Authors Note- I put a gif of the character Danny Warren, played by Logan Lerman
I know you're wondering what the heck was going through my mind when I jumped and the answer is nothing. I wasn't thinking about anything as I took my feet off of the dock. The wind blew my hair back as I screw my eyes shut and become enveloped in warm water.
I quickly swim to the top and take a big breath of fresh air. Luke grabs my arm and drags us over to under the cover of the dock. He holds his finger to his mouth to tell me to be quiet as we stand in the shoulder deep water and look up through the cracks of the dock.
The three boys sprint over where we are under the dock and I hear one of them say "where the heck did they go?".
Luke keeps his eyes trained on the dock above us as he wraps his arms protectively around me. I realize at that moment how close we are and keep my eyes focoused on anywhere but him.
After a few minutes Luke releases me and says "we're safe now" I nod and he looks down at me and furrows his brows in a concerned way. He slowly raises his hand to my forehead and gently touches it but I can easily feel awful pain when he does that.
I jerk away from his hurting touch and his face turns even more concerned.
"They hurt you?" he asks and I can hear the anger laced into his words. He turns away from me and clenches his fists like he did at the lunch table. "I'm going to fucking kill them".
I quickly swim over to him and put a hand gently on his shoulder "It's okay, I'm okay thanks to you, it's just a little bump" I say trying to calm him down.
He stares at me for a few seconds before speaking "we should get out of this water".
I nod and point at a boat that is close to us. We swim over to it and pull the ladder out of it and climb up onto it. As we circle the boat to the dock and step off of it onto the dock we hear a person yell "freeze!".
We whip our heads around to see a person walking towards us from a good 40 feet "What the heck are you doing on my boat!"
It is my turn to shout "run!". We sprint away, Luke's hand gripping mine to pull me along. We hear him running after us and I let out a laugh of glee. This makes Luke laugh too and soon we are cracking up while running away from the man.
"Here" Luke shouts and pulls us into an alley with a dumpster. He jumps up onto it and helps me up. We jump onto the wall as we hear the man running into the alley "stop!".
Luke takes the 9 foot jump to the ground and then holds his hands out for me. "jump" he says for the second time today to me. I smile and jump down.
My feet hit the pavement, shooting me forward into Luke's arms, causing both of us to fall, me on top of him. We start laughing hard and I push off of his chest and he grabs my hand and we are running again.
We were now in the parking lot where we parked the car. We finally make it to the car and I fall down in exhaustion and laughter. Luke laughs at me and reaches into his car and pulls out a blanket for me. "here you go sleeping beauty".
I smile gratefully at him as he wraps the blanket around my soaked body. He opens my side of the door and I hop in. Luke goes to his side and starts the car and we are off.
We pass by the man who chased us and he curses at us as we laugh loudly and wave as we pass him. I lean back into the carseat in exhaustion and look over at Luke. He is smiling at the road. He turns towards me and gives me a bright smile.
At that moment my stomach growls loudly and Luke hears it. "Here, I'll get us some food" he states and pulls into McDonalds. He gets us both a burger, fries and a drink.
He drives us to a grassy hill next to a stream just outside of some woods. We get out of the car and he sets out another blanket for us to sit on. I sit down on it with the food and look up at Luke.
He has his head tilted back and has his arms behind his head. "This is one of my favorite spots" he finally says. "It's always the place I go when I need to clear my head".
"And what do you need to clear your head about right now?" I ask teasingly not expecting a serious answer but I get one. "Those assholes who tried to touch you" he chokes out through anger.
I sigh at this "Luke, I'm fine. Don't worry about-"
"No you're not fine" Luke snaps angrily. "No girl snould be fine after some guys just tried to" Luke doesn't finish the sentence and I get up and hug him from behind him, surprising him. "Thank you for saving me".
At that Luke drops the subject and joins me on the blanket. "It's really nice here" I say trying to distract Luke. He nods and says "sometimes I bring my two younger sisters here. My younger brother usually doesn't come though, too busy pranking someone".
