“We’re ready to go!” Megan says to the boys when we finished getting ready. We had finished eating and then we changed our clothes to head over to Logan’s house. Logan was throwing a party tonight and we decided that we’d spend our last night here at the party. “Okay. But I guess we’ll all have to fit in one car.” Luke says, getting up from his seat and grabbing his car keys. We were originally going to take two cars but James hasn’t returned from wherever he went. He was pretty upset when he left and none of us wanted to call him.
“Okay. I mean, it’s not like there aren’t enough seats.” Sierra says. “Yeah, I know but since we usually divide between James and my car, everyone usually has more room.” Luke says. “Well, I, Megan, and Sierra can sit in the back while Zack and Clark can sit in the middle seat.” Beth says. “Alright. Let’s get in and go then.” Megan says motioning for everyone to leave through the front door. “Here are the keys, I’ll be right out.” Luke says to me while handing me the keys to his car. I took the keys from him and he headed to his room.
I turned to Sierra and handed her the keys before she stepped out of the house. “Here Unlock the car. We’ll be out in a minute.” I say to her. “Okay. What’s wrong?” she questions me. “Nothing. I just want to wait for him.” I tell her. She eyes me suspiciously but doesn’t say anything. She takes the keys from me and heads outside. I shut the front door and walked back to Luke’s room.
When I got to the room, I stood by the door and watched Luke while he was on the phone. He was turned away from me so he probably didn’t notice I was watching him. “Hey James. I was just calling to see where you went. We’re heading the Logan’s right now so I guess we’ll meet you there. If not, we’ll try to not come back late. Well, I guess give me a call or send me a text when you get my message. Okay. Bye.” He says. He removes the phone from his ear and hangs up.
He stood there for a second scrolling through his phone before turning around. When he turned around he noticed me and frowned. “I thought you were outside.” He says to me. “Nah. I wanted to wait for you.” I tell him. A slow smile spread across his face when I said that. He moved closer to me and grabbed my hands and pulled me towards him.
“You look beautiful.” He says to me. This causes me to blush slightly. “Thanks. You don’t look too bad yourself.” I say back. He smiles and I step back from him. I hold my hand out to him and he takes my hand. “Let’s go before the girls get suspicious.” I tell him. He laughs and I begin leading him to the front door. I let go of his hand and we head out the front door to the car. When we got into the car, the engine was already running and everyone was ready to go.
We quickly got our seatbelts on and began our drive to Logan’s house. Although Logan’s house is not very far, we have to take our car because we’ll be heading to the beach on the other side of the island. We get to Logan’s house and we see that Logan was also getting ready to head to the beach. We pulled up right behind his car and he walked over to Luke’s window. Luke lowered the window and Logan and him began to talk.
“Hey man.” Luke says to Logan. “Hey Well, ya’ll came at the perfect time. I’m about to head over to the beach so ya’ll can just follow me.” He says to Luke. “Okay. Sounds good to me.” Luke says to Logan. “Hey.” I also greet Logan. “Hey Elena. Hey everyone.” He says greeting me and everyone else in the car. Everyone else said hi back but Megan practically shouted hey to Logan. I turned around in my seat and gave her the ‘wtf’ look. She smiled and pretended like she didn’t know what I was talking about. Logan smiled and specifically said hey to Megan.
“Wait, where’s James?” Logan asks Luke. “Oh he had to go to the store or something. He’ll probably come later or something.” Luke answers him. “Oh. Alright then, I guess I’ll get into my car so we can get going.” Logan says walking towards his car. “Alright.” Luke says, rolling up his window. I turned to glance and Luke and notice that he was also glancing at me. I give him a small smile and he smiled back. “LET’S GO PARTY!!” Megan shouts from the back of the car, earning a few laughs from everyone. “Calm your tits woman!” Sierra says loudly. “What tits?” Beth says teasing Megan. We all begun to laugh once Beth made her comment. The ride to the beach was filled with laughter and excitement. Hopefully, tonight would be a good night.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When we arrived at the beach, the party was barely beginning. Now, about 2 hours into the party, it was in full swing. There was a dance floor on the back porch of the house right next to the beach and Logan was getting the fire for the bonfire started. Currently, Luke and I were dancing on the dance floor. He was pressed against my back, moving in time with my hips. We had danced through almost 4 songs. As the song came to an end, I turned towards Luke and said in his ear, “I’m getting kind of hot and thirsty. Let’s get something to drink.” He nodded and began leading me off the dance floor.
