Never Truly Lost |L.H.|

7: "Innocent lawn games."

"So, you own the house?" Luke jokes.

"Yeah. I have managed to get a large enough income at my age to own a two-story home and reasonable cable with my best friend." I joke, and he lightly laughs. "My mom's a evening and night nurse and my dad's always on business trips in Chicago and Beijing, and dozens of other places. He's never home, which sucks. So I take care of myself, basically."

"Hm. Mariah lives here with you?" He asks.

"Next door. She stays here almost every weekend, so I guess you could say that. She likes to keep a distance from her parents'...activities." I state.

"Yeah. They have cocktail parties and they always want me to dress up and...socialize. With their innocent lawn games and things, ugh." She shutters. "They think I'm a good girl. I'm the total opposite." She states with a mouthful of pizza.

"I could tell by the way you got to know that pillow." Luke laughs. After a second, his face goes sort of serious after glancing at me a few times, and walks over to Mariah. He whispers something in her ear, but I don't bother to figure out what he said.

"Okay." Mariah plainly says, going upstairs.

Luke looks at me. That's all he does for about half a minute. I decide to look back. It got pretty awkward.

"I have a question." He says out of the blue.

"I have an answer." I reply.

"It's a tough question."

"Square root of pi to the power of x divided by y."

"Not a math question." He laughs.

"I know." I laugh. "Anyway, shoot."

He inhales deeply and runs his fingers through his hair. "Here goes." He whispers to himself. "I was just wondering, not like, wondering too much, but it crossed my mind um... if you would like to - gah, why is this so hard. Um, do you want to, maybe-?" He's interrupted by his phone. He scoffs. "Hold on."

He answers his phone and it's John. Luke motions his finger signaling that he'll be in the hallway to take his call. I nod, showing I understood. I could still hear the conversation despite the distance. My heart was beating a little bit, despite the fact that I had no idea what his question was about.

"No, John. I still have to punch out at work...Well, I'm sorry. I got a little sidetracked... Calm down man, I'll be there in like, twenty minutes...I can't bring you pizza, you know my mom's making your favorite for dinner... yeah, yeah, keep an eye out for me, I'll see ya."

Mariah walks into the kitchen a few seconds before Luke does. "I have to go. John is mad because I'm late to pick him up." He explains.

"Did you...?" Mariah nudges. He just shakes his head no and frowns lightly.

He grabs the soda he was drinking and heads to the door. He grabs his coat from the rack on the wall and slips on his winter boots, and adjusts his gray beanie. "I'll see you on Monday."

"Okay. Bye!" Mariah says, walking away. I still stand by the door as he walks down the steps.

"Wait." I force.

He turns around instantly. "Yeah?"

"What...What was the question you wanted to ask me?"

"Uh, it's nothing. I'll just ask you at a better time..."

"Oh, um...okay. Bye. Thanks for bringing the pizza."

"No problem. Oh, your change." He starts up the steps again.

"No, no. Keep it as a tip. I insist."

"Aw, thanks!" He smiles. "I'll see you at school."

"Bye." I smile and close the door.

"Holy shit, Jules! We never had a guy in your house before!" Mariah yells after I close the door.

"I hear ya!"