"Let's go," Izzy grabs my arm.
"No."
"Aubrey, we'll drag you out," Olivia says from in front of our room door. Her sunglasses are low on her nose and she has her hands on her hips.
"But-"
"No buts, you look fine, he's already seen you in a bathing suit!"
"Being self-conscious isn't the only reason I don't want to go out," I huff, crossing my arms over my chest, "It's fall, it's going to be cold in the water."
"Now you're just making up excuses. Girl, you know Luke will keep you warm," She sticks her tongue out and wiggles her shoulders.
I try to keep in a laugh but it ends up slipping out. I readjust my bathing suit cover-up and we walk out the door.
I'm going to freeze in the lake. I'm already cold-natured, I'm not going to last ten minutes in that lake.
We make it down to the lobby where only about ten more people are. I guess most people have enough sense not to go swimming in a lake, filled with water that has run directly off the mountain, in the Fall.
We get to the bus where everyone is waiting out front and thankfully, It feels pretty nice outside.
We get inside the bus, and we quickly spot the guys. Well, we spot Eli mostly. He's currently leaning into Luke's seat, which is behind his, with his butt in the air.
It seems like he's healed quickly.
We stop at the back of the bus and Luke quickly pulls me into the seat right beside him. He pulls my head to his chest and he sighs dramatically.
"I can't believe you left me for that long to be with these idiots," he places his lips on the top of my head.
"You know you like them," I pull away from him and I look into his eyes. He narrows his eyes slightly at my words. I smooth out the wrinkle right above the bridge of his nose and his eyes relax.
"Maybe sometimes they're okay," he admits and I softly giggle.
"Now that everyone has boarded," Mr. Wiles announces, standing at the front of the bus, " We will be on our way."
Eli pops his head up in front of us and gives a bright smile. I see Luke roll his eyes from the corner of my eye and I hold in a laugh. Luke is pitiful sometimes.
"Hi Eli," I smile at him, " I like your hat." I acknowledge his tan bucket hat. It actually looks good on him.
"Don't encourage him baby," Luke lazily rolls his head over to me.
"Thank you boo-boo!" Eli ignores Luke. I feel a sharp punch to the shoulder and I yelp and look over at Izzy who's sitting in the seat across the aisle from mine.
"What was that for?" I rub my shoulder. She shoves her phone at me and I take it with a pout.
"Look how freaking hot Shawn Mendes looks in this!" I look at the photo displayed on her phone and holy cheeseballs, he's looking pretty fine in it.
Before I can even react, Luke grabs Izzy's phone and throws it near the front of the bus, not to mention almost hitting someone.
Izzy gasps loudly before standing and glaring at Luke. She leans down next to my ear.
"Control your man." She whispers quietly into my ear before walking up to the front of the bus in search of her poor phone.
I look over at Luke and see he's pouting like a child with his arms crossed and everything, staring out the bus window.
Someone's jealous.
He's Shawn Mendes for goodness sake! There's no reason to be jealous. It's not like I've actually got a chance with him. He's a celebrity.
I rub his crossed forearms, relieving some of his tension.
"Luke?" I ask softly, wanting him to look at me. He refuses to look at me and I let out an inaudible sigh.
"Luke, look at me," I say a little more sternly and he finally decides to drag his gaze away from the window. He looks down at me and his eyes automatically soften from their previous 'unhappy' look.
"Why are you upset?" He looks at me like he already knows I know why he's upset.
"I'm jealous." He deadpans, not hesitating to admit it, "I'm sorry."
He leans down and rests his head on my collarbone.
"I don't like him." He mumbles, referring to Shawn Mendes.
"I know." I giggle.
Of course he doesn't like him.
_______________________
"We're here! Exit in an orderly fashion please!" Mr. Wiles announces and Eli jumps out the bus window.
Mr. Wiles sighs and rubs his temples as he watches Eli run to the lake. Eli dodges a few children who are in his path and even one pregnant lady.
This must be a public lake.
The rest of us normal people begin exiting the bus.
"Hate this fucking bus, I'm going to the bathroom," Luke mumbles as we walk off the bus. I ignore his ugly attitude and I just walk forward until I'm in step with Izzy and Olivia.
"Have you controlled him?" Izzy asks grumpily.
"Yeah but he's still in a cruddy mood," I take my hair out of its ponytail and my curls run down my back.
"He'll get over his crappy mood when he notices you won't talk to him until he will. That will straighten him up pretty quick," Olivia smirks.
I sigh and bend over and take my flip-flops off, putting my feet in the lake's sand. I hear a wolf whistle from behind me and I snap back up with my cheeks aflame.
At first, I think it's Luke but I know he would never do something like that in public. I turn around and three guys look right back at me. A black haired boy smirks back at me and his blonde and brown haired friends smile from beside him. My eyes widen and an embarrassed blush makes its way onto my face.
