Ray ||l.h.||

1.2

"Luke?"

"Huh?" 

Ray rolls her eyes as she lifts her sunglasses up and over her curls. Luke's been paying little to no attention to what Ray's been saying—granted, she was only talking about Catti—since he got there. She puts her hands on her hips and manages a glare in his direction.

"Are you listening to me?" She knows he wasn't but, she had to be fair and ask. 

Luke glances around Ray's backyard, briefly looking at a butterfly that dipped low near the pool. He blinks away when the glint on the water stings his eyes. "Yeah, kind of. Where's your dad?"

Ray points her eyes to the sky, shaking her head. "Dad!" She calls out, startling Luke into reaching to cover her mouth. Ray licks his palm, to spite him, though scrunches up her face when she tastes the metal of his pinkie ring. 

"Ew," Luke takes a minute to acknowledge the fact that Ray did just lick his hand and it's now coated in her saliva, then focuses on more important matters. "Ray, I didn't mean to call him over!"

"What is it?" Mr. Charles is definitely talking to Ray, Luke knows, but he's looking him directly in the eyes and Luke is struggling to keep his stare for more than five seconds at a time. "You're Luke, right?" Ray's dad addresses the boy in the short silence that Ray was most likely going to answer him in.

Luke nods, then remembers how to use his tongue. "Yes, sir." 

Ray hears the doorbell ring and thinks that it would make for a good excuse to leave them alone. She slinks away, mindful of the pool, and goes inside the house.

"Cousin Ray Ray!" Deray. Ray grins when she recognizes his voice. "My favorite cousin, get over here, girl!" Ray chuckles as her cousin brings her in for a big hug and gives her two mighty pats on the back. Ray notices that there's been a lot of yelling and the day's barely started and only a couple of people have arrived. She imagines it'll be way louder once everyone else shows up. 

Her cousin, Deray—who loves the fact that she has a name similar to his—isn't one of the cousins that helped to blind her. Those cousins, TJ and Bernard, are on her mother's side and don't come around anymore, nor do her aunt and uncle. 

Ray's Aunt Toya comes in behind Deray, leaving a sloppy kiss on her cheek as she passes her. She can tell it's her because 1) she's Deray's mother and it would only make sense for them to arrive together and 2) Aunt Toya always leaves sloppy kisses on Ray's cheek. "Where's Uncle Leon? And Greg and Stacy?" Ray asks, following Deray and her aunt back outside.

"He's bringing his cooler and they're coming later." Deray rolls his eyes at his dad, opening the door for all of them to go through. Ray nods, hoping that her dad hasn't drowned Luke in the deep end by now.

Ray gets half a breath out before someone gently collides with her, holding her by the elbow. It'd be awkward if this was family, cradling her like this, so she rightly assumes that it's Luke. "Skywalker,"

"Leia-I mean Ray." Luke's words stumble out of his mouth. Ray lets off an amused huff.

"How did it go?" She laces their fingers together and lets him guide her somewhere. Ray's fingertips knock against a wooden surface and she realizes he took them to a bench. 

Luke sighs, getting his long legs under the table and sitting next to Ray. "I don't think he wants to rip my head off." He shrugs, glancing behind them at Ray's family talking by the grill. Luke sees two people that he has yet to meet and makes a mental note to approach them.

"That's good, I guess." Ray says, idly playing with his fingers. Luke smiles down at her, unable to stop himself from pecking her on the forehead.

"Yeah, I guess."