Song of the chapter - Believer by Imagine Dragons
The place was packed and the crowd was screaming. There I was in my Sweet Heart sleeper, hood up, feeling foolish, with Luke standing just behind me. He was wearing track pants and a white t-shirt, looking like an average athlete instead of an overgrown baby. My palms were sweating, not a good thing to have just as this crazy race was about to start. I felt like I might throw up.
"I can't do this," I said, mostly to myself because I didn't think Luke was about to back out anytime soon. But he heard me.
"Yes you can. We can." He emphasized the 'we,' which was a nice gesture, just a bit too late for my nervous system. It was about to blow. Chunks.
"Nope," I said, putting my hand over my mouth to hold the spewage back. As if that would even work.
"Mal! We've got this. You don't have to even do anything, just lay stiff and I'll do all of the work." Luke tried to reassure me, but it wasn't working. He must have been able to tell because he took me by the shoulders and spun me back to face him. His touch did two things at the same time. The sick rolling of my stomach came to a complete halt. On the other hand, the tingles that ran down my body at his touch threatened to knock me unconscious. He had never touched anything but my hands before. Technically, he wasn't touching me. He was just touching the fabric of the sleeper. But I could feel his warmth, the muscles in his hands, and his grip as his fingers held me firmly. Gosh I was such a fangirl for him!
The blush in my cheeks heated my entire body. I could tell that Luke noticed too. His grip released from my shoulders and he took a step back. Perfect. My reaction repulsed him. But on the other hand, I didn't feel like spewing anymore. Instead, the urge to run and hide in the girl's bathroom was strong. I didn't think Gina would be there to rescue me, though.
What had I been thinking when I said yes to this? I hadn't been thinking at all, to be honest. I had just reacted. Like I was in this moment facing Luke in front of the entire school, just reacting. Needing to get a grip on myself, and my insanity, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Luke seemed to do the same, both of us now requiring meditation to function. What a pair we made! When I opened my eyes again, Luke was staring at me, hard.
"You good?" he asked, his eyebrows raised in expectation.
"As good as I can be considering what's about to go down," I said.
"And that would be..." he said, expecting my reply. I just shrugged instead. I didn't want to voice the humiliation out loud. There was a name for that: Self-fulfilling prophesy. Not that I was a prophet. But just to be on the safe side, I decided to zip it up tight.
"Well, it's time to find out, sweet heart," Luke said, as if the fact he just referred to me as 'sweet heart' was no big deal. As if my heart didn't just explode. As if I wasn't suddenly feeling things I had stopped feeling months ago. As if that was a completely normal thing for him to say. He needed to stop playing with my emotions. It wasn't fair to be yanked back and forth.
Or was I doing that to myself? UGH! I gritted my teeth, completely irritated with my own brain and its ability to take me on unwanted emotional excursions at the drop of a hat. Or in this case at the drop of a nickname. Which it wasn't, because he was just calling me what was written all over my sleeper. Stupid high school girl emotions. Blech!
Luke had taken me by the hand to drag me to the starting line, because apparently while my brain went on it's overly dramatic freak out trip, I had also spaced out and didn't respond to his shouts of "Come on, Mal!" Just keep heaping on the embarrassing moments, Mal.
Once my feet picked up the pace, Luke dropped his hold on me. I needed to get my head in the goofy game, or the silly sport, or whatever, and stop getting caught up in Luke's warm touch. Or his gentle gaze. Or his close proximity.
UGH!
I sat down on the starting line, right in the middle of the gym. Each pair had a colored line of tape they had to follow as their racecourse. The Juniors were green, the Seniors red, Freshman gold and Sophomores blue. The tape wound all over the gym, sometimes overlapping. My heart was pounding, beating a thousand times a minute. What if we crashed into another pair? What if Luke lost his grip? What if I screamed the entire time? The possibilities were endless.
"Are you sure about this?" I asked him, again.
Luke looked back at me as he stood in his designated spot, a smirk on his face. "Mal, we got this. I have a feeling about us..." he said, leaving that feeling open to suggestion. Then he added a wink at the end. As I looked at him, I noticed for the first time that he had a red heart on his arm. His bicep...
"When did you-" I started to ask but was interrupted by the announcer on the loud speaker.
"Racers! Get into position!"
"Lay down, Mal, and give me your feet," Luke instructed. I obeyed his command, laying on my back and raising my feet in the air, just as the other sleeper wearing partners were doing. Luke moved to stand between my open legs, with his back to me. Then he grabbed one ankle in each hand, wrapping his arms around my legs for a better hold.
"On your mark!"
Oh dear lord...
"Get set!
This was not good...
"GO!"
