group chat ➳ l.h. [completed]

t h i r t y - f o u r

Three months later

The sky and the clouds were the type of blue and pink that made you think of sweet cotton candy at the carnival. I stared at the sight and became lost in it, admiring how the pink clouds became twisted in the sky like angel wings.

I looked down from the sky and onto Luke from our front porch, It was about seven p.m., and he was signing a paper on a clipboard for the movers that were now carrying our couch to the moving truck.

I gripped the lamp in my hand and smiled as Luke turned his head to look my way. He smiled as well before walking closer to me and placing a warm kiss on my cheek, his stubble tickling my skin.

"Are you happy?"  He asked me, and I looked at him in confusion.

"Why wouldn't I be?" I replied, placing my free hand on his cheek.

He leaned into it and closed his eyes that I got lost in more often than the sky: for it was better, prettier, full of mystery that I had yet to figure out on our journey together that was soon to come.

"Just making sure, my love." He told me before taking the lamp from my hands and placing a kiss on my lips.

I smiled again while watching him turn around to put the lamp in the truck, and just then began to think of the past.

I remembered the nights I sat alone in my bed, daydreaming of a man that would one day sweep me off of my feet as I listened to Luke  saying how much he loved my mother from the other room.

I remember feeling an odd emotion that night. Wether it was jealousy or longing for somebody to love, or both, I never knew for sure. All I knew now is that my mother, or that woman, for she doesn't deserve the title, took Luke's love for granted.

She would tell him that she loved him back, and he believed her. While all the while I watched from afar feeling a real type of love for him, a love that he deserved.

And as twisted as it is, at the time, he was my step father.

I try everyday to ignore that fact, however it was just the truth. And no matter how odd I knew it was that he used to be married to my mother, I ignored it because this isn't in the past anymore, it was the future.

Our future without my mother.

_

Kiersten

I had to face the facts, I was getting old.

I looked at my reflection in the bathroom mirror of me and Ashton's apartment every day,seeming to notice nothing but wrinkles and an aging face.

Ashton was gone almost every night, coming home with alcohol on his breath and red lipstick smeared across his own lips and neck.

I was no idiot, I knew he was cheating on me. I mean, how could I not know? I cheated on Luke a handful of times, not once feeling regret for the man I took advantage of.

But now, feeling it happen to myself, regret was all I felt.

I had a man that cared for me, a man that bought me flowers and kissed me on the forehead while hugging me. And now I have another man that had never once kissed me unless it was during sex.