Thank you to the amazing @brxanna_rp for this poster - with a photo you took yourself! And thank you to the many raccoon memes you send me on Instagram, they're hilarious!
Chapter 20: Fortune Teller
It's turtleneck season.
My favorite kind.
I was sitting in the library and happily ordering an olive-green turtleneck online.
$10 including shipping. If it came in a couple days, I could even wear it to the lake house this weekend.
I was excited about the Dawson's lake house. I've never been invited somewhere like this before. I was imagining a cozy cabin in the woods, like something Goldilocks would visit.
Would Luke and I share a bed?
As for Jake, who was he bringing? I hope she, he or they were nice.
I glanced down at my English textbook. Studying for the SAT English test was not going well. I don't even know why I signed up for this.
"Millie."
Bianca was standing in front of me, with one hand on my laptop, closing it.
I sat back, removing my hands from the keyboard just in time.
Her other hand was on her hip. She was wearing a tight white shirt and dark purple leggings. She rarely acknowledges my presence, so I wondered what had happened now.
"Millie, Millie, Millie," Bianca sighed, tapping her manicured nails on the metallic surface of my laptop.
"You know you can say my name once and I'll know you're talking to me, right?" I pointed out.
"No need to get b*tchy. You're just a junior, you know that?"
"Am I? My dementia really gets me sometimes," I answered sarcastically.
"Just a junior," she repeated, "You've never shown up to his games before. You weren't voted hottest new freshman or the girl with the most valentines."
"No," I answered, "But none of those things should define a girl anyway. I hope you-"
"Don't give me any of that self-righteous bullsh-"
"We're in a library," I interrupted, pulling the laptop from under her grip, "Best to keep the cursing to a low volume."
I started to pack up. I've never seen Bianca this boldly confrontational with me before and I didn't like it.
"You're a nerd. You're a nobody. And I don't know what you're giving him, but he'll turn away from you soon," she told me.
She didn't say his name, but I didn't need three guesses to figure out who she was talking about.
It's always about him.
"Mark my words," Bianca continued like a fortune teller, "Luke Dawson knows many girls. His interest switches from one to another. But you know who his one constant has been?"
Let me guess...
"Me," she said.
**
I washed my hands in the girl's bathroom. The walls had graffiti on them, and the mirrors weren't so shiny anymore. If only I could wash my memory in the same way.
You're a nobody, Bianca had said to me.
How many times must I hear that before it really sinks in? I'm a somebody.
Two girls came into the bathroom just as a toilet flushed and a third came out.
"Are you Millie?" one of them asked.
I looked up and saw a redheaded girl in the reflection of the mirror.
"Are you really dating Luke Dawson?"
I didn't want to answer. Why did it matter?
"It's you, isn't it? Is it true that you asked him to take your virginity?"
That's bold.
Another girl joined in on the conversation, "I heard you took a picture of Stacey at summer camp and threatened to release it to the school if he wouldn't take you on a couple dates."
"What?!" I exclaimed, "Where did you hear that?"
That was the exact opposite of what happened at camp. Stacey took that awful photo of me.
She shrugged, "That's what people are saying. Luke wanted to protect Stacey's honor, so he agreed to take you on a couple pity dates."
"Apparently you wanted fame at this school," the first girl said, having clearly heard that rumor too.
"And a bit of Luke."
Well, that last part was true.
**
Friday night
The night before my exams, I was studying at my desk. My lamp flickered from time to time, near its last gasp. A gentle knock sounded at my door.
Before I could answer, the door opened. Luke strolled in.
If only he knew how often people at school talked about him.
He was glancing at something over his shoulder and turned towards me with a smirk. He'd broken into my house, likely through the unlocked front door.
We really need to get that fixed.
"I wanted to give you good luck," he said, indicating the piles of notes I was buried in.
"And how are you planning to do that?" I asked in return, taking my headphones off.
Deep house playlist gets me through studying.
Anyway, that was clearly the question he wanted me to ask. His eyes turned a darker blue, elusive and roguish. He came behind me and his hands gripped the chair I was sitting in. My heartbeat just got louder.
He leant my chair back and kissed my lips.
It was a spiderman kiss, my top lip touching his bottom one. Our smiles curved in the opposite directions. I reached out to grasp onto his face, when he pulled away.
"The bed's there for a reason."
I laughed and reluctantly shook my head, "I need to study."
"Do you really think you can concentrate now?" he teased, "Because I think, you're picturing me kissing your body-"
"OK." I shoved him back towards the bed and he obliged.