"That sounds wonderful" I say, wishing that I had a sibling. Luke laughs shortly "not sometimes" he states "not when their annoying you. Not when you have to look after them".
"What about your mom and dad?" I ask, not knowing anything about his family. No one really knew anything about them except that they were pretty rich, I would know. He lives 3 houses down across from me.
At that he clenches his jaw and looks away "I don't want to talk about it". I nod and finish my food in silence. "well when I was younger my dad used to bring me to grassy hills like this and we would race down the hill rolling. I would always leave with grass all over me".
Luke smiles at that and quickily stands up and grabs my hand. "well, you wanna race sleeping beauty?" he asks and I smile up at him. We race up the hill and lay on the grass.
I wrap my arms around my chest. "You ready?" I shout and he shouts back "1..2..3..GO!" and we are off.
I roll as fast as I can and start laughing. Luke is laughing too. Soon I'm just stumbling down the hill with out even trying. I scream in excitement and i finally stop as I reach the end of the hill in a fit of laughter and Luke lands next to me.
I giggle and turn over to look at him "I win" I laugh and he fake pouts "you cheated". I roll my eyes at his sour loser butt "whatever" I laugh and he helps me up.
We start heading for the car "Claire" Luke says from behind me.
"Yeah?" I ask
"Don't take this the wrong way but there is grass on your butt"
I laugh and turn towards him so he can't see me wiping off my shorts "well I can always count on you to check out my butt" he laughs with me.
We get into the car and he turns on the radio. I start singing with the song.
After it ends Luke speaks up "You know you're not a bad singer" I laugh at that "Yeah, sure" I say denying the
compliment.
"So I think the plan is going good so far" Luke states and I nod. "Nicole couldn't take her eyes off you" I say honestly. She was staring at him all day.
"And Zack kept giving you pathetic glances all day" he states and a shrug but inside I am glowing with happiness.
"Hopefully we won't have to put up the act for long" Luke states and for some reason that hits a nerve in me. Was this fake date, all the laughs we shared, just it's title itself, fake? It wasn't for me. I actually had fun with him today.
The rest of the ride is silent. He finally pulls into my driveway. I unbuckle my seatbelt and silently climb out, still a little mad at Luke for his earlier comment.
"Claire" he sighs and looks at me. "I didn't mean what I said earlier, it came out wrong. I actually had fun today. Can we maybe try to become friends?" he asks hopefully and I give him a half smile and a nod. "See you tommorow Luke" I say and close his car door.
I quickly get inside and start for the staires when I hear a voice that stops me.
"Where were you?"
I turn around to see my dad in a suit and tie with his arms crossed over his chest. His brown hair is a little gray in the roots and is gelled back and his gray eyes are stony. I got no features from him except my stubborness. The rest of me was my mother.
"Out" I say quickly and head for the stairs.
"And why in the world are you wet?" he demands and I look down to see that my clothes are still wet from the lake.
"Why do you care? This is the first time I've seen you all week. Why don't you tell me where you were" I demand.
"You know I have work Claire"
"Whatever" I say and roll my eyes as I keep walking up the stairs.
"What in the world has gotten into you! I don't like your attitude" this just flares up my anger.
"Oh I dont know, how about the fact that I have to do everything myself! I have to make sure there is food for me in the pantry! I have to make sure I know my school material because I won't be able to ask my parent for help! I have to make sure I get to all the places I have to be at without my own car! You left me to fend for myself a long time ago! You don't have the right to be concerned about me anymore! You lost that chance the time you completely shut me out a long time ago!"
"Stop being so dramatic Claire. I make sure you have money to get all of the things you need" he says calmly making me even more angry.
"And you gave up everything for that stupid money! You were so obsessed with your job you drove mom away! It is your fault she left us and for that I will never forgive you" I scream as the tears start streaming down my face.
His face is frozen in stunned silence as I turn back around and sprint up the stairs to my room. I quickily rip off my wet clothes and put on clean ones and quickily climb into my bed.
That night my nightmares come back.