Does he really care?

Feelings

<Still Dakotas POV>

I drag myself over to his bathroom and close the door, I put on the shorts and all my bruises were on display.

"Dakota are you almost done, all I asked you to do is put on some shorts," He yells from the other side of the door.

"Listen, Luke, I don't think this is a good idea, my legs are...uh... ugly," I tell him.

"No, they aren't I just wanna see," He begs now fiddling with the doorknob.

"Fine but don't say I didn't warn you," I say while unlocking and opening his bathroom door.

I walk over to Luke who is sitting on the bed looking at his phone. He looks up at me and stares at my legs.

"Woah," His mouth drops open and he starts examining each bruise on my legs.

"You know you have really sexy legs even if they are covered in bruises." He says and I immediately blush trying to back away, but Luke grabs my waist and I yelp in pain.

"Ah yes now what's going on here," Luke says while pulling up my jacket a little but letting parts of my bruising show.

"Hey what the Heck man!" I yell.

"Take off your jacket." He says.

"What?" I say turning a deep color of red.

"You heard me, Dakota please take off your jacket I have a surprise for you if you do."

"But what about your parents or sister, if they just walk into your room and see me wearing a freaking bra and shorts."

"They aren't home, babe, I'm not trying to pull anything just trust me."

"I would Luke but I can barely move every part of my body is sore," I tell him.

"Then let me help you."

Luke gets up and helps me take my jacket off, exposing more of my bruising. Luke's eyes go wide once he sees and he puts his forehead to my stomach.

"Luke, are you crying?" I ask him as I pull his head up looking at his tear-stained cheek

"Dakotlly like you, I know I have done a terrible job showing it but I do. You mean a lot to me, it hurts me to see you being hurt and it crushed me when I hurt you. I would take all your beatings from your dad if it meant you wouldn't get hurt anymore." He tells me while tears run down his face. He looks at my stomach, and I start to feel self-conscious, I reach for my jacket but he grabs my hand and kisses it.

"Dakota I can see your ribcage you need to eat more," he tells me.

"I can't if my dad sees I've gained any weight he'd beat me even harder," I tell him.

"Dakota you are such a good person, you don't deserve everything that has happened to you."

"Well, this is just my life I can't change it so I've just learned to live with it," I tell him with a slight smile

Luke goes back to putting his head on my stomach and I can feel the occasional tear run down his cheek. Standing there awkwardly I rubbed his back as his tears went down my stomach. We soon hear Luke's family come home so I quickly change and run downstairs onto his couch and watch TV. As they enter the house Luke darts up and introduces me to his family.

"Luke did you give Dakota her present yet." Mrs. Walters asks him.

"Oh, yea I completely forget, cmon Dakota before you have to leave."

He grabs me and leads me to his room and closes the door. He walks over to his desk and pulls out a little box. I open it and there's an iPhone 7 in it along with a marble case on the back.

"Do you like it?" Luke asks me

"Luke! I love it!" I run up to him and gave him a huge hug, finally, I give him a small peck on the lips and pull away blushing and biting my lip.

"C'mon you can't do that and not expect more," Luke says smirking and walking closer to me.

"Well, Luke sorry to say but you are too late it's now 4:30 and I have to go," I tell him while gripping the door nob.

"Not so fast missy"

Luke grabs me and turns me around crashing his lips onto mine. We kiss until I realizlly have to go. I turn to exit the door but before I could Luke says something.

"Dakota promise me that you will always text me after your dad, ya know...hits you." He says looking at the ground.

"Luke I promise I will let you know that I'm okay," I say while leaving his room and making my way to my house.

<Luke POV>

She walks out of my room and I am stunned, she had so much deep bruising that was a mixture of purple, blue, and yellow. It wasn't fair that she had to go through all this, after she left I sat on the bed stunned by what I saw all over her body; 

"Hey, Luke what's wrong?"My mom asks.

"She-she had bruising everywhere," I say still not being able to grasp what I just saw.

"What do you mean how do you know?"

"Well at school today after I apologized to her I asked her if I could be one of the people she trusts and she told me I was the only one she trusts, so I gave her a huge hug and tackled her to the ground. But she pushed me off and held her ribcage in pain, when I tried to ask what was wrong she just lied and said she hit her side on her nightstand but she doesn't even have one. Then later on in class, she was raising her hand and I saw all these bruises on her stomach, so after school, I brought her here and told her to change into a pair of Mollys' shorts. I saw so many bruises covering entiretire legs. Then I told her to take her shirt off..."

"LUKE!" My mom screams whacking me in the back of the head. "that is not appropriate." 

"No mom just listen," I reassured her while rubbing my head.

"I told her to take off her jacket, at first she said no but then I told her I wasn't trying to pull anything. She finally agreed but she couldn't do it by herself because she was too sore so I had to help her, but mom she was wincing every single time I put my hand up she thought I was going to hit her. She also had bruising everywhere some were faded and some were new, and I'm going, to be honest with you mom. I cried when I saw all the bruises she had."

I looked up at my mom who had started to tear up.

"Luke?" She looks at me with teary eyes.

"Yeah mom"

"You love Dakota don't you?" She asks

'Wow, I think I actually really love her.'

"I think so, I don't know this is all so fast," I admit.

"Luke I'm going, to be honest with you. All you can really do is remind and show her that she can trust you. You don't know what her dad is like if you go over there and her dad catches you he could possibly hurt you too."

"Mom I'm willing to get hurt, I just don't want her to get hurt," I say feeling a bit of defeat knowing that there's not much I can do.