the propinquity effect

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"Luke, can I talk to you?" I asked the tall boy in front of me. He was flipping the pages of his maths textbook and he was trying his best not to get his concentration shaken by me or my friends. He had been sitting with me ever since we broke up, I guessed our friendship would never end even though our relationship did. He looked up from his maths book and stared at me, his faded blue eyes met my brown ones as I bit down on my bottom lip.

"This should be important. I have maths test after this and if I want to go to my first choice of college I should not fuck it up." Luke stated as he finally closed his book. His sandwich was left unopened and uncut, he had not even touched the poor food. His water bottle remained on the edge of the blue tray as he was so focused on his maths that he didn't even care about his food. But someone stole his pepperoni pizza and it might or might not be me.

"Alone please, Luke Hemmings? You don't know anything about privacy?" I asked as I stood up from my seat and took my black backpack. Luke shrugged as he dumped his maths book into his bag and he grabbed his sandwich that was still in a wrapper. He shook his head, disapproving my actions but he followed me either way.

I wasn't sure where I was supposed to be taking him since I really didn't know any place that could be labeled as 'private'. Luke kept on trailing behind me, his soles were dragged on the floor which meant he didn't want to follow me. But I was going to ask him something and it would be extremely important for mine and Michael's relationship. I understood if Luke didn't want to help but he was supposed to, we stayed friends.

"Bloody hell, Al. Do you even know where you're going?" Luke asked as he gripped my wrist and opened a supply closet. He shoved me into the small space that smelt like bleach and I was trying so hard not to complain. Luke walked into the dark room a few seconds after that and flicked on the small bulb on top of us, it was small yet it was private. The tall boy sat beside a bucket and a mop, wrapping his arms around his legs as I huffed. "Is this important? God, I haven't been here since Vio-" he stopped when he remembered that he was there with me and not one of his friends. "Never mind, your story now."

"Right, Michael haven't told me this and I'm not sure if he will tell me. I mean-"

"Oh, did the condom broke? Michael told me something about him getting 'some'." Luke made two apostrophes with his fingers as I scoffed. Boys just had to be boys and tell their guy friends about them losing their virginity. Not like I minded, it was sort of cool, I really didn't care at all. I punched Luke in the arm as I walked back and slid against the cold wall, hugging my legs tight. "Jesus, okay. It's not about the condom breaking, then what is it about?"

"The condom broke?" I freaked out as my whole life flashed in front of my face. I wouldn't be able to get into college and I wouldn't be able to get a proper job. My mom was going to kill me and Dave would dump my mom because she wasn't a really good one. All of the bad news started to creep their way into my mind and I hugged my feet tighter; I didn't want to be a teen mom and get into MTV. I wanted my first child to be special and not an accident. I started to freak out internally and Luke knew that I was freaking out so he scooted over to me.

"No the condom didn't break. I'm pretty sure Michael's not that reckless. He wants your first time to be special." I noticed that Luke said 'your' and not 'his'. Did it actually mean that Michael had lost his virginity way before I had lost mine? Why didn't he tell me then? A lot of questions were in my mind and I needed answers but a tear ran down my left cheek and Luke noticed. He wrapped his arms around my shoulders and I leaned my head on his left one. His hugs would always be the best and no one could defeat them. He was amazing at giving hugs, I didn't want to break free from them.

"It wasn't his first time, was it?" I finally asked, my voice breaking with every word I said. Luke ran his hand up and down my arm in an attempt to soothe me. It was warm inside his embrace and I felt myself tearing up a lot more. He was really good at being a friend, I never gave him the chance to be my boyfriend since I abandoned him a lot. I wrapped my arms around his waist as I cried louder, my tears wetting his favorite band T-Shirt.