As my nerves grew, I thought it best to try and escape back to my room. "I should get back to my dad; he's probably worried."
Luke, seemingly snapped back to reality from wherever he was in his mind, simply nodded his head in agreeance. I flashed him a quick, lippy smile and got up from my seat-- scraping the metal feet against the concrete floors. Giving one last look before exiting the patio balcony, I tugged on the door handle, but to my dismay it didn't budge. I tried several more times before panicking.
"I think the door is broken." I said mousily.
Luke rolled his eyes and made his way to the door. "It's not broken; you just need a room key.." He dug around in his pockets. "Which I do not have."
My eyes grew wide, and I became angry. "And I didn't bring mine either because I expected to get my book and leave."
"Sorry for letting you meet the band. I'll remember that next time I see a girl drooling over us, she's actually just brooding in resentment," Luke scoffed, and I mimicked his reaction.
"Please," I rolled my eyes at his boyish, albeit surprisingly sophisticated, comment.
Luke's fists clenched and released at his sides as he took a deep breath. If I didn't know Luke as well as I think I know him, I'd have thought he was restraining himself from hitting me. "You have a phone, do you not?"
I sighed and pulled my phone out of my pocket, but I knew it would do no good. "Maybe it'd have a charge if I would have gone back to my room after being physically shoved out of yours."
"And I left mine inside." He mumbled.
"Of course you did," I said to myself under my breath.
Luke's icey eyes were melting slowly as we made our way back to the table. "I'm sorry."
I looked up at his hard yet apologetic face. I'm in awe at how this boy can be so physically contradicting. "I could think of worse things." I admitted.
Honestly, I could think of a million worse things starting with anything else.
Luke forced a smile, and I felt guilty that he was stuck out here with me. "Sorry you couldn't have been trapped with a less interesting person."
Luke's eyes grew with his face as he let out a quick and challenging laugh. "Hah! You're the most interesting person I've come across in a while. I mean, if one could consider annoying yet strangely charming interesting." Luke's face glew a warm pink, and I found my own racing to red. I tucked my bottom lip inside my mouth. "Wow, Luke, you better watch out or someone might find your compliments almost too nice."
He rolled his eyes, and I planned to get used to seeing his blue irises disappear for milliseconds at a time. After a good minute of silence, I heard Luke let out a low chuckle.
I ran my eyes up his chest to his face and looked at him quizzically. "I just don't get you." He laughed again only to further explain just as I was opening my mouth. "Of course, as you so kindly pointed out earlier, we've only known each other for a short time. Just barely. But from what I've seen and gathered, you're just completely-- you're a frustrating person."
"Is that another one of your compliments? Because it isn't flattering." I scrunched up my face, confused with what he was trying to get across.
He was still smiling-- hardly, but smiling-- and his eyes settled on mine. I relaxed my face and slowly drew my gaze away.
"Like that!" He exclaimed, throwing his hands toward my face.
"Like what?!" I asked incredulously. "I didn't even do anything."
"You have this cutting, "I'm-in-control" persona, and then three seconds later it's like you've melted into this entirely new and soft person. It's just confusing. I can never tell when you're being sincere." He settled back in his seat, silently apologizing for bursting.
"One of my best qualities," I concurred, and he looked about ready to strangle me. "And the same could be said about you, really." I reminded him.
"But it's not the same." He folded his arms and sunk into his chair, and he squinted his eyes as he studied me.
"Can you stop?" I asked, trying to look anywhere but at him.
"Not until I figure you out." He protested, squinting harder.
"Well that's not gonna happen today, and merely squinting your eyes won't help." I sigh and rolled my eyes and copied him by crossing my arms. I looked over the railing of the balcony at the building across form us. It's large and a muddy brown, not unlike most other buildings in this town, but its windows are tall and dark, but not so dark that you can't see inside. Inside were gold ceilings and people walking around looking at various fixtures and pieces of furniture. I found comfort in its average-ness.
"And merely looking at another building won't help you out of this one." Luke whispered. His accent thickens when he talks loudly or quietly, and I found it excruciatingly endearing.
I drew my lip back into my mouth and looked down at my hands, tugging on them.
"I make you nervous." Luke stated, again, in a quiet voice.
"As if that's anything kind of reward. Who don't you make nervous?" I still avoided eye contact and pulled the sleeves of my shirt down past the palms of my hands.
"Oh, I know I make you nervous; I've known that, but I just wanted to make sure what I thought was right, and it was." He smirked, pleased with himself.
"And what would you be right about?" I pursed my lips and looked at him plainly as if I were challenging him.
"You tug on your fingers when you're nervous." He shrugged lightly.
Instinctively, I reached for my fingers but refrained knowing it would give him even more satisfaction. "I bet that was a tough one to figure out."
Luke scoffed and shook his head slightly. "You just don't let anyone win, do you?"
"And you do?" I challenged, growing annoyed with his assumptions about me.
"Well I at least admit it." He pulled his leg up onto the chair and hugged his knee while resting his head on top, still staring at me.
"I never said you were wrong." I spoke, my volume increasing. I stopped and gathered myself. "I'm just really good at not being the center of anyone's attention." I said flatly.
"Hate to break it to you, Eleanour, but I think people give you a lot more attention than you'd like to realize." He chewed on his lip right where his piercing would meet his teeth, and my stomach churned as I felt his intense watch on me.
