Sheltered

Chapter 36

After a few moments of walking past apartment doors, Savanna and Lucas stop in front of
room 017.

"Here we are, home sweet home." Luke fumbles with his keychain, eventually turning a small silver key in his front door.

The smell of smoke and vanilla fogs the room as they enter.

Out of habit, Lucas lights a candle on a small shelf.
So that's where the vanilla is coming from.

"C'mon." Luke slouches into a light brown sofa, and beckons Savanna over.

"So..." Sav pulls a small folded paper from the pocket of her almost too-tight jeans.
She excitedly moves closer to Luke.
"I have that dart gun, some rope I found, a first aid kit from base, a knife, fire starter-"

"Savanna." Lukas laughs, his voice wrapping itself gracefully around her name.

"Hm?" Sav looks up at him with curious eyes.
"Is this stupid? I don't know if these are the right things to bring." she sighs.

"No, you're doing great, lovely." Luke smiles.

"Well did you wanna say something, then?"
She asks a little impatiently.

"Well, I don't know if it's necessary to talk about the trip right now..." Lucas says in a low voice, slowly running his fingers through hi hair.

Now Savanna laughs. "Luke, we really need to concentrate. We're running out of time." she bites her lip nervously.

"God, Savanna." Lucas chuckles quietly.
"I don't even know how you convinced me to do this." he smiles, and rests his head on his hand to look at Sav.

"Hey, it was your decision. You want to help Ian, don't you?"

"Yeah, but that wasn't really what made me say yes. You have that effect on me, I can't say no.
I wouldn't even want to." Luke forces a cough.

"Okay. Let's concentrate." Savanna looks back at her paper. "Umm, do we even need duct tape?"

"Savannaaa. We're friends, right?" Luke asks impatiently, gently taking the small list from her hand.

"Of course, Lucas. We're kind of going to Mexico together." Sav grabs at the packing list in Luke's hand.
She laughs as he repeatedly pulls it just out of reach.

"Then can you listen to me? I wanna get to know you better. Become better friends."
Luke says, handing the paper back.

Savanna takes it. "Okay. Well I feel the same way." She feels a guilty pang in her chest.

"So tell me about yourself, Savanna. I wanna know all about you." Luke's cheeks flush as the words slip from his mouth.

"Well, I guess you've told me a lot about yourself. And I haven't said a lot about myself."
Savanna admits. She inches closer.

"So before the Asesinós, I lived with my parents. We had this brick house that was, like, two stories. And um..."
Her voice begins to quiver as she remembers every detail of her parents' home.
She'd been blocking out the thought of her old house. Of her parents. Of Stephanie.
And now it was all flooding back in.

"Hey... you're good." Lukas offers her his hand, and she gently takes it.

"Sorry." She whispers.
"So anyway, my parents. Yeah... they were pretty strict. I couldn't go out, I could only wear certain clothes, stuff like that."
Savanna laughs as she looks up at Luke's concentrated expression.

"Go on." He smiles, squeezing her hand.

"Well, they were in an accident."
Sav's face goes blank.
"This was like... a few months ago?
Yeah, I don't think it's been a year yet.
But I went to stay with my friend, and... they didn't make it."
Savanna forces a short laugh to break the silence. her face still holding the same blank expression as before.

"So Shawn found me, and I've been with them ever since. And my friend I stayed with, her name is Steph. Stephanie. She kinda ditched me for Shawn, we haven't talked."

Lucas remains silent for a few moments, taking everything in.
"Yeah, I lost my parents too. I get that. Um, I actually lost them when I was your age..."

Savanna eyes him, squinting.

He seems to tell what she's wondering.
"Oh, it was only last year, I'm eighteen. Aren't you seventeen?"

"Yeah." Sav replies flatly, looking a little relieved.

Another moment passed in silence, their fingers still intertwined on the couch.

Luke glances over at Sav's lowered face.
"Can I give you a hug?" He asks without thinking.

Savanna forces a smile, and pulls him into a tight embrace. Luke holds her back just as tightly, making her feel safe and understood.

"Thanks for listening. I haven't really talked to anyone about that." Savanna whispers.

Lucas can feel her tears on his shoulder, and pulls her a little closer.
"Hey... of course, love."

She pulls away from him, trying to wipe her eyes before Luke notices. 
"I'm a mess." She chuckles when she notices Luke's empathetic glance.

"Aren't we all?" Lucas smiles.
"And to answer your question... no, I don't think we need duct tape."