I didn't have to call Luke. I was going to, I promise. After I hung up the phone with Kendra, I was going to call him (lies. all lies). However, I never made it that far, because before I could even begin to think about pulling up his phone number, my doorbell rang. Thinking Georgia must have forgotten something in my apartment, I stood up and crossed to the door. October glared angrily from the couch, upset that I had ruined her comfy sleeping spot.
"What did you forget--oh." I cut myself off midway through the sentence when I realized that it wasn't Georgia at the door. Luke gave me a small smile, uncrossing his arms and letting them drop to his sides.
"Hey Daeyna." He breathed. I didn't respond right away. My mind was attempting to go over all of the possible reasons for Luke making an appearance on my doorstep, but nothing was coming up. "Are you just going to stare at me all night, or what?" Luke's words brought my attention back to him. I stumbled backwards slightly, gesturing for him to come in.
"Yeah, sorry. Come on in. Have a seat." I said, closing the door behind him as he stepped into my apartment. "Do you want water? Enchiladas? I have leftovers. You'll have to microwave them—"
"Daeyna, shut up." Luke chuckled. I stopped talking immediately, closing my mouth with a quiet clicking of teeth. The quiet didn't last long, though, because only moments later, I was talking again.
"What are you doing here?" I asked. Luke pursed his lips as if he wasn't sure what answer he wanted to give me. While he pondered his reply, the two of us watched October hop off the couch and hobble over to inspect him. She sniffed his legs before rubbing her face on his pants. When she noticed the shoelaces on his sneakers, though, she decided that it was playtime. Luke gave her a small smile, wiggling his foot slightly to make the laces move. He seemed to remember suddenly that he had a question to answer, and looked back up at me.
"I saw your tweet. I just wanted to come over and say thank you for that, and that our manager set up a radio interview for us tomorrow to smooth over the rumors. But I need your permission to use your name." He explained. I almost felt relieved that his reason for coming over to my apartment wasn't related to the events that happened earlier in the day.
"Yeah, of course. I know many of the earlier fans know who I am, but I guess you might have to produce proof that you didn't drug me." I agreed, nodding my head. "You sure you don't want that water?" I asked again. Luke shrugged, crossing to the couch and sitting down.
"Sure, I suppose it won't hurt." I nodded curtly and crossed to the small mini fridge in the corner. After pulling out the bottled water, I grabbed a glass from the cupboard and poured it for him.
"Here." I said, handing him the glass. I didn't know what to do next, so I just sort of stood there. Luke lifted an eyebrow at me, his expression showing amusement.
"You can sit on the couch, too, you know. I won't bite you." He assured, patting the cushion next to him for good measure. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at him, but sat down none the less. For a few minutes, the only sound in the apartment was that of October's nails skittering across the floor as she played with one of the many toys she had strewn about my small apartment.
I actually enjoyed the silence. Even though Luke and I certainly had a lot to talk about in regards to what had happened in the past years as well as what was going on between us currently, merely sitting in silence was nice. We weren’t arguing, which was good. And we weren’t being lovey and couple-y. Which, despite the fact that I still really liked the lanky blond boy next to me, was also good. Falling directly back into a relationship and acting like the past hadn’t happened was not something I wanted to do. I forgive, but I don’t forget. Luke had hurt me when he lied, yes. But I’d hurt him, too. We needed to work on the forgiveness part, because, if the past few days hadn’t been indication enough, neither one of us has quite forgiven the other just yet.
“When I turned around and you were talking to that guy, I was angry.” Luke’s voice was quiet, almost as if he really hadn’t meant for me to hear his words. I turned to look at him, my eyebrows raised. “I went to go get myself a drink, even though I was the one who was supposed to be sober. The beer I had in my hand when you arrived wasn’t even mine. It was Cal’s. I just took it so that maybe if I was an ass to you, I could blame it on the alcohol.”
“Luke—“ I started, but he cut me off.
