oliver
"What?" I asked, my face morphing into confusion.
Luke turned bright red as his head tilted down to to look at his lap, avoiding my gaze.
He seemed to have suddenly gone through some sort of epiphany as his eyes went wide and his mouth opened in shock. Then he had muttered something like 'sunshine' or 'shoreline', none of which made sense at all.
"Did you say something? Are you okay?" I questioned again, still frazzled by his out of nowhere reaction to who knows what. Luke tilted his head up to look at me, his piercing blue eyes gazing adorably at me. Even though his certain views on things made me want to repeatedly vomit, I had to admit he was one attractive son of a bitch.
"Yeah, fine, just saw something that caught my eye," he replied, rubbing the back of his neck. Soon, replacing the shy smile that graced his features, a small smirk took its place.
I nodded, knowing he wasn't really telling me the truth , or at least the full truth. I stared piercingly at him until he began to fidget with his fingers, and changed the subject.
We talked about music and the bands we liked until a young waitress walked by the table. She was probably in high school, typical popular girl. Disgustingly gorgeous and probably either had some sort of trophy boyfriend or slept with a different guy every night.
As she began to bat her eyelashes and lean forward, shirt drooping low, meanwhile asking Luke if he wanted more coffee, I mentally decided that the second option was probably correct.
When the waitress, apparently named Jenna, finally turned her gaze on me, a look of disgust rolled across her pretty face.
"Can I get you anything?" She asked me snobbishly, still directing a smile at Luke as if I wasn't sitting right across from him. I put on a fake smile, planning to reply sweetly. Kill 'em with kindness, just as my grandma always used to say.
Just as I opened my mouth to speak, Luke interrupted me.
"Can you get us another waitress?"
My jaw dropped open as Jenna gasped dramatically and I burst out laughing. I raised my hand to Luke for a high-five and he met me in the middle, our hands clapping together with a loud smack.
"Maybe this partnership isn't gonna be as bad as I thought." I said to Luke in realization, a real smile on my face this time.
At my words, a wide smile rolled across his features, his eyes crinkling. His smile was adorable, especially with his deep dimples, and I couldn't even deny it.
"Together, we're gonna write a kick-ass story." Luke agreed, ruffling a hand through his quiffed hair.
~
After a couple hours of staying at the cafe, we finally got the plot of our action/romance story down. Although I still disapproved of the romance part of our project, something about Luke's enthusiasm toward it made me pity him and change my mind about arguing about it further.
"So here tomorrow, 8 pm?" I checked in again with him. We had spent about 30 more minutes trying to figure a time that would work with both of our daily changing schedules.
"Every night." Luke added, and nodded, confirming my question.
We walked out of the cafe, after paying for the coffee and lunch, each paying for our own. The ding of the door rang out signalling our exit.
As a breeze of fresh air hit me, I pulled out my phone to check the time. It was already almost 5 pm, which meant we'd been in that cafe for almost 5 hours, just talking and planning. Time flies by, doesn't it?
"Well, see you tomorrow night then." Luke spoke up, breaking the comfortable silence. It surprisingly wasn't awkward, it just seemed sort of normal, listening to the noise of the bustling roads, and the feeling on the setting sun's warmth.
"Bye Hemmings." I replied, smiling.
The sound of our footsteps on the concrete sidewalks walking in opposite directions could be heard as we walked away. After today, it was just getting harder and harder to try and ignore him. For some reason, Mrs. Hensen put us together as a pair, the one person I didn't want to work with. His charm and charisma could work wonders against my set hatred towards him.
I could feel myself letting my guard down around him, trusting him. But I can't let myself do that, because in the end I'll just end up hurt. I'll end up going back to the person I was before, and I can never let myself be that fragile, innocent girl again.
Stop being stupid, Oliver. It's just a writing assignment partnership, it's not like you're gonna fall in love with him.
I smacked myself in the forehead lightly, trying to clear my swarming thoughts.
"Why am I over thinking this so much?" I asked myself out loud, forgetting I was in public. confused on why Luke was occupying such a large amount of my thoughts. Most of my thoughts lately always came back to him. It was stupid, I just met him barely a week ago.
This was ridiculous, I have no feelings for him, and that was that.
I heard a cough sounding behind me, and I whipped around quickly, it was an elderly woman.
"Honey, are you okay?" She asked me, a concerned look on her face.
My eyes widened, "Uh-" I paused for a moment, "I'm fine, why?" I asked her, confused on why she was so distressed about my well-being.
"Well, dear, you've been standing in that same spot for a while now, and you seem a bit bothered." She said, giving me a soft smile.
It dawned on me, that while I was deep in thought, I also stopped walking and ended up standing still in front of my car, frozen.
"Oh, yeah, I was just lost in thought, that's all." I replied to her, sending a genuine smile to her. It's not everyday that you stumble across someone who really cares about people, with pure intentions for helping.
She patted my shoulder, "well that's good! I just wanted to check, but have a great rest of your day!"
I replied with a wave goodbye, and unlocked the drivers door. With a swift movement, I slid into the seat and inserted the keys into the ignition, powering up the car. My car wasn't great, but it was pretty good if I say so myself. Black Honda Civic; I got it when I graduated high school, which was actually over a year ago. This is my first year of college, but I took a year off after graduating.
