Beside You

Chapter 14: Kissing

Chapter 14: Kissing

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It looked like Luke had finally decided to turn up to this class again. And at an excellent timing as well. Why couldn’t the ground just open up and eat me up right now? I couldn’t really remember why I’d been specifically looking for him, now that I saw him, I could feel nothing but awkwardness.

He smiled. “Hi guys.”

“Um… hi,” I said in a small voice. “I’m guessing there’s not much chance you didn’t hear that.”

“Yeah I heard everything, but it’s good because we were going to tell the truth soon anyway.”

Everything was seriously getting messed up pretty bad. Calum looked very confused at the whole situation, Luke had his poker face on so well I couldn’t tell what he was thinking and I was just blaming myself for everything. Something I did very often.

We sat there in silence and then played around with the guitars until the bell rang.

“I need to talk to you,” Calum and Luke turned to me and said at the same time.

I stopped and looked at them in surprise. Damn, this is like Sophie’s Choice. I hesitated before turning to Luke.

“Um, I’ll catch up with you later.”

He nodded. Oh great, you finally see him after ages and that’s the best you can say to him. Luke turned and left, leaving Calum and me to slowly walk out the classroom.

“So um..." he laced his hands behind his back and rocked back and forth on his feet, "I really can’t say I saw it coming and truthfully, I’m really happy you feel the same way.”

My spirit lifted. He was happy. He wasn’t mad or annoyed, he was happy.

“You are?”

Calum nodded. “You and Luke really weren’t dating though? Coz it’ll be really awkward and not to mention it’ll make me the world's biggest dick to get in between you two.”

I was going to say no right away, but then I started remembering how I’d felt like whenever Luke held my hand and whenever he was close to me. And that time at his house how safe I felt when he laid down next to me and held my hand; the way his body pressed against mine when I’d fell on top of him and the softness of his lips pressed against mine…

That caused the delay for me to say ‘no’, but it seemed enough for Calum. He grinned and then grabbed my hand and squeezed it gently.

“Michael’s gonna be so mad at me.”

I laughed. “I’ve already talked to him. I think you’ll be safe for the time being.”

Calum laughed slightly. “But that’s the first rule to being a good friend, to never date their sisters. But um… I don’t think we should um… tell everyone, not coz I don’t want anyone to know we’re going out, but um coz you know, everyone thinks actually thinks you and Luke were together and you know, it’ll be really awkward…” he started sputtering and looked flustered that just made him cuter than he already was.

I smiled. “We’re going out?”

“Oh um… I just supposed coz um… if you don’t want to be-“

I cut him off with a quick kiss (I had no idea I’d suddenly become so forward).  

“I want to; I just didn’t think you’d want to.”

Calum calmed down. “I want to too.”

~*~

I tried to seek out Luke. Where the hell was that guy? Losing hope, I stumbled into in the library and what were the chances of seeing Luke sitting in the corner with his earphones in and head buried in a book. He was mouthing along to the words of his music, or he might have been reading the words from his book. Either way, I didn’t want to interrupt him so I sat down opposite to him. I thought he hadn’t acknowledged my presence, but I’d only just sat down when he marked his page and took out his earphones before looking at me.