Safety Net {l.r.h}

15) "I could get used to this"

ELLIE ABNER

I guarantee I had only gotten a few more hours of sleep before finally opening my eyes. It was still dark in Luke's room, so I assumed it was nearing 6 o'clock or so. Breathing in heavily, I inhaled the boyish scent of the frat boy next to me. We were currently tangled between one another with my legs in between his, and a large arm draped over my torso. His hot breath tickled my neck as he slept, but I didn't mind. I had never felt so safe before, and I'd hate to leave this spot for the rest of the day. But I have priorities to tend to first. Lightly shifting, I grabbed my phone from underneath the pillow and quickly sent out an email to my professors explaining I was sick and wouldn't be there and asked for my work for the day. Feeling better about the situation, I switched apps to catch up on people's social media since I knew I wasn't going back to sleep.

There were a few select photos from the party, and I scrolled through them curiously. I noticed a specific picture of me and Dayna laughing, but what really caught my eye wasn't that it was the person who had a hand hovering over my drink that sat to my right. And zooming in, I squinted my eyes to see a small white circle nearing the drink from his hand. Quickly screenshotting the picture in case it got deleted, I turned off my phone and stuffed it under my pillow. I wasn't going to wake up Luke just to show him the picture, I hated making things about myself. Although this was a serious matter, we would figure out the entire story today, like he said we would.

Going deep into thought, I nuzzled my head back down against his chest and tucked my arms beneath my body. In some ways, I felt stupid for acting this way with him, knowing that I was probably going to end up hurt, or that it was too good to be true. But when he smiles at me the way he did last night, and surprises me with something new every day, I can't stop my heart from beating faster or keep the butterflies in my stomach from fluttering.

I felt Luke's arm move on my back as he inhaled deeply. "What're you doing up?" His raspy voice speaks softly while pulling me closer. My fingers find the end of his chain and fumble with it lightly.

"I couldn't sleep anymore," I whisper back to him, feeling as if I may have woken him. "Don't worry about me, go back to bed."

"Why would I do that when I could be talking to you?"

Thankfully it was dark or else he'd be able to see how red my face got within seconds. "Because you only got 4 hours of sleep."

Luke chuckled, "most I've gotten all weekend." I immediately narrowed my eyes at him.

"For being in a sport, you should really get more sleep."

"Thanks, mom, but I'm a big boy."

"I'm sure you are," I mumbled. Luke stayed quiet before laughing against the pillow tiredly.

"You wanna find out?" Although, yes, I did want to find out and I had my opportunity to jump his bones right there, I slapped him playfully in the chest.

"That deserves at least five bucks in the jar."

"I know," he said, sounding disappointed in himself.

We had sat there in silence for several minutes, and I hadn't realized that he was just staring at me until I looked up at him. "Do you want some coffee?"

"I'll pay for you if we can go to the café downtown. It's my favorite." He admits, dragging his hand up my back ever so slightly causing my sweatshirt to ride up. His fingertips grazed my skin and my spine arched in response, goosebumps crawling up my arms at the contact.

"I'd like that."

Luke removed himself from me as much as I didn't want him to and slipped on a hoodie before sifting his fingers through his blonde hair to tame any hair that stuck up. I slid my feet into my slippers that sat on the floor near me and grabbed my keys from the bedside table. We snuck downstairs and out the front door without waking anyone and hurried to the car in order to get some sort of shelter from the harsh morning Seattle air. Fog hung low in the air as the sun slowly rose above the horizon. My mind was at ease at the current mood of the day. It made me wonder what it would be like to wake up next to him every day. Would he always be gentle with me in the mornings? Would it be a routine to get coffee together?

"You can take a left here." He says, pointing a finger to a road ahead of us. I did as told, relaxing as the heat finally kicked on.

"I could get used to this," I think out loud, tapping my fingers against the leather of the steering wheel.

"So could I." He says smiling over at me. I feel his eyes linger for longer than expected but didn't have time to comment on it as we were already pulling alongside the road where the small café sat. No one else seemed to be awake besides a few early birds, but their destination wasn't to get coffee. We had finally climbed out of the car and entered the building, a bell dinging from above the door to signal our presence. The barista looked towards us, a tired smile following.

"Good morning, are you two dining in today?" I looked to Luke for an answer, and he shook his head.

"We'll be taking this to go." His eyes peered down at me and rose an eyebrow.

"Just make it a coffee with a shot of espresso and I'll add my own creamer over there," I say, pointing to the small area where sugar, creamer, and coffee stirrers sat in an organized fashion.

"Make that two coffees with a shot of espresso." He tells the girl and hands over a ten-dollar bill. After she got his change, she quickly served us our desired coffees and we headed over to the creamer. If I was being honest, I hardly liked the bitter taste of coffee, which is why I was currently putting in several cups of creamer. I liked it an ashy brown color, something my mother always scolded me about, but now she wasn't here, so-

"Do you want some coffee with that creamer?" Luke asked jokingly causing me to pause my actions. I glared at him from my spot at the counter and stirred in my creamer. Did he just read my mind?

"Do you want this foot up your ass?" I tried to remain as serious as possible while Luke snorted out a laugh.

"Not a morning person. Got it." I pulled my cup to my lips and sipped it.

"Ah, the perfect coffee." Luke grimaced as he placed the lid over his cup.

"No way, let me taste it." I held my coffee out to him before grabbing his cup.

"Let's see how yours tastes then." At the same time, we both tried one another's coffee and made a contorted expression as well. "No thanks."

"You're telling me, I think I just developed diabetes." He says, taking his cup from my hands and replacing it with mine.

"Yours tastes like a 50-year-old woman whipped it up."

Luke chuckled, pushing me playfully as I smiled. We walked back out to my car and decided to go back to my dorm instead of the frat so that no one would bother us. There was still a small part of me that was worried about my own feelings. Did I really want to put all my eggs in one basket, or do I want to balance things out and put one in different baskets? The one basket being Luke, and the multiple baskets being other people. Tristan was a nice guy, but I haven't hung out with him enough to know who he really was as a person. Granted, it's only been a few weeks, and I didn't know anyone as much as I thought I did.

"What're you thinking about?" Luke asked from beside me as I pulled into my desired parking space.

"Just... things."

"Like?"

My mind swirled for a moment before blurting out an answer, "what we're gonna do for the rest of the day."

"Did you have anything in mind?" He asked after a minute of tense silence. For some reason, my stomach flipped as I rested my hands against the steering wheel.

My phone buzzed which reminded me about the picture I saw earlier. "Well, I actually have to show you something, but I don't know what we'd do about it." The blonde waited patiently for me to unlock my phone and pull up the picture. Passing my phone to him, I anxiously waited for him to say something; anything. His jaw clenched as he stared at the person who had to of roofied me at the party.

"Do you know him?" Luke asked, glancing at me for a second.

"No, but I'm assuming you do?"

"I know exactly who that prick is, and I know exactly who he came with."

"What're you going to do?" I ask curiously, staring at him with wide eyes.

"Well, he's on the team, so I'd have to wait until later."

"For what?"

"If I told you, it wouldn't be a surprise."