A Songbook In The Making//S.M.

18.

S h a w n

I couldn't go in her house.

My hand was on the doorknob, and I took a nervous deep breath, something I haven't done ever in my life. I have never been nervous to go into Lucy's house. The first few times I was in her house, I was too young to be nervous. I basically grew up in that house.

I shook my head at how ridiculous it was, and then opened the door, walking in.

There were no lights on in the living room, except the glow from the T.V., where That 70's Show was playing, one of Lucy's favorite shows. I could just barely see the top of Lucy's black hair.

I bit my lip before deciding to try to talk to her.

"Hey, Luce."

There was no response for a minute, but then she turned off the T.V., leaving us in darkness, with only the remaining light of the day streaming in through the windows.

"Aaliyah's upstairs with Luke." Lucy said, without looking at me. I mentally rolled my eyes, and crossed my arms over my chest

"No, I- Wait, you left my sister alone with a boy?" I all but screamed.

I've known him all his life, but I still don't trust that little bugger. Hey, boys are boys. 

Boys and girls cant just be friends without some kind of-

Wait.

Never mind. You heard nothing.

"Dude relax." Lucy said, interrupting my thoughts. "They're like nine. And I'm like 93.2% sure Luke is gay, so-"

"Lucy!" My eyes widened, as I mentally and physically rolled my eyes at her. They were kids! How do you even tell that sort of thing when they're still in primary school? Sometimes Lucy has no filter. I don't think she knows the definition of the word subtle either. Sometimes it comes to her head and straight out of her mouth. But that's also one of the things I like about her.

...As a friend.

Nothing more.

..Purely platonic.

"What?" She matched my pitch, mockingly. 

"Ok, first, weirdly accurate, but like you said, they're nine!"

"Whatever." She said, then sighed. "Dude, you need to calm down before I have to go get you a paper bag." I could feel her rolling her eyes at me. I stared at the spot next to her on the couch for a full minute, before taking a deep breath and walking around the couch and sat next to her. 

"Ok." I responded to her previous statement.

She finally looked at me, for the first time since I entered her house. 

"First," she said, turning toward me,"Ben's upstairs. I told him to keep an ear out and check on them.  Second, I love Aaliyah. I would never let anything happen to her. And 3, Luke is harmless. He's literally less threatening than a puppy. At least they bite." She smiled at me, and damn it felt good to see her smile again.

"Yeah." I smiled back. Then I realized I was scratching the back of my neck, and immediately dropped my arm. I turned toward her, game face on. 

"Luce, we need to talk." I said, and her defenses immediately went up.

"Look, if you're gonna try and lecture me again, then I-"

"No. We've been best friends for over 10 years, and if we're gonna get past this, we need to talk this out. We can't just fight, and stop talking to each other for days on end. We have to get through this together. Can we try that?"