It's Just Not That Easy

Chapter 3: the Bonding session

Another morning, a new day, a new start. A new start in goals, a new start in positivity, a new day to make myself better. I got home from university, stumbling into my room as I dropped the countless shopping bags on the floor. I blinked a few times looking down at them, sighing and picking them all back up. They weren't going to put themselves away. After tidying away the shopping, an exhausting task I really didn't care for, I grabbed the batteries off the counter, and went to grab Aodhan's GameBoy. This was one of the many things I missed about home. I didn't have to go shopping by myself at home, someone would have already done that for me. Independence is bliss, but it's also a pain in the ass. 

I grabbed a piece of paper from the cabinet, scribbling down a note that I could slide under their door in case they weren't home. It was only around 3pm, so I presumed they wouldn't be. 

"Yo, it's Katie... Knock when you're home x" I wrote, shrugging. I went and slipped it under their door frame. The lack of response in the next 10 minutes told me they weren't home, so I decided to be productive for once in my life. I grabbed my laptop, and started doing work. It wasn't hard, it was just extremely time consuming, and quite frankly who had time for that. A knock on the door awoke me from my thoughts, making me jump up and run over to it. I opened the door, to find Luke standing there leaning on the door frame. I took a breath silently. He was wearing a  white top, with those grey joggers that go a little tighter by the ankle, and sliders. Why did he make me nervous? Boys didn't make me feel nervous, not anymore. He wasn't going to be the exception. I tried to shrug it off, looking at him for a while. I couldn't remember whether I wrote the reason I needed someone to come over on the note, and that was probably the reason he had came over. I shook my head internally, I couldn't even get a note right.

"Hey... Grogan right?" I spoke, making him smirk. He looked too chill to be around anyone. Not in the cocky way, in the attractive way... well, a little bit in the cocky way, but he suited it. He held the note up. 

"Look, I don't think you were talking to me, but I am the only one home so..." I nodded understandingly.

"No, you're fine, uh... Can you come in for a second?" He bounced off the wall and walked in, so I shut the door behind him. My apartment was quiet, really quiet. I walked into the kitchen, and he followed me, stopping about a metre away from me. He picked up my guitar that was leaning against the island. I got the batteries out again, getting the new pack and setting them on the counter, then going over and getting his GameBoy. I blinked a few times, watching him run his hands all over my guitar. I bit my lip. "You play?" I asked him. He raised an eyebrow at me. If he was surprised I asked, he shouldn't have picked the thing up. 

"D'you play?" He shot back, trying to bounce the question off on me and avoiding it completely.

"Touchè" He put the guitar back on the floor, making the room fill up with silence once again. "No I don't" I answered his question. He clearly wasn't going to answer mine. "I tried but my hands are too small" He laughed at me, so I turned towards him, scrunching my eyebrows lightly. He walked closer to me, making me step back instantly. He put his hand up in the air. Scout's honour? What? I frowned at it, and looked back up at him. He looked down at my hand, so I hesitantly did the same. He slowly raised his other hand up, and took mine within his. He was clearly confident. Who didn't love confident lads?

"When you play..." He mumbled, running his finders across the tips of mine. "Press the strings with these parts of your fingers..." He was looking straight at me, but still had a hold of my hand. I couldn't look directly at him, he was pretty intimidating. "It will be uncomfortable at first, but it will train your fingers" I had a feeling that when Aodhan said they were scared of me, Luke just didn't want to come, because it was me who was most definitely cautious of him.  "They'll get bruised but" He shrugged. "You'll have to stretch your hand a little bit but it's not impossible for you to play" He slid his hand down flat so mine fell on top of his. That's when I looked up at him. "Don't do it like this" He spoke. I stayed quiet, just letting him speak. His accent was like music to my ears, and I had no clue why he wasn't suddenly giving me a guitar lesson. That being said, I wholeheartedly appreciated it, I always wanted to become really good at the guitar, but like I told him, my hands were too small. "The sounds won't ring out properly" It was really good advice. I didn't want to admit that to him, his ego seemed big enough. He slid his hand around so he was holding my hand up with his. "Uh, you're hands are tiny" He mumbled. I hesitated before sliding my hand off his, restoring it to the side of me. I couldn't stop looking at him for a moment.  "It's cute" He spoke even quieter. I could feel a light wave of heat run to my face, realising too late as he started smirking at me. I looked down for a few seconds, listening to him chuckle softly. If he was trying to hide the fact he played guitar, he wasn't doing a very good job at it. I looked back up at him.

