Well...Not Anymore.

Well...Not Anymore: Chapter 12

__You really have no idea how completely and utterly sorry I am for how long this took to get published!  It's been so long and I feel so bad, but I'm not going to give any excuses.  I'm just going to tell you guys that if I had had time to write, I would have been writing :)  So anyways...I hope you like this chapter a lot and don't hate me for taking so long with it!  Comment and vote, please :)__

"Here you go sweetie," Lucas' mom says to me comfortingly later that night, handing me a nice and fluffy stack of blankets. The two of us are standing in the warm hallway of their two-story perfect American home, and she's been giving me that same pitying look since Lucas and I got here about a half-hour ago.  

Although she's like my mom and I love her to death, I hate that she keeps looking at me like that. Though I'm absolutely dying for a hug or something, I hate when people pity me because of what my home life is like. 

I take the blankets from her extended arms and bask in the warmth they bring. While I took a shower once I got here-they always help calm me down-she put my favorite quilt and blanket into the dryer and now they're that perfectly warm temperature. Placing my chin on top of them, I tell her sincerely, "Thanks Mrs. Emma." 

She leans in and places one of her dainty hands onto my shoulder, "You're welcome here anytime. Now are you hungry? We have some leftover lasagna downstairs." 

Not even having realized that my stomach has been empty just about all night-the only thing I've eaten since lunch is a pretzel at the laser tag place-I meekly nod and tell her, "I'll go put these down." 

She smiles gracefully, "It'll be on the table once you get down, I promise." 

With that she turns over her shoulder and then heads down the hallway that I know leads into the main part of the first floor, the den and the kitchen, all that fancy stuff. Knowing this house better than I know the back of my hand even though it's been years since I've stepped foot into it, I turn in the opposite direction and then take the back staircase which brings me just steps away from the guest bedroom. 

But it's as I take my first step onto the cream-colored carpet of the second floor that I hear someone say my name softly. I look up from where I've been staring at the peeling polish on my toes and see Lucas leaning against the maroon wall right next to the door to the guest bedroom.  

His usually blonde hair almost looks brown from the water still remaining from his shower. After I got out he walked right on in, and I knew immediately why. Like Zara said so long ago, Lucas and I do have crazy similarities even though we're so different. He, just like me, will take showers to chill himself out. 

I don't say anything to him, still feeling a bit uncomfortable due to everything that's happened since I've called him. I think back to how he just hopped out of his still running Jeep the moment he pulled into my driveway and didn't waste a second in gathering me in one of his strong and warm hugs. Back then I'd been so emotionally unstable that I didn't think anything bad about it, I didn't think about these past two years or the fact that he has a girlfriend even though I'm pretty sure I'm still in love with him. 

But now, now that I've managed to push my dad's slap into the back of my mind so that I won't cry all over their nice house, it's all I can think about. I had no one else to call but him, but I still shouldn't have. Though we're slowly but surely becoming friends again, I don't know if it's to the level where I should be coming over to his house when I'm upset. 

I shouldn't have come here. 

"You alright?" he asks me softly, pushing himself off the wall and then taking a few steps closer towards me. The spicy yet fresh scent of his body warms me up just like the blankets in my arms do.