Fall.

Chapter 10.

It was the next Friday afternoon and Luke and I had just finished our last final exam. I was proud of how I thought I did on my geometry final, Luke had taught me well. Hopefully I could pass this final and the next one so I won't need to take this class over again.

We were at the movie theater, where Luke had picked up an extra shift since we got out of school early for finals. I came with because I had nothing better to do, Ashton and Michael were still taking their tests. Of course there was no one here to see a movie at 2:00, so the place was pretty boring. Calum wasn't even here because he was taking his own finals at his school. I didn't really mind, that just gave me more time with Luke.

"So you think you did good on your geometry final?" Luke asked. He leaned to the side to catch a piece of popcorn that I was throwing in his mouth. We'd been playing this little game for the past hour, and I had gotten pretty good at it.

"I hope I did," I said, then added, "I felt like I did."

"I'm sure you did fine." Luke shrugged. He adjusted the collar of his work shirt and coughed.

"What do you want for Christmas?" He asked. Christmas was only a few days away, and tomorrow I would be leaving to spend it with my dad in Boston.

"Luke," I sighed. "You don't need to get my anything for Christmas."

"I want to." Luke crossed his arms over his chest, like I'd offended him by saying not to get me a present. I would be all for it if I was going to buy a gift for him. But Luke was such a hard guy to figure out, I don't think I'd be able to find anything for him.

"I don't want anything." I said, shaking my head at him.

"Liar." Luke smirked.

"I don't want you to get me anything." I corrected myself.

"Liar." Luke repeated and laughed again, shaking his head at me. "What do you want, Stel?"

"I'll take 20 bucks, please." I smiled, figuring that if Luke was insisting on getting me something he could get me money, so I could decide what I want later. I was such a hard person to buy for since I was never able to say straight out what I wanted.

"How about 50?" Luke asked.

"No, Luke." I sighed. I wouldn't have been acting so stubborn about this if I had any idea of what to get Luke, then I could at least return the favor.

"Fine, that's just one less present for you then." Luke threw a piece of popcorn at my mouth and silently cheered as I caught it.

"What do you want, Lucas?" I asked. I wondered if Luke was even going to be having a big Christmas celebration, it didn't seem like him and his mom did that. For all I know he might not even be getting anything special.

"I want you to tell me what you want." Luke stood up, slowly walking over to the stool I was sitting on. "And for you to stop calling me Lucas."

"You're impossible, Luke." I laughed. I looked up at him, he was now standing over me.

"So?" Luke whispered. He gently slid his cool fingers across my skin, moving a strand of my hair begin my ear. He had a habit of doing that.

"Just tell me what you want for Christmas." I replied.

"You tell me first, then I'll tell you." Luke licked his lips and leaned in. His lips just barely brushed over mine, and I wasn't sure if they even touched at all. All I knew was that my whole body erupted with a new type of feeling, a feeling that no guy had ever given me before.

Before anything could happen, Luke pulled away. He blinked a few times, like he was unsure of what just happened. After staring straight at me for the longest time, Luke brought a hand up to the back of his head and scratched it, clearly he was still confused. "I'll be right back." He muttered, then left through the door behind us.

Luke returned a few minutes later, looking like he'd just splashed a ton of water on his face, which was probably exactly what he did. The first few buttons of his shirt were undone as well, showing just enough of his chest to make me weak in the knees.

"So, have you decided yet?" Luke asked, situating himself back on his stool. Luckily no one had come in to the theater for the past few minutes, I couldn't imagine how much trouble Luke would get in if he was caught leaving me up here unattended - or almost kissing me.

"Decided what?"

"What you want." Luke nodded, urging me to speak.

"How about you just go shopping and buy the first thing that reminds you of me, and I'll do the same thing. And when I get back from Boston we'll give them to each other." I suggested, figuring that if I bought myself some time I'd be able to find a good present to give to Luke.

"You're not making this easy." Luke said hesitantly.

"I never make it easy." I countered.

"You can say that again." Luke scoffed, rolling his eyes at me.

"I never-"

"Stel." Luke laughed even harder, cutting me off. "I didn't mean for you to answer that."