"I'm sorry" I apologised finally. I was changing the subject completely, but entirely for a good reason. He helped me and I was wrong to slam the door in his face. 

"For?" He questioned. I just spoke the first thing that came to my mind.

"For hitting you with George's bag" He smirked at me.

"You're forgiven" He spoke. I shook my head.

"I'm sorry you got accused of sleeping with me" I shifted around a little, and he just nodded, making me continue. "... For injuring your hand" I had many an apology to make, and I had only knew the guy around 24 hours. I looked down at it, and subconsciously picked it up with one of my hands, using the other to actually look at it. It didn't have a bandage on anymore like it did last night. He was shaking lightly, which was weird because he wasn't before. I ran by thumb over his knuckles but he didn't flinch. They weren't that bad, but they were obviously injured. 

"The bastard deserved it" He whispered. I had never met someone who had so selflessly defended me before in my life. I couldn't get my head around it. I knew better than to fall for guys who were nice to me from the get go, many only wanting one thing. I wasn't going to throw my stereotype of guys like him in his face, I was just going to be cautious. Harmless flirting never hurt anyone if you knew who to flirt with, and how to do it effectively. I lightly drew shapes on his knuckles, feeling the difference of the swollen to the normal. I got a bit distracted in what I was doing. I must have been stood holding his hand for a good minute or two, and I gradually lifted my head up to look at him. His gaze met mine as he looked at me amusingly. 

"I'm sorry" I lightly dropped his hand back to his side.

"Oh don't worry about it, take your time" I raised an eyebrow at him before rolling his eyes. His attitude got to me. I couldn't help but like guys who were arseholes. I was naturally gravitated towards them, and that's usually what got me fucked over. Not quite in the literal sense. I wanted to ask him about the lift, but I didn't know what to say.

"About the lift..." That will do it Katie. He looked down at me.

"I haven't told anyone" The words flowed out his mouth and my body instantly relaxed. If he was telling the truth that was one thing off my shoulders for a while. I couldn't deal with any one else knowing how weird I was, it went around enough as it was. 

"You didn't?" I smiled as he shook his head.

"I figured" He air quoted. I smirked quickly knowing that's what set our original argument off in the lift. "You wouldn't appreciate it, so I didn't" He was a good person. Whether he was doing it for his own gain (in which I didn't know what that would be) didn't matter right now. I could do with good people in my life. I could do with them in flood loads.

"Well you're right so thank you" I mumbled. I eventually looked away from his eyes. I blinked a few times, remembering I had asked him to come round here for a reason. He was 100% most likely to be wondering why I wasn't getting the point. I grabbed the GameBoy off the counter and the batteries, holding them on top of each other. "Uh, could you give these to Aodhan please" He took them out my hands and looked at them. 

"We don't need batteries..." Are you sure? You didn't seem to know where they were yesterday...

"But I used his so they're probably only going to last another hour or so, those are for when they run out" I nodded his head. "Tell him thank you, and that my Magikarp finally evolved" I said with a smile, letting him smirk softly at me. He kept walking backwards, aiming for the door but he hit the cabinet beside it. I held in my laugh.

"I'll be sure to tell him that" I followed him to the door, as he turned his back towards me and waved with two fingers. I didn't say anything else, I just shut the door. I let out the biggest breath I didn't know I was holding in. My heart was racing and I had only just noticed it. He was so intimidating, it was almost scary. And not just because he was literally about 6 foot 2. I don't meet boys like him, it just doesn't happen. I don't have friends like him, it just doesn't happen. I sighed, leaning off the door and going to get some water. I didn't even get half way to the kitchen before the door bell rang again. I went over and opened it. Luke was standing there, again. He ran his hand through his hair gently, before speaking up.

"Come over."