His / l.h ✔️

13

~Asteria's POV~

The next few days were very awkward between Luke and I, to say the least. Even after three days had passed since he'd kissed me, there was still palpable tension that lingered in the air between him and I.

Currently, I sat in the living room with Cece and Cormac, while Xavier and Luke were both in their rooms. Knowing Xavier, he was probably still asleep, as it was only eleven AM. Luke, on the other hand, was probably just hiding from me. Every time he'd see me, he'd just...leave, sometimes going as far as leaving his own house just to be able to avoid being around me. It was that bad. He couldn't even stand to be in the same room as me, unless there were other people. Sometimes not even then.

Cormac and Cece were taking advantage of Luke's absence, though. When he'd leave the house, those two would disappear into her room and Xavier and I would immediately leave to go walk on the beach, not wanting to hear them having sex. Even now, they were practically dry humping each other on the other couch.

"Come on," I complained as another commercial came on the TV, looking over at the two of them. "Can't you...I don't know...go do that in a bedroom?" I groaned, throwing my head back in exasperation. Cece laughed and Cormac grinned at me as she sat on his lap, looking like the happiest dude in the world. "There's more than one TV in this house." He said back, causing me to scowl at him and flip him the finger. That happy go lucky look on Cormac's face quickly disappeared, though, when Cece got off of his lap and sat next to him instead. "Hey!" He huffed, grabbing her hand with a pout on his face. She smiled, amusement shimmering in her blue eyes when she saw the smug look that I threw at a sulking Cormac. "We can always continue later. It'd be mean to just make Ria sit in here and have to deal with us." She said thoughtfully, causing him to mumble a complaint.

"It's not my fault she's single." He huffed, earning a glare from both me and Cece. She smacked him on the back of the head and I smiled as he winced away. "Ow!" He exclaimed, frowning at her.

She sent him a scolding look, like a mother would their child. Sometimes it was hard to believe she was actually dating this idiot. "That's mean." She said simply, not an ounce of remorse in her voice. Truthfully, I was glad that she had defended me, especially to Cormac. There were a lot of friends I'd had in the past that let their boyfriends or girlfriends disrespect me just because they were dating. To me, that shouldn't be okay. If you can't tell your boyfriend when he's said or done something wrong, then what the fuck is the point?

"Fine." Cormac muttered, sending me a look. "I'm sorry." He apologized. A little smile grew on my lips and I just shrugged, not really offended when it was coming from him. I knew he didn't mean it. I also knew Cormac had a habit of saying stupid shit, as our friendship these past few years would easily prove to me. He was probably the dumbest smart person I knew.

"Hey, do either of you know what's been going on with Luke? He's been weird these last few days." Cece mentioned suddenly, the topic of Luke's weird behavior causing me to grow very uncomfortable. I just hoped it wasn't noticeable.

Cormac frowned and shook his head. "Nope. No idea." He said, eyeing her with a furrow in his brow. Her blue eyes slid over to me and she smiled. "You?" She asked. I felt a pang of guilt shoot through me as I met her gaze and forced myself to shake my head, lying right to my best friend's face. "No clue." I answered softly, frowning. I hadn't ever lied to Cece before. I'd never had a reason to. Cece was my best friend, and I trusted her more than anyone, so I had never kept secrets from her. Certainly not anything like this, either. I felt awful. She didn't deserve to be lied to like this, but I couldn't tell her. Besides...it was just a kiss.

Cece sighed deeply and ran a hand through her dirty blonde hair. "Okay. Thanks, anyways." She shrugged, a look of defeat on her face.

As if Luke had some sort of sixth sense that we were talking about him, he came sauntering down the hallway and into the living room, drawing all the attention over to him. Cece smiled at him and, at first, he returned it easily. However, when his eyes slid behind her and landed on me, his smile faded into a little frown. Immediately, he averted his gaze and walked into the kitchen, still frowning. Luckily, though, Cece didn't seem to catch onto his sudden mood change, which only happened once he saw me. How she didn't notice, I couldn't say, but I wasn't complaining. And if she did notice, she didn't say anything, but I was sure she hadn't noticed.