March 20th, 2014
"So tell me," Luke started and faced me on the castle. "What do you want for your birthday?" He had his elbow propped on his knee and his chin on his hand, not to mention that adorable smirk that makes me roll my eyes every time I see it.
"Nothing," I said. The two of us had been sitting in the exact same spots for almost an hour and my butt was beginning to really hurt. Luke scoffed.
"I'm not broke, Paige."
"Okay."
"I'll get you something. You just gotta help me; pwease?" he begged, getting super close only for me to push him away. "I can't just not get you something, it'll nag with me for ages."
"You made my day ten times better, that works?"
He just shook his head. "No, absolutely not. I'm honored, but it doesn't work."
"I don't want you to spend money on me though!" I exclaimed. There was a long moment of silence without him looking me in the eyes, then suddenly he was stood up above me. "What?" Luke held his hand out to pull me up. I set my hand in his and he pulled me to my feet with ease. "Luke, what are you doing?"
"Shh," he whispered, setting his index finger over his lips.
"Did you seriously just shush me?" He rolled his eyes and gave me a quick peck on the lips before jumping off the play castle. "Did you seriously just kiss me?" I joked and he nodded, somewhat proud of himself.
"Hop on," he said with his back turned to me. For a moment, I was confused on what he wanted but then I realised it was just a piggy-back ride. I did what I was told and cautiously wrapped my arms around his neck and shoulders for him to grab my legs. "You have cute feet," stated Luke as he took a turn in the opposite direction of my house. I laughed.
"Where are we going?" I asked, resting my head on the top of his causing me to feel insanely tall due to his extreme height also. I could feel his shoulders shrug when he laughed. He couldn't see, but I rolled my eyes again and took my head off of his. "Your hair finally dried."
"Yes, thank you for telling me the most unnecessary fact of the day."
"What do I win?" I kicked my feet out and felt him slide his hands a little up my thigh to get a better grip. "Don't you dare try anything."
He laughed. "I'm not like that. You win, um, I don't know."
"You're very good at decision making, as well as I," I giggled and lightly ruffled his hair. "Where are we going?"
"God, Pai, you're impatient," chuckled Luke. I was too caught up in the fact that he called me by my nickname to respond. Eventually, I was able to find my voice.
"You- um, you called me by my nickname..."
"Oh, is that okay?"
"I guess..." Though, when he called me Paige, it was even better.
"Well, Paige, since you're so impatient, I'm not going to tell you that I'm taking you somewhere to eat for your birthday."
I have a crush on a total idiot, yet I didn't bother to tell him.
"Do you even have money with you?" I asked.
"I wouldn't leave my house for four days without bringing money; would I? Jesus, I'm not stupid," he said with a condescending tone, but I knew it wasn't to make me feel dumb, too.
"No, I guess not," I shrugged. Luke had loosened his grip on my thighs as he slowly bent down to have me get off. "Your shoulders are perfect for piggy-back rides," I said.
"Thanks?" It was supposed to be a compliment, but I wasn't sure if he realised that. He straightened his back and nonchalantly intertwined our fingers. Very smooth. "So," said Luke. "You like pizza?"
"Is that even a question?"
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We arrived at Nelly's around two minutes later and all I could do was laugh. That's when he said: "I didn't bring that much money" and all I could do was hug him, in which he kindly hugged back.
"This is all I could've ever asked for," I said, grinning. Luke fit his hand back into mine before opening up the door for me.
"Ladies first," he said.
"Why thank you, you're such a gentleman," I gushed. He groaned at my use of words but then lightly laughed at something else. "What?"
"It's stupid."
"Tell me."
"I was just thinking how we'd be here normally at 5 if it weren't for us not being in school in the first place. I can't imagine how bored Cal must be." Luke was right, it was stupid. But it's cute how he laughed at himself. Fuck, I'm smitten. But honestly, I was craving a bacon cheeseburger pizza so I was glad he took me here. "I vote bacon cheeseburger; how about you?"
"You read my mind!" I gasped, because it was literal. Luke ordered the pizza to go, so we could have a small pizza picnic in the park. It seemed as though he had much planned, yet he insisted that this was all coming to his head.
With two cans of soda in my hands, a pizza box in Luke's, we walked to the top of the hill, overlooking the usual play castle, swing set and giant tree we loved to climb. I couldn't help but smile at those small things.
"How's this for a birthday present? A date with Luke Hemmings."
"Is this finally our first date?!" I exclaimed with wide eyes and a giddy attitude. It was half sarcasm, half excitement. Luke smirked and passed me a slice of the beautiful food creation.
