The Royal Within

Chapter 22

We turned to the sound to see Sophia. Luke dropped his arms, and scooted away from me. I just tried to not get mad, since Sophia ruined the first hug I ever had with a guy. (Yeah, Chris and I never hugged).

"What is going on here?!" Sophia screamed. No more than a second later, a blur went past her, and Chris stood right next to her. "Why are you all down here?"

Chris sniffed the air, and smiled. He knew. "Well everyone go back to bed. We have a fight in the morning."

I frowned. "About that-"

"They were hugging!!" Sophia screeched. Chris's eyes moved to mine, and widened. "Why were you hugging?!" Sophia added. "Luke we just broke up!!"

Luke straightened himself. "Calm down. We were just hugging."

Sophia's eyes bulged, and started to whine. "Just hugging?! You practically looked like you were making out! How could you Luke?!"

My eyes widened and my face turned bright red. Chris turned to look at me. He looked hurt, as if wondering why I hugged Luke, instead of ever hugging him.

"Sophia get a grip. Even if we were making out, it would be none of your business." Luke spat at Sophia, and she flinched. I could tell Luke was acting out of the anger he felt for their breakup, and not the feelings he felt for me (which were practically non-existent).

Sophia turned to Chris. "Fine Luke, play it that way." With that, she grabbed Chris's hand, and pulled him away. Chris turned to me as my eyes knit together in confusion. He sighed as I looked to Luke, and Chris followed Sophia.

Luke watched as Sophia pulled Chris back into the dark hallway, and he sank down to the floor against a wall. "What did I just do?" He muttered.

I sat down next to him, and didn't speak. I could tell he needed some space, but the comfort of someone being there.

Before I knew it, he rested his head on my shoulder. His voice was a whisper, and when he spoke, he spoke with remorse in his voice."She is all I have, Ru. Sophia and I dated since junior year, and she was great. Always cheerful, and supportive. But, it felt like she was losing interest in me. The only times it would seem like she would care, is if another girl would try to flirt with me. I guess I felt unwanted." He choked out the last sentence, as if it was hard for him to say.

I was stunned at the fact he told me all if this, so I was struggling to come up with a good response. This was the first time he trusted me with something so personal...first time he was trusting me as a good friend. "Luke, she is not all you have. I'm here, Kim's here, Scarlet's here, which you don't really know her yet, but she would definitely stay with you. Adam's here, I don't know how close you are to him-" I stopped when I realized Luke had taken his head off my shoulder, and now peered into my eyes.

We were silent for a moment, and nobody moved. Then Luke spoke. "I'm sorry about what I said before. You are supportive." He paused, and glanced at the ground."If you want, you can call me Lucas."

I tilted my head slightly. "I think I prefer Lukey Pookey." He leaned closer, and for a moment, I thought he was going to kiss me, which I was ready to move away. I wasn't ready for that. But he stopped. And stood up. He offered his hands, and pulled me up.

He stood there, and ran a hand through his hair. "Thanks for listening to my rant. I just had to say what was going through my head."

I shook my head. "It was no problem. And can I tell you something as well? I got a lot running through my head as well..." Might as well talk to him about it.

He nodded. I inhaled, and started to speak. "This power I have... I've been thinking, and what if that was why Chris paid attention to me? He knew my power, so he cared."

Luke looked conflicted on what he should say. "A guy won't care just because of a power. If a guy cares, it's because he knows the real you."

I opened my mouth, but bit my tongue. I couldn't say that. Luke raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"No, it could be taken as offensive." I mumbled.

Luke laughed. "I can take it."

"So what causes you to care for Sophia? I mean, she caused you a lot of pain." I asked slowly, but lightly face-palmed myself. "That sounded so awful. I'm sorry." I started to walk away in shame, but Luke ran in front of me.

He didn't look mad, but not particularly happy either. "That's a fair question. When I met her, she was the sweetest thing ever. Always made me feel special. Like you, I thought maybe she only liked me because of something I had, which in this case, popularity. The first year we dated, she proved that she liked me for me. But then she grew distant. I was like a challenge, and when I dated her, she won. But I still liked her. I tried to keep hanging out with her, but she would always be 'busy'. But I still cared. I knew that deep down she was a good person. I just had to bring it out." He sighed.

I just tried to process the information. "Did you ever bring it out?" I asked softly. "The good part, I mean."

He nodded slowly. "Sometimes, not often though. I just wished I could do it. She really can be an amazing person."

I tried to smile for him. He was telling me how he felt, and it felt awful. Knowing he liked her, and still does hurt. It hurt a lot. "Well I wish you luck." I said light-heartedly.

Luke shook his head. "I don't feel that way anymore. I care, but not in that way. She's just a friend now."

I tried not to get excited, but my heart was pounding. I couldn't think straight.

"What about Chris? I'm assuming that was the guy you were worried about for caring for your power." Luke asked.

I confirmed his suspicion, and nodded. "Out of the whole school, why would a person, especially a king, want to be friends with me? It just didn't make sense. But maybe he knew I had the power, so he tried to become my friend."

Luke laughed, but it was a hoarse one. "Why do you put yourself down so much?"

I looked up to his eyes. "What do you mean?" I wasn't putting myself down, just stating the obvious. I was just a normal girl, an unpopular, book-lover, girl.

Luke rubbed his neck with his hand, and shrugged. "You just act like if you didn't have a power, nobody would like you. Which isn't true. I didn't know you had a power, and I thought you were pretty cool."

I blushed, and fidgeted with my fingers. "If we never had the crash, you wouldn't even know I existed."

Luke shrugged. "I'm sure we would have met sometime. I mean, not many people help the maids with the coats, so I probably would have handed you my coat." We both laughed at the last part, and started walking back to our rooms.

"I guess." I told him. He was trying to make me feel better, and just him talking to me, and trying to help, did the trick.

He led me back to my room, and we tried to stay quiet, so we wouldn't get caught again. But then, Luke went one his tiptoes, and tried to walk like a spy would in a movie. I giggled as he tried to be stealthy. "Shhh! You're laughing fit is going to get us caught!" Luke said while laughing at me.

We approached my door, and I started to walk in, but turned around. Luke was leaning on my door frame, and his blue eyes gleamed in the moonlight that flowed in from the window.

I smiled, as I thought of our adventurous night. "Goodnight...Lucas."

Luke smirked, and started to close the door. "Goodnight RuRu."

I started towards him. "RuRu? What?" He smiled, and didn't answer me as he shut the door, leaving me in the massive room in a vampire's house...all alone.