"I know." I shrugged.

Luke rocked back and forth on his stool, looking anxious. He continuously ran his hands through his hair, though the only thing he was doing to it was messing it up even more each time. He rubbed his eyes, which already had bags under them from the lack of sleep he must be getting.

"I'm hungry." I said, then added before Luke could said anything, "For real food, not popcorn."

"Can you wait, like, 20 minutes until Calum gets here?" Luke asked, raising his eyebrows at me. I was surprised that Luke didn't just go make me more popcorn, that's what he had done almost every other time I asked him for food. That boy had popcorn running through his veins.

"It depends on what kind food I'll get if I wait." I swallowed, admiring the way Luke's lips were curling up at the corners in a small smile.

"Anything but pizza, we just had that." Luke groaned.

Since we had finals this week, Luke and I met more than just our Tuesday session at the library, even though lately we had been getting together at one of our houses without planning. Luke was such a picky eater that it was hard to find a meal other than pizza to eat with him, because pizza seemed to be a universal food that no one could turn down.

"That was two days ago!" I protested.

"Mac 'n cheese." Luke folded his arms across his chest, his face returning to it's normal blank expression.

"Is that an order?" I sarcastically asked, though it most likely was. I was so used to Luke ordering me around by now that I didn't really mind.

"Of course, Stel."


~


"Luke, stop it!" I giggled as Luke threw another pillow at me from across the room.

We were both sprawled out on the floor, I was attempting to pack for my trip to Boston tomorrow and Luke was doing a very bad job of helping me stay focused. Instead of nearty tucked away in my suitcase, my clothes were thrown all around the room as were various other items. Luke had seemed to have gotten a little silly and was in the middle of chucking pillows from my bed at my head.

"What kind of laugh was that?" Luke set down the last remaining pillow on the floor.

"What do you mean?" I asked, not knowing if I had made any strange type of laugh or not.

"That... noise you just made." Luke twitched slightly.

I questioned, cocking my head to the side, "A giggle?"

"I guess." Luke rolled his eyes. He rolled over and got up on his knees, slowly crawling over to me. He shrugged, "Whatever it was, it was cute."

"I need to finish packing." I sighed. I tried to stand up to pick up the pieces of clothing scattered around my room but Luke stopped me. He loosely grabbed my wrist, not holding me too tight but not giving me much room to move.

"Finish packing after I leave." Luke said quietly, and after that we sat silently, cross-legged in front of one another. We stared at each other for a long time, neither of us moving and only really blinking a rare few times.

"Are we just going to have a staring contest for the rest of the night?"

"No." Luke smirked, and began to lean forward. Before we could come in contact with each other Luke stopped. "We should play a game."

"Like what?" I asked, a very small part of me upset that Luke and I had almost kissed but hadn't again.

"Truth or dare?" Luke suggested.

"That's not fun with only two people." I said, shaking my head. Truth or Dare was also a very immature game to play, more like something you'd play over text with your seventh grade boyfriend rather than a 17 year old boy.

"20 Questions?"

"Okay." I shrugged, seeing that 20 Questions was somewhat better than Truth or Dare.

"What's your middle name?" Luke asked.

"Anne." I replied quietly. For some reason I didn't go around telling many people my middle name. It wasn't that I didn't like it, just preferred to be known by only my first and last name.

"Stella Anne." Luke spoke softly, his words almost echoing through my room. "It's pretty, I like it."

"What's yours?"

"Robert. I hate it. I mean, come on mom, you couldn't have been a little more original?" Luke joked.

"Lucas Robert. It fits." I shrugged.

"Except my name isn't Lucas." Luke said, pointing a finger at me.

"Sure." I laughed, rolling my eyes.

"Is that your natural hair color?" Luke asked, and if we hadn't been playing a game where the objective was to ask questions I would have been totally taken back by it.

"Yes?" I answered, almost as a question. "Why? Does it not look natural?"

"It looks fine. Moving on." Luke waved his hands in the air, as if to tell me to ask him something.

"Do you really hate everything or is it just an act?"

