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𝔉linging open her apartment door, Arabella was more than ready to shout at whoever had disturbed her revision session, until she came face to face with a sheepish looking Luke. The teenager's shoulders were hunched, an awkward grin on his face, and a carrier bag in his hands.
"Uh, hi. I brought food...?" Luke's words were soft, stumbling over each other as he tried to appear less awkward. He looked cleaner than the last time she had seen him, his clothes patched over and his hair styled.
"What type?" Luke licked his lips, before looking into the carrier bag and then at her.
"Chinese. You, uh, said you wanted to do a movie night?" That brought a grin to Arabella's face, as she motioned for Luke to step in. He obliged, brushing past her as he put the cartons of food on the table and toed his shoes off. "Where are the plates?"
"No need!" Arabella called, sweeping her revision into a pile and dumping it into her room. Luke raised an eyebrow. "What? We can eat from the carton."
Reluctantly, Luke followed her over, accepting the cutlery she handed him as the opening screen of the movie began to play.
"What movie is this?" Arabella glanced over at him, as she opened up her box of food and grinned.
"The first Harry Potter. I normally put a film on when I'm revising." Luke thought for a moment, trying to remember whether he had ever heard of this 'Harry Potter' guy before. Arabella turned, before catching sight of the look on his face. "You're kidding? Do you not know what Harry Potter is?"
"No...?" Luke replied, slumping down into his seat as he played with his food. Ever since he had left Camp, he had become more and more aware of a world that he had fallen out of touch with.
Despite having been the best sword fighter at Camp, one of the few to have been on a quest and survived, as well as the Head Councillor for the Hermes cabin with the knowledge that the Olympian gods existed, he felt that Arabella still knew more than him and the rest of the Camp combined.
Whilst they had all been preparing for the day when they were sent back into the world, to inevitably die, Arabella had been growing up and getting her own place (from the looks of things) as well as studying for something or other. Despite being the same age as the girl, he felt like she could probably outsmart him in every single way.
"Don't look so glum!" Luke turned away from his thoughts at the sound of Arabella's voice. She was grinning, though there was no hint of maliciousness in it, and he smiled back carefully. "Look, you're gonna love these films. They're so cool."
"I'll believe you then," Luke managed to muster up a stronger grin, as he watched Arabella begin to inhale the contents of the boxes. Old habits died hard, for him at least, as the blond boy looked around for a brazier to burn some of his meal, but found none. He had to get out of that habit.
"Also, where did you get this food?" She began, slurping down a noodle and wiping the sauce away from her face. Luke looked up, cocking an eyebrow. "Because this is some of the best Chinese I've had in a long time. You managed to get my favourites."
"Lucky guess, I suppose." Luke nodded, before paling at the sight of the snake in the zoo exhibit on the screen. He really did not like snakes. "There's a..uh...a Chinese place down the street from here."
Arabella smiled over at the taller teenager but stopped herself from asking any more questions, though she had a lot going around her head.
For example, why had Luke never watched the Harry Potter movies? They were some of the biggest films on the planet, yet he seemed to have never heard of it. Also, what was his obsession with keeping his food close to him. He looked like he thought someone was going to take it from him. But, why? And, he kept glancing around like someone was going to attack him, his fingers drumming against the side of the food carton. What had scared Luke so much that he was now constantly paranoid?
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"What did you think?" Luke leant back on the couch, his eyes having gone slightly blurry at the lateness of the hour and the amount of TV the pair had watched. There weren't any TVs at Camp, not ones like Arabella's anyway, and you could only steal so much stuff without being caught. The last time he had truly watched TV was when he ran away from home, before he'd been dragged into this entire mess.
"It was...amazing!" Luke struggled to find the right word, a grin working it's way onto his face. Arabella's laugh caused him to turn around and look at her. She had stood up off the couch and gone over to a bookshelf, picking one of the titles out and passing it over to him. Luke furrowed his eyes, trying to read the title of it.
"Harry...Potter and...."
"And the Philosopher's Stone." She explained, leaning over the back of the seat, a smile still on her face. "It's the first book in the Harry Potter series, there's six more after it."
"Really?"
"Yeah, take it and have a read. It's a good book," She explained, before Luke pursed his lips and shook his head.
"I...I can't." He tried to hand the book back, but she refused.
"No, seriously, I'm offering."
"Arabella, I can't take this from you. That's too generous." Luke tried to explain, without truly explaining, why he couldn't take it. She didn't get the hint.
"I've practically memorized it by now," She pushed herself off of the side of the couch and began to gather up the rubbish. "It's a good book to start with. Take any others off of my shelf if you want something to read."
"Arabella, I really can't." Luke began, standing up to try and give the book back to her.
"Why?" Luke huffed and licked his lips, before placing the book into her hands.
"I'm dyslexic, reading isn't for me. I've never been good at it." Arabella narrowed her eyes at that, before shaking her head.
"Just because you're dyslexic, doesn't mean you can't read. Just, take your time and take it slow, you'll get it." She placed the book into his hand, before turning away again, as Luke reluctantly put the book in his bag. "And I should know. I'm training to be a nurse."
Luke huffed, a smirk on his face as she sent him a cheeky grin.
"Anyway, are you going to be up and leaving in the middle of the night? Or are you gonna hang around some more?" Luke's smirk fell, an embarrassed hue sneaking up his cheeks.
"I've actually got to go," He said, rubbing the back of his neck as Arabella nodded. "But, I'll expect a letter from you soon."
"You know it."
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Hiya,
So, I kind of remembered, that Luke probably has to relearn all of the things that he missed out on at Camp, like movies and tv shows etc. and he's also, most likely, super paranoid about everything. Anyway, I liked this chapter. Luke and Arabella are sweet.
Let me know what you think, and I'll see you soon,
