Summer Love

Chapter 14

I was completely taken aback. I looked over at Luke, gaping at him in shock. He just grinned back at me as I looked back out towards the scene in front of me.

We were standing in a huge clearing in the middle of the forest. When I say huge, I mean the size of a football stadium. You don't normally find a clearing that big in the middle of a forest. In the centre of the clearing was a lake, which was the size of your average school basketball court. In other words, pretty big. To the left of the lake, on the branch of an enormous tree, stood a gigantic treehouse, made out of wood.

"Whoa," I said again.

"Like it?" Luke asked, a slight hint of nervousness in his voice.

"Like it?" I said, turning towards him. I caught a glimpse of the panicked look on his face before I jumped into his arms.

"I love it," I whispered in his ear. I felt him relax as he hugged me back tightly. We stayed there for a couple of seconds, before I pulled away, beaming at him. He smiled nervously, scratching the back of his neck.

"Luuuukke," I whine like a 5-year-old. "Can we go in the tree house?" I ask, giving him an innocent look and batting my eyelashes. He rolled his eyes and laughed at my stupidity.

"Come on," he said, grabbing my hand and dragging me towards the tree house.

Upon reaching the tree, Luke turned to me, not letting go of my hand. This made my stomach flutter, and I half smiled, looking down at the ground so Luke didn't notice. I looked back up at him, resuming my original expression. He was grinning mischievously down at me.

"Up for a climb?" Luke asked, competitiveness evident in his voice.

"Bring it on, Hemmings," I said, grinning mischievously back. "Race you!" I yelled, bolting up the tree.

"Hey! No fair!" Luke cried, and started to chase me up the tree. I grinned as I shimmied up the tree, branch by branch, until I reached the tree house (first, obviously).

Crawling in the doorway, I was, yet again, stunned to silence. The interior of the tree house was huge. I'm talking the size of a small one-story house. And I ain't exaggerating. Inside the house, there were three rooms: a bedroom, equipped with a double bed as well as a mattress, for guests; a living room, occupied by a double-seater couch, as well as a matching singular couch; and last but not least, a tiny kitchen, complete with a stove top and an oven, not to mention a mini-fridge, full to the brim with food. Wow. This is the most awesome tree house I've ever seen, I thought to myself.

After taking all this in, I heard rustling behind me. I turned around, and sure enough, Luke was standing in the doorway, an exasperated smile on his face, his hands on his hips.

"I win," I said cheekily, with a huge grin. He just rolled his eyes and continued to smile.

"Whatever, Brown. But next time, no cheating. And then we'll see who wins," he said, smirking.

It was my turn to roll my eyes. "You know I will, Hemmings," I said, poking my tongue out at him.

Luke raised his eyebrows, his smirk growing. "Is that so?" he asked, as he started walking slowly towards me.

I giggled. "I believe that would be true, Lucas," I replied. I could feel my face growing redder and redder with every step he took. Ugh, Kirsten. Why now?

If possible, Luke's eyebrows seemed to rise higher on his forehead. "Lucas? That's a new one," he said, smirking.

My face was now beet red. "Uhh, I-I... Yeah, I guess?" I stuttered uncertainly. Gah! Why now???
I hope he doesn't notice, I thought.

I thought to early. "Kirsten? Are you blushing?" Luke asked, a hint of disbelief and humour in his voice. Crap, he noticed.

"What? I, umm, no?" I said, sounding totally unconvincing. I looked down to try and hide my blush, failing dismally in the process.

"You are," Luke said, laughter evident in his voice.

"Whatever, Hemmings," I said, exasperated. I turned around and started to walk over to the couch.

About five steps later, I felt a hand grab my wrist and turn me around. I kept my head down, not wanting to look up at Luke just yet.

"Kirsten?" he asked me, confusion laced in his voice.

"Yeah?" I replied, my head still down.

"Why... Why are you blushing?" Luke asked, sounding even more confused.

I sighed, and looked up and stared into his eyes for a few seconds, before looking back down again.

"I-I... I think I might like you, Luke," I said, barely a whisper. If Luke heard, I don't know how he did.

"Say what?" Luke then asked, confirming my belief that he didn't hear me. He sounded extremely confused at this point.

I bit my lip and looked back up at him.

"Luke, I.... I think I like you," I repeated, this time in a slightly louder whisper. I immediately looked down after I said this, not wanting to see Luke's reaction. I didn't want our friendship to end because he thought I was a total weirdo. Ohhhhh no, what have I done? I shouldn't have said that! Now any chance we had at friendship is over!!

I started to mentally panic, until Luke's warm arms grabbed me and pulled me into a warm, tight hug.

"I think I like you too."

                    *******

A/N:

Heyyy!!

Ok, first of all, I would like to apologise greatly for how lazy I am. It's the summer holidays (going back to school next week), and it's hard to motivate my lazy butt to do anything on the holidays. So I'm really sorry.

Secondly, I would like to thank everyone who has read this story. Even if it's as little as 4 reads, it makes me feel good to know that you lovely, gorgeous people have bothered to read my story out of all the stories on this wonderful app or whatever you want to call it (especially as my lazy butt can't be bothered to write half the time!). So once again, thank you so much, it means a lot to me.

Thank you lovelies!

-K