High School With Hemmings

Chapter 12

The next morning was slightly awkward, but I think Mrs. Hood forgave us because she served us a full breakfast with eggs, bacon and pancakes. We're all going swimming and tubing in the afternoon and we're going to a party later tonight. We ate our breakfast and cleaned our dishes and headed upstairs to put our bathing suits on. Luke has never seen me in a bikini so this will be interesting.

"Hey, Ellie, should I wear this bikini," I say while holding up one that's black with white polka dots, "Or this," I say while holding up the other plain navy bikini.

She pops her head out of the bathroom door; her face still covered in sun lotion. "I like the navy one. It suits you," she says and grins at her cheesy pun. She goes back into the bathroom.

"Thanks!" I yell to her and smile. "I'm getting changed so don't come out yet,"

"Alright," she says. I lock the door and take off my pajamas. I slip on the two pieces and I agree that this does look better on me than the other one.

"Okay, I'm done," I knock on the bathroom door. She opens it, and looks me up and down.

"Holy shit Marilyn, you look hot," she says, emphasizing the word "hot".

My cheeks redden at her comment and I shrug. "Thanks... I guess," I smile to her and start to get ready in the bathroom while she changes outside. I brush my teeth and fix my hair a little bit. I mean, we are going tubing, so it will eventually get messed up. When we are both finished, we grab our towels and head downstairs. The boys are still upstairs so we sit in the kitchen and talk. "So how have things been with Calum?" I ask Ellie.

"It's alright, I guess. Nothing that great has really happened. What about you and Luke? I know you two almost kissed the other day but Michael had to go and ruin the whole damn thing," she says.

"What did I ruin this time?" Michael eagerly asks as he walks into the kitchen.

"Uhh... Um," I stumble on words.

"You ruined everything last night. Luke and Marilyn were going to kiss and you stopped them. Do you know how long she's been waiting for that to happen?" Ellie rants. I look down at my feet, too embarrassed to look Michael in the eyes.

"I'm... I'm really sorry about that Marilyn. I know it meant a lot to you and I don't know why I said anything. I just really, really...." Michael says as his head turns to see the other three boys walking into the kitchen. "Nevermind," he says and looks away. I still wonder what he wanted to say, but I am too occupied with how great Luke looks without a shirt on. I stare him up and down. He looks hot. Really, really hot. I see Luke eye me up and down, never taking his eyes off of me for a second.

"Hey guys!" I say and stand up from my chair and put my arm around Luke's side. He smiles down to me, and I grasp him just a little tighter. Ellie walks over and stands next to Calum. His mom is outside doing yard work, and she said we were allowed to use the boat today. We all walk out the back door and down the path to the water.

As we're walking, Luke says quietly in my ear, "You look absolutely beautiful in that bathing suit," I blush and grin.

"Thank you Luke," I say. He then playfully pokes my side and I shriek and start giggling, and he laughs. "You're cute, you know that right?" he asks with a huge smile. I just roll my eyes and shug, maintaining eye contact with him. He pulls me sideways against his bare chest as we reach the shore.

There is a wooden dock with a small boat attached to it. There is just enough room for all of us to fit. We grab the tube out from under the deck and attach it to the back of the boat. Everyone puts their life jackets on and gets in. Calum and Ellie are the first ones to tube while Ashton drives. Luke and I sit at the front of the boat facing towards the tube. Michael sits in the passenger side, with a small frown on his face. I ignore Michael while he sulks and focus on talking with Luke. He goes on about how he went tubing in another lake before, so he is apparently a pro at it. "I'm sure you are," I say and look up to him as I let out a little giggle. "Just wait until I push you off," I threaten playfully.

"Not unless I push you first!" We bicker back and forth for a minute and then I shut him up by daringly kissing him on the cheek. He smiles back down to me and his hand finds mine and we lace our fingers together. We turn our attention back to Ellie and Cal, and we can see him almost standing up on the tube. His hands grasp Ellie's back to keep him steady. He slowly releases her and is standing up on his own. "Nice one Cal!" Luke yells and waves a thumbs up to him. Calum reaches his hand up to wave to us, but loses his balance and tumbles into the water. I can see Ellie laughing as we spin the boat around to pick up Cal. When he is trying to get back up on the tube, Ellie reaches her hand out to him and pulls him up.

"That was awesome!" Calum exclaims and shakes his hair out. They both get back onto the boat and Luke and I hop on.

"Michael, are you sure that you don't want to come on?" I yell to him as we begin to drift away from the boat.

"No, you guys have fun," he replies with a straight face. I shrug and turn to Luke. We both smile at each other.

"Are you ready?" I ask competitively.

"Of course," he says, "I can take you on any day,"

"I wouldn't be so confident if I were you," I tease him and before he has a chance to answer, Ashton starts the motor and we pick up speed. Since there are only three handles on the tube, Luke and I share one, his hand protectively over mine. We go on our first turn on Luke's side and I lean that way to try to push him off. He slides a little, but still keeps a strong grip. Maybe this will be harder than I originally thought. He was unable to push me off as well when we went on my turn. This went on like this for another 5 turns on each side. Luke starts to wear me out as Ashton makes a turn on my side. I feel my arms start to give out and I shout at Luke, "IM GONNA FALL!"

He turns to me and I am sliding down the tube. He tries to grab my body and pull me up, but he isn't strong enough. I hear him mumble curses and he grabs onto me. The tube is whipping us out really far and we can't hold on any longer. We both let go and crash into the water. We separate for a split second and then I feel his comforting arms wrapped around me. Our life jackets keep us afloat as he looks down at me, making sure that I'm okay. I look back up to him and start to giggle, and then I erupt into laughter. I feel his body start to shake and we laugh our heads off. The boat turns around and comes next to us. They look at us like we're crazy and we probably are. Luke and I get back on the tube and climb into the boat. Calum pulls the tube onto the boat and puts the rope under the seat and Ashton drives us back to the house. We dock the boat perfectly and grab towels to dry off. We all start walking down the path to the house to get ready for the party tonight. Luke and I hold hands as we walk down the path, slightly swaying them.

Okay guys I'm really, really, really sorry I haven't updated in forever! I've just been really busy with school and tennis! I hope you like this chapter:-)