cool » l. hemmings

xxxii.

The last period of the last day is always full of anticipation. It's almost like that scene in High School Musical, where everyone is whispering 'summer,' together and then starts singing -- except people at this school aren't cool enough to actually do that. But it still held just as much eagerness to get out. I would start singing High School Musical songs in the middle of the hallway, if that was acceptable. I'm ashamed that it's not.

"Are we free?" Luke yelled, his arms up in the air with his head to the sky. We'd just left the school building, and there's nothing more relieving and exciting than walking out of school on the last day.

"Yes, Luke. Now stop," I giggled. When he did, he ran over to my spot on the sidewalk and almost tripped over his foot.

"We're not free yet, though," he said. "Brooke's coming down next Friday. Maybe sooner." A grin was held on his face and never faltered as we walked home.

"I still feel kind of bad about that." My head shook, but a small laugh was attached to the end of the sentence.

"No need," Luke pulled my side closer to him and kissed the top of my head. I grinned.

"So I have to tell you something." I didn't know if I should. But then again, my mom only told me not to tell Grady. That doesn't mean I can't say anything to Luke about it. "Grady may be able to do speech therapy. Maybe for his birthday."

"That's so much more exciting than what I wanted to do!" he pouted, but smiling at what I had told him.

I jumped on a tree stump off to the side of our path, then hopped off and continued walking. "What were you planning?" I asked. I found it nice how people we've only known for a matter of months were doing something as nice as giving or doing something for Grady for his birthday.

"Taking him to the cliff. Because, you know, you said he likes stuff like that just as much as you do," Luke said.

"I was thinking about that."

"So, did you ask your mom about everything?" he asked from in front of me, unlocking his front door and letting us inside.

"That's what she told me she was happy for. And everything has been going really, really good for a while," a content sigh fell from my lips, "Things are great."

"Little Michelle is happy."

"Yes, she is."

"I have somewhere I want to take you," Luke told me, confidence held in his voice. "It's cool."

"You're always taking me cool places and I feel bad for being so boring," I chuckled, my head laying on his lap as he looked down at me.

"You're not boring, you're just less exciting than everybody else."

"Woah, that's so much different. My confidence just rose through the clouds."

"Glad I could help," he smiled. "But really, I realized we don't even leave our houses when we hang out with each other. And it's almost always with Grady and Ethan around."

I sat up and looked at him, "Luke Hemmings, are you saying you want to be alone? With me?" Mock-surprise laced my words and Luke rolled his eyes.

"Michelle Cross, are you implying that I would risk being caught in public alone with you?" he mimicked, his face inching closer to mine.

"It's a chance I think you're willing to take," I shrugged, kissing him shortly before he could do it himself. I'd realized that the only times we'd ever kissed it was because of him, and I at least wanted to make him feel like I wanted to kiss him, too.