Vulnerable || l.h.

Eight

I sat on the floor of my room with scissors, wrapping paper, and gifts spread out in front of me. I got Ashton a Jonathan Toews t-shirt and some pieces of hockey equipment he needed, I got Michael pokemon stuff because that was his only hobby other than hockey, and I got Calum a new pair of headphones because he had been complaining about his pair being broken. Then there was Luke's gift.

I actually put thought into Luke's gift. I bought him a bunch of CD's, including the new All Time Low CD which there was only a limited amount of. I figured he would like it.

I finished wrapping the gifts and got dressed. I was wearing a green sweater with red pants to get in the Christmas spirit. I straightened my hair, which was now red at the tips due to another experiment with Michael and hair dye, and put on makeup. I grabbed the presents and walked over to Ashton's house. He answered the door when I rang the bell, also wearing red and green. Reindeer antlers sat on his head.

"Mads!" Ashton exclaimed, lifting his cup of eggnog in the air. He moved out of the way to let me inside.

"Hey, Ash! You look very festive."

He smiled, admiring his outfit. He grabbed another pair of antlers and put them on my head. He noticed the packages in my hands. "Do you want me to take those gifts?"

I laughed. "They aren't all for you Ash, just this one is."

I handed him his present which he proceeded to open. A huge smile crept across his face. "This is perfect Mads! You know me too well."

"Well I've only known you forever."

"True." One of Ashton's teammates called his name. "Well I gotta go but have fun, okay?"

Ashton walked away and I made my way into the kitchen to get eggnog. When I got my drink I found Michael and Calum sitting on the living room couch. I said hello and gave them their presents which they loved and thanked me for.

"Have you guys seen Luke? I have to give him his present."

"Luke went away for Christmas. Visitng his family or whatever." Michael said.

"Oh." I was kind of disappointed. I would've loved to hear Luke's thoughts on the reindeer antlers. 

"Yeah." Calum said. "I'm gonna see him in a couple of days when he comes back so I'll give it to him."

"Thanks, Cal." I handed him Luke's present.

"Oh!" Calum said pulling a thin, wrapped package out. "Luke wanted me to give you this."

I looked at the package which was wrapped in simple silver wrapping paper, and note on the top read Mads in Luke's somewhat sloppy handwriting. "Thank you. Do you have any idea what it is?"

Calum shook his head. "No idea."

***

It was New Year's Eve and I still hadn't opened Luke's gift. Every time I picked it up, something in me made me put it down. This boy was so confusing; one minute I think we're getting closer and then the next minute he's shutting me out. I was pretty sure I had feelings for him, but his mixed signals made me uncertain.

That night, I was sitting in bed, staring at the silver package as I had every night since Calum had given it to me. Screw it I thought to myself as I ripped the wrapping paper off. It was a CD. It was in a clear package and written on the CD in sharpie were the words: Are you a girl? Because I like you. 

My heart began to race as I read the words over and over. I grabbed my laptop and put the CD in. He made me a mix tape; the tracklist had songs like Feeling This by Blink 182, Mr. Right by A Rocket to the Moon, Fall by Ed Sheeran, Kiss Me Again by We Are the In Crowd, and You Had Me At Hello by A Day to Remember. As I listened to the lyrics my heart began racing even more and my head began to spin. He was trying to tell me what he couldn't tell me himself.

Before I knew what I was doing, I was putting on my scarf and jacket and began walking, actually more like running, to Luke's house. I wasn't even sure if he'd be there, but it was worth a try. I ran up Luke's front steps and banged on the door. Luke answered, wearing sweatpants and a tank top that said "destroy yourself see who gives a fuck". 

"Mads?" he said with a confused look on his face.

I didn't even respond. Instead, I grabbed his face and crashed his lips on mine. Luke pulled me closer to him, putting his arms around me. I moved my arms from Luke's face to around his neck. The kiss was urgent, passionate, like it was something we had both wanted for a long time. We pulled apart and looked at each other, breathing heavily.

"So I guess you got the CD." Luke said.

"I did." I said, laughing.

"Good. I figured those songs could get the message across way better than I could."

"I'm sure you would've been fine on your own, but the CD was nice. The pickup line was a nice touch."

"I told you it works every time."

I rolled my eyes. I looked over Luke's shoulder into his house. The clock in his living room said 12:00. "Would you look at that, it's midnight."

Luke looked behind him and smiled, "Well then happy New Year Mads."

"Happy New Year, Luke."

"You know, technically, we kissed before midnight. Tradition does say that you have to kiss someone at midnight so maybe we should kiss again."

"This is true, I mean, we can't go against tradition." I brought my face closer to Luke's. This time our kiss was soft and sweet. Luke's lips nervously swept across mine. We pulled apart, my brown eyes looking directly into Luke's piercing blue eyes. 

"Not bad." Luke said.

"I'm glad my kissing meets your expectations."

"Well it would have been a shame if you were a bad kisser. Everything else about you is quite exceptional."

I laughed and rolled my eyes. No matter what situation he was in Luke was always...Luke. "So what do we do next?"

"I don't know. I guess we should go on a date."

"Sounds good to me."

"Okay. I'll come up with something and let you know."

"This sounds more like a business deal."

Luke sighed and let go of me. He got down on one knee in the doorway and took my hand. "Madelyn Reynolds, would you like to accompany me on a date sometime in the near future at a location that is to be determined?"

"Yes I would very much like that."

Luke smiled and stood up. "Good. That would have been awkward if you said no."

"How could I say no to such a grand gesture?"

"I don't know, I thought that was pretty irresistible."

"It was."

My phone vibrated in my pocket. It was my mom, most likely wondering where I could have possibly gone in the middle of the night.

"I have to go." I said.

"Okay. Good night, Mads."

"Good night, Luke."

I walked home and went upstairs to my room. I downloaded Luke's mixtape to my iPod, put in my headphones in. I fell asleep with the biggest smile on my face and the lyrics that delivered Luke's message to me flowing through my ears.  

***************

Author's Note:

I'm updating again because the last chapter was so short so yay two chapters in one night!

things are heating up lol ;)

i hope you guys like the chapter and i tried to avoid making Luke and Maddie getting together too cliche so i hope it was good

remember to vote and comment and all that good stuff

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