Authors note- I put a gif on the side of the character Mike, played by Kenton Duty
I am extremely comfortable when I wake up. I keep my eyes closed for a little longer to enjoy the sense of relaxation. Suddenly all of the events from last night come into my mind and my eyes snap open.
The first thing I notice is Luke's warm breath on my neck as I look at our position. My head is laying on his chest that is covered with a grey shirt. Luke's arm is protectively around my waist and my hands are on his chest and our legs are tangled in each other.
I try to pull partly away but Luke's arm tightens around me and his eyebrows furrow together in his sleep. I quietly laugh at how peaceful Luke looks but then I remember that we slept in the same bed together and I quickly stop.
"Luke" I say softly as I shake his
shoulder. He lets out a groan but doesn't open his eyes. I sigh and lean down so my mouth is next to his ear and blow hard into it.
He immediately jerks up into sitting position and grabs my arms with a furious look on his face.
"What was that for?" he shouts angrily and I calmly shrug. "You wouldn't wake up".
"So you had to blow in my ear?" he asks exasperated and I shrug. "It worked didn't it?" he rolls his eyes but then stops halfway "wait, you stayed with me the whole night?".
My face turns a little red in embarrasment as I look down at my hands. Suddenly we were in an awkward silence. "Well" Luke says finally trying to break the silence.
Suddenly my phone goes off next to Luke's bed on his table. I don't remember bringing it in here but apparently I did. I reach across Luke and grab it.
"Hello?" I answer sleepily into the phone, still not fully awake, not bothering to look at the caller ID.
"Hey girl" Belle's voice fills my ears. I smile at her voice. "What's up?" I say in a happy tone. "What are you doing today?" Belle asks, getting right to the point.
"Nothing that I know of" I answer.
"Do you want to go to the fair today? It's finally in town". She asks.
"Sure. When?"
"I'll pick up your lazy butt in an hour"
"k. Sounds like a plan"
"Who is that?" Luke asks sleepily next to me while rubbing his eyes.
"Belle" I answer to him.
"What! Who was that Claire?" Belle asks in a surprised tone.
"Luke"
"WHAT! You slept with him! Oh my god Claire I would expect this from the school whores but not from you!"
"Wait, that's not-"
"I mean you guys have only been going out for 3 weeks! And I thought you said you wanted your first time to be special"
"Belle-"
"Did you at least use protection?"
"BELLE! Me and Luke did not sleep together okay?" I shout loudly and instantly freeze and feel my face turn red as I look at Luke.
Luke is now sitting up looking at me confused as if he would give all of his money just to hear the other end of my conversation.
"Then why are you with Luke?"
"I just stayed over Belle" I groan exasperated. "We're not even going out" I quickly clamp my hand to my mouth but it is too late. Luke's head falls to the bed as he lets out a groan and slaps his hand to his head.
"What are you talking about?!?!" Belle shouts loudly. I sigh and explain to her the whole plan, knowing I would let it slip out eventually.
She is silent through my whole explanation and finally speaks. "That is by far the dumbest idea I've ever heard" and I couldn't help kind of agreeing with her.
"It's just a little plan. We just want to see if it works. Please don't tell anyone" I plead to her.
"Can I tell Danny?"
I sigh "fine" knowing she would slip it out eventually.
"Well if Luke wants he can come too" Belle says unsurely.
"Luke, do you want to go to the fair with me and Belle today?" I ask and he looks deep in thought for a few seconds before nodding.
"We'll be ready in an 30 minutes" I state into the phone and hang up after Belle says bye.
I jump off of the bed. "I'm going home to get ready" I announce to Luke and quickly leave the room. It was a little awkward for me waking up in Luke's bed and I'm sure he feels the same way. The less we are around each other the better.
I unlock the front door and walk inside and up to my room. I change into some shorts and a t shirt and slide on my vans.
I grab my phone and start back to Luke's house where I told Belle to pick us up. I knock on the door and Darren opens the door.
He smirks at me. "Hey hot thang. I didn't realize you left".
I smile at his attempt at flirting "Hey Darren. I just had to go home and get changed. Can you tell Luke that Belle is on her way?" I ask.
