’t even think about blaming Beth. Your girlfriend was running her mouth and she got hit. Beth warned her but she keep running her mouth. I don’t believe in violence but Carly kind of deserved it.” I said also raising my voice. Who does he think he is? Blaming Beth for something that his girlfriend started! I thought to myself.
“I know. I just needed someone to blame the whole thing on.” He said after a moment with a resigned voice. “Blame Carly. She called me a bitch James, and you didn’t say anything.” I said. “I know and I’m sorry. I didn’t know how to handle the situation. She always gets this mad whenever she feels jealous but then she’d calm down, but today was a whole other level of anger.” He says to me. “What would she be jealous of James?” I ask him. “You. She feels threatened by you.” He says, finally turning to look at me. It was now my turn to look away. “What exactly happened when you guys were out?” I asked him. “Nothing really. We went to the beach and we spent some time there. I wanted to play volleyball or something but all she wanted to do was get a tan so I went and played with some of the people on the beach. After a few hours we went to go to dinner. When we were about to enter the restaurant, she tried to kiss me and I accidentally called her ‘Lena’. She was upset but she let it slip.” He explained to me. “Then, while we were eating, she kept trying to kiss me. I told her I’m not the PDA type but she wouldn’t stop. So, I might have said, ‘Stop Elena, we can do this later’. That time, she freaked out and stormed out of the restaurant.” I waited for him to continue but it seemed like he wasn’t going to tell me more.
“Well, I’d be upset if I were her to but she over-reacted.” I told him. “Um, yeah, sure.” He said. I felt like he was not telling me all of what happened but I just let it go. “So, are you guys like officially broken up?” I asked him. “I don’t know. Maybe.” He answers. “Are you sad?” I ask him. “Umm, not really. I never really wanted to date her. I just did because my ex-best friend said I should.” He tells me. “Then why were you with her so long?! That’s not fair to her.” I exclaim. “No, it’s not like I never liked her. It’s just, at first, I didn’t know her but once I got to know her, she was a lot of fun. The first few months we were together, I really enjoyed the relationship. It’s just recently, since the beginning of the year, I began losing interest in her.” He says to me.
“Oh.” I said, my mind focusing in on the ‘recently’ he said. We stood in silence for a few minutes before James spoke. “What going on between you and Luke?” he asks me. I shrug. “Are you guys together or something?” he asks me. “I don’t know.” I answer him. “Well, do you like him?” he asks me. “Yes.” I answer. James turned and looked at me. I turned and looked back at him. “Do you like me?” he asks me. I looked away from him and shrugged. “Do you like me?” I ask him. He hesitated for a second and answered. “No. We’re just friends.”
I continued staring out into the backyard, letting his words soak in. “Yeah. Just friends.” I repeated. “Well, I’m going to go now.” I say, walking towards the door. I avoid looking at him directly. “Why? I thought you were sleeping here tonight?” he asks me reaching for me. I pull back from him and answer him. “Um, I don’t think so. I told Luke I’d be staying with him tonight.” “Oh, okay. See you tomorrow, Friend.” He says to me. “Okay. Good night, Friend.” I say, turning away from him and shutting my eyes. I was trying so hard not to start crying.
I walked out of his room and instead of going straight to his room, I headed to the kitchen. I composed my self behind the fridge door and when I closed the door, I noticed a figure standing in the kitchen with me. I jumped back in surprise but then I noticed that the person was Sierra. “What are you doing in the kitchen?” she asked me. “I could ask you the same thing.” I say, composing myself. “I was getting some water.” She says, grabbing the water bottle from my hands. “Oh no, I insist you take this water bottle.” I say sarcastically to her. She stuck her tongue out at me and opened the bottle and drank out of it.
“Well, good night.” I said, walking past Sierra. She put her hand on my arm and stopped me. “Is everything alright? I might have been listening to ya’ll’s conversation.” She says to me. “Yeah. Everything is fine.” I answer. “You know you can tell me anything.” She says to me. “Yeah, I know. I just don’t have anything to say. He said he doesn’t like me and that’s it.” I say. “You know he’s lying.” She says to me. “I don’t care.” “Yes you do.” She interrupts me. “Well, even if I do, it doesn’t matter anymore. I’ve liked James since freshman year and neither of us has made a move. Luke on the other hand, he’s sitting there saying that he likes me but if I prefer James, he’ll still be happy.” I say exasperated.
“I think you should do what you feel is right.” She says to me. “I know. I know what I should do.” I sigh. “Good. Now go to sleep, there is no reason you should be crying.” Sierra says to me. I smile and head towards the bedroom. I entered the bedroom and noticed that Luke was walking out of the bathroom. He was only wearing his pajama bottoms and he looked really good.
“Hey, you’re back.” He said smiling when he saw me. “Yeah, I told you I was going to come back.” I say still standing near the door. “I know, but you were gone so long that I thought you and him….” He didn’t need to finish his sentence in order for me to figure out what he was thinking. “No. James and I are friends. Nothing more.” I tell him. “Oh.” He says, a flash of hope going through his face.
“Luke, how much do you care for me?” I asked him, taking a step towards him. “A lot. More than you’ll ever know.” He answers. “How much do you like me?” I ask him taking another step. “You know when I said I liked you?” he asked. I nodded. “I lied. I think I’m in love with you.” He said. I felt my heart begin to flutter. “Really?” I said. “Yes. I care for you more than you’ll ever know.” He says to me.
I walked straight to him and he pulled me into a big hug. I put my head on his chest and he began stroking my hair. “What does this mean Elena?” he asks me. I leaned back and looked into his eyes. I could see the hope in his eyes and I didn’t want to disappoint him. Instead of answering, I kissed him. Right now at this moment, all I wanted to do was spend time with Luke. We could sort everything out tomorrow.