The room was filled with sexual tension. Maybe he could see it too. How I felt was an unsafe combination of heat and magnetism. A crackling energy.
The bed sheets creased underneath us as we peeled the layers off of us. I didn't want to let go of him, though it was really me locked in his embrace. He moved so much smoother than I did. His hands moved down my whole body.
What did he do to me to make me hear my own heartbeat?
"Millie," Luke broke apart, breathing heavily, "Tell me if you can't continue, because this has become a tease."
I didn't want to say it. "Don't you have a dinner?"
And don't I have an exam?
"Sh*t," he cursed and lazily pulled out his phone. He saw the time and sighed, "I'm late."
I sat up and looked around for my clothes.
He pulled his shirt over his broad chest and said, "I'm glad we're going to the lake house tomorrow." After he was dressed, he walked towards the door, "No distractions."
**
I took a shower before bed and that's when I heard the sound of his engine. Loud music accompanied his black jeep wrangler as it turned onto his driveway.
I heard a girl's laughter and walked over to my bedroom window. What I saw next, surprised the hell out of me.
Bianca stepped out of the passenger seat of his car and walked into his house. She'd traded her sneakers for a pair of high heels.
Twenty minutes later, another car pulled up and more people showed up.
Trust Luke to throw a mini house party the night before my exams.
**
The day of the test
I slept seven hours last night.
Luke had invited some of the guys over to drink and they promised not to disturb me. I heard them shushing each other loudly at 1 AM as they stumbled out of his front door.
My window was stupidly open.
Now, this morning, I glanced out the window and couldn't see him. He must be fast asleep in his bedroom. I closed the window shut and cleared my mind. This morning was about my future.
I didn't have time to entertain the pettiness. Bianca. Stacey. The rumors.
No time.
My exams. I had a tense feeling in my stomach as the nerves started to build. I made sure to pack my ID, watch, a couple extra pencils and my calculator. A banana too.
"I can always retake," I whispered to myself, as I lugged the duffel bag and my backpack down the stairs.
"MILLIE! WHY DO YOU HAVE TO INTERRUPT?!" Flora yelled at me as I entered the living room.
She was half dressed and with a guy. I couldn't tell who.
"I'm not, Flora. I have my SAT-"
"Everyone thinks you blackmailed Luke into dating you! I knew you couldn't-"
"Now's not the time," I interrupted her, waved at the naked guy and walked away.
**
It was early on a Saturday. The sun wasn't fully up yet and the school's parking lot was nowhere near as full as it usually is.
So the last thing I expected to see when I stepped out of my car... was Austin.
Everyone here was coming for the test. There wasn't much chatter or noise. People were walking with nervous expressions, in sweatpants and with a binder of last-minute revision notes.
But there he was: Austin Taylor, drinking beers on a lounge chair.
"What are you doing, Austin?"
"I'm pregaming the SATs."
That's a thing?
"Haven't you already taken them?" I asked him.
"I lost the game last night and the loser has to fake take the SATs," Austin responded, taking another swig, "I also think it's Luke's way of making sure one of us wishes you good luck."
I smiled from ear to ear.
**
Five stressful hours later
"Austin did not get in," I spoke into the phone, walking out into freedom with a group of other test-takers, "Everyone needs to register in advance."
The day was a lot brighter now than when I had walked into school hours earlier. Relief washed over me at having finished. Freedom.
I heard him chuckle on the other end of the line, "You liked that, then?"
"It was funny," I smiled, putting the phone to my other ear.
"You told me I couldn't make you smile this morning."
"I guess I was wrong."
Trust Luke to turn that comment into a dare.
His voice sounded amused before he paused. "Look left, Minnie."
Confused, I looked at the phone and then around me. Was he here?
It was difficult to see through the crowd. People were hanging out outside the school, talking about the test. Some parents were waiting to pick their kids up, offering that emotional support.
A group of people walked by a black jeep wrangler and that's when I saw him.
He was leaning against the hood of his car, relaxed and carefree. His blue eyes stared right at me, a playful smirk on his lips.
He lowered the phone from his ear and hung up.
"Ready for a road trip?"
A/N: Next chapter will have a lot more Luke in it! I know this chapter was lacking in that department, but we needed to push the story along.
Millie's definitely struggled this week... so hopefully the weekend at the lake house will be relaxing.
But then again, when has Millie ever been able to relax out in nature?