when we collide ✰ l.h.

Chapter 11

I'd been sitting in my room for a few hours just aimlessly doodling in the notebook Luke had given me. It was just something to keep me hooked on my thinking and train of thoughts. A lot had happened in the past 10 hours and it was definitely a lot to take in. I hadn't made any 'decisions' yet, as there wasn't anything that needed to be decided. It was just a lot of realization.

I don't know exactly how I felt. I sure knew I was angry at Cianna and Ellis, but I didn't know if it was a form a jealousy or not. I don't see why I'd be jealous of these two people that I have no respect for, but I don't get a lot of things about myself.

As for Luke kissing me, that was a big mystery to me. We'd always been platonic, so when the first time he tried kissing me, it was a new rush of feelings. And it made me want it to happen over and over again. I don't know if I actually wanted to kiss him or if I just liked the seconds before. The heavy breaths, the quickness in our heart beats, and the tingling in your lips just before it happens. But I know that I'd never gotten physically weak in the knees from a boy kissing me and it surprised me that Luke was the one to do it out of all people.

A single knock on my door broke stopped my thoughts and the pen in my hand. I looked down at the crisp paper, seeing that I was stuck in a stream of consciousness and had literally wrote down my thoughts. I shut the cover of the book, just as Luke took a small step inside my room. I looked up at him from my spot on the bed. He had an obvious look of worry in his eyes. I patted the spot next to me as I knew there was no way out of talking to him. He hesitantly walked forward and sat down beside me.

I was sat with my legs crossed under the sheets with my back being supported by my headboard. As for Luke, he was swinging his legs back and forth as his hands gripped onto the edge of my mattress on either side of his legs.

I placed my elbows on my knees and interlocked my own fingers to rest my chin on them. I intently watched him as I waited for him to say something, anything. His lips would barely part every so often and a kick of nerves would rush in as I don't exactly know what he was about to say. But he never did say anything.

"I'm sorry." He suddenly spoke. He glanced over at me then back down at the ground. I took a deep breath, sitting back up.

"You don't need to apologize." I told him shaking my head lightly.

"But I do." He quickly said. "It was a mistake." He brought a hand up and shook through his hair.

"It's not a mistake if it's what you wanted in the moment." I explained as I watched his light hair get even more messy than before. He let out a sigh and turned more towards me.

"Maybe, but it's not what you wanted." He raised his eyebrows as he put the emphasis on the word 'you'. It was obvious he felt a little frustrated, maybe even embarrassed. I didn't feel guilty and neither should he.

"And how do you know that?" I questioned, letting a soft laugh fall out.

"Well first of all I took you by surprise, so you really didn't have time to think about if you wanted to or not." He chuckled. I hung my head down, smiling to myself from his comment.

"You're such a smart-ass." I replied. He glanced over at me while biting the inside of his cheek.

"I know." He let him smile grow as my laughter did. Eventually his eyes had met mine I realized we'd gotten off topic.

"On a more serious note, I need you to listen to me." I stretched out my legs and crawled over to sit next tom him in the same position he was. I stared him down, just to make sure he was getting the point. "I just need some time." I told him, nodding my head slowly. He swallowed from my words, not knowing what was to come. "No matter how this ends, we're always going to be best friends. And what I need right now is just that. Right now I need you to be my friend." I assured. He sighed lightly and slung his arms around me, gripping me into a tight hug that I easily gave in to. I squeezed my eyes shut as I was thankful at how this all turned out.

"And you know what friends do?" He muttered over my shoulder. I was pulled back from him as he hands gripped my shoulders. "Remind you that you still have two pages of calculus homework to do." He smirked. I groaned and buried my face in my hands.

"That was not an okay thing to say." I told him once I looked back up at him.

"Come on." He said, sticking out his hand as he stood up. I reluctantly took his hand, but he looked a little more eager than me and dragged me through the door.

-

I'd been staring down at my sheet with a blank mind, letting Luke's explanation go through one ear and out the other. I was so caught up about how I was going to deal with Ellis living above me and the possibility of me falling for Luke.

"So do you get it?" Luke asked, nudging my shoulder. I gazed over at him then at the equation he had made me write out but still had an empty answer.

"Uhhhh..." I answered, trailing off and back into my thoughts. I felt his heavy stare on me, making me cave into him. "What?" I asked, looking between his eyes.

"You want to get back at Ellis, don't you?" He smirked as he tapped his fingers on the wooden table.

"No!" I snapped. He raised an eyebrow at me then began scribbling down under my unanswered equation. He circled his word and moved his hand to see. The word 'bullshit' was sloppily written underneath the bottom line.

"Your answer is bullshit." He smoothly said. I put my hand over his to cease the annoying tapping.

"Ok, maybe it is." I confessed. "But, how am I supposed to do it?" I asked slowly shaking my head. I'd never tried making a boy jealous since I'd never felt the need to, but somehow this felt like the right time for it. I watched as Luke pulled the same smirk he did a few moments ago and I waited for his idea.

"There's a Halloween party tonight." He stated.

"Halloween's next week." I butted in before he went on. He stared at me with a blank expression, blinking a few times from comment.

"There's a Halloween party tonight." He repeated, completely ignoring me.

"Tonight?" I questioned.