We walked into the kitchen of the house and walked over to one of the coolers to grab a drink. “Beer?” Luke asked me, opening one of the coolers and looking in. “Nah. Pepsi would be good.” I said to him. He grinned and handed me a soda and grabbed a beer for himself. “Thanks.” I said taking the soda from him. “Let’s head back outside. We could get a seat for the bonfire.” He suggested. “Okay.” I said grabbing his hand.
He began leading me through the kitchen and out into the backyard. As we were walking away from the dance floor, Sierra walked towards me quickly and she had a wild look in her eyes. She grabbed my arm and began pulling me away from Luke. “I need to borrow her for a minute.” She said to Luke while pulling me away from him. I let go of his hand and sent him a confused look. He smiled and took a sip of beer.
“Don’t look now, but James is on the dance floor, dancing with some girl.” Sierra said to me once we were out of Luke’s earshot. “What?!” I said, quickly turning and looking at the dance floor. Before I could actually look for James, Sierra pulled my head back and held my head between her hands. “Didn’t I tell you not to look!” she said. “It was an instinct! You know you can’t say ‘don’t look’ and not expect me to look.” I say to her. She rolled her eyes at me and smiled a little bit.
“Can I look now?” I asked her, removing her hands from my face. “Um, actually, he’s…” before she could finish her sentence, I heard a voice behind me calling my name. “Elena! Nice to see you here!” I turned around slowly and saw James standing in front of me with his arm around the girl he was dancing with. The girl was short and blond and very pretty. “Hey James.” I said to him, glancing at the girl.
“Oh! I’m being rude. This is Katie.” He said, introducing us to the girl he was holding on to. “Hi.” Sierra and I said to the girl. “Hi!” she practically shouted at us. I could tell that she had had one to many drinks. “Where have you been?” I asked him, my voice getting softer. “What does it matter to you?” he said with venom in his voice causing me to gasp at his anger.
“I was worried about you.” I said softly. “Worried my ass. You don’t care about me. You wanted me to leave so you could mess around with Luke.” He said, his voice filled with rage and his words slurring. I could tell that he also had too much to drink. “Listen James, you’ve had a lot to drink and you should probably head home before anything crazy happens.” I said to him. “No, you listen to me! I don’t need you Elena. I don’t care about you. You mean nothing to me. You don’t care about me. You only used me to get closer to Luke,” he said pausing. The anger was leaving his tone but he had a glazed over look when he looked at me, “yeah, that’s what you did. You used me to get to Luke. I get it now.” He said, trying to convince himself that what he said made sense.
Although I knew that he didn’t mean the things he was saying, it still hurt me to think that that’s what he thought of me. “That’s not true. You know that’s not true James.” I tried to reason with him. “I don’t want to hear it. I don’t love you Elena. I lied when I said that earlier.” He said, resignation in his voice. I honestly did not know how to feel. I knew that the alcohol was what was making him talk like this but then again, people do say that the truth comes out with alcohol. I felt Sierra’s hand on my arm and I turned to look at her. She was glaring at James but not saying anything.
I looked back at James and noticed him glaring at me. I just wanted to get as far away from James as I could right now. “Come on Katie. Let’s leave this dump.” He said, grabbing his keys from his pocket. No matter how much he upset me, I knew I couldn’t let him drive in his intoxicated condition. I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if something were to happen to him. “Hey look over there!” I shouted, pointing towards the ocean. My plan worked perfectly and while James and Katie and Sierra looked out towards the ocean, I grabbed the keys from James hand and ran towards Luke.
James realized what I had done and began running after me. “Elena! Give them back!” he shouted at me. “What’s going on?” Luke said as I grabbed him and used him as a shield from James. “James is drunk and he was about to drive so I took his keys.” I told him and James approached me. “Luke. Tell her to give me my keys.” James said to Luke, slurring his words. By the time James spoke, Clark, Beth, Megan, Sierra, Zack, Logan, and a few other bystanders were watching this scene unfold in front of them.
“No man, you’re pretty drunk. You shouldn’t be driving like that.” Luke answered him. I could see the rage in James eyes. “You can’t tell me what to do!” James said shouting. “Chill out man.” Luke said. “No man! I ain’t about to chill. She got my fucking keys! I said give them back!” James said taking a step towards Luke. “James, I’m warning you.” Luke said, tightening his grip my arm and putting his other hand into a fist.
