"Stuck In The Friend-Zone Again and Again"

"Heartbeat, So Sweet"

rainbow luke!!

Paris's P.O.V.

Luke and I talked and talked about us and each other and ourselves until we fell asleep, my head on his chest and his arm around my waist, curled up on my bed.
We woke up a couple hours later to Liz peeking her head in and shrieking slightly in surprise.
"Sorry," she said quickly, as Luke and I batted our eyes groggily.
"S'okay," Luke said in a raspy tone, releasing me from his embrace so we could both stand up.
"It's, um, dinner's ready," Liz said, flustered.
"Okay we'll be down in a minute," Luke  answered, rubbing his eyes.
Liz nodded and hurried out of the room.
Luke lazily wrapped his arms around my waist and rested his chin on my head.
"What are we gonna tell them?" he asked quietly.
"Can we just wait?" I asked hesitantly. "I mean we'll obviously tell them before we go, but I just... I want to wait for a while. I just wanna get used to... everything, really, before all eyes are on us."
"Of course," Luke answered kindly.
He unwrapped himself from around me and took my hand. "C'mon, my shocked mum and the rest of my family is waiting downstairs."
I giggled, letting Luke lead me from the room and downstairs.

He let go of my hand before we came into view, but still pulled my chair out for me before we sat down.
"Such a gentleman," I grinned up at him as I sat down.
Andrew cocked an eyebrow as he walked in the room, but say down in silence.
Liz came in with a steaming hot pot of macaroni and cheese and set it on a hot plate.
"Dinner is served," she said, placing a big spoon on the pot.
"It looks delicious," I complimented her.
"I remembered it was your favourite," Liz said with a twinkle in her eye.
I beamed. My real mother hardly remembered I was allergic to kiwi.
"How was your day at work?" Andrew asked Liz.
"Good," Liz replied. "It was hard to get the kids to focus on the last day before break, but we did all right."
"What did you two do all day?" Andrew said to Luke and I, sounding slightly suspicious.
"I wrote cards and watched a couple movies," I answered.
"I worked on a song and watched a bit of T.V.," Luke replied.
"And then we had a nap," I added.
"Together?" Andrew asked, raising both eyebrows.
"We were talking and then we fell asleep," Luke corrected.
I nodded in agreement. Shit, I was dumb. I guess Liz would have known anyway.
Andrew nodded, looking almost but not quite convinced.
I took my first bite of the pasta and sighed in happiness.
"This is amazing!" I told her.
And then the topic changed to the recipe and how great Mac and Cheese was in the first place.
Bless my ability to unintentionally change the topic.

After dinner I offered to help clean up, but Andrew and Liz declined.
"You and Luke go upstairs and watch a movie or something," Liz said with a smile.
"C'mon," Luke said, dragging me by the hand out of the room and up the stairs.
"Good job changing the topic," Luke chuckled as we crawled under the covers of his bed.
I groaned. "It's been an hour and have already almost exposed us."
"It's okay," Luke said, wrapping an arm around my shoulders and pulling me into him.
I rested my head on his shoulder as he opened Netflix on the TV.
"What movie do you want to watch?" He asked.
"I don't care," I shrugged indifferently.
"How about The Notebook?" Luke suggested.
I cocked an eyebrow. "You're suggesting a chick flick? Adapted from a Nicholas Sparks book, no less. Aren't boyfriends supposed to hate those?"
Luke shrugged. "Sometimes they're nice. The Notebook is so romantic and heartbreaking at the same time. Am j not allowed to appreciate good film?"
My face cracked into a grin. "You're too cute, you know that?"
Luke tried to scoff but was unable to keep from smiling as he selected the movie.
The opening credits started to play and I snuggled into Luke's lanky figure under the blanket.
Luke looked down at me and I looked at him with wide eyes, a small smile on my face.
"Now who's too cute?" He asked teasingly.
I giggled and went cross eyed. "Still you."
Luke smiled and turned his attention back to the screen.

Many times through the movie I caught Luke looking at me instead of the TV, but I pretended I didn't notice, because often when he was focused on the TV my focus was on him.

When the barn scene came I frowned.
"What's wrong?" Luke asked immediately.
"Who in their right mind would fuck in a barn floor?" I replied with furrowed eyebrows.
Luke laughed. "There was hay!"
"Oh even better," I said sarcastically. "Do you know where that hay could end u-"
"Stop," Luke said, wrinkling his nose. "I don't want to to think about it. It's gross and it ruins the romance."
"Just telling it like it is," I defended, looking back at the screen.
Luke's chest vibrated with his chuckle at my words, causing me to forget about the unrealism and smile.

We watched the rest of the movie, me crying at the end and Luke trying to pretend like he wasn't crying.
I reached up and swiped his tears with the pad of my thumb, causing him to give a watery chuckle and do the same to me.
"Can we watch something funny now?" I requested.
"Of course, like what?" Luke said, clicking search.
"The Other Woman?" I asked/answered.
Luke laughed and typed it in. "Definitely."

Luke and I laughed together as the movie played through, almost crying at how funny some of the parts were.

After the movie was done, I looked off into the distance with my eyebrows furrowed, thinking.
"Penny for your thoughts," Luke said, watching me.
"Ya know, that guy had three pretty women on the go and he was actually not really attractive at all. Plus he was a dick," I said thoughtfully.
Luke burst out laughing. "Is that seriously what you were thinking about?"
I nodded. "It's true!"
Luke nodded, still laughing as he turned off the TV.
I unwrapped myself from him and stood up. "I'm gonna go get ready for bed, okay?"
Luke nodded, following me to brush his teeth.
He went back to his room as I retreated to mine, changing into black shorts and an Iron Man tank top (it was summer in Australia, after all).
I padded down the hall and peeked into Luke's room. "I'm going to bed now, okay? Well, I'm going to sit on my phone for two hours in the dark but still."
Luke stretched his arm out towards me. "Stay with me?"
"What about your parents?" I asked nervously.
"They don't wake me up," Luke said. "And even if they did they wouldn't care. I'm an adult and they trust me. Also they know I'm hopelessly in love with you so they'd probably just be happy for me."
I smiled. "Okay then."
I ran back and got my phone, shut out the lights and jumped into bed with Luke, burrowing under the covers.
We cuddled up together, the light of our phones illuminating our faces.
Occasionally we would laugh and show each other something, but for the mostly we sat in comfortable silence, just enjoying each other's presence.

It hadn't even been a full day since Luke and I had gotten together, but I already felt like we were going to spend the rest of our lives together.

"This is what love is," I thought.

A/N: I tried to write on the bus this morning but it was -20 Celsius (-4 Fahrenheit) and my thumbs started to go numb