Each morning I am woken up by the obnoxious noise coming from my alarm clock, which means I have to roll out of Luke's arms. Most of the time he is half awake and tries to pull me back into bed. It's so hard to resist falling back into the warmth of his arms and the blanket, but I have to force myself to get ready for school. I hate school even more when Luke is home. It sucks not having him there to get me through the day like he used to, not being able to see him after every class. Knowing that I could be at home hanging out with him instead of being in class is even worse.
As I bend over to spit out the minty toothpaste into my sink, I am startled by a pair of arms wrapping around my waist.
"You scared me to death." I am sure it is hard to understand what I said since the thick stubstance is still in my mouth.
"I know," Luke responds as he lays his head on my shoulder. His raspy morning voice was so sexy and adorable at the same time, which made it even harder not to jump back in bed with him. "Stay here with me," he says to our reflections.
I spit the rest of the toothpaste and the water out or else it would have spilled out of my mouth as I tried to talk. "I can't today babe, I have a quiz in one of my classes."
He nuzzles his head into the crook of my neck. His breath on my skin sends a chill down my spine as the familiar warmth consumes my body. "Tomorrow?" He asks in a soft voice, enough to drive me crazy.
I sigh. "I'll think about it babe." I already know that I'm going to anyways, but I like to tease him just as he does to me.
"You better stay home with me," he says as he flips me around to face him. His eyes are growing darker by the second and I can tell that he is in one of those moods.
"Or what?" I ask, putting my finger to his lips and slowly slide it down to his neck.
"You'll be in big trouble," he says in a low tone and leans down towards my lips.
I move my face away from him, not giving in that easily. "What are you gonna do, spank me?" I laugh, not being able to take myself seriously as that word comes out of my mouth.
"Maybe," he winks.
"I think you'd like that too much."
"Probably." He bites down on his bottom lip before taking his lip ring in between his teeth and I could no longer keep my lips off of his anymore. He is well aware of what that action does to me.
"That doesn't mean I've made up my mind," I lie against his lips. I pull away and walk to my room.
"You are so rude," he says as he follows me like a lost puppy.
"Sorry babe. But I have to go now." I walk over to him and plant a kiss on his lips before pushing him onto my bed. "I love you," I say with a smile as I open the door.
"I love you too, meanie. Have fun at school while I sleep the day away," he teases and snuggles into the pillows. I shake my head at him and can't help but smile as I walk out the door.
Bradley doesn't talk the whole way to school, I imagine he is still upset from the news we recieved yesterday. I don't make him talk to me unlike mom would. When we arrive, I walk to my locker to find Nathan waiting for me.
"Where's Lin?" I ask him as I twist in the combination.
"I'm not sure, I haven't seen her this morning. She didn't text you or anything?" He asks back.
"No...maybe she's just running late today." I load up my bag with the books that kill my back throughout the day.
"Probably. You look nice today by the way," he says. I give him a confused look but thank him anyways. I had barely any makeup on and my hair was a little messier than usual. "Then again I think you look nice everyday," he laughs. I laugh along with him and we walk to our classes after I kick the locker door shut. He hadn't complimented me since we had our little fling, so it made me feel a little weird. I brush it off and tell myself that it was just a nice thing for him to say.
As the day goes on, I find no trace of Linley and I can only think of two reasons why she wouldn't be here. The first and the one that I had hoped for was that she might just be sick. Of course I don't want her to feel unwell, but it would be better than the second option: it finally happened.
I text her when I get to our lunch table, asking her why she didn't come today. As I feel my phone vibrate almost immediately, I check to see that the second reason was the unfortunate winner.
Michael broke it off last night. I couldn't get myself out of bed to go to school this morning, I barely slept last night. I'm sorry I didn't call you, I shut my phone off and just wanted to be alone.
My heart hurt for her, I can imagine how much pain she is in. I type back a quick reponse before telling Nathan why she wasn't here.
I thought things were getting better? Do you want me to come over after school?
Nathan is just as shocked as me. Within seconds I get another text.
I thought they were too, they were better to me at least. Thank you for the offer, but I just need to be alone. I'm a mess anyways.
I sigh and type back another message.
I'm sure you've seen me worse, you're always beautiful Lin. But okay, I will check on you later. I love you princess.
She texts back a few minutes later telling me that she loves me too. I hated seeing her like this and it brought back horrible memories of when I felt like this about Luke. I couldn't stop thinking about her for the rest of the day and it killed my good mood from this morning. I just wanted to help her.
When I step into my house after school, I hear laughing coming from the living room. Bradley immediately runs up to his room. I'm sure I wouldn't see him for the rest of the night, but I really needed to talk to him about the whole situation with mom. I decide to put it on hold for the time being. I step into the other room to find Luke and Louis watching T.V. They both turn to give me warm smiles when they hear me come in.
"What's wrong babe?" Luke asks. How he knew that I was upset about something, I had no idea. It was both a blessing and a curse that he knew me so well.
"Michael broke up with Linley," I say sadly.
"Oh. That's weird, he didn't even tell me." He is just as confused as I am.
"Yeah I didn't find out until a little bit ago, but it happened last night."
"Is she okay?" He asks.
"I don't think so. I was gonna go see her, but she said she needed to be alone which I understand," I say as I sit down on the couch and nuzzle myself into him. I notice Louis' face fall at my action and he quickly looks away from us.
Luke's expression also saddens, I imagine it is because he is also thinking about how I needed to be alone when he left. "How about we go get her some ice cream and take it over to her? We won't stay long if she doesn't want us to, but I know that ice cream always helps me," he suggests. You know you have the sweetest boyfriend in the world when he offers to bring your best friend ice cream after his best friend broke up with her. The kind gesture touched my heart and I involuntarily kissed his cheek without even thinking about it.
"You're amazing," I whisper. For a moment, I had forgotten that Louis was in the room. "Would you like to go with us Louis?" I ask. Even though he gave me a weird feeling inside ever since he basically told me that he liked me, I felt bad for leaving him out. I missed him, I didn't want our friendship to be ruined. Maybe he stopped feeling that way towards me when we found out that we were going to be step-siblings. I hoped so.
"Nah I'm good," he responds quietly.
"Okay, we'll see you later then." Luke takes my hand and leads me out of the house and into his car.
We stop at the nearest convenient store and get Linley a pint of her favorite ice cream along with a couple of chocolate bars and fashion magazines that she always reads. As Luke and I stand in the line for the check out, I barely spot the top of Michael's bright green hair. I stand on my tippy toes to get a better view and almost lose my mind at the sight I am faced with.
He is walking out the doors, fingers interlocked with those of a red-headed girl's.
