Making it.

Chapter 26 - I'd love that.

"Good morning ladies." The boys stand there all dressed up on the other side of my door in Mike's house.

"Morning." Milli grumbles with her head still in my pillows while I stifle a yawn.

"Why do you look the way you do?" I ask them – Luke in particular – after stepping aside for them to walk into my room.

"Because today's our first official dating day." Luke answers me and that gets my best friend up and out of bed, wide awake to slap my arm repeatedly.

"And you did not think to tell me?"

"I'm sorry that I was too busy holding all of your guys' weight during twister last night." I sarcastically reply and hold her slapping hands in order to stop the hurtful movements.

"Tss. Don't lie now. All of you were on top of me." My Cousin comments and before this can blow up into an argument between us, Luke puts an arm around me.

"Can we get going? I have a lot planned."

"But I don't have anything good to wear." I complain slightly while I gesture to his dark sweatpants and hoodie from yesterday.

"You look good in anything." He smiles and gives me a kiss on the cheek and I can literally feel Milli hold back her squeal.

"Now, before you two get it on in front of us, should we bring in the little surprise?" Sammy asks and walks out of my room, not bothering to await Luke's respond.

He hands Milli and me a store bag each and we quickly take out what's in. I see a simple pair of black jeans and a baby blue brand sweater.

My best friend has the same clothes, only that she has a mint green brand sweater, matching the colour of her eyes.

"I'm guessing that we are going out too?" She raises an eyebrow at Sammy and he grins. "It's going to blow your mind. The entire week will." He states confidently and she can't hold back the smile on her face.

"Now who did not say anything?" I tease before we shoo the boys out to get changed.

"Hailey, I think we won the lottery." Milli exclaims when I shut the door and I take long and quick steps towards her.

"I know. Let's do this." I whisper back, in fear the boys are eavesdropping which they probably are anyways. She nods with a grin and we get ready as fast as possible.

On that day, Luke took me on a little picknick a bit farther away from the city since all the restaurants and places are still closed for the national holiday today. We were seated in a little park, near a calm lake. He had brought a few blankets, self-made sandwiches – as he claimed – and a little laptop so we could watch action movies together. Although we didn't really watch much of the movies, we mostly just talked and I got to know a lot more things that I already love about him. That same night, we went back to the school where Milli and Sammy had been waiting on us to eat take out dinner together and then we came up with the insane idea to play hide and seek on our floor of the school since most of the other students were either out partying or staying somewhere else, we had the entire hallway to ourselves. In the end, I had stubbed my toe one to many hurtful times because Sammy switched the light off so fucking often during the game.

On Friday, the four of us went to a roller-skating arena in form of a double date. It was a real sight to see Luke master the arts of roller skating like a pro while I did not want to let go of the railing at first. As we went on, he had thought me to do a spin together at which we may have or may have not fallen down while doing. The competitive person that I am, we challenged each other to a little race at the end, in which Milli and I had raced against one another who would reach Luke or in her case Sammy first for them to stop us before we crashed into the mirrored wall behind them. Spoiler, both teams ended up smacking onto the ground with a loud thud. Yes, I do have a few bruises from everything we did together, but they only remind me of how many risks I decided to take in those moments, instead of living in fear and what-ifs.

On Saturday, the second-last day before this break was over and Milli would be gone again, the boys took us shopping. Yes, shopping. And they did not complain once during those six hours of trying things on, then putting them back and going into the next store to repeat those same two actions over and over again. At first, I had wanted to decline Luke's offer to pay for my things but he insisted and called me rude for not accepting his genuine and definitely generous gesture. I had made a mental note to pay it back to him in some way at some point this year. One thing that had I bought because of Luke yesterday was a light pink, short satin dress that he told me I had to buy no matter the heavy price of 130 pounds. That dress costed more than some people weight and I just couldn't resist trying it on because ever since I've seen it on Pinterest that one time, I've been aching to get it. When the dress was officially mine, I couldn't stop thanking Luke and showering him with little pecks every now and then during our amazing shopping spree.

Today, the last day and also the evening before Milli leaves London again, all Luke and I have been doing all morning and most of the afternoon was lay in bed and cuddle, while some Netflix shows were playing in the background. The boys couldn't help themselves but to organise one last surprise for my best friend and myself, which was a simple family dinner that the four of us had to cook together. We went to buy the groceries for a literal three course meal and started cooking at five o'clock, finishing after two exhausting, stressful and argument filled hours. It took us this long because all Milli and Sammy did was stand around and occasionally sneak some food away to eat.

So here am I now, sitting at the dining table with my dad, step-mom, uncle and aunt, cousins and half-brother, my best friend and my soon to be boyfriend.

"Dad, could you please pass me the chicken?" I ask and the entire table grows silent, all of them looking at me.

"Did I forget to say please?" I look at them, not getting what I did wrong or different as for that matter.

"What did you just call me, Hailey?" Mike looks at me as if he can't believe his own ears right now.

"Oh," Now I get it, "I called you Dad." His confused look breaks out into a smile as he stands up to hug me from behind.

"You just made me the happiest person ever, Hailey. Thank you."

"No problem, but could you now please pass me the chicken?" I play the situation down with a laugh as he kisses the top of my head in a father-daughter kind of way that I haven't experienced for several years now. "Anything for you."

"And what about me? Anything for me, Dad?" Sammy asks Uncle Josh who ruffles his hair like a seven-year-old boy.

"No, nothing for you." He jokes and Sammy's mouth opens wide in shock while we laugh at them, mostly at my now pouting cousin.

"Don't be so rude, Honey." Aunt Candice scolds her husband while my little half-brother and I exchange a cringed-out look, remembering our conversation about those nicknames a while ago.

"The food was really good." Aunt Candice praises us after we finish this family dinner and I proudly smile, "Thank you."

"Well, it obviously tasted good considering there was nobody to mess with it if only the two of us did all of the work." Luke adds, eying our best friends who just simply shrug, agreeing with his statement.

I offer to clean up the dining table while the others make themselves comfortable in the living room to watch a movie together. As I put most of the plates away, Luke walks into the kitchen with the rest of them.

"Thank you, I really appreciate it." I tell him, referring to more than him helping me with the dishes. He understands what I hint at and pulls me to him, keeping his hands steady on my waist.

"The pleasure is all mine." He quickly moves in to lightly kiss me and when we pull apart I stare into his captivating eyes, trying to get a sentence out but failing.

"I hope you'll give me a chance to teach you how to drive Lola soon." He jokes and I nod.

"I'd love that." I kiss him once more, the sparks running through my entire body just like every time we do that.

Here I am, in a kitchen, where this entire mess started. But this time, I feel whole and complete.