Until Next Time | HS

18.

Luna.

“It's so pesky sometimes that can't shake off this feeling.” I take a small drag of a cigarette and hand it back to Lucas. “No matter what, I don't want this.”

“But is he acting the same or just you?” I look to my side. “You gotta be aware of that too, Moony.”

“We haven't had a single fight in weeks,” His head turns to me. “That's not bad but it's strange. Yeah, I admit he was never that much of a fighting person, but knowing that we used to have at least a little banter every day, its sudden stop is worrying me.”

I hug my coat closer to my body when a gust of cold air gushes through the backyard. My eyes turn to Lucas as he blows the smoke out of his mouth and crushes the end of the cigarette into the ashtray beside him.

“Are you starting to like your flatmate, Moons?” my eyes widen at his question before he looks at me with a smirk. “You've been always quite fond of him, that's for sure.”

“Lucas!” I click my tongue and take a deep breath. “It's not like that. I like his voice doesn't mean I'm in love with him.”

“I never said you're in love, Moony.” I watch him with a frown as he leans back a bit while his hands are pressed on the wooden porch. I roll my eyes and look away when he gives me a teasing smile. “I just asked, do you like him?”

I shoot him a glare and stand up from the porch. “Don't twist my words against me, Luke. This is something serious.”

He shakes his head and stands up as well. With a quick run of his fingers through his hair, he tosses his arm around my shoulder and turns me to the back door. “Look, I'm not twisting anything, just trying to help you get a better view of your feelings towards him.”

“I don't want to have a better view,” I speak as I pull the door and step in before speaking. “That's the problem.”

“Why?” Lucas again throws my hand over my shoulder. “Are you afraid, that you might realise something you don't want to?”

My breathing slows down and I stop on my way.

Am I?

No! No, I'm not.

I suck in a breath through my teeth and shove his arm away. “You're a terrible person to ask for opinions about something serious, do you know that?”

I shoot him a glare over my shoulder and grab the beer bottle, opening it with an opener on the counter. Then without looking back at Lucas, I toss the bottle cap on the counter and walk into the dining area.

“Hey.” I smile when Lily and William wave for me to come over to the table. “How was the chat?”

“Terrible.” I plop down on the chair beside Lily and drink up my beer.

It was Lily's birthday today. So I've been at her house since the early evening, helping William and Lucas to prepare dinner for the small party they arranged for some close friends from her hospital. It was a pretty eventful evening I dare say, chatting with the doctors and some of the nurses. But when after everyone left, Lucas and I head back to the back porch of the house, to have our routine gossip. I don't know when the topic slid from his bisexual panic in his institute to the tension between me and Harry.