Vulnerable || l.h.

Five

A couple of days after the Halloween Party, Luke didn't come to school. Things went as they normally did, though. The boys talked my ears off at lunch. Calum asked Olivia out and she rejected him, which meant Ashton, Michael and I had to put back the pieces of his shattered ego.

When I walked into calculus, I sat in my normal seat in the back, but the seat next to me which normally belonged to Luke remained empty. After class our teacher called me to her desk.

"Miss Reynolds?" she asked as I approached her.

"Yes?"

"Since Luke was absent today, would you mind bringing him the notes and telling him the homework assignment? This is a particularly difficult unit and I do not want him falling behind."

"Uh...yeah...sure."

"Great! Tell him I hope he is feeling better."

"Okay."

When I left the classroom, I sent a text to Ashton asking if he knew where Luke lived because I needed to bring him his schoolwork. Thankfully, he knew the address and sent it to me. After school, I made my way to Luke's house, which was a few houses down from Calum. I rang the doorbell and a woman with blonde hair similar to Luke's answered the door.

"How can I help you young lady?" she asked.

"Uh...hi. I'm Maddie, a friend of Luke's from school and I have his math homework."

"Oh great! He's upstairs in his room, it's the second door on the right. I'm Liz, Luke's mother, by the way." she extended her hand to me and I shook it.

"Nice to meet you." I replied.

"You too." she said with a smile.

I walked up the stairs and knocked on the second door on the right. A voice came from inside.

"Yeah!"

Taking that as permission to open the door I opened it and found Luke laying in his bed watching TV. He seemed perfectly fine.

"So you're sick, huh?"

Luke looked up and his eyes widened. "Oh shit. Hi Maddie. I thought you were my mom. And yeah, I took a mental health day."

"I see. Well I have calc stuff for you." I dropped a copy of my notes and a paper with the homework assignment on it in his lap.

"For me? Mads, I don't know what to say."

"'Thank you' would be nice."

"Thank you for these beautiful calculus notes I shall keep them forever."

I rolled my eyes. "No problem." I rocked back and forth on my feet, not knowing what to do now that I had dropped off the notes. "Well...I guess I'll see you tomorrow?"

"You can stay for a bit if you want." Luke moved some of the things that were on his bed, making enough room for me to sit.

"Okay, sure." I sat down on the bed and looked around the room. It looked like a typical teenage boy's room; blue walls, plain furniture, posters on the walls, sports trophies sitting on shelves. Some of the posters were sports related but others were of bands like All Time Low and Blink-182. 

"Nice posters." I said, trying to make conversation.

Luke looked at his walls. "Thanks." He returned his focus to the TV, killing my efforts at small talk.

"What's your favorite All Time Low song?"

Luke turned off the TV and turned his focus to me. "What?"

"I said, what's your favorite All Time Low song?"

"I didn't know you listened to them."

"There's a lot about me you don't know, Mr. Hemmings."

"True. Well, to answer your question, I have a lot of favorites."

"Name some."

"I don't know, I really like Jasey Rae. Oh, and Somewhere In Neverland."

"Good choices."

"Thanks."

I looked around the room again, and spotted something unexpected. An acoustic guitar sat in the corner of the room.

"I didn't know you played guitar."

Luke smiled. "There's a lot about me that you don't know Miss Reynolds."

"Are you good?"

Luke shrugged his shoulders. "I guess so."

I smiled. "Maybe you'll play me a song one day."

"Maybe one day you'll finally admit that you find me attractive."

"Maybe."

"We've gone from 'never' to 'maybe'. I'd say that's progress."

"We're getting there."

After a couple seconds of silence Luke spoke again. "So what other bands do you lilke?"

***

I spent a few more hours at Luke's house. We talked mostly about music, but we talked a bit about other things. We told each other about ourselves; like how my dad works for the Rangers and my mom is a sports journalist, and that's how I got into hockey. Luke told me about his old school and how when his mom's job got moved back here he got excited because he missed Calum and wanted to play hockey with him. While we were talking I took the opportunity to closely look at Luke. When he talked, he sometimes pulled his lip ring with his teeth, and I had grown to find it very attractive. He also had a dimple in one of his cheeks and had a soft laugh that really brought it out. Mostly, I found myself staring at those blue eyes.

We were interrupted by my phone vibrating on the bed. It was a text for my mom telling me dinner would be ready soon.

"That was my mom. I should probably get going."

Luke actually looked disappointed. "Oh. I'll see you tomorrow then."

"Yeah, for sure." I got off the bed and walked to the door. Before leaving the room I turned around. "I really enjoyed talking to you, Luke."

"Yeah, me too."

I walked downstairs, said goodbye to Liz, and went home. Luke and I were getting closer, I could feel it. It was only a matter of time before I gave him what he wanted and told him I was attracted to him. I was about to break the only rule I had when it came to relationships, and I was perfectly okay with it.