i love you, but.. // lierra

16

Living Proof - Camila Cabello

Calum and Luke are never allowed to organise Sierra's birthday because she always has to do it herself. She doesn't let anyone near her plans. The food, the music, the decorations, the guests lists - it's all her. And God forbid Luke tries to help her - and he always does - she forgets all her love for him and threatens to not give him any cake. It works. It sounds childish, but Luke has a sweet tooth, and he mostly comes to parties for the food.

Now that they're together, he can't avoid helping her. Even if it's just driving her to the supermarket. She doesn't allow him to go with her, of course, so he stays in the car, getting comfortable in the back seat to take a nap.

"Text me when you get to the checkout so I'll get the bags." Luke says before she leaves, and his voice is so soft when he talks to her.

Sierra gets into the building and goes between the aisles, sticking to her list of things she needs to buy. She goes to the checkout with a full cart, completely forgetting to text Luke. She doesn't mind though, so she proceeds to pay and leaves.

The parking lot is already quite dark, so she tries to hurry. Especially after noticing a figure to her left. Sierra is terrified. She can never admit it, but she's so afraid to be walking alone at night. She walks to the car as fast as she can, looking at the figure from the corner of her eye.

Her breathing is getting faster as the anxious thoughts occupy her mind, and she searches her pockets for the car keys. The figure turns out to be a man, coming closer and closer to her. It doesn't seem like he's violent or is going to attack her, but she's frightened.

"Do not approach me!" Sierra speaks up suddenly, not really realising it herself. Her voice sounds so confident to her own surprise. The man doesn't stop though, and as the keys are still not in her hands, she starts slightly tapping on the window, trying to wake Luke up. She tries to do it imperceptibly, too. "Don't come any closer." she grunts again.

"Come on now, I just wanted to maybe get ya number, or something." the man shouts, not stopping.

Luke steps out of the car behind Sierra, then gets in front of her immediately. "She told you not to approach her. How hard is it to respect people's boundaries?"

"She's just-" the man stops at once. Crazy how he listens to him, and not her.

"She's just what?!" Luke takes a step towards the man, getting angry. Sierra observes the scene silently, too scared to even blink.

"A really pretty girl, all by herself."

Luke knows too well that she's really pretty, "So what, just because she's a woman, you can't respect her?" he takes another step. "And she's not by herself." he adds not as loud, and he looks scary. He would never hit someone or anything, but he looks like he can knock this guy out in seconds. His height and broad shoulders finally paid off.

The man shrugs at him, turns around and leaves. Luke sighs, "Are you alright?", he asks, turning to her. "Honey, you're shaking, are you alright?" he leans down a bit to look her in the eyes. She doesn't focus them on him or anything else as her mind fills with hundreds of 'what if's. She can't hear anything around her until he takes the bags out of her hands and puts them in the car.

Sierra looks up at him and her eyes are so dry from not blinking that she starts crying. "No one has ever cared about me the way that you do, Luke. I don't know what I would do without you." she mumbles into his jacket, hugging him so tight that he's actually scared to breathe. His heart hurts for her. He knows she puts on a brave face, but he's probably never seen her this afraid. "I'm so scared." she whispers again and again, not letting him go or loosing her grip of him.