She's Kinda Hot Though || lrh

thirty-eight

Even though she knew it was best to go back to bed and act as though she hadn't heard a thing, there was something keeping Mae from doing that. She hung by and waited for Luke to get off the phone, which wasn't for another twenty-three minutes.

Once he had hung up, she waited patiently.

Luke sighed heavily as he thought over the conversation he had just had with Ashton. There was a lot running through his mind about what he was going to say to Mae. Although Ashton tried to help with how he should go about the situation, Luke was still troubled about the whole thing.

As he turned around to go back to bed, he lost a breath as he saw Mae standing by the doorway. He had to take a moment to recover from the scare.

With his hand over his chest and deep breaths escaping his lungs, he said, "I had no idea you were standing there."

She chuckled slightly. "I figured." It shouldn't be funny, but she couldn't help but laugh a little at the state he was currently in. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to startle you," she apologized.

He brushed it off, but suddenly started to panic because he had no clue just how long she had been standing there. She could've heard the end of the conversation, or she could've heard all of it. He didn't know which, but by the worrisome look that has overcome her, he's thinking it's the latter.

"I, uhm, I," he stumbled as he tried to come up with an excuse. His hand scratched the back of his neck as an awkward laugh escaped. He can't back out of this now -- he's too far in.

"Can we talk?" He motioned for her to sit down on the couch as he took a seat as well.

Eventually, she made her way over and cautiously took a seat beside him. As his hand grasped hers, the rate of her heart inclined immensely.

"Luke," she whispered, fear overtaking her entire body. She had only heard half of his conversation, but by the way he was speaking, it was difficult to understand exactly what it was about. The only thing she knew for certain was that it was about her.

He turned her hand over and spread it open with his fingers. As he drew circles calmly on her palm, his mind flooded with different strategies. There were so many ways to go about this, but he didn't want to overthink too much, so he dove in head first.

"I have something to confess," he started. In the end, there really wasn't anyway to start it without causing some uneasy feeling in her body. At the sound of those five words, her stomach dropped immediately. "It involves your past which I only realized recently has some connection to mine."

She stared blankly at him, thoughts bouncing around at the fastest pace imaginable. It's not like they've ever met before, so how could their pasts possibly be connected?

Her lips wanted so desperately to form any kind of question or response, but they were incapable of doing so. Instead, they just opened slightly and then pursed together tighter than ever.

"When I was still in school, one of my close friends was dating this amazing girl. Every day he would tell me about their relationship and how it was so perfect, and basically every detail imaginable. It was nice of him in the beginning, but eventually it became too much to take."

Mae kept her gaze on him as she tried to figure out where this was going.

"Unfortunately, that girl broke his heart after only nine months. It was amazing that he had managed to fall so hard in such a little amount of time. He was a wreck. Literally." He took a moment as he breathed deeply a few times. "After weeks of him moping and complaining, a few of us came up with an idea to make him feel better."

He couldn't believe he was about to say this, but it would be worse if he kept it hidden from her.

"We told him to find a girl, and make her fall hopelessly in love with him," he breathed, his eyes searching hers for any kind of emotion.

She sat perfectly still -- her eyes looked into his and her hand remained within his, circles still being drawn upon it.

Luke didn't want to continue, but he knew he had to. As he paused for a few more moments, building up courage to continue, Mae's eyes widened ever so slightly.

No, she thought. It couldn't be.

"Please," she spoke up, her voice gentle and very vulnerable.

"Mae, you have to understand," he tried to reason with her, but she couldn't hear him. Suddenly, her ears were filled with white noise.

She abruptly stood up from her seat and withdrew her hand from his.

"Please," she begged, louder this time.

Her eyes started to brim with tears.

Luke jumped up from his seat and held onto her waist, attempting to bring her focus back to him.

"Listen to me," he pleaded, "I had no idea what I was thinking when I came up with it. I was young and stupid, and-," he ranted, but was interrupted before he could finish.

"-when you came up with it?" She asked. "You-you came up with it!?"

"What? Wait, well I mean yes, but I wasn't the only one."

She removed herself from his grasp yet again.

"Let me get this straight." She positioned herself across the room from Luke, tears finally escaping onto her cheeks.

"This friend of yours took your idea or should I say bet, and found this so called hopeless romantic and made her fall hopelessly in love with him," she spoke slowly, but anger laced her tone.

His blue eyes were mimicking hers as tears began to escape.

"Does that scenario sound familiar to you, Luke? Does it sound like anything you've been told recently?" She was absolutely frantic now.

"Mae, please. I swear I never meant for that girl to get hurt."

"Bullshīt," she exclaimed, throwing her arms into the air. "You fully intended for her to get hurt! Let's face it, Luke. You and your stupid friends knew exactly what they were doing, and you know what? You succeeded."

His hands formed into fists at his sides as he thought about how stupid and foolish he had been years ago. It was so immature to tell his friend to intentionally hurt a poor, innocent girl.

"Mae," he pleaded desperately. "I didn't mean for her to get hurt, I swear."

With her back to him and her head hung low, cheeks stained from her tears, she muttered, "She was hurt, Luke. In fact, she was emotionally scarred from that entire experience."

"I never meant to hurt you," his voice broke as did his heart.

cue long authors note ; okay go...

welp, my heart is broken too </3
poor muke ugh i'm terrible i swear
but it had to happen :'(
please don't hate me

also i'm super upset cause they're in my city cough charlotte cough tonight and i can't go
pls someone mend my broken heart and help mop up my tears

but on a happier note, i have brand new covers for ALL of my stories and it's all thanks to the magnificent, wonderful, amazing, lovely themikeyclifford <3

thank you so much, love!
make sure to request covers cause i'm literally obsessed & check out her stories cause i'm obsessed with those as well :-)