"I don't know. I mean, I used to convince myself that I really didn't like anything, but I've been hanging out with you a lot more lately and my mom is having me take these pills-"

I cut him off. "You're taking them? What are they, anti-depressants?"

"No. I'm not depressed. They're similar, I guess. They're like mood boosters. Like ecstasy, but it's safe." Luke chuckled to himself.

"Are they helping?" I asked, remembering how dead set Luke was on not going to a doctor or taking any pills or doing anything his mom says for that matter.

"You tell me." He shrugged.

I paused for a moment, my eyes darting around the room at a few different things lying around before speaking again. "You seem to be acting differently lately, I guess they are."

"Or maybe I've just gotten used to acting normal around you." Luke replied and I shrugged. He shifted his weight a little before asking another question. "Who was your last boyfriend?"

"His name was Jake, or maybe it was Jack." I chuckled, feeling bad that I didn't remember this boys name. "It only lasted a couple months, it wasn't a big thing."

"When was that?" Luke asked.

I thought about it for a second. "Sophomore year."

"It doesn't sound like it was a very special relationship." Luke said. He grabbed my hand off my lap and began playing with my fingers, like they were suddenly the most fascinating thing in the world.

"Nope." I nodded, "He was more into... touching than anything else."

It wasn't really a surprise to me that Jake or Jack or whatever his name was only wanted to make out when we were together. I had yet to actually have a boyfriend that was interested in getting to know me before anything else.

"So I'm guessing you've kissed a lot of guys?" Luke asked.

"I've had my fair share of kisses." I said, giving Luke a small shrug.

"Are you a virgin?" Luke blurted out, a devious smile on his face.

"Are you?" Of course I was, I wasn't one to sleep around. I was almost positive that Luke was a virgin as well, it didn't seem like he got out enough to have sex with anyone, whether he had been in a relationship before or not.

"Well," Luke's eyes flicked up to meet mine. He opened his mouth to speak, then shut it quickly again. "Yes."

"I thought so." I smirked back at him.

"Okay, now answer me." Luke demanded. He shook my hand up and down a few times, making me realize that he was still clutching on to it.

"Yes, I am." I said, flicking a piece of hair off my shoulder. "Who was your first kiss?" I asked, moving on.

"My ex-girlfriend. Her name was Heather." Luke replied quickly, almost too quickly.

"Why did you guys break up?" I asked. Luke was a nice guy once you got to knew him, if he knew this Heather girl well enough to have her be his girlfriend then they must have been pretty close.

"She cheated on me." Luke let go of my hand and let it fall onto my lap.

"Oh." I gasped quietly. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay. She blamed it on my "mood swings" and the fact that I was "too quiet around her other friends."" Luke said, using air quotes.

I watched Luke as he nervously chewed on his bottom lip and fixed his hair once again. He also played with the strings on his hoodie, which he had changed into after coming home from the movie theater. "Cheating is stupid."

"Right? Like, if you don't want to be with someone anymore you should work it out, don't go making out with some other guy." Luke muttered, still pulling at the strings of his sweatshirt.

"Next question." I said after staring at Luke for what I felt was too long of a time.

"I've asked this before, but I'm going to ask it again." Luke spoke slowly. Like he was trying to make sure that I understood every word he said.

"Go ahead." I nodded, encouraging him.

"If I kissed you right now, what would you do?"

"I'd kiss you back." I replied shortly. I didn't even need to take a moment to think about it.

"So..." Luke let the word hang in the air for a bit before finishing his sentence. "Are we gonna do this?"

But before I could even answer Luke's question, his lips were on mine, creating a fire between us that had never been felt before. His hands cupped the sides of my face, pulling me closer to him with every second we were together. Soon I was sitting on top of him, my legs resting on either side of Luke's body.

Luke moaned against my lips and without taking another second to think I parted my mouth open, letting his tongue slip inside. The way we seemed to form together was so interesting, as if both our bodies knew exactly what they needed to do to fit between each other.

I grabbed at Luke's hair with my hands, pulling him back down onto the floor with me. He hovered above me, using one of his hands to support himself and the other to softly graze against my skin under my shirt. I brought one hand to the nape of his neck, where I then pulled his body even father down on mine. I was extremely thankful that we were home alone, because I would be very embarrassed to have someone walk in on is right now.

