It's Just Not That Easy

Chapter 8: Boundaries I thought we'd passed

It was that time of the year again. The Weelpress Ball. A dinner my family attended every year, no fail. To my family, it was very important; to me it was a room full of pretentious capitalists who had nothing better to do with their time than to show other people how wealthy they were. Nevertheless, it wasn't usually an awful night, but I usually went with George. There was no way I was going with George. I was thinking about asking Aodhan, but something in the back of my head was stopping me. Not that I cared, but I couldn't let Luke assume for a second that I would pick one of the other lads to be my date over him. Again, not that I cared. It was just I flirted with Luke, and although I flirt with everyone, I don't flirt with his friends. I'm not that bad. I could have easily found another lad to go with, I could have picked any one of my friends, but this was a formal dinner. My family were strict on who I could bring with me. They knew all my friends, and half of them they had met when they were drunk. My only option was Luke. I didn't have a problem asking him, I didn't adhere to the social convention of a 'guy doing all the work', asking the girl out etc... But for some reason I was nervous, mainly because it meant I would have to spend an entire night with the guy, with the entire hall thinking we were together. Fuck them.

I stood in my oversized pink hoodie and tights, leaving my shoes in my flat as I lightly knocked on the door opposite mine. They were home because I could hear the music. They always had music playing really loud. One of them were always singing, and they were extremely good. I'd never mentioned it, I never wanted them to think I was listening in all the time. I knew Luke played guitar, though and one day I was going to get him to play it for me, whether he liked it or not. The door swung open, revealing Dylan stood smiling at me. His hair was a mess, meaning they hadn't gone out and I'm guessing they weren't planning to. He motioned me in as I walked through, getting the attention of Luke and Aodhan, sitting on the couches with laptops on their knee. I smiled politely at them both. 

"She shows her face" Aodhan mumbled, making me roll my eyes. I swear he thought I lived in the apartment with them. He smirked before going back to his laptop. I sat down on the couch, as Luke leaned over putting what I assumed was a microphone disk on the table. I smirked, laughing slightly.

"Didn't know you played sing star" I shot, letting them both laugh awkwardly at me. They didn't say nothing else. I looked at Luke, blinking a few times. He was still looking at me from my comment. His hair was slightly flatter on his face than usual, making me smile unintentionally. He frowned quickly, shutting his laptop and sitting up a little.

"What's wrong?" He asked me. I smiled, frowning at his question. Nothing was wrong, and there was no way he could have ever known I was coming over here to speak to him. I shook my head, keeping my lips pushed together. The music was turned down a little, so I didn't have to speak as loud.

"Nothing, what are you doing on Saturday?" He raised his head a little more, and his frown gradually fell. Aodhan was quite clearly pretending he wasn't listening, but he was Aodhan and anything to do with me and Luke he needed to know everything. He pushed his own lips together, hesitating before shaking his head.

"Nothing why?" Here it goes.

"Will you come to a dinner with me?" I spoke nonchalantly, like his answer wouldn't bother me whatsoever. His answer wouldn't bother me whatsoever. He started to smile, almost cockily. I quickly flicked my eyes to Aodhan who was smirking down at his laptop, little fucker he was. 

"What does this dinner entail?" He had his eyebrows raised a little as he interestingly looked at me.  I shrugged, leaning my hand on my knee and resting my head in my palm.

"Every year I have to go with my family to this event thing I guess, it's like a party but they take the whole year to plan it and it's just proper formal" I tried to explain. He hesitated before smiling letting it reach his eyes. My body relaxed, knowing he hadn't took it in any wrong way. It made me feel 10 times better about the conversation entirely. He nodded his head.