“Or what? What are you going to do?” James said, slightly shoving Luke. “Back the fuck up.” Luke said to James. I could hear the annoyance in his voice. James laughed a bitter laugh and looked straight at me. “You’re hiding behind him? He’s not going to do shit. He never does.” James said, looking away from me and glaring at Luke. “James,” Luke started to say. “Shut the fuck up! You don’t run shit!” James said shoving Luke roughly. This time, Luke just snapped. He moved so fast that I didn’t realize what had happened. I heard a thud and saw James holding onto his jaw.
Luke had punched James in the jaw. James looked back at Luke with a look of confusion, amusement, and rage. Before anyone could process what was going on, James and Luke were going at it. They were full on brawling. Katie started screaming and I stepped back and let the boys try to stop them. Clark, Zack, Logan, and a few other guys began to break up the fight. After a few minutes of chaos, Clark and Logan were able to hold James back while Zack and another guy were holding back Luke.
I looked at James and saw the anger in his dazed eyes. He was not going to remember most of what happened today tomorrow morning. I walked in front of him and his gaze focused on me. The anger subsided in his eyes and I saw a flash of guilt in his eyes. I looked at his face and noticed that he only had a few scratches but I could see that a black eye was about to start forming.
I placed my hand on his cheek and I saw a look of relief in his eyes. He closed his eyes and began to nestle into my hand. Out of nowhere, a surge of rage went through my body and I quickly pulled my hand back and slapped James in the face, hard. James’ eyes sprung open and I could see pure confusion in his eyes. He grabbed his jaw and looked down at me in bewilderment. “I’ve had it up to here with you!” I shouted at him.
I turned on my heel and walked towards Luke. Everyone, including Luke, was looking at me in bewilderment. I look at Luke and noticed that he had been hit right under his eye and there was blood running down his face. “Does anyone have a first-aid kit?” I asked the crowd. “Um, yeah, it’s in the kitchen.” Logan spoke up.
I turned towards Logan and nodded at him. I grabbed Luke’s hand, that wasn’t covered in blood, and dragged him towards the house. We entered the kitchen and I made Luke take a seat on a bar stool. I grabbed some paper towels and began cleaning off Luke’s face while Logan looked for the first-aid kit. “Do you need any help?” Logan asked me, placing the kit on the counter. “No, thanks.” I said to him. “Actually, could you please make sure that James gets home safely? I don’t think he should ride with us.” I say to Logan.
“Yeah, no problem.” He said, looking at me strangely. “Logan, I care about James. I know that he hasn’t been the nicest guy but I still care about him, even if I did just slap him.” I explain to him. Logan smiled a tight smile and nodded. “He gets pretty violent when he’s drunk. Don’t take anything that he said seriously. It’s just the alcohol talking.” Logan says to me. I just shrug and return to cleaning Luke.
Logan walked out into the backyard and I continued cleaning Luke’s face. Once I managed to clean off the blood, I opened up the kit and grabbed an alcohol wipe. “This is going to sting a bit.” I say softly to Luke. “Okay.” He said silently. I began wiping his cut with the wipe and he grimaced. I finished wiping the cut and reached for a bandage. I found a good sized bandage and placed it on his cut. “There you go.” I said, closing the first-aid kit. “Thanks.” He said. Something in voice caught my attention and I turned to look at him. I noticed that he was silently watching me.
“Are you mad?” he asked me. He grabbed my arm and pulled me close to him. Since he was sitting down, he was looking up at me. I turned to look away from him but he put his hand under my chin and made me face him. “Are you mad?” he asked again. “No, I’m fucking pissed.” I answered him. “At me?” he asked me, his eyes searching my face for an answer.
“Yes,” I noticed that his face fell a little bit. “No…..I don’t know. I’m just pissed off at everything!” I said with exasperation in my voice. Luke didn’t say anything but from his expression, I could tell that he wanted me to continue explaining. “I just wanted our last night here to be amazing but then I got into it with James and then you and him fought and now everything is so much more complicated! I just wish everything was easy. I wish it was all very simple.” I said.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know what got into me. I just sort of snapped. I can usually control him when he’s drunk but I don’t know, I just snapped today. Maybe it was because he was coming after you. I wanted to protect you.” Luke said to me, tucking a loose strand of hair behind my ear. “But you hit your best friend.” I said to him, my voice going quiet. “Well, he was being an ass.” He said. “I know, but he’s drunk.” I said back. “I know, and he probably won’t remember tomorrow but enough was enough. I wish you didn’t have to see that though.” He whispered to me. “This is all my fault.” I said, looking away from Luke.
