HANDLE WITH CARE
19. Love To Go To Hell.
L U K E
As soon as Luke got home with Petunia, he gave her an apartment tour which admittedly was very strange. Since he lived alone, he didn't think talking to his dog was weird, but no one would see this anyway.
Before Luke got to his apartment, he went to a pet store to get all the necessities a dog will ever need. He got a box of toys, treats and food and a two beds; one for the living room and one for his bedroom.
After setting all of the dog things up, Luke put some food out and wasn't actually too sure on how much dogs ate, so he filled the bowl to brim anyway and watched as his new best friend chewed away.
His phone chirped from the kitchen counter and he rushed over a little too quickly in case it was Annie. He wasn't actually sure if he had her number, but he hoped anyway.
Calum:
hey man you up to anything today?
Luke wondered for a moment if he should reply if he really wanted to see anyone other than Annie today. But he remembered how much Annie had helped him lately and she'd be happy to know that he had met up with him today.
Luke:
I'm going to the dog park at 4 but until then nothing
Calum:
Um, why? You don't have a dog??
Luke:
About that...
Luke sent a photo of Petunia as she waddled over to lie next to him, completely forgetting to tell anyone about his new companion. It's not like he had time though, he only got back a little while ago.
He was never the first person to text anyway, not anymore, he never really wanted to talk to anyone unless it was Annie. He should probably text his brother, now that he was thinking about it, Jack probably thinks Luke is still annoyed about the whole wedding invitation thing, and he was a little bit but how could he not forgive his brother?
Sure, he hid his best friend's wedding from him, but if Luke weren't seeing Annie at the time, he most likely wouldn't have gone anyway. He would have felt terrible for not going, but then he would remember how much his mum loved Michael and Olivia together, and how she would tell Luke to always find a girl that made him as happy as they were.
Calum sent back a photo of his dog, Duke, with the caption 'they can be friends!' Which made Luke laugh a little too loud for what it was. They texted for a while longer, somehow ending up on snapchat to talk to each other before they planned for Calum to bring Duke over to meet Petunia.
Luke was wondering around his apartment, tidying up a little bit so it was so messy when Calum arrived. He normally wouldn't care what state his apartment was in, but he felt as though this mess that it was currently was just too gross to be left.
Calum knocked on the door, which Luke thought was a little odd as he normally just made his way in, before allowing his dog to explore the large apartment. "Didn't know if someone was going to be here or not." Calum winked at Luke, bowing down to stroke the overweight bulldog at his feet.
"No one's ever here," Luke shrugged, raising an eyebrow as he was slightly suspicious of Calum's tone. He looked like he has been working out recently, and that reminded him about how Annie said she was going the gym. Maybe Luke should go too at some point, would Annie want to go with him? Probably not, she'd probably say it was unprofessional.
"What about Annie? Have you still not made a move yet?" Calum groaned, rolling his eyes as he flopped onto Luke's L shaped couch, patting the spot next to him for Duke to jump up. Luke looked to Petunia as she rested her head on the couch cushion, looking up to Luke as her paw struggled to reach up. He bent down and attempted to pick her up, which was a big struggle considering her mass and Luke's lack thereof, but he managed to lift her onto the couch next to him, huffing once they'd finally settled.
"I'm not making a move... well, actually-" Luke cut himself off, he knew Annie would literally kill him if she found out that Luke told someone about their secret actions, especially the kissing. He shook his head, hoping Calum would move on but of course he wouldn't, he's the most stubborn person Luke knows.
"When was the last time you saw her?" Calum's attention was on his phone, as he went onto Instagram and search the girls name, wondering if she would come up. She did, and to Luke's dismay she wasn't private, meaning Calum had every right to stalk her Instagram.
She didn't have too many posts, 22 to be exact, and they were mostly when she was dressed up to go out. She had one from the wedding, with her beautiful dress and hair and shoes and face all perfectly visible.
Calum saw a photo of both Annie and Nina, from Halloween this year, a couple days after Luke started seeing Annie, so it wasn't a shock that he didn't know that she went out. Annie was the devil and Nina was an angel, their costumes matching and their hair both straightened, their makeup looking scary but amazing.
Annie's hair was a lot longer than Nina's, as Nina only had shoulder length hair and Annie's was down her back, even longer when it was straight. Annie's dress was red latex and tight, she looked quite literally like the devil, and Luke would sure love to go to hell.
Luke gulped down the dirty thoughts that started to appear in his head, leaning back and flicking Calum's arm when he whistled. "Oh c'mon, can you blame me? Nina looks fucking hot and Annie-"
"Don't finish that sentence." Luke hissed, grabbing Calum's phone and turning it off, chucking it on the carpeted floor.
"Alright, alright," Calum placed his hands in the air for surrender, grabbing his phone back and just shoving it in his pocket, "You didn't answer my question. When'd you last see her?"
"Why'd you care!" Luke flailed, shaking his head and then having to listen to Calum rant about how important Luke's 'not-so-love-life' was to him, so Luke gave in and mumbled, "This morning."
"This morning! Did you stay over last night?" Calum's voice held something more than shock, it sounded as though he was proud, which kind of annoyed Luke as it made him seem incapable of ever staying at a girls'.
