'I'm beginning to think I imagined you all along'

XVII

The grip that Luke had on Suha's head became tighter, he pulled her closer into him and studied her face in greater detail, his eyes flitting from hers and down to her lips. She looked completely irresistible to him in this moment, he could feel his pulse racing, the hand he was cupping Suha's face with was clammy, his chest was rising and falling at a rapid pace. His ice cold breath escapes from his mouth as he leans in to touch lips with Suha, the warmth of her skin transforming the air, Luke's heart is hammering and the only thing he can think of is how exhilarating this moment was. Kissing Suha harder he pushes her back into the ice cold leather of the seat, goosebumps present themselves all over her skin and she's not sure if it's from the kiss or the feeling of the icy headrest digging into the nape of her neck, it startles her and she opens her eyes, Luke is looking at her and he breaks off the kiss. He still has his has hand tangled in her hair, Suha feels surges of guilt run right to her core, she had done exactly what she promised Aaron she hadn't done, exactly what Aaron had thought she did only this time it was really happening.
"Oh my god Luke.."
She pushed his hand away from her face and shakes her head, biting her lip
"That, can't EVER, happen again. I'm so sorry but I don't know what you were thinking, what I was thinking. We are friends, we can never be anything more than that. I don't want to ruin what we have.."
"It's okay, Suha I understand, I really do" Luke looked disheartened but tried his best to hide it
"I find it so hard to stay away from you.." She says, as she looks at Luke, gazing into his eyes almost getting herself lost once again
"I feel so vulnerable right now, Aaron is in hospital, everything is so messy, we argue all the time.."
"Suha I know, you really don't need to explain"
"This is why I see you so much though, and why I need you, I need an escape, I need a release. Things have just been so bad since the entire episode with Daley.." She thinks back to the what Aaron said to her on the phone 'Well let's just hope that Luke doesn't end up being the next Daley' it sent shivers right through her.
"All I wanted was to try and make things right, make them perfect but he wouldn't let me. He would never let me forget what happened. Now I've just made things even worse" Suha chokes up on her final few words before tears are rolling down her cheeks and she throws her head into her hands
"I-i just don't know what I'm doing anymore" Suha is struggling to breathe through the tears and Luke wraps his arm around her shoulders and pulls her into his chest. She relaxes a little but the tears don't ease
"Do you really think I would leave you like this? You mean so much to me, I care for you. You can get through this, I know you can, you are so strong. The strongest woman that I know!"
Suha sniffles and takes in sharp breaths as her the tears become fewer and fewer, Luke runs his hand down Suha's back and rubs between her shoulder blades in an attempt to soothe her
"I don't deserve a friend like you Luke, i nearly messed this up too.."
Luke pulls her away from his body and has her at arms length, clutching onto the tops of her shoulders, he tilts his head and furrows his brow
"Do not, ever, say that. Again. You could never mess this up, it doesn't matter what you do, I am always going to be here for you. Now let's get you cleaned up okay? This feels very much like the first time we met, hah"
Luke let's out a little laugh and Suha smiles at him
"The elevator, right?" Suha says, the smile growing on her face now
"The elevator" Luke says back at her, she starts to wipe away the tears and pulls down the sun visor to see her makeup in the mirror
"Oh my god why didn't you tell me I looked like this! If Aaron saw me now I think I would give him another heart attack"
They both start laughing and Luke reaches over once more to squeeze the top of Suha's arm
"Are we okay now?" He smiles sweetly at her, his insides going crazy at the thought of losing her for good. He needed her just as much as she needed him.
"Of course we are okay, when are we ever not?" She smiles at him, before turning her attention back to the mirror and fixing her makeup
"The one day I get my eyeliner so perfect.." She laughs and Luke starts the engine, he puts his belt on and instructs Suha to do the same. He turns the radio on and Drake starts blaring through the speakers, Luke puts his indicator on to turn into the road and they make their way back to Suha's. They pull up to a set of traffic lights, the roads are completely empty, the skies ahead are almost black and it didn't look like the snow was about to clear any time soon.
"I'm just going to give Aaron a call okay?"
"Yeah, sure, do what you gotta do"
Suha grabs her phone from her purse and starts the call, the phone rings but there's no answer, it goes straight to voicemail, so she tries calling again, no answer. She tries calling Olivier to ask him if he'd heard from Aaron or if he knew any reason why Aaron wouldn't be answering his phone. It rings and he answers
"Hello"
"Hey, Ollie, I'm so sorry to call you unexpectedly I was jus-"
"What is it Suha?"
"Um, okay, well, Aaron isn't answering his phone and-"
"You ever think that he doesn't want to talk to you?"
"Well yes but-"
"Well there you go. He wants space and you need to give it to him."
"I wanted to see how he was that's all.. He's my boyfrie-"
"He's fine, I've been with him all afternoon. I'm busy, I've gotta go"
"Okay thank-"
Before Suha could even get her words out Olivier had hung up the phone, she felt her heart sink as his reaction to her call set in. He doesn't want to talk to me, or see me. I've really done it this time.