"Tonight. And I know that Ellis and all of his fraternity house is going to be there." He confirmed. He tapped his chin a few times and carried on. "Remember Michael from orientation?" He asked. I pursed my lips together, trying to connect faces with names in my head.

"Crazy hair?" I guessed.

"That's the one." He nodded at me. "He invited me and it starts at 8." He explained. I narrowed my eyes at him as he did the same back to me.

"Where is this going?" I ran my tongue across the top of my teeth, waiting for his reply. He sat up a little straighter and parted his lips.

"I'll take you as my date, or my fake date." He boasted. I let out a subtle laugh then began to think about all the times Ellis was a little jealous of Luke and there was no doubt that this would work.

"What's the catch?" I asked.

"There's no catch. You get to make your sleaze of an ex-boyfriend jealous and I get to take a pretty girl out." He clarified while making my cheeks fall a darker shade of pink. I felt him squeeze my hand and he had reminded me that it hand remained there during the whole conversation. "Deal?" I looked around the room in search for the time as I hadn't even realized how long we'd been working. Or at least how long Luke had been working while I fell into day dreams.

"It's almost 5. Do we have time?" I stumbled over my words a little, wondering if we could really pull this off.

"We live in New York. We can make anything happen in 3 hours." He half smiled at me as he raised an eyebrow. "So what do you say?" He asked. He pulled our hands up to where our elbows were propped up on the table and our palms were facing each other, like how we compared hand sizes when we were younger. I let out a deep breathe and interlocked out fingers just as I looked over at him.

"Deal."

-

I looked myself up and down in the mirror. My hair was weighed down in hairspray that coated my curls in as were my eyelashes from the false ones I had on. I made myself look as attractive as possible, even if that did mean feeling a little bit ridiculous, but at the same time I knew there were going to be about 50 other girls possibly more overdone than I am.

Based on a quick decision, Luke and I decided to go as baseball players. We hadn't seen each other since we rushed back in from getting our things that we needed for this party, so I was walking out as practically a new person.

I was never the one to show a lot of skin, but I guess Halloween was every girl's exception. I had a buttoned up baseball jersey that was a little big on me since it was actually Luke's. It was unbuttoned all the down and the only thing covering my chest was a black sports bra hidden underneath. I'd also never had the flattest stomach or a toned butt like every girl has dreamed for, but the matching black spandex shorts hid all of that and gave me more curve to my body. With white thigh high socks and a pair of white converse, I gave off the right amount of sexual attractiveness without shoving my ass or boobs in a person's face.

I looked in the mirror a final time, shaking my head side to side with a stupid smile on my face. I couldn't actually believe I was going through with this and also going in public like this, but I had a feeling it was going to be worth it.

"Autumn!" Luke called out from his room.

"Just a second!" I shouted back just as I gathered a small bag together. I slung it over my shoulder and ran to my door.

"Autumn, have you seen-" Luke was cut off by me running into his chest, causing us both to nearly fall backwards. He grabbed my hand just as I stumbled backwards and balanced me on my feet. I looked up at him to see his eyebrows raised, scanning me from head to toe. It felt a little weird having him obviously check me out, but at the same time I was barely clothed.

"Hey!" I exclaimed, reaching up to his hair with my free hand and fixing a stray piece of hair on his head. "I can actually see your hair!" I sarcastically said. He lifted his arm, making me twirl in a circle.

"And I can see your whole body!" His tone was just as sarcastic as mine and I stopped in front of him once I completed a full circle. I let go of his hand and pushed his arm gently.

"What are you trying to say?" I scoffed playfully.

"I don't know." He sing-songed. "But I'm pretty sure Ellis isn't going to be the only one jealous." He slid past me and I watched as he threw himself onto my bed.

"Is the Luke Hemmings afraid of getting his fake date dragged away from him." I fake gasped. He sat up to look at me as he leaned into his elbows.

"These are fraternity boys, Autumn. Who knows what they're going to pull." He said, sounding more serious.

"We'll be fine." I assured, giving him a polite smile. "As long as we keep our focus on making Ellis jealous-"

"That rhymed." He pointed out as he cut me off. He shifted his weight as I walked over to him.

"Okay?" I slowly said as I pulled on his arm to get him off my bed.

"Do you not appreciate the form of second grade poetry?" He asked as I dragged him out of my room. I didn't exactly know why he was doing this, but I knew he was trying the topic for some strange reason.

"No I don't." I plainly said over my shoulder.

"Well then how-" He began.

"Shut up! You're getting me off topic." I shouted. We were stopped just by the front door and now face to face. I still had a firm grip on his forearm and was afraid if I let go he'd probably just run off. "As I was saying, as long as we keep our focus on making Ellis jealous then nothing can go wrong." I calmly stated. I watched as he cocked his head slightly to the side.

"Lots of things can go wrong." I rolled my eyes at his input, seeing as he was now starting to back out of the idea. Luke was infamous for having these great ideas but then not actually sticking through with them because he was on who preferred not to fight fire with fire, he was too nice of a kid for that. But sometimes things change.

"This was your idea you know." I told him, opening the front door and feeling the crisp fall air on my exposed torso. He grabbed the door higher than my hand was and pulled it back, letting me out first.

"I know." He stated with half smile. He shut the door and I pulled him over to me by pinching the front of his shirt and making him face me. A smile crept up on my face as I looked between his eyes as he did the same.

"Just stick to the plan."