"Well, yeah, but it wasn't like that." Luke hated talking about Annie to Calum, to anyone actually but especially Calum, because there weren't many doubts in his mind that Annie would choose Calum over him one day.
"So what you're trying to tell me is that you spent Christmas with an extremely smoking hot woman and stayed the night and nothing happened?" Calum crossed his arms, finding it very hard to believe that nothing happened between the rather intimate pair.
"Uh, yeah?" Luke knew Calum had caught him in his web, he had an annoyingly persistent way of getting the truth from Luke, or maybe Luke was just easy to crack. "Ok we might have kissed but it wasn't that big."
"Yes! I knew it! Get in Lucas!" Calum got Luke in a headlock and ruffled up his hair, playfully shoving him as he felt pure joy for his friend. "Did you fuck?"
"What? No! we went to the dog shelter and I got Petunia."
"So instead of having sex with this stunning woman you bought a dog? You're not alright, there's something wrong with you, like seriously wrong." Calum shook his head, before placing it in his hands and groaning.
A few more hours passed before Luke realised he should probably start walking to the dog park, since it was about 20 minutes from his house. He was putting Petunia on the lead, expecting Calum to say goodbye before heading home himself, but instead he stood next to him, ready to leave.
"Uh, Annie was going to be there so," Luke answered when Calum said he would take Duke to the park too. It's not that he didn't want Calum to come and third wheel him and his therapist, but he didn't want him to come so Luke wouldn't third wheel his best friend and therapist.
"That's great! I'll invite Nina, it can be like a double date." Calum smiled, getting his phone out and texting Annie's best friend.
-
When they arrived at the dog park, Annie could be seen picking up a tennis ball and throwing it for her two dogs. Bow was a lot faster than Happy, but as his name states, he seemed happy about it. Their weren't that many other dogs here, a Poodle and a few Labradors with their owner but that was about it, the park was big enough anyway that they probably wouldn't cross paths.
They started to make their way over to Annie, Duke running swiftly to the dogs as Petunia tried to follow along, going straight to Annie instead of her dogs. She bent down, stroking Petunia before waving sweetly to Luke and Calum, making her way over to them.
Walking around the park, they let the dogs play as they talked mostly about plans for the new year's, yet Calum kept nipping in innuendoes about the two beside him, teasing them and ultimately embarrassing Luke.
Annie didn't seem to make a big deal out of it anyway, she just laughed along, shaking her head as her and Luke had crazy blushes covering their faces. In the distance, Nina entered the park wrapped in one of her big coats as she waddled her way over, hugging everyone and hoping they had a merry Christmas.
That was the point where Calum made the joke of Luke having a "very merry Christmas" with Annie. Nina gasped, eyes widened as she stared at Annie, her eyes saying everything she was thinking.
"You didn't tell me that!" Nina punched Annie's arm, scowling at her.
"There's nothing to tell! Calum's being stupid!" Annie answered, flipping Calum off for starting this stupid conversation.
"So you guys haven't... y'know... yet?" Nina quizzed, making Annie's head hurt as to why she was friends with someone so annoyingly confident.
"No, we're not like that, we're friends." Annie cleared up finally, not liking where this was all going and wanting to end it quickly. "We've not even known each other that long." She shrugged. Luke was watching as his feet followed the grass footpath, not really wanting to look at the others as they talked about his sex life.
"It doesn't matter how long you've known someone." Calum quipped, eyes glancing to Nina as they looked from one another back to Annie.
Annie furrowed her eyebrows, staring at the two before dropping her jaw slightly. "You've slept together haven't you!?" Annie nudged Luke so her would look up and when he did he noticed Nina and Calum's matching blush.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Annie and Luke said in unison, looking at one another before back to the guilty two, both of them stuttering out excuses.
"We're kind of doing things backwards..." Calum stated, smiling at Nina before turning back to the surprised two. "Y'know... you normally go on a few dates first before sleeping together... we're doing it the other way... I guess."
"We did go on one date first though, so technically its normal order." Nina chimed, trying to make this sound completely normal before the conversation died down to silence.
"We should go on a double date," Calum attempted to break the silence, yet it made Luke and Annie feel a lot worse about their odd situation than they already did.
"Yeah!" Nina called, clapping her hands in excitement, "That's be perfect for you two to finally loosen up!" She chuckled, Calum nodding along.
"Uh, no thanks." Annie shook her head, feeling terrible for turning the idea down but her job was at stake here, she couldn't date a client, end of.
"Oh come on, you guys need to admit that you like each other so then-" Nina started, rolling her eyes at her stubborn friend.
"I don't want to alright? I don't want to date anyone at the moment, so stop trying to force this. This isn't even anything, nothing's going to happen so just drop it." Annie snapped, stopping in her place as she ranted. Annie's eyes quickly met Luke's before she called her dogs over and left the park, making her way home at the sun began to set and the wind began to pick up again.
Luke chewed on his bottom lip as he stood still for a moment, letting out a deep breath before putting Petunia on her lead and getting ready to leave. "I think I'm going to go to, it's getting late." He mumbled, trudging his way home as his heavy heart weighed him down.
•
SONG OF THE WEEK
ATM - J Cole
Love this song at the moment and always love J Cole so yeah
Please vote and COMMENT
lotta love
A x