The moment soon ended when we heard a sharp knock on the front door, causing both of us to jump. Luke quickly shot up from the ground, sliding slightly on the wood floor in his socks. He bent down and held a hand out to me to help me get up.

"At least we, uh, got something done before we were interrupted this time." Luke mumbled, still staring at the floor.

I turned away from him, hurrying down the hallway to get the door before whoever was there got too impatient and left. I stopped for about half a second to check my reflection in the mirror, making sure that it didn't look too obvious that I had just made out with someone.

I pulled open the door, revealing the last person I expected to see tonight.

"Hi Ashton." I tried my best to give him a big smile. The thought of Ashton and I being a "thing" hadn't occurred to me at all in the past few minutes, not with everything that was going on.

"Can we talk, please?" Ashton smiled. He eagerly shifted back and forth on his feet, looking very similar to a small child needing to use the bathroom.

I glanced over my shoulder, just to be sure that Luke hadn't followed me out here before stepping outside into the hallway. "What's up?" I asked.

"Well, uh," Ashton stammered, staring at our feet on the carpeted floor. "Michael said I needed to do this before you leave for Boston and before I leave for my grandma's house for break."

"Do what?" I asked, and Ashton pulled me forward and kissed me. I was a bit taken back at first, having just finished kissing someone else inside. It didn't take long for me to kiss Ashton back, though, and even though he was a great kisser he was no where near as good as Luke was.

Ashton and I pulled apart, both of us breathing hard. "Will you be my girlfriend?" He asked.

I was too overwhelmed to even try and think about all that has happened in just the last 10 minutes. All I could think about was that Ashton had finally asked me to be his girlfriend, after years of me wanting this. Ashton held both of my hands in his, gently playing with my fingers the same way Luke had just a little earlier today. He looked at me with wide eyes, waiting for a response.

"Yes." I nodded quickly.

Ashton let out a big sigh of relief. "Good, for a second there I thought you were going to say no. That would have been embarrassing."

"Then it's a good thing I said yes." I laughed quietly, still staring at mine and Ashton's intertwined hands.

"Okay, well, I have to go actually, my mom wants me back home. I'll call you later, alright?" Ashton sighed again, slowly backing up. He pulled me in again and kissed me on the cheek before letting go of my hands.

"Okay," I bit my lip, still not letting my head wrap around all that was going on. "I'll talk to you later."

"Bye, Stella." Ashton waved, still walking backwards as he disappeared down the hallway.

I waited until I knew he was gone before turning to go back inside, only to find Luke waiting by the door. He had fixed his hair, returning it back to it's slightly messy yet still neat hairstyle.

"That was just-" I began, but was cut off.

"Ashton? I know." Luke leaned against the door, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Yeah," I replied slowly, "He just-"

"Asked you to be his girlfriend? I know. He told me he was planning to earlier today." Luke spoke harshly. "And you said yes, correct?"

"Well, yeah.." I tore my gaze away from Luke's, letting my eyes rest on the floor.

"Well." Luke let out a sharp breath. "Whatever just happened back there, back in your room, it meant nothing. Okay? That was stupid, it shouldn't have happened, and it never did." Luke uncrossed his arms. He strode over to the doorway and grabbed his shoes, coat, and bag, not bothering to put any of them on.

"Luke, what are you doing?" I asked, though it was completely obvious what was happening.

"I'm leaving. I have to go, you have to finish packing." Luke shook his head. He opened the door himself, already halfway out. I wasn't going to argue with him about leaving, because I fully understood why he wanted to. If I was in his position I'd want to do the same.

"We never finished our game." I called out to him, walking out into the hall so I could see him. Luke stopped walking, turned around, and marched over to me.

"Okay, last question." Luke spat out. "If Ashton knew half the shit I did about you, would he still want to be your boyfriend? Or is he just interested because you have a pretty face?"

"Luke, I-" I started, practically begging him to listen to me.

"Save it, Stel. I don't want to hear it."





OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY