the buddy system / lrh 🍒

6:dolphin padawan

"Luke?" Katherine asked curiously.

They were still sat beside each other against the tank in the middle of the night. It was probably 3am by now, but they had no real way of telling with Luke's phone dead and all.

"Yeah?" The boy asked, his head turning to look at her, which he found rather hard. He had to squint to make out her small frame out in the darkness.

"Why are you so obsessed with dolphins?"

Luke pursed his lips and gave her a small smile, his blue eyes seeming to look sad.

"My mum used to take me here when i was a kid" he explained, his voice breaking and his eyes fixated on the dark galaxies in the night sky as he remembered that horrifying day. "She- she uhm.. It was the last place he took me before she died."

"How'd she die?" She asked out of curiosity. "I mean, you don't have to tell me, i'm just curious" she reassured, a gentle smile on her face as she looked up at the boy in front of her.

The blonde sneaked a sniffle and let out a long, tired sounding sigh. "She died of a heart attack" he said finally, running a hand through his short blonde hair.

"It really sucked, y'know? She was upstairs and my dad and my brothers were downstairs and it happened without anyone knowing. When we found her, she was already dead. No one could do anything until it was too late."

Luke let out a forced laugh in attempt to lighten the mood. "I mean i guess i like dolphins because they remind me of my mum, y'know? Its hard to explain but i guess that if i visit here, its like she's not really gone. Does that make sense?" he asked curiously, furrowing his eyebrows in slight confusion.

Katherine smiled and nodded. "I get it" she mumbled, letting the silence creep into the atmosphere slowly. But this time, she didn't really mind because it was more of a comfortable silence at this point.

The blue eyed boy looked over at her after he was fed up with the silence. "So, Katherine Heally, do you have any other secrets you want to throw into the fire?" He questioned, coughing awkwardly at how dorky his statement sounded. "Metaphorically of course."

Katherine thought for a bit and snorted. "I kill people for a living."

"That's a joke right?" Luke asked, sounding just the slightest bit panicked at her statement, something that made the red headed girl laugh.

And oh boy, did he love her laugh.

"Whatever helps you sleep at night, Hemmings."

"So its a joke right? Please tell me its a joke."

"Yes, Lucas" she responded, rolling her eyes at him in the seemingly brightening darkness. The sun was coming up slowly in the horizon, making the sky metaphorically explode with seas of yellows, lilacs, and soft pinks.

Luke gave a silent smile, looking around as the colors of the brightening sky began to illuminate the world around them.

Or maybe he was just looking at the girl in front of him.

Both aspects were beautiful, nonetheless.

"Why are you staring at me?" Katherine questioned, her eyebrows raised at the now flustered boy beside her. Luke coughed awkwardly.

"We should get going" he stated, immediately changing the subject as he got up, cringing at the heavy weight of his still soaking wet clothes against his body. "Y'know, before someone finds us and throws us in jail."

The redheaded girl frowned, opening her mouth to say something before shaking her head and getting up as well.

"Good point" she agreed with a nod before walking ahead of him and making her way back to the front of the zoo with Luke walking beside her in comfortable silence.