THIS LOVE | luke hughes

viii.

THE LAKE HOUSE HAD been thick with tension the past few days. With Luke and Penelope avoiding one another and Jack avoiding Nico and Angie, the others were just stuck between it all.

Penelope was currently in her room alone, seeing as to how Carter and Kota went out to find a place to have a late lunch and Angela was hanging out with Nico, probably sucking his face off far away from Jack who wanted to punt him into the sun.

Betty by Taylor Swift played from her record player as the girl sat on her bed, fresh sheets finally on them as she held her sketch pad in hand, working on a new design for a dress she had been envisioning for a few months.

She heard a small knock at her door, causing her head to shoot up at the sound of the door opening. There stood Mark, his lips pulled into a smile as he looked at the girl who sat across the room on her bed.

She felt almost disappointed. Yes, part of her was happy that it he came to see her but the other half wished it was Luke so they could talk about their problems and maybe just hopefully go back to how things were. But she knew that it wouldn't happen, not that smoothly at least.

"Hey." Mark said as he began to walk closer towards the girls bed, a small smile on his face as he sat down at the edge of her bed.

"Hi," she whispered out, setting down her pencil and looking up to the boy, "how have you been?" She asked, brushing her hair behind her shoulder.

Mark let out a sigh as he looked at her. "You don't like me, do you?" He asked the girl, eyebrows pulling into a furrow as he stared at her.

The girl was silent for a moment, staring down at her sketch. "..No." She said after a moment of hesitation before she looked up to the boy. "I'm sorry." She whispered out, a guilt ridden face as she searched his face.

"Don't feel sorry, Penelope." He said with a small smile on his face as laid down at the foot of the bed, looking at the girl. "I know you like Luke, and I'm going to help you." He said making her eyebrows furrow.

"What? How did you find out?" She questioned, her heart starting to race as her eyebrows began to furrow. Whenever his smile grew, she knew instantly it was because of Angie. "That backstabber!" She gasped out, earning a laugh from Mark which she quickly joined in on.

The pair fell into silence as Penelope laid back onto her pillows. "How do you plan on helping me?" She asked and glanced to the boy who grabbed her sketch pad and started going through it. She didn't mind, it wasn't like she wasn't going to post it after the finishing details.

"We're gonna fake date," he said as if it was the most simple thing in the entire world. Her eyes went wide at the information, shooting up from her bed causing the boy to look over at her as if she had two heads. "What?" He questioned, eyebrows knitting together.

"No! Mark, we're not going to fake date." She scolded while she grabbed a pillow, hitting the boy with it. "We cannot, that's be too weird." She shook her head, holding the pillow close to her chest.

"Penelope, I was inside you the other day." He reminded the girl as he stood up, earning a wack on the chest from the pillow. "Fake dating isn't the weirdest thing." He said before he grabbed ahold of the pillow, gently tearing it away from her grasp and onto the bed.

She looked up at him, narrowing her eyes as her arms crossed over her chest. The way the boy towered over her made her face turn red as it grew hot. "Why though?" She asked, rolling her eyes as she walked towards her record player to flip the Folklore vinyl.

"Because, we need to show Luke what he's missing." Mark said as he looked to the girl, sitting back down onto the bed. "And from experience, he's missing a lot." The boy teased with a whistle, earning a gasp from the girl.