“No, don’t blame yourself. You didn’t do anything wrong here.” Luke said, pulling me closer and holding my face in his hands. I looked into his eyes and I saw pure emotion. The amount of love in his eyes was overwhelming. I was mesmerized by his eyes. He searched my face and his eyes finally landed on my lips. He grazed his thumb slightly over my bottom lip and started to lean towards my lips. I really truly cared for Luke but I did not feel the same overwhelming emotions when I thought about James. James pissed me off tonight but I can’t help my feelings toward him. I was standing here, waiting for Luke to kiss me but all I could think about was James. As Luke’s lips connected with mine in a sweet and powerful kiss, I tried very hard to feel something for Luke.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Um, sorry to interrupt….” Luke and I heard a voice and we pulled apart from our kiss and looked at the intruder. “But, we should probably get going. James just left with Logan and since he doesn’t have his key, we need to let him into the house.” Megan says, interrupting us. I pulled away from Luke and pulled James’ keys out from my pocket. “Okay. We’ll be out in a minute.” Luke answers Megan. Megan looked from me to Luke and back to me and gave me a strange look. She turned and walked back outside.
“I could take James’ car. I could follow you.” I suggested. “If you want to.” He answered. “Yeah.” I nodded, He agreed and we walked outside towards where everyone was waiting. We informed every one of our plans and we decided that Beth, Sierra, and Megan would be riding with me while Zack and Clark will ride with Luke. We went to the driveway and went to our cars.
The girls and I got into our car and I started the engine and began to follow Luke out onto the streets. “So, that was some crazy shit that went down.” Beth said out loud to no one in particular. “Yeah. What exactly happened?” Megan said, getting straight to the point. “James was drunk and he was trying to drive so I stole his keys. He got mad and he chased me and I hide behind Luke.” I told them a short version of the story.
“So, are you and Luke a couple or something?” Megan asked me. “I don’t know.” I answered truthfully. “What about James? How do you feel about him?” Beth asked me. “Right now, I’m so pissed that I’m planning out his murder but when I’m not this pissed off, I still like him.” I admitted. The girl laughed at my murder planning but as of right now, I was debating on where I would hide his body.
“You know, he came to me the other day and told me that he was in love with you.” Sierra said to me. “Really? He sure doesn’t act like it.” I say back to her. “He’s just worried and confused. Just give him some time to come around.” Sierra said. “Time? How much more time does he need? He’s had since January to make a move. If he loved me so much he would have broken up with Carly much sooner.” I said getting a bit frustrated.
“Let’s talk about this when we get back to the house.” Sierra answered. We rode the rest of the way in silence. When we finally got home, I parked the car and we all got out. Logan was waiting patiently outside of his car. “Well, James is passed out in the car.” He said as we got closer to him. The girls and I decided to go inside and let the boys get James into the house.
I went to Luke’s room and pulled out my pajamas and went into the bathroom. I took a quick shower and got into my pajamas. When I exited the bathroom, Luke entered the bedroom. “Is he sleeping?” I asked Luke. “Out like a light.” He said. “Oh, okay, well, I’m spending the night in Megan’s room. I’ll see you tomorrow morning.” I said to him while walking towards him. I gave him a small peck on the cheek and walked out of the room. “Good night.” He called back after me.
I walked to James’ room first and opened the door and peeked in. Luke wasn’t lying. I turned on the light and James didn’t budge. He was still fully dressed but he was completely knocked out. I walked into the room and closed the door silently. I walked over to the bed and looked down at James as he slept. He looked so peaceful yet vulnerable. I stroked his cheek and he flinched a little bit. “Why oh why does everything with you have to be so complicated? I wish everything didn’t get so messed up and twisted. Maybe if everything was different, I’d be lying in bed with you right now.” I said to his sleeping face. I sighed and walked to the foot of the bed. I unlaced his sneakers and took them off his feet carefully. I placed his shoes next to his suitcase and grabbed the blanket on the couch and placed it on top of him. I ran my hands through his hair and he flinched slightly. I leaned down and gave him a small kiss on the forehead before turning off the lights and leaving his room. I walked down the hall and into Megan’s room where the rest of the girls were hanging out in. “We haven’t had a girl’s night in a while.” I said as I closed the door behind me.