𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓, luke patterson

eighteen

E I G H T E E N

I wanna love like you made me feel
When we were eighteen

      REGGIE AND ALEX BURSTED OUT LAUGHING AS SOON AS LUKE CLOSED HIS LOCKER.

"Could you please stop laughing?" He asked them.

"What? Do we remind you of Peyton's lips?" Questioned Reggie making Alex laugh even more.

"He laughed when he kissed her," said between laughs Alex, trying not to cry. "God you are so pathetic."

"I don't know why I did it, okay!?" He walked towards his next class, with the guys following him. "I wanted to kiss her. I want to kiss her," he corrected himself. "But every time I'm actually kissing her, I can only think "Oh shit, I'm kissing Peyton, isn't that hilarious?" and I start laughing."

"Maybe you were nervous," suggested Alex. "You've been friends with her for so long that maybe now that it's different, you are just scared."

"I'm not scared. What I am is pissed off," he complained, entering the classroom and tossing his bag aside the desk, sitting down. "It has never happened to me before. For some reason, I feel like laughing every time I'm near her. Today, when I was driving her to school, I wanted to put my hand on her leg, and just the thought of it made me burst out laughing. I had to lie to her, saying that I saw a squirrel stumbling with a rock."

"You just have to loosen up a bit. Forget best friend Peyton," said Reggie, placing his hands on Luke's shoulders. "Think girlfriend Peyton. Think of kissing Peyton, making out with Peyton. Think... Peyton in that black dress she has—"

"Reggie, I like where you are going but I don't want you thinking of Peyton in that dress," interrupted Luke, hitting him on the hand. Reggie sat down on his chair, raising his hands defeated. "But you are right, I need to stop seeing Peyton as my best friend, rather the girl I'm seeing. That should be easy."

"Yeah, especially now that you have to help her with her driving exam." Luke turned around terrified, looking at his blond friend. "You do remember her test is on two days, right? You promised you would help her."

"I wanted to at least be able to kiss her before dying," he mumbled. "I completely forgot about that exam. If I die, please make my life into a movie. Bohemian Rhapsody style."

"We'll do," said Reggie, and their class started.

The whole day Luke was worried of seeing Peyton to practice driving. He was nervous he would laugh again.

"I'm ready for my class, professor," said Peyton as she got into the truck, where Luke was waiting for her. "Shouldn't I be sitting there?"

"Right, of course, you are the driver, Brian O'Conner," he said to her as she sat down on his lap before passing to the side, making him raise his eyebrows as he slide to the shotgun. "Ok so please... try not to kill us, ok?"

"Don't get ideas on my mind," she whispered, starting the truck.

"Is this about yesterday? Because I actually wanted to talk to you about that. See, when I laughed—"

But he was abruptly interrupted by Peyton hitting the pedal. He quickly held on to any solid object he could find, closing his eyes.