Thankfully Izzy and Olivia are quick to come up to my side.
"I know to hell and back you did not just do that!" Olivia snaps her fingers right in the face of the black haired boy.
"If I were you, I would leave," Izzy warns them and she's 100 percent right. They should leave before Luke comes back. He will be very mad.
"What's wrong?" The black haired boy grabs my arms and pulls me to his side. Unfortunately, due to my size, even though I tried to resist meeting his side, I do, "Do you have a boyfriend sexy?"
"Y-Yes and he's in the bathroom so you should leave," I try to get out of his hold.
"Get the fuck off her," Eli's serious voice suddenly comes from in front of us. I look up at him pleadingly.
"You think I'm scared of you?" The guy and his cronies start laughing.
"It's not me who you need to worry about bud," Eli smirks, his eyes darting behind him. A few seconds later, a seething Luke comes in front of us.
He doesn't even know half of the situation and he's already mad. I think he has some sort of sixth sense.
I feel the guys grip on me loosen and I slip out.
Luke walks straight up to the guys, his face tinged in anger.
__________________________
*LUKE'S POV*
Who the fuck do these guys think they are?
She obviously didn't want to be touched by his nasty ass hands so why did he force himself on her?
I grab the bitch who was holding my girl by the front of his shirt with my fists. The asshole only reaches up to my nose so I lift him off the ground to my eye level.
I needed to make this message more clear.
His shit brown eyes widen as he gets sight of the anger painted on my face.
"You better be fucking glad my girl told me not to hit people anymore," I growl lowly.
"I suggest you leave before I beat the piss outta you. And when you're doing your walk of shame outta here, take some time to learn how to fuckin' respect a woman," I throw his dumb ass on the ground and he jumps up and they all run towards the exit.
I turn around and walk straight up to my poor shaking sweetheart. I pick her small frame up in my arms and hug her to me, burying my face in her amazing smelling hair.
"Sweetheart," I mumble, "You okay?" She wraps her arms around me and she puts her face into my neck. To my embarrassment, I shiver slightly feeling her breath on my neck.
I rub my hand up and down her back, comforting her. I really wish she wouldn't have told me not to hit people anymore. My fist was itching to punch that fuckers face.
She pulls away from my neck and looks at my face. She leans forward and she places a sweet, soft, and lingering kiss on my cheek. She blushes adorably at her own actions and I find myself falling even harder than I already was.
"You okay?" I repeat the question. She smiles a beautiful little smile before nodding. I lean forward and give her delicious lips a peck before sitting her on the ground.
She walks away to the edge of the lake with Izzy and Olivia and she walks around, feeling the water, in the shallow.
I can't seem to take my eyes off her as she walks in ankle deep water, occasionally bending down and running her fingers through it.
"You're so in love with her," Eli pats my back and Ryan nods at me from beside me.
In love? Am I?
The girls return up to where we are and Aubrey smiles up at me.
"The water's not too bad," she takes off her white, flowy, bathing suit cover-up shyly and I get a view of her gorgeous body in a bathing suit for the second time.
I can't take my eyes off her as she puts her cover-up beside where everyone else's shirts are lying.
Eli nudges my arm, and I turned my dazed gaze towards him.
"Are you going to get in the lake or are you going to stare at her all day?" Eli asks quietly. I roll my eyes at him and take my shirt off.
___________________________
*AUBREY'S POV*
I watch as Luke takes his shirt off, seeing his rippling muscles come into view.
I look down at the sand before he notices me gawking.
How deep does this lake get?
I look around for any signs. I spot a sign at the far end of the lake saying the deepest point is 6 feet.
Well, that's way over my head.
Other than the lake being too deep for me, it's actually quite nice.
There are two docks on each side of the lake and some people are jumping off them.
The lake is pretty big too. Thankfully, there aren't many people other than us here.
A huge hands grabs onto mine and we all start walking to the lake.
My feet touch the cool water and I smile, loving the refreshing feeling. Thank goodness it's not too cold.
I take that back.
The deeper we get, the colder it gets. By the time I'm up to my waist, there are goosebumps all over my body and my teeth have already started chattering.
Luke being his lucky, tall, self, is still only up to his thighs.
"I'm just going to get this over with," Eli announces, handing his hat over to Olivia, he dives down, getting his whole body wet. He comes to the surface almost unfazed.
"It's not that bad once you do that," he places his bucket hat back on his head.
Soon enough, everyone dives down in the water and comes up not that affected.
Luke still holds onto my hand, not once letting go. He hasn't even gone under yet. I haven't either.
Right as the water gets up to his....parts, he tells me he has to go under. It took me a few seconds to figure out why but once I did, I had to control a blush.
Once Luke comes up out the water, I realize I'm the only one who hasn't gone under yet. I would like to keep it that way but of course Luke has other plans.
