Don't

Nine

"Calum! You're such a dick!"

I stood up shaking the sand out of my hair as I watch him run up to Josh and Dee who were halfway to the car.

We were back at the deserted beach that we went to the first time we all hung out together. Calum, Dee and Josh had met up with us after lunch, Cal and Josh giving themselves the title of umpires for the bet. Josh making sure Luke didn't cheat, and Calum making sure I didn't.

To be honest, I didn't need to cheat, I've been playing pool since I was little, but Luke didn't need to know that.

We played for almost three hours, me playing a little more than terrible, practicing, warming up, or so I told Luke, as he would chuckle and try to hold in a laugh every now and then when I missed a simple shot and would complain about the table being crooked.

Then we played the final game, the one that would not only win you bragging rights but an ice cream cake of your choice.

It didn't last very long.

I took the break, scattering the balls over the table, Luke potted a red ball, spots, grinning happily, I just smiled, content as I leant against the wall applying the blue chalk to the end of my pool cue and waited patiently. He potted another but then missed, not too phased by it, as he was convinced I wasn't very good.

I took my place at the table, slowly looking over at Luke, "go on, you'll be fine" he said reassuringly, and I smiled. I potted four of my striped balls in succession and aligned the fifth with a corner pocket. Luke looked shocked to say the least.

He walked over again to take another turn, he missed.

I sunk my two scattered balls and hit the final one hard, causing it to fall into the pocket and the white to rebound and line up with the black.

I look up at Luke, smirking, "I just love pistachio and chocolate," his jaw dropped as I lightly tapped the white ball without breaking eye contact, standing as I heard the black fall down into the pocket.

I hand him my cue and walk over to the table where Calum, Dee and Josh sat wide eyed, I slowly leant down whispering in Cal's ear, "now that was a hustle!"

"I'm going to go throw this away," Luke says quickly, picking up the ice cream cake's box and going over to the bins.

"Okay, I'm gonna go for a swim to get this sand out of my hair" I try to shake some more of it out of the ends, "if I start drowning you'll come save me, right?"

"Always" he answers not looking back.

I swim for about ten minutes, Luke never joining me.

Every time I looked over at him he had his head down, a hand skimming over the sand whilst the other was used to lean on. His sunglasses resting on the end of his nose, the sun wasn't too bad now as it was beginning to lower in the sky. So the sunglasses weren't really needed but then I remembered what Calum had told me.

I got out of the water and slowly made my way to Luke, he looked up when I cast a light shadow over him, "hey"

"You didn't join me," I motioned to the space on the towel next to him, he moved his arm back slightly so I could sit next to him, "what's up?" I sat myself down, our shoulders touching.

It feels different somehow, this, us. Luke and I are always touching but not in a sexual way.

When we sat together our shoulders would touch, just like they are now. When we spoke my hand would rest on his arm, if we were talking to someone he'd have his arm over me. How, if I was sat on a chair he would always sit on the floor between my legs, hands on my ankles as I played with his hair.

Come to think of it, Luke and I seem to always be touching. Unless we were out at a bar, then I liked to mingle with everyone. Even with Ashton around, we'd always find a way to have that simple closeness, a closeness that I know now was obvious to everyone but us.

Luke looks down at me, a small but sad smile on his lips, "it's nothing" he bumps his forehead with mine playfully.

"Come on, Luke" I turn to him, resting my chin on his shoulder and wrap my arms around him, "you can tell me"

"It's just... You'll be going home soon, you know?" He says, looking everywhere but at me.

"I know, but it's still almost two weeks. We have plenty of time to party. Plus don't forget Cal's birthday and Australia Day" I kiss his shoulder lightly, resting my head on it and tightening my arms around his waist a little.

"Yeah" he looks down at the sand running through his fingers

I take a breath, looking at him and slowly take off his sunglasses, he doesn't try to stop me and just squints as the soft sunlight hits his crystal blue eyes. I'd never noticed how blue they were until the sun hit them just now.

I seem to be noticing a lot more things about Luke.

"Don't be sad. We'll still talk and stuff when I go back, even though timezones suck balls" I laugh causing him to finally look at me.

"I'm going to miss you, Dylan" he sighs

"I'm going to miss you too" I smile, "now how about we enjoy the peace and quiet for a while before we head back?"

A small shiver went down my back as the air became cooler, Luke noticed and passed me my sundress, I pulled it on quickly. He put his arm around me with my beach towel over us as we were sharing his.

"Dylan?"

"Yeah?" I snuggle into him more to block out the coolness that's slowly taking over the evening. A look of contentment on my face.

"Thanks for sharing your ice cream cake with me"

"Anytime, Lukey"