Luke shot us out of the starting gate with more speed than I expected. It was like an amusement park ride had lost control. The sleeper slipped over the smooth wood of the gym floor with ease. His sure footing kept us ahead of the other three classes competing against us. The first ten seconds was sheer terror. I was so scared that even though my mouth was open to scream, nothing came out. I was smart enough to keep my arms crossed over my chest, which also allowed Luke to drag me faster, not having the drag against the force he was using.
Once the initial shock of the whole thing wore off, I had to admit it was kind of fun. I started laughing. We were zipping all over the gym, spiraling along the green tape and not once colliding with another pair. We went around one turn, then another. Luke pulled me along as the crowd in the gym was screaming. I thought I could make out our names, too. Some were shouting "Luke!" which was not a surprise. Most people knew who he was. But I was surprised to hear, "Mallory!" as well.
We got through one more curve, then I felt myself really pick up speed as Luke hit a straight-a-way across the entire gym. He pulled me from one end to the other. Just when I was finally enjoying the whole thing, Luke crossed the finish line.
First.
"Juniors for the win!" the announcer shouted. The crowd went nuts. But because we had been traveling so fast, and my sleeper was so slippery, Luke couldn't stop at the finish line. He started to slow himself down, also trying to slow me down. I instinctively put my hands out, trying to grab the floor or something to stop our momentum. We finally did come to a stop, the second Luke ran into the wall. Luckily it was the padded section of the wall right under the basketball hoop. He was okay.
I was breathing hard from the adrenaline rush. He was from the effort it took to drag me. But both of us were looking at each other and smiling through our panting. Luke bent down, reaching a hand out to help me up. I took his hand in mine and...
Fireworks.
The smile wiped off of both of our faces. I looked at him, and he looked at me and...wow! Suddenly it was as if the entire gym had disappeared, a completely cliché moment. He pulled me up to my feet, his eyes never leaving mine. The moment was intense, more intense than anything I had ever felt with anyone, ever. Even all the looks and touches with TJ weren't like this moment. My mouth dropped open slightly, I think in surprise, and Luke's gaze went right to my lips. Oh gosh. I really hoped he wasn't going to kiss me right there, in the gym, in front of the entire school.
I clamped my mouth shut, a nonverbal 'no' if ever there was one. I sensed Luke deflate slightly. Did he really want to kiss me? No, not possible. It had to have been in my head.
But those fireworks...
Not knowing if what I felt was reciprocated, I stepped closer to Luke, the crowd could mind their own business. I wasn't going to kiss him, but I was going to shove open that door that I had just slammed shut. Robin's teasing words sang in my head, "He was flirting with you!" Maybe he was, had been all along. I needed to know.
"I guess that feeling you had was right." I smirked. Luke's shocked expression told me that the door was ajar.
"Yeah, I guess so." His slight smirk in return was a good sign that he wasn't slamming the door in my face.
"You owe me a celebration." I let my stern voice do the rest of the work.
Luke didn't say a word. Instead of speaking, he grabbed me around the waist and picked me up. Then he spun me in a circle, whooping and hollering "We won!" When he put me down, his hands lingered on my waist, his eyes staying locked on mine.
"When?" I asked him, referring to our celebration.
"Tonight. Now." His demand caught me off guard.
"What about the rest of the class wars?" Did he want to ditch the rest of the activities?
"So what? We did our part. Come on." He took me by the hand and led me to the gym doors. His steps were swift, not stopping as his friends patted him on the back in congratulations. He nodded and waved his acknowledgment but never stopped. He was a man on a mission. A few said congratulations to me, and I think I even heard, "Way to wip it, Sally!" from you-know-who. Sheesh.
Once we made it outside, I stopped him. "Luke, I can't go anywhere like this."
"So I'll take you home and you can change. I can wait." He started walking once again.
"But..."
This simple plea stopped him, causing Luke to turn back to me. "Mal, I don't want to push this off to another night. I've pushed off enough and this is where it got us. So here we are, winners, and I'm making good on my promise to celebrate with you."
I smiled at him, stepping closer and feeling totally comfortable doing so. "I was just going to say, what about you? Do you need to change?"
Luke smiled, then in one swift motion, leaned into me, touching his lips to mine. He let them linger, kissing me in a way that spoke to me, as if he was saying "finally." When he pulled back after the short, sweet kiss, he said, "You're all the change I need, Mal."
My heart was racing for a different reason as we continued to walk to his car. As soon as we got there, I couldn't wait another second to kiss him again. My hand pulled against his, causing him to look at me. Then I reached up to his shoulder, letting my hand slide down to his bicep, where that red heart had been drawn. I felt him shudder slightly, then I lifted my lips to his. His arms went around my waist, and mine went around his shoulders. Then I kissed him, while he kissed me and we just...kissed.
^^^^^
They won! They kissed! Oh my!! One more chapter to go! I miiiiiight add something else at the end, if I don't feel like the last chapter ties everything up, but I'm not sure. We'll see how this one goes.