Throughout the whole ride home, my own mix of songs played out of the stereo. I was never really someone who enjoyed the regular pop music from radio stations, though I did like a select few artists. I always made my own CD's or plugged in my phone into the auxilary and listened to my music on shuffle.
Loving can heal, loving can mend your soul
And it's the only thing that I know, know
I swear it will get easier,
Remember that with every piece of you
And it's the only thing we take with us when we die
Ed Sheeran's voice serenaded me from the speakers. It would be nice if I could really believe what these songs say, that love can make everything better. I say bullshit, love is just a four letter word, blank and meaningless. A word used to fill an empty void. I used to be in love with the thought of love, but things change. The world is a cruel place, and the people living in it can be too.
I rushed out of my car, and into the building, up one flight of stairs and down the hall to my apartment.
"I need a shower." I said to myself, as I shut the door behind me. The keys in my hand jingled as I hung them up on the hooks by the door.
My apartment consisted of four sections, the room containing the couch and TV, the kitchen, my bedroom, and the bathroom. The main room and the kitchen were combined together, seperated by a counter. While my bedroom was branched off down a short hallway, with the bathroom right across my room.
I grabbed a simple grey t-shirt and pajama shorts off my bed and a towel from the clean laundry basket, and headed to the shower.
As I massaged shampoo and conditioner out of my thick brown hair, the hot water soothing me, the doorbell rang.
I grunted in annoyance and vigorously scrubbed all the soap out of my hair and off my body. I quickly stepped out and wrapped myself in my towel.
Water dripped off the ends of my hair slowly as I walked to the door, peeping through the eye-hole.
It was Luke, what the fuck was he doing here? How did he even know where I lived? I opened the door a crack and peeked through it at him.
"What are you doing here?" I asked him, shooting him a suspicious look.
"Oh, uh, you left your journal at the cafe, so I just wanted to drop it off to you." Luke stammered, seeing through the small space of sight, that my hair was sopping wet and all I was wearing was a towel. He wasn't stupid and probably put together the pieces of the fact that I just stepped out of a shower.
I sighed, and turned to check the time. It was only 6 in the evening. Twisting around, I looked back at Luke and said, "Since you're here, you might as well stay for dinner."
I coughed out loud, choking on my own words. What just came out of my mouth? Did I really just say that, what came over me?
Luke looked just as shocked as I was by my words.
"Oh- uh ok." He answered uncertainly, stumbling over his words.
I turned my back against the door, so he couldn't see me. I put a hand to my forehead and sighed, I already invited him to eat with me and I hate going back on things I've already said. Just get through tonight, it's no big deal.
"Yeah, so come in I guess, I'm gonna put on some clothes." I mumbled to him, opening the door fully to let him in. His eyes widened as he scanned my image, wearing just a towel, but quickly diverted his gaze and walked in, his gaze glued to the floor.
"Welcome to my humble abode." I announced to him, trying to relieve the awkward tension weighing down in the room. He let out a small chuckle and sat down on the couch, with perfect posture.
I laughed to myself as I entered the bathroom, changing out of the towel and into the clothes I had prepared on the sink counter earlier. I brushed my hair out lightly, and walked out into the living room. Luke still sat in the same postion I left him in a few minutes ago.
"So here's your notebook." He said to me, handing me my blue, spiral, five star notebook.
"Thanks." I replied, taking it and placing it on the coffee table in front of the couches.
"So do you want to work on our story a little?" Luke asked, running his hand through his hair, which I now noticed that he did a lot.
I nodded, in agreement, "Yeah, how about I make us both Cup Noodles or something?" I suggested.
"Yeah, that sounds great." He agreed and pulled out his notebook from his shoulder bag, scanning through his previous notes.
I walked into the kitchen and pulled out two Cup Noodle packages from the cabinet. I followed the procedure, that I now knew by heart and soon they were ready to eat. I brought a fork for Luke, since I was unsure on his chopstick skills and a pair of them for myself.
I walked to the couch and handed Luke his meal and sat next to him, with mine in hand.
"Thanks Sunshine."
I choked on my noodles.
"What did you just call me?" I gasped out, still coughing.
"Sunshine." Luke replied, a confident grin masking his face.
I swear, this boy had two complete different personalities. He could be totally shy and conscious about any decision he makes, or he could be confident and cocky, upfront and sure about anything he does.
And right now, he was definitely the second one.
I opened my mouth and spoke up, my thoughts still scrambled, "Why would you call me that? Please refrain from ever calling me that again." I said to him, clearly very against his apparent new nickname for me.
Luke just laughed and dived back into eating his noodles and reading through our project notes.
"We'll see, Sunshine, you'll grow to love it."
~
well im pretty sure that goes down in history as the shittiest ending ive ever written but like meh its 2am and ill post this in the morning or afternoon(:
hey guys i was ranked a few few days ago and i was so happy thank you so much, and i really tried to update but i couldnt, sorry guys i suck a lot but i still love whoever actively reads, votes, and comments for this story (and even if you dont i still do). but hey if you read this, comment "squeeze my juice, luke" let's see how this goes !!!
thanks a lot to whoever reads this cause it means the world to me, really even through my sucky updating, i love you guys
lots of love - hannah (have finally gotten rid of blessing lin like why did i stiil even use that???)