《Ｌｏｖｅ Ｔｈｅｓｅ Ｄａｙｓ》

7. Frustration

Days had passed since my fight with Evelyn and things had been nothing but shaky. I had to get surgery on my nose because I wasn't breathing properly so I had a very painful weekend, and she didn't even text me once to at least check on me. I mean, I wasn't expecting her to do it, but my mom did get really pissed about it. During my recovery, my friends checked on me daily, I only let them come to visit once my nose wasn't swollen anymore, I looked so ugly. But, during those days, I didn't hear from Luke. That made me sad because, despite my feelings for him, we're still friends and I was hoping he would care. Apparently, he didn't, or so I thought.

After my recovery, we had that Halloween party that caused so much controversy among the group. I shouldn't have gone, probably, but I did and I didn't tell my doctor. After all, Alex and Charlie went with us. I was dressed as an angel and Darcy was the devil; the boys didn't try quite so hard, Alex wore his rugby uniform and Charlie put on his karate outfit, whatever the name is; Leela, on the other hand, was Britney in her "Baby... One more time" school outfit (the best in my opinion).We actually had so much fun, even though, at some point, I got too close to Darcy that we crashed faces and my nose started bleeding. It became the best part of the anecdote afterwards. We even laughed a lot because, when we got there, we saw Evelyn there with her boyfriend and, instead of surrounding us, she walked right through our circle. So much for so little attention.

Everything was going great until the very end when two things happened: somebody stole Darcy's phone from her bag and she got an anxiety attack, and Alex cheated on his girlfriend with one random girl. I got so mad at him but I couldn't get him to stop, it was like trying to get something out of your dog's mouth, I had to fight him.

But, putting those two moments aside, the night was pretty fine. Alex had told me that, last minute, Luke wanted to go but the tickets were already sold out. I played it cool, of course, but I was cursing inside.

It was mid-November and I was fully recovered, so I started going out more. I went to Charlie's place many times and kind of became friends with his sister, Alice. One of those nights, we were hanging out in her room with Darcy, and we had a conversation about the boys.

"They all came home to see me during my recovery, but Luke didn't even ask" I laughed it off, "I never expect anything from that kid and he still disappoints."

Darcy and I broke down laughing and started making jokes about it, but Alice seemed confused.

"He didn't?" she asked, "Because the other day they were here and I asked them about you, and he told me you were doing better" she informed.

It took me by surprise to hear that, since he didn't say a word to me. I thought "maybe he asked Alex about me", but why couldn't he just talk to me?

Luke had the most unusual way of interacting with people but, far from feeling down, I actually felt encouraged. I also was drinking wine, which is a key factor of my bravery. But I felt like I needed to approach him first, otherwise he never would.

I was dancing barefoot in the living room, glass in hand, and he was staring at me the whole time with a smile on his face. I don't remember half of the things I said, as I was drinking wine, but I know we talked a lot because I annoyed him into it. He even got used to my constant impulse of physical touch; when we first met, he backed off a lot when I aimed to hug him or barely touched him, now he placed his hands awkwardly on top of my arms and just accepted it. Eventually, I even got to hold his hand, like I did with the others all the time. Of course, it meant so much more doing it with him.

As I was getting drunker, I wanted to flirt more, but he was more interested in his cards game. They always played poker and forgot we were there, that's why the girls and I were always drunk. Simultaneously, Darcy was also struggling to get Oliver's attention, since he was playing the same game as Luke. Both giving us the side eye when we danced together, but not brave enough to fully stare.