Damn, You're Cute (Michael Clifford)

Chapter 83

"That was terrible," I told Luke the moment I climbed into his car, my purse gently taping against my hip with each stride. Luke peered over at me from the driver's seat with sleep-deprived eyes full of inquiry while the sun peaked over a particularly large white house in the distance.

Luke had offered to drive me home as soon as I had texted him from Michael's bathroom around midnight last night, so here he was at eight a.m. sharp to save me from the painful situation I had caused. I couldn't take another minute in that house with Michael carefully avoiding me, dodging any physical contact between us. There was no kiss goodbye, nor a hug before I left.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Luke asked, although I didn't know the answer. He reached forward to silence the radio and then rested his elbow on the console between us. I exhaled and twirled my thumbs, waiting until he drove away from Michael's house to explain.

"He wouldn't touch me," I murmured before resting my head against the cold car window. I watched the houses outside blur into swirls of white and gray and meet the unfocused horizon of green lawns. My eyes stared into vacant space as my mouth moved without thought. "He usually wraps his arms around my waist or keeps me close in some way, but last night he kept to himself. He turned his back on me."

I didn't bother to read Luke's expression as I felt sorry for myself, because it wasn't just the absence of Michael's touch that made me upset. It was the absence of affection in his eyes.

"All of this over one kiss?" Luke hesitantly pointed out and I looked over at him. He didn't understand. No one would understand how Michael felt except me.

"Michael is self conscious. It wasn't just a kiss to him, you know? It was so much more, especially since it was between you and I...the kiss just made him realize all the holes in our relationship."

"Holes?" Luke scoffed with an arch of his eyebrow, before recognizing my lack of humor. His eyes flitted to my face with comfort. "I'm the last person who would glorify your relationship with him, but you and Michael are far from complicated...As much as I wish I were him, you two have something that I haven't really seen with other couples."

I only sighed and rested my temple against the window again. Luke couldn't say things like that to me, because they only made me guilty and question whether my love life would be different if it were Luke who'd shown up late to biology on my first day.

"Michael thinks that our relationship is lop-sided, that he loves me more than I love him," I admitted, although I couldn't tell Luke about Michael's theory of me splitting my feelings between the two of them.

Just the thought of him having that idea not only hurt, but made me angry. What did Michael want from me? I already told him that he's always been my choice, that I love him. I wasn't going to throw Luke aside just to prove it.

"He's just upset. He'll come around eventually," Luke reasoned and I could only hope, but for some reason, I wasn't as sure. Michael could hold one hell of a grudge if it pertained to something important, and in his book, I was one of the most important things he could think of. Stubbornness had always been prevalent in his attitude since the day I met him, so I knew this wouldn't be any different. I'd have to work hard to get him to come around, and I was up for the challenge.

The car was then filled with thoughtful silence and Luke occasionally glanced sideways at me until my house came into view through the windshield.

"Well, thank you for coming to get me," I said quietly and gathered my belongings. Luke shrugged selflessly before sending me a breathtaking smile. "I don't know what I'd do without you."

"I'm always here to be your chauffeur," he told me dryly, so I frowned and readjusted the strap of my purse. I saw the humor rise in Luke's eyes and settle in his blue irises.