The Year Luke Hemmings Came to Stay

Chapter 11

I never took the time to realize how obsessed I was with eighties movies until Ryan brought it to my attention that I was reciting most of them perfectly. We started simple, with Say Anything, which led us to Grease, The Outsiders, Ferris Buellers Day Off, and finishing with the three best Molly Ringwald movies. Luke had a great fascination with the Goonies, but I promised him that's the perfect Saturday morning movie. My parents got home long ago, realized we were in a movie coma and decided to order a pizza and leave us alone. We decided it was socially acceptable to end the night with The Breakfast Club. Towards the end, when Brian is reading the letter to Mr. Vernon, I can't help recite it. Of course I get it right down to the "Sincerely yours, The Breakfast Club." When I look over, Ryan is rolling her eyes, Luke is staring at Bender's fist, high in the air. I turn off the movie and turn to Luke.
"So? Your thoughts?"
He looked at his phone with big eyes and looked back up. "Is it really almost five in the morning?"
My facial expression probably showed some sort of mass murder craze because Luke held his hands up in defense. "Okay, sorry. Give me a night to sleep on it, yeah?"
I nodded, agreeing. "Yeah. Ryan's already passing out," I gestured to my unconscious friend in the corner on the floor, holding a chewed pizza crust. "Luke, do me a favor?"
"Yeah, love. What's up." He said, yawning.
"Could you take Ryan upstairs to my room?"
He laughed, getting up. "No problem." Luke slid his arms under a sleeping Ry, lifting her up and going upstairs, me behind them. Not gonna lie, I couldn't help being a little jealous of her, but also feel bad, because she wasn't aware of it happening. He walked in my room and laid her on my bed, her immediately snuggling into my quilts.
"Thanks."
"No problem. You know what I realized? This is my first time being in your room."
I thought about it, and he's right. "Well, how do you like it? I mean, it suits me."
Luke walks over to my records, smiling then looks at my Rocky Horror poster. "Why didn't we watch this?"
"How do you know I own it?"
"Because I know you."
I laughed, nodding. "It came out in '75."
Luke walked to my bookshelf, browsing the collection. His hands found the pages of Markus Zusak.
"The Book Thief?"
I nod, remembering when I first read it. "It's one of my favorites."
Luke opened it, going to the first page.
"You can borrow it, if you'd like."
His head went up and smiled. "Really, thanks." Before I can say anything else, Ryan snores loudly, causing me and Luke to let out a laugh. "Well on that note, I'm going to go to bed. See you in the morning?"
"I'll have my favorite movie ending ready."
Luke headed towards the door. "Goodnight, Drew."
"Goodnight, Luke."
He left my room for the night, so I changed into my pajamas and braided my hair into two braids. I climbed in next to Ry and started to doze off, mentally patting myself on the back for handling him calling me "love", then mentally slapping myself in the face for falling for him more.
~
"Drew? Are you awake?"
The first thing I hear when I wake the next morning is Luke's voice coming from the other side of my door. I roll over and look at my clock, seeing it's 10:30am.
"Uh yeah, what's up?"
"Can I come in?"
I look at my appearance in the mirror and grimace at myself. "I'm uh, not decent."
"Uh, okay?"
"Just give me a minute!"
"Shut the fuck up!" Ryan groans next to me.
I roll my eyes and get out of bed, taking down my hair and putting on leggings. I rub the sleep from my eyes before opening my bedroom door. Luke's not in the hallway, so I take this as an opportunity to head to the bathroom. After getting washed up and brushing my teeth, I head downstairs. Luke emerges from the kitchen, holding two bowls of cereal.
"Morning!"
"Morning, Luke. What's up?"
"We are going to watch the Goonies this fine morning. You said it was a perfect Saturday morning movie."
"But it's Sunday?"
"Same thing." Luke slumps down on the couch, a few fruit loops going over his bowl and onto the carpet. I shrug and join him, as he pushes play on the dvd. So there I sit, with Luke, having a perfect Sunday morning, when the unthinkable happens.
"So Gabby asked me out for tonight. And I don't really know where we should go, any ideas?"
It was torture, the silence, the trying to express words on the matter, I couldn't even respond. But, I underestimate myself. I'm Andy, the book geek and theatre major. I can fake trying to pretend like I care about where he's taking her, probably because I'm faking like I don't so well. "Uh, not sure, maybe you should let her decide." I've just about finished crumbling apart inside as Luke nods his head. When the credits roll, I can't help myself.
"Really? Gabby? Are you sure?"
He looks at me and does that fucking half smile. "Drew, chill. It's just one date."
"Yeah, of course." Who the fuck said I wasn't chill?
As if perfect timing, Ryan walks downstairs. "What did I miss?"
A whole fucking lot, Ry.