Neighbors

{Chapter 12}

     "There's this small ice cream parlor about a mile away from the apartments. Would you mind if i took you there?" Luke asked after turning down the music.

"That sounds great." I replied happily.

It was only about a 20 minute ride to the parlor. I always noticed Luke continously glancing at me from the corner of my eye. It's not that I minded.

When he pulled into the parking lot, I opened up the passenger door before he had a chance to make his way around.

"Alice, I was going to get that for you." Luke said pouting.

"You can't do everything." I smiled and grabbed ahold of his hand.

When we reached the door, Luke's expression quickly dropped.

"It looks like they're closed. Is it seriously past eight?' I quickly clicked on my phone and answered, "It's just a quarter past. We barely missed it. It's ok though." I gave him a reassuring smile.

   When we were both sitting in the car again, Luke gave me a nervous glance before asking, "Would you want to hang out at my place for awhile? My dad is working nightshift."

I nodded before speaking up. "Yea, that sounds like fun."

We arrived back to Luke's place in almost no time. After getting out of the car, I followed him up the steps to his apartment door.

He quickly got out his house key and then held open the door for me. The lights flickered on infront of me and I stood in the living room waiting on Luke to guide me somewhere.

"We can chill in my room. Just follow me." His cheeks flushed from nervousness.

The room had a queen sized bed, a desser with sheets of music spread messily across it, and a couple guitars.

"Im not one for much furniture." He chuckled. "You can sit on the bed if you want. I'm just looking for something."

I sat down at the edge of the bed. There was no denying the awkward surrounding in the room.

I watched Luke search furiously, but finally he picked a picture frame up and held it in his hand.

"Thank God I found it." He muttered under his breath.

I was thinking about staying silent, but curiousity took over.

"What is that?" I asked.

Luke cleared his throat and sat next to me on the bed. "I just thought I lost this because it had fell off the counter." He ran his hand through his tassled hair.

"It's a photo of my mom and I." He passed the picture frame to me and I held it down on my lap.

"You look so young." I smiled.

"I was about 8 in this."

I could feel my heart crumbling for Luke's loss. I stared back at Luke and I noticed his eyes glistening under the light.

"It's alright Luke." As I spoke Luke set the picture back on the counter beside him.

"Although we may have not known eachother for even a full day, you can still talk to me about anything." I rested my hand on Luke's leg to comfort him. "I'm here for you."

I directed my eye contact back to Luke to see his blue eyes already staring into mine. His face was only inches from mine and his lips barely parted as he studied my face. I felt so lost in the moment. The whole room besides us looked blurred. I bit on the inside of my lip without breaking my glance with him. Luke's hands grabbed ahold of mine as he hovered his face over mine. I had lost track of how long we had been sitting in this moment until my phone rang loudly from my pocket. I jumped out of my trance.

"I forgot about texting my mom!" Luke's expression dropped, as i answered my phone.

"Mom, I'm almost home right now."

"You better be. We'll talk when you're home." 

I ended the call and shoved the phone back in my pocket as I stood up from Luke's bed.

"Sorry, I have to hurry home like now." He gave me a forced smile and nodded.

"That's alright." He walked me to the front door. "Would you like me to walk you home?" He asked.

"If you don't mind." I answered smiling.