After coming out of the water, Luke slowly and teasingly starts walking up to me. I try my best to back away from him but I can't walk too fast in water.
He grabs onto my waist and lifts me bridal style, into his arms. I gasp quietly as I'm lifted out of the water.
"Don't you do it," I whisper warningly and he smirks down at me. He softly kisses my nose and right when I think he's about to let me down, he literally tosses me 15 more feet further into the lake.
Freezing cold water almost sends me into shock once my body reaches the water.
I know he did not, just do that.
I reach the surface of the water and I hear Eli's hyena-like laughter along with everyone else's. I wipe my soaking wet hair away from my face as I look at my so-called 'friends'. I feel my teeth chatter as I walk back to them.
I thought they said I would feel warmer once I go under? Poopheads.
"I'm sorry," Luke tries walking towards me but I dodge his outstretched arms. I stand beside Izzy and try to warm myself up. Izzy smirks down at me and laughs at my 'ignoring Luke' face.
I haven't even looked his way since he threw me.
"You're going to break his heart if you ignore him," Izzy giggly whispers. I look up at Luke who is already looking at me. I sigh internally before I start making my way back to him. Only because I'm cold and he's warm. That's the only reason.
He smiles softly down at me as I come to a stop in front of him. He leans down to kiss me but I turn my head causing him to kiss my cheek.
"I'm mad at you." I state, "But you're warm and I'm cold."
He wraps his arms around my waist, pulling me flush against him. I sigh in content but only because he's just extra warm.
He places a warm kiss on my shoulder and I almost shiver. And not because of the cold.
I don't know what it is about Luke but I can never seem to stop thinking about him. He makes me go crazy but he also makes me blush like an idiot and shy away.
____________________
I get on Luke's back as I get to where I can't stand up anymore. Everyone else is still walking and standing up and I feel a little jealous but I quickly let that go.
I wrap my legs around Luke and place my arms around his shoulders. He reaches back and of course his sneaky hands find my butt. I bring my hand up and pull on his hair. He lets out a moan and I gasp, my eyes widening.
I'm guessing he kind of likes that.
I lean up and look around at his face. The guys look over at Luke with either widened eyes or dropped jaws. Ryan has both.
Luke's face is a dark red once I finally get sight of it. I giggle quietly as he awkwardly avoids eye contact with everyone, looking down at the water.
"I can't believe my eyes!" Ryan laughs, referring to Luke's red face.
"I can't believe what I heard!" Eli chimes in, laughing as well. I look over at the girls and they are speechless.
I kiss Luke's cheeks and aww at how adorable he looks.
"You're not helping," he grumbles.
"It's okay, they'll forget about it by Monday," I pat his strong bicep in a comforting manner.
I reach up to grab my cross necklace to spin it around. Just sitting here, I didn't feel the small weight of it on my chest so it must've gotten spun around.
My hand searches my neck for any type of chain but I can't feel anything. I start to panic as I feel around my neck frantically. Luke feels me move quite a bit and he spins me around so I'm at his front. I would've blushed if I wasn't so scared.
Tears spring to my eyes as horrible thoughts pop into my head.
It's at the bottom of the lake.
I'll never get it back.
"Sweetheart, what's wrong?" Luke's face fills with concern and worry once he sees my teary eyes.
"My necklace," my voice cracks and Olivia and Izzy gasp from behind us. They rush over to me, getting the attention of the guys.
"The cross?" Olivia asks, her eyes wide with horror. I only nod, trying my hardest not to cry in front of everyone.
That cross was the last gift my dad gave me before his last tour. When he gave that cross to me, it was the last time I ever saw him.
Tears finally make their way down my face as the guys stop in front of us.
"What happened?" Eli asks worriedly.
"She lost her necklace," Olivia answers him.
"Well let's find it," Eli says. I almost smile because I'm so thankful that he didn't want to know why the necklace was so important. Even though the guys give Eli a hard time most of the time, Eli is actually pretty smart. He knew that if I was crying, the necklace meant a lot.
Soon enough, everyone starts walking around where we have been, moving their feet along the sand at the bottom, feeling for my necklace. They even dive down every now and then even though the water isn't clear at all.
I wipe my tears from my face as Luke stands me up where I can reach the bottom of the lake. He tilts my face up to his.
"It'll be okay darlin'," He kisses me on the lips before grabbing my hand as we walk together, in search of my beloved necklace.
_________________________
|
|
|
|
|
| School is about to start and I want to cry. My sleep schedule is so effed up, I probably won't sleep at all the first day of school. Hopefully this was a good chapter, I went camping this weekend so most of this was written on my phone. Lemme just hope and pray this chapter doesn't suck cow hooves.
Thanks for reading!
*Remember I don't edit. And, since this chapter was written on my phone (mostly) it is probably going to have some errors. Don't be afraid to correct them in the comments either! I love some good constructive criticism too!*
Word count: 3179
- Ashlyn M.