vanilla // lrh

thirteen

"You like what you see?"

Luke approached me in a heavy sweat, swinging a wet towel around his neck.

"Your nose-"

Just like the night he had fought Ashton, blood was dripping down Luke's nose, a contusion beginning to form underneath his eye.

"Not what I meant," He cut, with a simper. "But I know the answer either way."

"Luke! That was a kick ass win, brother!"

We were approached by the same man who had announced the entire match, his tuxedo now replaced by a white 'wife beater' tank top, that wasn't exactly flattering to the alcohol that resided in his gut, and simple black trousers.

"Thanks, mate," Luke grinned, as he hugged the announcer.

"Who's this pretty lady?"

The man looked me up and down with a raise of the eyebrow, causing an uneasy feeling in my stomach. He was the definition of greasy.

"This is Eloise," Luke said plainly, wrapping his arm around my waist, and pulling my body towards his in a protective manner.

I felt heat rise to my cheeks at the gesture.

"Thanks to her, you made out very well tonight!" The man chuckled, reaching into his pocket, and pulling out a stack of one hundred dollar bills.

He began to count out the green paper, as Luke tapped his slender fingers against my waist, impatiently.

"$600, all yours."

Luke grabbed the money from the man, quickly, and hustling it into his shorts.

"Thanks, Eric." Luke grinned dryly.

The man, Eric, nodded, smiled at me, and walked off, causing Luke to immediately remove his hand from my waist.

"Stay away from him," Luke huffed, running the back of his hand across the blood on his nose. "Actually, stay away from everyone that you meet around here."

I decided against arguing with him, or even asking for an explanation, I didn't want to kill his high.

"You need to properly clean that," I said, referring to his bloody nose, scrunching my own in disgust.

"It's just a little blood," He shrugged. "Why? You scared of a little blood?"

With that, he rubbed more plasma off of his face, and threw his arm up to my lip, in attempt to wipe the access onto my skin.

"Luke, stop!" I pushed him away from me, picking up my pace, and he did the same, only with a wide grin on his face.

"I'm serious! That's disgusting!" I squawked, trying not to trip over my own feet by walking faster than him. His legs were twice as long as mine.

"Okay, fine, fine." He said, stopping, breathing heavy.

"Thank you." I huffed, tucking a piece of hair behind my ear.

"Sike!" He screamed, playfully, as I felt a cold, wet streak glide across my chin.

"Luke! Oh my god!"

He laughed a beautiful laugh for ages, I never had seen him so happy.

I tried to hide the fondness I felt for this side of him with my anger, although his newly found dimples that grew deeper with his smile were definitely not in my favor.

"Oh, cheer up. I just won 600 bucks!"

"And I have your blood on my face!" I stammered.

"No girl has ever complained about having my bodily functions on their face," He grinned with a quirky confidence, receiving a hard slap across the chest in response.