wicked//punk l.h

chapter nineteen

every day you get the chance

to work on being
the version of yourself
that you would be excited
to meet for coffee
||jennae cecelia||

SIX MONTHS LATER and I have honestly been feeling a bit better. Luke owned up to his promise, maybe not in the most legal way, but he got Chayse to stay away from me. At first, he thought it was a joke, then he tried talking to me at my locker one day, Luke started a fight and ended up getting both of them suspended.

I was thankful either way because I hardly had to worry about Chayse on a daily basis. I did still have dark thoughts and nightmares about him showing up, but I knew that Luke would protect me. He spent most of his nights with me just to make sure I was safe.

He knew that it would take me a while to recover from my traumatic relationship, but he's said multiple times that he was going to stick by me. And I believed him.

Luke started up a band with Calum, Michael and Ashton and they were honestly good. They really wanted to take it someplace and had all these plans to tour the world.

I was happy for them, I really was, but the thought of them leaving scared me. Luke assured me that it wouldn't happen for a while longer, but I kept thinking the worst.

I knew that if he did tour, I would be stuck in Boston or New York working as a waitress because I refuse to go to collage. I also knew that if I couldn't pass half my grade 11 classes, I wouldn't stand a chance in collage.

Getting away from the future, my dad put me into a once every two week therapy session with someone who I actually liked. Lauren was really nice and actually gave me good advice. She has really helped me and I'm forever grateful.

"Hey, Harm?" Luke spoke, dragging me out of my thoughts. "This shirt or this one?" he asked, holding up two almost identical dress shirts. One was black and one was navy blue.

"Black. It works everytime," I laughed. I've been waiting to use that line for God knows how long.

He raised an eyebrow, taking a step closer to me. He made his way to were I sat on his bed.

"But in all honestly, it'll be off soon anyway," I smirked, now kneeling on his bed so we were almost at eye level.

He just grabbed me by the waist and kissed me. Then he pulled away and threw on the black dress shirt. "You see, I respect you too much so I'm gonna not fuck you tonight."

Most people would probably be hurt by those words, but I just smiled. He was such a great guy and didn't care about sex or anything like that. He just wanted to spend time with me and make me feel special. Which he did a very good job at.

"Do you think your family will like me?" I asked, getting nervous for tonight. I met Luke's parents a few months ago and they didn't seem to care, but tonight I was going with him to this huge family reunion type thing. It was being held at his place and I was comfortable here, but all his aunts and uncles would be there and I'm still really nervous.

"Baby, if I like you as much as I do, which is a whole lot, they're gonna love you," he reassured me, giving me a gentle kiss.

He finished rolled up his sleeves, which actually took him a while to get perfect, then lead me downstairs where his extended family was starting to arrive. Lots of them flew from Australia so it was pretty crowded.

I met so many people that night I wasn't even sure who they all were. He had so many cousins it wasn't even funny.

So, here I sat, surrounded with a group of my peers, passing around a blunt. All the adults were inside along with the kids so we were free to do whatever.

"So, Harmony, what do you even see in Luke? I mean, he's just a complete loser," the one cousin I remembered, Zeke, joked, messing up the hair Luke took about an hour styling.

I just laughed at the small fight they had before replying. "Sure he's a loser, but he's still pretty damn cute."

He acted offended, but he knew that it was true. "I'm not cute. I'm very hot, but not cute."

I just laughed and rolled my eyes while taking the blunt being passed to me. I inhaled like it was nothing, because I've smoked a lot stronger weed, and a bunch of 'damn she can even smoke' and 'why you always gotta get the good chicks?' floated around our circle.

"What does the spaceship on your chest mean?" a girl, whose name was Jane I think, asked. It was then I realized that I was only wearing a spaghetti strap top that showed most of my tattoos.

"Uh, it's for my brother. He was real into aliens and all that," I briefly explained.

"Where's he at now?" another guy asked. I really couldn't remember his name, but I didn't think it mattered too much. Luke already reassured me about forgetting all the names because he does it himself.

"Uh, he passed away a few years ago." After I said that, everything became awkward.

"Sorry, man, that's real rough," Zeke spoke.

Everyone's face fell including Luke's, but I decided against questioning it. It wasn't my place to ask.

We all chatted for a while before everyone started to leave. Once most of his family was gone, we went back to his room.

"Hey, Luke?" I got his attention as he changed into pajamas. "I don't know if it's my place to ask, but why did everyone get so quiet after talking about my brother?"

His expression saddened and I knew whatever happened, it hurt him. "You can ask whatever you want, babe. You're allowed to know," he said first before finding the right words. "A few years back, one of my close cousins was killed in a drunk driving accident. It hit us real hard because the driver didn't get charged with anything. He claimed that his brakes blew before he hit Seth. I guess were all just pissed that the guy didn't get punished for what he did."

I took a seat beside him on the bed and wrapped my arms around him. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. There's nothing we can do about it."

No matter how hard I tried, I was still sorry. It was clear his entire family was still effected by the accident.

"Come on, get changed and come to bed. I'm tired." He fell back onto the bed and waited for me.

"You're also pretty stoned," I laughed, slipping out of my outfit and throwing on the pajamas Luke left out for me.

"Yeah and how aren't you? We smoked like five blunts out there."

I climbed in next to him, cuddling into his side. "It's called a high tolerance and smoking way too much, young one."

"This is why I love you," he looked at me dead serious. He actually said it. I was happy because I knew I loved him too and for once, I had no negative thoughts swarming my mind.

"I love you too."