Lie To Me • lrh

Home - Val

He seriously wanted to make me wear black high top converse. He's crazy. "You're crazy." I told him, while he got down on one knee to tie the shoes.

"They're shoes...and they look good on you." He looked up at me with those eyes...those eyes. I looked at him with worry, worried about the change he had just made to my outfit...to my life.

"Ok." I didn't know what else to say. Did it really matter what I said? Did i matter to him? He's going to leave soon, this isn't real, he's going to leave, just like the rest of them, don't get attached, don't...feel. He looked up at me like a lost puppy, like he wanted more, but I know he didn't, I didn't.

"I'll go pay, you can put your pink shoes back on." He said in a disappointed manner. I didn't want to disappoint him, but that's all I seem to do. Disappoint people, disappoint myself. It was all I'd ever known. My head hurts.

"You don't have to pay for me." I said as I stood up and followed him to the cashier.

"Yes, I do. You're my girlfriend." The word echoed in my head. It's been a while since someone's called me that cursed word, the word that held so much meaning to me, the label that haunted me with bad memories of fights and endless nights.

"I want to go home...please." I begged. My eyes were tired and my head was spinning. Did I even know where home was? Home was somewhere I hadn't been in a while, someone I had lost.

"We just got out here though! I want to see more. We are persisting! C'mon." Luke said as he dragged me out of the store and down the street. "Don't ruin this for me Valentine. I want to see the city." I ruin everything, but I didn't want to ruin this for him. He seemed so excited, like a child. The sun was bright but his smile was brighter.

"Okay! Where do you want to go!" I said in my most excited voice with a smile. We ran through the city going into different shops. My battery drains at every street light we pass. We finally ended up at a small bookstore, it was nighttime by the time we made it to the bookstore that was around the corner from the shelter. Luke looked around, he never ran out of energy, I admire that about him. I sat in the big cozy chair and started drifting asleep.

"Valentine...it's time to go home." I opened my eyes to see the blonde boy crouched down in front of me. "Are you sure you don't want to go anywhere else? I can do it. We can walk around more." My head was pounding, my knees were weak as I tried to get up from the chair. I felt his strong arms on my waist as I used his shoulders to help me up.

"I'm sorry I dragged you around the city...I was being selfish. We should've gone home." He said as he took off his black leather jacket and wrapped it around my shoulders.

"No, it's fine. I'm fine. We could even—" he cut me off.

"No! We are going home! You're tired and I'm tired of you!" He yelled at me. He yelled at me like he used to do.

"Please don't yell..." I felt the tears start to form in my eyes like they'd done years ago.

"Let's just go home." He said as he wrapped his arm around my shoulders once again. I missed having someone to call home. Someone to lay with when I felt like this. Someone warm and cozy.

We made it home and Luke basically dragged me into the bedroom and handed me the pajamas that laid on the chair in the room. I changed into the pink silk pajamas and sat on the bed braiding my hair after washing and drying my hair. Luke sat and watched me. He just watched me. A look of curiosity on his perfect face.

"I'm sorry for yelling...I didn't mean to act out like that." He's apologizing...I didn't know how to respond. "Can you tell me something about yourself, something real?" I finished my braid and turned around to face him on the bed, making my way towards him and sitting close enough to see his godly features.

"Well...I don't know...when I was young...and my mother was sick, my father and I would walk down to the bakery and get her favorite pastry, and we would bring a small table we had into the bedroom and we would all gather around it, all of us. Except for Chris, because he worked during the daytime. My father worked night shifts and my oldest brother Pen, well he was in college at the time and I would sit in the park and play my guitar and sing." Even during one of the darkest times of my life, we were still a family, but that's gone now.

"I didn't know your mother was sick...I'm sorry." He looked down like he had made a mistake. "So all of you worked?" He asked.

"Yes. Chris was 16 when mom got sick, so he picked up a second job. So did my father. Pen was in his second year of college and I was just 14 when she passed. It was before I got discovered though, but that doesn't matter anymore...that's the past." I said, trying to brush it off like it was nothing.

"I'm sorry...I'm sorry for yelling" I said too much. I'm sleeping on the couch tonight.

"You already said that." I let out a small laugh. He looked up at me with a small smile. I didn't mean to get sad. It just happens, I always ruin happy moments. I wanted to hug him, tell him that I'm fine, even if it was a lie. I knew I had just pushed him farther away than he was before. Relationships hurt, even when they're fake, he's going to leave me soon, they all do.

I gently tousled his hair and paired it with a laugh, I just wanted that smile to be the last thing I see before I sleep. We went to sleep on opposite sides of the bed. And just like that we were back to square one.

Opposites.