thin white lines | l. hemmings

33

For the time he knew Delaney, he had learned she was a rather heavy sleeper. So he figured he could get away with getting out of bed without waking her.

After his alarm went off, he snoozed it at least a dozen times before he could take himself away from the girl sleeping in his arms. This was the second time they had fallen asleep together, and he was so glad to be able to wake up with her this time. He'd hate to ruin it by waking her up so early.

However, he only managed to slip his one arm out from under her waist before she began to stir.

He sighed, wondering how the hell he managed to wake the heaviest sleeper he had ever known.

She blinked her eyes a few times before turning her head to focus on Luke. As her mind caught up, she smiled, remembering sitting out with him on the balcony and warming at the idea he brought her in for the night. "Hi," she hummed, practically giddy at the sight of him.

"Morning, Laney," he said back, his voice groggy and low from just waking up. He placed his hand delicately on her cheek, placing a kiss on her forehead. "I have to go. I'm sorry."

"Where?" She asked, her brows knitting together as she cuddled closer to him, not pleased by the news of him leaving.

"We have an interview. But stay in here, get back to sleep." He spoke slowly, slipping out from under her as quickly as he could. She groaned, disappointed as she looked up at him.

"Can I come?"

"No, you should sleep," he answered quickly as he entered the bathroom to change, keeping the door open so she'd be able to hear her. "It won't be long and I'll be back soon."

She poked her bottom lip out as he rounded the corner, fully changed. "What time even is it?"

"Early," he answered simply, placing two hands beside where she laid, leaning down to place a long kiss between her eyes. "Go back to sleep."

"Fine," she grumbled, turning over and tugging the sheets to her chin. "Have fun."

On his way to the door, he paused at her words, suddenly feeling bad for lying to her about where he was going. "Yeah. I will. Thank you."

It didn't take her long before falling back asleep once he had left, but she didn't wake up in quite the same pleasant mood as she had before, now that she was waking up alone.

Her mind flashed back to the morning she left Luke alone, and suddenly felt bad for doing so, but decided not to tread on the subject for too long.

She sat up in bed but didn't move from where she hugged her knees to her chest, thinking about how to proceed with her day. She wanted to be in the same room for when he got back, even though he hadn't specified when it was that he'd be back, but she didn't mind.

It was a while of flipping through channels on the tv until she heard her phone go off. She grabbed it to see a text from Quinn.

Quinn I cut up a bunch of fruit but I don't think I'll eat all of it. I'm outside your room if you want any? Come out for a second.

The text was a delight to receive. Quinn was such a good friend to her, and it was upsetting to not always be able to return the same friendship that she was offered. In the end, it wasn't her fault. Her hands were rather tied in terms of hanging out with people.

She hesitated in going out the hallway to meet Quinn because it straddled the line, if not, crossing it. The precautions were only to keep her from escaping or exposing anything and she wasn't going to do that.

What she failed to think about as she approached her door, was that it wasn't her door. It was Luke's. And Quinn was waiting outside of Delaney's hotel room.