“No, wait, let me finish.” He insisted. I really didn’t want him to continue, but I stayed silent as he spoke again. “I got back from the bar, and you were gone. I couldn’t see you anywhere, and you weren’t with any of our group. When I got outside and saw you with that guy—he had his hand on your waist, and you looked so awful. I tried to get you to come away from him, but he wouldn’t let you go, and I—I did what I had to do.” Luke paused for a long moment, and I considered asking him why he was telling me all of this. But when he looked up and I saw the hurt in his eyes, I stayed quiet and allowed him to speak again. “Did I really make you think I hated you for all those years?”
I didn’t know what to say. Part of me wanted to lie and tell him I hadn’t thought that. But it was true. I did think he hated me. Hell, part of me still doubted the fact that he didn’t.
“Yeah.” I finally settled on telling him the truth, but it didn’t make the sharp intake of breath he sucked in any easier to listen to. I could feel the tears beginning to form in my eyes as I spoke. “I thought maybe you were still mad, but it had been a year, and I was going off to school—“ I had to take a deep breath to keep the wavering of my voice to a minimum. “You were the only one who didn’t say goodbye, you know. Taryn and Megan talked with me on the phone. Ash, Cal, and Mikey came to the airport, and I went with your mum to the park that week. But you didn’t come.”
“I’m sorry, Dae. I never hated you. I was just—I don’t know. Mad, hurt, upset.” I nodded, looking away from him.
“I know. We both were. But, I don’t really want to talk about this right now.” I added, sitting up straight. “I’ve had an awful night, and I’m really tired. Whatever that guy gave me, I don’t think it’s quite gone yet. So, do you want to watch a movie?” Luke gave me a small smile, and I could see the sympathy in his eyes. But he nodded at my question.
“Sure, what do you have?” He asked. I couldn’t help the devious smirk that tilted my lips up as I hopped off the couch and slipped a disc into the drive. Luke’s reaction to the title screen was exactly what I was hoping for. A little bit of embarrassment, a little bit of humor. He turned to look at me with an eyebrow raised. “Mean Girls? Really?” I giggled, shrugging.
“Well, I mean we didn’t really watch it last time, so—“ I let the sentence hang in the air, turning my attention to the screen. I could see Luke looking at me out of the corner of my eye, but eventually he, too, turned to look at the television.
////////
Oh my GOD, I’m so sorry! I promise I haven’t died or forgotten about this story. I just had a lot going on.
Last week was spring break for me, and though I originally was totally planning on posting bunches over that, I realized that being in Florida and working on my tan was a bit more important. I went to Disney World for the first time since I was five, and it was amazing! I had such a blast, and I even got to take a picture with Peter Pan, who, if you guys didn’t know, is my absolute favorite character ever. I love love LOVE the Peter Pan story for some reason, so that was the highlight of my trip. I went with my best friend, too, and she was pretty set on betrothing me to the cute pool guy at the condo we stayed at. As you know, I’m deathly shy, but I did actually talk to him! Not long enough to get a number, but I do have a name! So, even though her betrothal efforts were thwarted, they weren’t in vain!
On top of that, I have come to a realization. And that realization is that Daeyna has more followers on twitter than I do. Which is quite sad. Not that I really care, because she IS Luke’s ex-girlfriend (though completely fictitious) but my ego is hurt. And nothing is worse for a writer than a hurt ego. Except for writer’s block. That’s pretty bad.
ALSO. I’m thinking of maybe starting a youtube channel, but I don’t know what to do or if I even should. So yeah. That’s not really anything to do with the story, but I thought I’d just throw that one out there.
ANYWAYS, I love you all to bits, and I promise that I’ll update the other stories ASAP. I know it’s been a long time for those ones as well. I’m so sorry again for the absolute tardiness of this update!
YOU ARE READING
Forgiven // l.h. // Book 2 in Bully Series
Fanfiction"We're like the stupidest people ever." "Yeah, we kinda are."