Darren turns towards the house and shouts "Luke get your ass down here! Your friend Adele is on her way!" I here Luke shout "shut up Darren I'm coming down.
Darren turns back to me and gives me a mischevious smile "enjoy yourself babe" he says with a wink as I roll my eyes.
Luke appears at the door in some jeans and a t shirt. Another thing about Luke Evans, the simplest of shirts makes him look like an Abecrombie model.
I hear a car horn and turn around to see Belle's head sticking out of her car window. "Hurry up you guys! The fair isn't here forever!" and in the open window I can see Zack in the front seat. I choke on some air and try to recover while Luke smacks my back a few times.
I finally recover as another window rolls down in the backseat. "Awww did Claire choke on her own loseritis?" Nicole says with a smirk. Loseritis? Come on Nicole you and me both know that wasn't a good one.
I inwardly groan as I walk towards the car and feel Luke's hand slip into mine. I don't pull away. I'm starting to get used to the fake couple thing and it obviously works as I see Nicole's eyes narrow down to our hands.
We climb into the car in a tight fit since Nicole refuses to move her purse that is on her right. Luke had the misfortune to get the seat in the middle next to Nicole but he didn't seem very disappointed with the seating.
I shoot Belle a look in her mirror saying with my face Why the hell is the wicked bitch of the west coming to the fair with us?!.
Her eyes quickily move to Zack telling me that he brought her along. Great I think to myself.
The ride is filled with awkward silence that Belle tries to break a few times but it doesn"t work. We finally get to the fair and hop out. Nicole immediately grabs Luke's arm, not even trying to be subtle and says in a voice that sounds like a baby's to me "come on Luke. Let's go win me a stuffed animal".
Luke gets dragged away with a confused look on his face as he turns his head a little and is able to shout "uh, catch up with you guys later".
"Nice girl you got there" I mumble but I am a lot louder than I thought and Zack shrugs "she's a lot nicer than she seems" but even his tone is unconvincing.
"yeah, sure" I mumble, unconvinced.
"Well since Luke and Nicole are doing something else do you wanna go play some games ourselves?" My heart flutters when he says 'ourselves' meaning me and not Nicole.
I turn around to look at Belle as if for permission. She smiles and waves her hand in a dismissal "You two go ahead. I'm waiting for Danny anyway".
We nod and Zack puts his hand into mine and I swear a million butterflies erupt in my stomach.
He drags us over to a stand with water guns at it. he pays for a game and the person behind the counter explains the rules.
"The object of the game is to shoot more water into the hole than your opponent". we nod and pick up our guns and start. I get more water into the whole and shout in triumph.
Zack demands we have a rematch and as he wins this time the rematch turns into 4 more games until Zack gets bored and starts shooting water at me in which I shoot water back at him.
Soon the person running the stand bans us and we go to another stand.
Soon 4 hours of us going from stand to stand has gone by and we are in front of the ferris wheel.
"Do you wanna ride it?" He asks and I nod. He starts to pull out his money when we hear a voice behind us saying "well since Claire is my girlfriend I think we will go on the ride together".
We turn around to see Luke behind us with his arms crossed and next to him Nicole with a huge stuffed elephant. Luke gives me an evil smirk and I scowl at him. Damn him for ruining my perfect opportunity to be alone with Zack!
Zack hesitates but nods reluctantly and goes over to Nicole but not before Luke can give him a glare. Luke pays for our ride and we climb into the small cart.
"Way to go jackass" I snap at him "that was the perfect opportunity for me to be alone with Zack and it was a perfect opportunity for you to be alone with Nicole".
"Claire you must have my priorities mixed up" he responds turning over to look at me with a smirk that I want nothing more than to slap off his face as he continues "my first priority is, and always will be, to get on your last nerves".
"Well mission accomplished" I scowl at him and he grins back "thank you. Now lean into me. Zack and Nicole are in the cart behind us".
I put on a strained smile and lean into him as he wraps an arm around me. "I hate you" I whisper and Luke chuckles at my choice of words.
All of the sudden the cart stops and I look around confusedly. Luke leans over the cart and shouts "hey! What's going on.
