when we collide ✰ l.h.

Chapter 24

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Luke furiously asked, pulling me into the closet by our front door since every other room would be in earshot of Ellis who was now getting comfortable on the couch.

"We're in a closet." I stated, being forced to be pressed against Luke's chest by all the junk that we had in here.

"Forget about the God damn closet!" He whisper-shouted. His hands tugged through his hair, obviously out of frustration. "What made you think this was even remotely a good idea?"

"I felt bad! I didn't want him getting killed on the streets!" I explained, keeping my voice just as low as his.

"He would've been perfectly fine!" He replied. He sighed, rubbing his forehead with his thumb and pointer finger. "You are so dumb sometimes." He piped up.

"I am not dumb." I scoffed, crossing my arms.

"I do your calculus work." He retorted.

"That doesn't mean I'm dumb! That just means I'm bad at math." I straightened up my back to try to feel taller, but Luke's height was noticeable even with the sliver of light we had for us to see.

"You just let your ex-boyfriend, who cheated on you may I remind you, stay at our house when he tried to pull a move on you." He grabbed the sides of my face, his thumbs lightly resting on my cheeks.

"I told you he didn't try anything." I groaned.

"And I told you you're a bad liar." His voice became more delicate, but it was obvious he was still pissed about it.

"I'm sorry, alright? I just didn't want him roaming the streets by himself." I apologized. He dropped his hands, digging through his pockets.

"You know we have finals in," He started, pulling out his phone and checking the time. "4 hours." He finished. The fact had made me cringe and had put in an even worse situation than I thought.

"Time flies." I awkwardly rocked from side to side once, but Luke grabbed onto my shoulders to stop me.

"Stop messing around, this is serious!" His tone was angry once again, probably more irritated than anything. "I can't believe you did this." He shook his head multiple times, looking back down to me.

"Why are you so mad about it?" I questioned. His eyebrows raised at me, as if I had asked him something I wasn't supposed to.

"Are you really asking me that?" He whispered.

"I want to know." I shrugged.

"Fine." He said, letting out a short but heavy breath. "I'll show you." He smirked, almost in a sarcastic way.

Just then, he opened the door, grabbing my forearm and pulling me across the living room without warning.

"Let go of me!" I grumbled, thrashing out of his grip. I turned to Ellis who had an eyebrow raised at us, completely clueless of the conversation Luke and I just had. I cleared my throat, taking a small step to Ellis.

"Um, there's extra blankets in the laundry room." I stammered. As weird as it was just beginning to feel, a moment of normality had flashed in front of me. Even though it wasn't necessarily normal anymore and was something I definitely did not miss, it made me realize how much things had actually changed.

"Goodnight, Autumn." Ellis smiled, turning to Luke and nodding at him. "Luke." I spun back around to Luke who had a blank look on his face.

"Night." We said simultaneously, my voice more chipper over his. Luke pulled me yet again and went straight for his room, dragging me behind. He opened his door swiftly pushing me inside then quickly closing the door behind him.