"A date," he corrected. "Not our first." I forgot about that "talk" we had that one time. Sighing, I took a large bite out of the cheesy heaven and almost instantly fell in love.
"I'm marrying this pizza."
"Do you Paige take this bacon cheeseburger pizza to be your lawful wedded husband in marriage?" Luke proclaimed in his best voice he could possibly muster.
"You're so weird," I said, shaking my head just to remember I still had some bed hair.
After a moment of silence, Luke spoke up.
"I want to kiss you right now."
I nearly choked on my pizza while being utterly shocked at how unsubtle his statement was, even though I felt the same.
"Sucks cos' our mouths will taste like bacon cheeseburger pizza," I mentioned and pretended not to care when he scooted closer. "Luke you're making me uncomfy."
"Uncomfy?" he chuckled, backing away a bit. I maintained a small blush and nodded. He just smiled.
"You forgot to button the top buttons after you unbuttoned them earlier. You look stupid," I noted and set my pizza down then wiped my hand on a small napkin.
"Says the girl who's face is as red as a cherry," said Luke as he inched closer. "Am I making you uncomfy?"
"No," I shook my head. "I just needed an excuse to say it."
"Well, then," his face was almost too close to mine, not that I minded. "It's cute."
"You say everything I do is cute," I whispered.
"I know." Pretty soon, we were mumbling on each other's lips, stalling until the other decided to break the gap first. Luke's hand crept up my arm to find my waist, and I could feel him pull himself closer so his lips were automatically pressed onto mine. I could taste the root beer soda but I didn't mind, all I cared about was living in the moment.
His other hand met the other side of my waist, straightening us both out as he deepened the kiss, probably the longest we have kissed before. Out of like two or three, though. He was being gentle, though it was instinctive since he'd know that things could get too far too fast. But his soft lips were almost intoxicating, and I wanted his kisses when he'd pull away.
Luke didn't. So I rested my hand on the right side of his face, wanting a reaction out of him. It was a smile, which made me feel all bubbly inside. I couldn't understand though. I knew that since I felt this way, so fast, it wouldn't end well.
I was the one to break the kiss, awkwardly, too. Luke's lips were swollen a little and his cheeks were bright pink. I imagined I looked the same, but I didn't care. He smiled, and kept smiling, and that made me smile.
"It's funny how two weeks ago, I couldn't bring myself to admit that I actually liked you, but today, I can't really think of anything else but you." Luke's hand were still on my waist, though I retracted my hand from his cheek after we broke apart.
After that, we sat in silence and ate our pizza until the time was 3:45, and I knew Greg would be home from school soon. I didn't want Luke to go, and I didn't want to go either. We walked down to my house without speaking a word, like we had been. But the thing was, it wasn't an awkward silence. It was so comfortable that even though none of us had anything to say, it just didn't matter.
"Are those my clothes?" asked Greg as we walked into the house.
"You're home early," I noted, ignoring his past question even though he already knows they were his clothes.
"I got a ride with Drew, big deal. Why is Luke here? Did he not go to school?"
"Luke can speak for himself," said the tall boy next to me and I grinned at his sass.
"Uh, I'll get your clothes from the wash. Greg, don't slam him with questions." Although when I left the room, that was all I heard from Greg's mouth, but from Luke's, there were no answers. "Here," I said, walking back into the room and throwing the clothes to Luke.
"Thanks."
The moment he was out of the room, Greg turned to me with a stupid smirk on his face.
"Oh don't."
"Oh yes. Did he just come here in the middle of the day and randomly take you out or something?" asked Greg.
"Uhhh..."
"He did!"
"Yeah? So? But as a matter of fact, he didn't know it was my birthday until he saw a dumb note in the bathroom and asked if he could take me somewhere. All we did was end up getting pizza," I explained, but the smile on Greg's face was still there.
"Did you have fun?"
"Um, yea?"
"I'm gonna get going," said Luke as he walked into the room.
"I'm gonna go upstairs," Greg responded. Luke chuckled a little bit then turned to me with the same smirk my brother had on less than two minutes ago.
"Not you, too!" I exclaimed.
"What?"
"With the smirking! Greg was literally doing the same a few minutes ago." I lightly hit Luke's chest and he pretended to be hurt by it yet instead of responding he just wrapped me into a big hug. "Thanks for an awesome birthday."
"You mean pretty awesome?" I laughed.
"Is that our thing now?" I asked. With my head on his chest, it was nice to hear his fast heartbeat, and when I looked up, it was nice to see him blushing. I made him nervous?
"It's been our thing," he said, smiling. "I'll see you soon." Luke, then, broke away from the hug and gripped my hand in his.
"Is this soon relative to in a few weeks or-?" He laughed and shook his head.
"Just, soon."