A man looks up and shouts "maintenance problem. this may take up to 30 minutes" at that I can hear people groaning around us.
Luke shakes his head and stands up in the cart "No. Screw this. I'm not waiting 30 minutes".
"Luke what the hell are you doing?" I shout at him as the man on the ground shouts up "Sir! Sit back down!" But Luke doesn't listen. He steps out if the cart and onto one of the railings, holding another for balance.
I hear a few shrieks around me but no one is louder than me, who is yelling "Luke, you idiot! Get back in here!".
"Not gonna happen sleeping beauty. Come on, follow me and we will be back down in a few minutes tops" he says and holds out his hand for mine but I just look at him like he is crazy.
"Claire, don't listen to him. Stay in your seat this isn't safe" I hear Zack shout and turn around to see him with a concerned look on his face while Nicole watches Luke with wide eyes.
"Claire's a big girl Zack, she can make her own decisions" Luke snaps and I watch Zack narrow his eyes at him. "don't do it Claire".
"Claire do you trust me?" Luke asks me and I look at him like he's crazy.
"absolutely not" I reply.
"Good, we know your judgement is still right. Now, back to the present, take my hand"
"I just said I didn't trust you" I say back.
"Well Claire here is a little life lesson, it doesn't matter if you don't trust someone because that doesn't change anything. The trust all depends on the trustee, which is me, on whether they decide to help you. Now, you only have one option with 2 endings, you take my hand and you are either pleasantly surprised that we get down safely or you're right and we fall to our deaths but I know how much you love being right so just take my damn hand".
I stare at Luke's face for a while, looking for any hint of doubt in his face but I find nothing and reluctantly take his hand and slowly step out of the cart onto the railing and tightly clutch the other railing.
"Thata girl" Luke says with a smile and I roll my eyes at him "just get us down Spider-Man".
Luke complies and turns towards the center if the Ferris wheel "we need to get over there".
I nod silently and swallow as I slowly follow Luke down the railing as I hear a ton a shouts around us, mostly shouts to get back into the cart but I hear someone shout "you go girl! Stay fierce!" Which makes me smile a little.
We get to the center of the Ferris wheel and Luke turns to face me and smiles "now that the hard part is over we just have to go down this one rail at a time.
I nod as he slowly jumps down one rail while still holding the rail I'm currently standing on for support. I follow him. It is slow work but we finally get to the final railing which is 12 feet from the ground.
"Here's the plan" Luke whispers in my ear. "We jump on 3 and quickly make a run for it. The man controlling the wheel will probably be angry so run fast towards the car".
I nod, thinking about how this is the 3rd time Luke is making me jump. I swear the boy is going to be the death of me.
"Ready? 1....2......3!" He shouts and we jump together.
I lean forward and land feet first into a roll and quickly get up with help from Luke. "Run!" He shouts and we run away laughing from the shouts behind us telling us to stop.
We don't stop running or laughing until we get to the car. Belle and Danny have already left an hour earlier in Danny's car so Belle gave Luke her car keys.
He quickly unlocks the door and we pile into the backseat laughing. we don't stop until Zack and Nicole show up a few minutes later.
"That was incredibly stupid Luke" Zack says as he climbs into the driver seat and Nicole climbs into the passenger one.
"Oh, I'm sorry mother, I'll try better next time" Luke says humorously but Zack gives him a death glare. "That is fine if you want to do stupid stunts but don't drag Claire into them" he snaps and Luke's eyes turn stony "I let her make her choice. Sorry she didn't choose what you wanted her to do" he says in the most unapologetic tone.
"Hey look, imagine dragons's new song is on" I say breaking the tension and leaning over to turn up the song channel Nicole just turned on.
It is dark outside on the drive back and soon I fall asleep leaning on the window.
I am awoken by someone wrapping their arms around my body and lifting me up but I don't open my eyes. I am too tired and the person's body is warm.
It feels like Zack is the one carrying me as he pulls me closer to him. His muscles feel bigger than I remember.
Soon enough we are in my room as Zack tucks me under my covers and whispers softly in my ear "good night sleeping beauty. I had fun today".
Only in the morning, as I relive yesterday's events in my head do I realize that Luke is the one who tucked me in.