Be Your Everything

s i x t y o n e

"Lennie, can I steal you for a second?" Luke asks quietly. I look behind him at Beth, who's now chatting with Ashton, and then at Calum, who shrugs before walking over to the cooler to get himself a beer.

"What's up?" I ask casually. He looks unsure of himself, like he's afraid I'm going to be mad at him.

"I know it's probably really weird, but can I ask your sister out?" He looks at me for some sort of reaction, but I just stare back at him blankly.

"You want to date Beth?" I know that I saw a spark between them, but I didn't see anything actually coming from it.

"Just a date, you know, see where it goes..." Luke trails off and looks over his shoulder at her. "She's really cool, and she's a lot like you- that came out wrong. That's weird. I shouldn't have even asked-"

"Luke, I'm totally cool with it," I assure him.

"Are you sure?" He lowers his voice and steps closer. "I know it's weird since we... you know..."

"I'm willing to leave that part in the past if you are." I stick out my hand for a deal-dealing handshake. "So?"

"Alright yeah," he nods and smiles with relief.

"Am I witnessing a secret alliance being formed?" Calum walks back over to us with a beer and a water. He hands the water to me and waits to be filled in on what just happened with Luke and I.

"Already got one of those, remember?" Luke chuckles awkwardly, and both boys fall silent.

"Luke wants to date my sister," I tell Calum with an amused smile, and Luke glares at me.

"Keep your voice down! I haven't asked her yet," he huffs.

"How do you plan on doing that?" Calum challenges him.

"I had an idea," Luke says with a twinkle in his eye. "The four of us go on a date: I take Elle and Calum brings Beth. Once were in private, we can switch girls. No one gets in trouble with Modest, and we get to hide in plain sight."

"That's pretty brilliant," I tell him. "Beth and I look enough alike that no one would be able to tell us apart at a distance."

"I'm gonna go ask her," Luke says before walking over to Beth and taking the seat next to her. I turn to look up at Calum and nuzzle into his chest, for the first time without worrying about someone else seeing us. As we watch Luke and Beth discuss details of our double date, I can't help but feel like we're on the cusp of solving all of our problems.

. . . . .

With a surprisingly minimal amount of effort, I had turned Beth into my mini me for our double date tonight. I straightened our hair and applied the same pinky-toned eye look to us both while we sported light wash jeans with black tank tops and sandals. Looking in the mirror, I was proud of my work at making us look similar, which would make it easier to switch places without an onlooker noticing.

"Eleanor, I'm so nervous," Beth fussed with her hair in the mirror with her brows crinkled.

"Don't be nervous, we're just going to lunch and then seeing a movie." I gave her shoulders a squeeze of encouragement and checked the time. Calum and Luke would be here in 5 minutes, provided they actually got here on time. "If they ever get here, that is."

"Maybe there's still time to cancel." Beth says frantically. The front door opens behinds me before I can argue with her about this any further.