Breathing In

Chapter // Twenty Two

*three weeks later*

I push Luke into my closet forcefully once I hear my mom open the front door and I hear the keys set down on the kitchen table. "Be quiet! She'll hear you!" I whisper to Luke while I attempt to close the door. Luke kicks his foot out to stop the door before it hits the end. He pokes his head out and pecks me on the lips before I try to buy some time for Luke to hide.

Luke's been coming over since I officially broke up with Hunter while my mom has been at work. She usually gets off at around midnight, but I guess I lost track of time and had Luke stay longer. We were going through some old pictures, but I didn't remember anything too special. Luke tried to keep his patience, but I could tell he would get frustrated at times, so I'd pretend to remember a few things so he'd be a little more hopeful.

"Alexandra! You awake?!" My mom yells from the kitchen. I smile at Luke and tell him to be quiet again before I dash out of my room. I close my door behind me, and start jogging towards the kitchen. My mom is sitting down at the table with her hands crossed and a tired look on her face. "What are you doing up?" She asks me with a smile on her face. I sit down in front of her next to the small Christmas decorations sitting on the table.

"Not much.. I guess I couldn't really sleep." My phone vibrates on my lap, but I ignore it so this talk with my mom can get over with. "I was thinking tomorrow we could go visit our old house? That might bring back some childhood memories that we couldn't get back with just pictures. I have work, but I can take it off.." My mom says as she messes with her nails. "We could do that some other time when you don't have work? It can wait, I'm fine." I fake yawn and try to look as tired as possible. "You're right. Maybe this weekend. You look tired, honey.. Maybe you should keep trying to go to bed. I know I'm going to." My mom slightly laughs as she pushes the chair out so she can stand up. She stretches her arms out above her head as she yawns. I nod my head and stand up along with her.

When I walk past the window I see snow falling from the sky in thick patches. I can't see past it, and it looks like a blizzard. I walk slowly to my room until my mom is out of sight, then I start running. When I open the closet door I see Luke looking at my clothes hanging. "You look really nice in this sweater. You should wear it more." Luke says with a smile on his face. He holds out an old fashioned, oversized Christmas sweater with a sewn on reindeer on the front.

I laugh before I can tell Luke to "sh". He pulls it off its hanger and throws it over to me. I look at him with a confused looks as he slowly walks out of the closet to make sure my mom doesn't hear him. "Here, put it on." Luke says as he sits back down on my bed. Right now I just have on a pair of black leggings and an old shirt that I got at a local concert. Luke leans his arms behind him for support as he looks at me.

I hold the sweater out in front of me and laugh at the unattractive sweater. I look at my door and try to hear if she's anywhere near my room. When I'm convinced she's in bed I lift my shirt up and replace it with the giant sweater. "Do I need to leave?" Luke says with pouted lips. I look out my window and see that the snow is still coming down hard. My mom leaves for work tomorrow at 10, so I don't know if she'll check in on me. I take a deep breathe and sit down next to Luke on the bed.

"You might have a better chance of staying here if my mom knew.." I say as I look down at the floor as I wave my feet back and fourth. "Your mom can't know. Not until you remember." Luke says in a stern voice. "What if I don't remember? What if it never comes back to me, then does my mom never find out?" A single tears falls from my eyes at just the thought of never remembering. "Don't think that. You'll remember. We just need to be patient, and once we spark your memory you'll see what's been going on." Luke says in a raspy voice. I can tell he's tired and doesn't want to leave, but I know my mom will kill me if she finds out I've been seeing Luke, especially because it's been behind her back.

I lay my back down on the bed and try to catch my breath. Luke does the same thing and lifts my hand off of my stomach and collides it with his. "You will remember. Just trust me."

I roll off the bed with a smile on my face, and lift up the blanket that was tucked into the mattress. Luke rolls on his side and looks over at me. "What's this?" He says, confused again. "You can stay tonight, if you promise to wake up before ten." I say as Luke's eyes immediately light up.

He nods his head and gets on the other side of my bed. The first thing he does is wrap his arms around my waist and intertwines his fingers with mine. "Alex.. You're freezing.." Luke says quietly. Partially because he doesn't want my mom to hear, and because it's late and he's tired. I reach over and turn my lap off as I close my eye. "My mom refuses to turn the heat up.." I say.

Luke presses his body against mine, and puts his head in the middle of my shoulder and neck, keeping me warm. I can practically hear the snow hitting down on my window, but it calms me down. My blinds are open, so when i open my eyes I can see the light shining down on the road behind my house, and all the snow that's falling into the light.

Luke's already asleep as I start to drift off. I start not to care if my mom walks in, but I know that I should. I can see a car driving through the snow, and slowing down as it gets to my house, but I ignore it as I close my eyes again and fall asleep.

(AYE ITS CARVER AGAIN! I KNOW ITS SHORT BUT I WANTED TO GET BACK TO THE REGULAR DAYS AND PUBLISH TONIGHT SO HERE YOU GO! VOTE AND COMMENT PLS (lowkey follow my Instagram @fallinforluke pls) :-) have a gr8 night)