I swallowed. "Sorry."
Luke squeezed his eyes shut in frustration. "If you apologize one more time, I'm keeping your book, reading it, and then spoiling the ending."
I gave him a sympathetic smile. "I already know how it ends."
He looked at me with a disbelieving expression. "How?"
"I always read the end of a book first. I hate surprises." I shrugged it off as if it were common knowledge.
Luke smiled, satisfied. "Well, I now know one more thing about you. I am slowly catching up to however much you know about me."
"I really don't know that much about you. Like, aside from what's readily available on the internet, I don't know you at all. I try to stay away from all the minute details in case I ever end up in a situation like this." I spoke rapidly and scanned his entire being as I did so.
"Fair enough. But seriously, I don't care if you don't like surprises; what kind of person reads the ending first?" Luke was bewildered, and his face was that of a five year old who just found out his best friend doesn't like dinosaurs.
"I read the spoilers for movies and shows too. But it's really not that terrible. I once read the last sentence of a book, and I thought they were gonna get married, but the boy died twenty one chapters in." I couldn't help but let my smile play out on my face.
"Are there any other obsurd things you do that I should know about?" Growing more interested, Luke rested his elbows on the table and propped his head on one hand.
"Well, it's not really something I do, but I don't really like pizza all that much..." I puckered my lips and then drew them back while looking passed Luke.
He didn't say anything until he started yelling. "Help! I'm trapped with a maniac!"
I grew paranoid that someone would hear and cowered. "Luke..."
"Honestly, El, who doesn't like pizza?"
"Me. That's who." I was becoming agitated by his constant questioning. "I ate it too often as a kid."
"That would have been heaven!"
"Yeah, because having your parents work past eight every night and having your sister only know how to make one kind of food is really heaven," I mumbled.
Luke relaxed in his seat again and picked at the metal table. "So you have a sister?"
This casual talk is killing me. I'm literally trapped with Luke Hemmings-- every girls dream (including my own)-- and I want to jump off the side of this building.
"Yup. Married and lives in Florida. You'd probably like her better than me. Everyone else does." I rolled my eyes and sunk into my chair. I aggresively chipped off my nail polish.
"Yeah, everyone like Jack more than me too. I'm in a super successful band, and he's still the favorite." Luke empathized, and I couldn't help but glance up. He wasn't looking at me either.
"He is extremely handsome." I teased, but I kept a straight face knowing I'd get a rise out of Luke.
"I can't even win you over." He slammed his hands down on the table in irritation.
"Please, I've been trying to collect my trophy for years." I immediately regretted what I said and wished I were invisible. "I'm sorry. That was weird."
"Yes it was, but I'll take it. Turns out we're both really bad at giving compliments. I believe that's four things I now know about you." Luke was too easily pleased with himself, and it bugged me, but it was also adorable.
"Oh, you're keeping tallies? One more and you'll be right at home." I smirked, getting my own fun out of this.
Luke smiled wide, teeth and all. "Funny. You're really funny." He said sarcastically.
"I try." I smiled back. I looked around wondering what time it was. "How long do you think we'll be out here?"
"I don't know, but if we're out here past dark it's a shame we won't be able to see the stars." He slowed his words and drew his eyes toward me, hinting at the fact that he heard me.
I darted my eyes to him, embarrassed.
"If that's your biggest concern, there are tons of places to see them. Ashton asks to drive out to see them sometimes while we're here. And if all else fails, I'm pretty sure there's some giant obersvatory." Luke was trying to be comforting, and it was working.
"Yeah, thanks." I said quietly while pulling at the loose strings hanging from the buttons of my shirt.
"Don't get insulted, but why aren't you completely freaking out right now? Or at all? You never really had the typical cry and hug and frantically ask for a picture and follow reaction." Luke looked at me warily as if he were scared of my reaction.
"Well, I feel like that's sort of a first time only thing, and since our first was unfortunately covered in Raisin Bran, I didn't feel like I'd get a second chance to do so. Not to mention you were extremely rude, still kind of are, and I felt more comfortable with that anyway. Plus, I don't really think you're all that special." I rambled and ended with a nonchalant shrug.
Luke's mouth was just barely agape, and his eyes were squinted again.
"I mean, not that you aren't special, I just don't really think celebrities-- are you even a celebrity? Like you are but you're not? I don't know but I just don't think they are any better than anyone else. I mean, you are-- you're extremely talented and handsome and funny and tall and I'm going to stop talking." I bit down on my lip hard and tugged at the ends of my shirt sleeves while studying the pattern of the table top. I snuck a peek at Luke to see him a light shade of pink as he held back a smile and, I'm sure, a laugh.
"And there's your reaction." Luke looked smug, and I couldn't stand it.
I nodded in defeat. "Hope it didn't damage your ego any."
He bit his lip, holding back whatever he wanted to say, but it wasn't helping the fact that I wanted to attack those very lips with my own. I think he caught me looking at his lips, but we really can't be sure.
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i had to rewrite everything bc i lost the first draft, but it's probably still not good. also, I was writing in terror because there was a giant spider in my bed, but I killed it. anyway, thanks for reading. Hope you all had a great Christmas or whichever holiday you celebrate. :)
