HARD TIMES ━ lip gallagher²

02 | more tricks

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"CAN I INVITE ALEX over for dinner?" Silvia asked, leaning against her doorframe after a series of annoying knocks. Amara glanced up from the page she was writing on in confusion, meeting her sister's gaze

"Alex?" She questioned in response. "Who's Alex?"

"The boy I'm dating."

Amara sat up and flipped her journal shut. "You have a boyfriend? Since when?"

"Well it's not official," Silvia grinned and flopped down next to her. "But I want you to meet him. He's nice. Funny. Bought me flowers yesterday at school."

Amara raised her brows with a smile. "Well, I promised Fi I would go to this club with her tonight. Why don't you swing by the pool later and bring him with you? I can meet him then?"

"Yeah," Silvia nodded. "That'll probably be better, anyway. Don't want him to have to eat your terrible cooking."

"Hey!" Amara protested, chucking a pillow at her as she darted out of her room. "It's not that bad!"

"Whatever you have to tell yourself!"

Amara scoffed in offense, and fell back against her wall, grabbing her notebook again. "Rude."

"Oh," Silvia poked her head back into Amara's room. "Lip is downstairs. He said he wanted to walk you to work."

"Tell him to lick a butthole," Amara replied, not looking up. "I don't want him to walk me."

Silvia groaned. "You know, this whole thing you've got going on between you two is very annoying."

"Uh-huh."

"Why don't you just woman up and tell him how you feel? It's obvious he still-"

"Because I don't know how I feel, okay?" Amara rolled her eyes. "I want to hate him, and a small part of me does. He dumped me for someone else, and if he did that once, who's to say he won't do it again? He's an asshole, and I deserve better."

Silvia scrunched up her nose. "He's trying so hard to make it up to you. I can tell. He keeps asking me how to fix things, I mean, he's like a lost puppy."

Amara sighed. "I don't know what it'll take for me to forgive him, and walking me to work sure as hell isn't going to change anything, either. I'm not sure anything will. He treated me like garbage. So tell him to go home."

Her sister hesitated, but nodded. "See you at the pool later? I'll bring Alex."

Amara waved her off. "Sure, whatever."

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"You know sneaking out the front door isn't going to keep me away," Lip's voice said from below, but Amara didn't remove her gaze from the pool. "We've done that trick together so many times. Did you honestly think I couldn't tell that's what you were doing?"

She didn't answer. Lip heaved a sigh and shifted on his feet. "Will you at least look at me?"

"I'm at work," she replied dryly. "Gotta make sure there aren't any drowning kids."

"Right, yeah, I get that."

Amara tried her best not to, but her eyes darted down to him for a split second. Luckily, her sunglasses saved her, and she looked away again. "So why are you still here?"

"Because I know I messed up. And I'm really sorry. I've been beating myself up over it for months. Rehab really cleared my mind. And I miss you."

"Bet you miss that professor you dumped me for to fuck more, though, don't you?"