Parallels- an MCSM AU [COMPLETED]

THIRTY-SEVEN - Still

woooowwwwwwww okay when's the last time we heard from Lukas?? fifteen...sixteen chapters ago?? holy shit. what's wrong with me.

anyways. here's some Luktra angst, because i'm like that

also! fun fact! i was originally going to have this title be something different because i lowkey hate it but i never thought of anything better so we're stuck with this! agh!

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▪Lukas's POV▪

Step, step, step, step, turn. Walk back the other way.

Four more steps. Turn again.

The action was stuck now, my body carrying out the motions even if my mind didn't want to.

But I did want to. I had buckets and buckets of restless energy, and it had only one place to go- pacing.

"For god SAKES, Lukas! You've been doing nothing but walking back and forth for an hour! Can you please calm down?" Aiden implored. He was sitting on my bed, watching me pace with increasing frustration. This had to be at least the third time he asked me to stop.
He hadn't asked what was wrong, but I knew he had a few guesses.

"No, I can't calm down! I don't know what calm means!" I exclaimed back.

He gave me a weary look. "Dear, you're gonna start wearing holes in the floor. Siddown and chill the hell out."

I dropped my gaze nervously. "I can't. I'm too freaked out right now, I don't know what to do."

Aiden sighed. "Lukas...you are not solving anything with this. I don't even care if you're still angry at Jess, or freaked out about Petra, or having a manic episode, or if there's something completely different going on...but you gotta calm down. At this rate, you're gonna be pacing all night, and I'm never going to get any sleep."

"How am I supposed to calm down?" I asked with a touch of panic. "She's here! Did you see the look she gave me?! I can't deal with this right now!"

I paused in my pacing, stringing my hands through my hair. "What if she's still angry? What if she blames me? Hell, she probably does- I blame me, after all! What if-"

"LUKAS HOLY SHIT. You are LOSING IT." Aiden got up and stood in front of me, grabbing my hands. "This has been going on long enough. Stop talking. Stop moving. Take a deep breath, and shut up long enough to listen to me."

I raised my eyebrows, surprised at his bluntness. He could still be properly intimidating when he wanted to. I did as he asked, though, dragging in a deep breath and forcing myself to relax. My muscles were still tense, and I instinctively wanted to keep walking.

"Okay. You good?" he asked. I nodded hesitantly. "Good. Now, chill. The fuck. Out. You're being an idiot, and kind of insane. I'm aware that there's too much going on, and you're stressed. There's a lot that we can't do anything about. But you know what you can do something about?"

I shook my head immediately, already guessing where he was going with this. "No, no, Aiden, I can't. I don't want to...I'm just not ready to..."

"When are you gonna be ready?" Aiden pressed gently. "The tension between you and her isn't gonna go away just because you don't want to deal with it. You've been stressing about this for months. The whole reason we started dating was because you wanted to get your mind off her. Now she's here, and you can just talk to her, and deal with all the shit you've been carrying around for months."