Sunshine || l.h. {complete}

Thirty Seven

OMG I WAS NOMINATED FOR A FANFIC AWARD (by Hannah_Pandaa) AND THAT IS SO CRAZY I WAS NOT EXPECTING THAT SO IF YOU WANNA WHENEVER THAT WHOLE THING GETS ROLLING MAybe you could vote for me that would be awesome

i don't expect to win but even being nominated was enough for me to almost pee my pants so wow

also confident/cocky luke as well as shy luke in the same chapter i hope you guys don't combust

i lub ya

"I don't know what to do anymore, Elaine," Belle sighs.

They walk towards Elaine's car after school, in-step with one another but Belle can't look up from her feet. She's avoided Luke all week, getting to school five minutes before the bell rings, not even worrying about getting her books from her locker, and she ate her lunch in the handicap stall in the bathroom.

"Belle," Elaine begins, holding her by her elbow so she has to glance up, "I think we both know what you need to do."

She rolls her eyes and snatches her elbow out of Elaine's grasp, tired of everyone dancing around the subject. Sure, Luke had told her what he did was dangerous and violent, but seeing it...

That was a different story.

All Belle has seen in her nightmares this week has been red. But the face was never Randal's. It wasn't Randy's face being beaten to a pulp, his nose broken and his chest bruised. It wasn't Randy's lifeless body lying on the boxing ring floor.

It was Wesley's.

And the thought alone is what gives Belle nightmares.

Luke never told her that he would fight Wes, never told her that he would break his ribs and nose. Belle did that all on her own. She thought up Wesley broken and bleeding, she twisted Randy's face to look like Wes's, give him the beating he deserves.

She shakes her head, "N-No, I-I don't. Sorry."

Elaine chuckles and they continue walking. Belle can't keep her head out of the dark clouds, out of her awful thinking.

Belle isn't afraid of Luke.

She's afraid of what she might ask him to do.

"You love him."

The comment is under her breath, said in passing, but it feels to Belle as if one thousand screams are echoing in her ears.

"W-What?!" she stutters, stumbling on the asphalt. She catches herself, "No, no. No, I do not."

They make it to Elaine's car and she pops the trunk, a triumphant smile on her face as she tosses her things inside.

"You totally do," she closes it with a loud noise, "I could hardly eat after my first major issue with Ashton. I kept crying and wandering around the house with a box of tissues like the little cry-baby I was. We hadn't broken up, but we'd mentioned it, and the thought of not being with him after being together for eight months made me so sad. I cried in my sister's lap and told her I'd never find someone who would love me the same and how no one would ever treat me so good."

Her hands settle on Belle's shoulders, a motherly look in her brown eyes hidden behind thin glasses, "My sister sat me down, raised her eyebrows at me and tried not to laugh at how pitiful I was being, and she said: Elaine, you love that boy. You need to get over yourself, dry it up, and go talk to him. Relationships only work with communication."