MISS ME BACK
Luke (8:14pm): I miss you and I don't like it.
Six minutes. That's a reasonable amount of time to freak out if someone hasn't texted you back, right? Because Luke is in full-fledged panic mode.
What if she's dead, or bleeding out somewhere, or being held at gunpoint, or... oh. She replied.
Lila (8:21pm): I thought you didn't text?
Okay. He could do this. She's joking with him. Maybe flirting? Or maybe she's being serious. Ugh, how do people do this? You can't even tell tone over text. Now he's taken too long to reply, what if she thinks he isn't interested in her?
Luke (8:24pm): Just put me out of my misery and tell me you miss me back.
He stands, feeling content with his response, and joins the boys in the backyard for a bonfire. He needs a distraction in case Lila decides to torture him again with a long wait time.
"Look who decided to join us," Michael taunts the blond as he throws pieces of wood into the fire. "You finally ditch the mood swings?"
According to his three friends, Luke hasn't been in the best mood since Lila left yesterday. But he only threw something at Calum once, which is totally normal behavior for him.
Luke takes a seat in an empty chair, choosing to ignore Michael and instead focus on the flames in front of him. His mind wanders, drowning out the aimless chatter. He doesn't understand why Lila is so afraid of fire but Calum seems entirely unaffected.
He also doesn't understand why he can't stop thinking about her, or why he tries to look for pieces of her in everything. Like the new shirt he bought.
"The invitation to your dad's Christmas Charity Ball was under the door earlier. Should we burn it?" Ashton waves an envelope over the orange flames.
The blond props his feet up, snatching the invite from the brunette. "We're going."
"What?" Calum whips his head around. "Those things were torture when your dad wasn't trying to hunt us all down. You want to walk into the lion's den willingly?"
"Yes." Luke lazily shrugs his shoulders. "It's a formal event. He won't do anything that could damage his reputation. He invited us for a reason, might as well see what he wants. Scope out the competition."
A wave of unease passes through three bellies, skipping over Luke. "I'm not sure that's our best game play. If our goal is to keep Lila a secret, the ball seems like a sure as shit way to blow that out of the water." Michael grows timid, knowing it's hard to sway Luke's mind once it's made up.
"She won't be in attendance." when Luke said he would lock her in her room, he wasn't kidding.
Calum shakes his head, believing Luke is far too comfortable. "And what if Andrew knows we have Lila and is planning for the four of us to be at the ball so he can snatch her?"
That causes a fleck of worry to cross the blond's eyes, but he will take every precaution necessary to ensure Lila will not be harmed. "He's not smart enough for that."
The conversation drifts off into what everyone will wear, if they'll rent a limo, the type of champagne the ball will have, shit Luke has no interest in. He checks his phone, heart dropping when he sees Lila has not replied.
He doesn't fancy being the boy who sits by his phone, waiting for a text like a lovestruck teenager.
"Are you wearing purple?" The question has Luke snapping his head up in Calum's direction.
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𝘿𝙀𝘾𝙀𝙋𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉 • 𝙇𝙍𝙃
Fanfiction"Anger makes a man do stupid things. It brings them to their knees and has them burning cities to the ground." "Oh, he isn't angry. He's in love." . . . In which an innocent girl is swept into the life of a ruthless gang member with a lot of secr...
