Too Late? (5SOS)

Chapter 30

*Tiana's POV*

The whole process of 'getting prepared for bed' was without a doubt, extremely awkward.

Luke and I wouldn't even look each other in the eye as we paced back and forth from bedside table to bathroom to study table to TV set, so we ended up bumping into each other every five steps.

During the seventh time we bumped into each other (trust me, I counted), I just decided to plop down on the bed myself and prepare myself for sleep. Today has been an emotionally exhausting day, and the last thing I needed was to continue being completely awkward with Luke. I arranged pillows around me, creating boundaries so as to not bump into him while I sleep. Like, seriously I didn't know Liz would be this lenient with Luke that she'd allow him to sleep with his own alleged girlfriend.

Just as I was about to drift off to sleep, Luke obnoxiously sat on the bed, snapping me back from my trance. "Can you not?!" I say too harshly, which he replies with a pained expression.

"Sorry," I apologize. "I just had a really rough day."

"I know." he replies. "I'm sorry I didn't tell Mum about the real score between us. She just loves you a lot, and she really wants us to end up together."

"I wonder why." I couldn't help but say. I've been nothing but horrible ever since I left Australia: I never bothered to keep in touch with them or visit when I had so much free time. Of course, I had my own personal reasons that were unbeknownst to Liz but she never questioned me and when I came back, she welcomed me with open arms.

"I have a feeling that ever since the day that we met, she was already planning our wedding ceremony in her head." Luke jokes, which kills the awkward tension between us for the slightest moment.

"So, I see she hasn't met Alicia yet, huh?"

Oh fuck.

Did I just say that out loud?

Way to spread the 'awkward', Tiana. I couldn't help but bring my hand over my mouth, hoping it would conceal the guilt and embarassment I was feeling at the moment. Luke's expression had gone from aloof and joyful, to how someone who had been stabbed from behind would normally look like. Both of us couldn't utter a single word...

Until five minutes after, when Luke had returned from his temporary state of shock. "You still remember what happened that day?"

"How could I forget?" I regret mentioning the words the moment they leave my mouth. But I couldn't just turn back time and take them back: though I should, that was all I really wanted to tell him anyway.

"I should probably go to sleep now." I cut him off, facepalming myself. I hurriedly turn off all the lights, probably leaving him stunned in the dark, and I don't even bother to tell him goodnight.

And what bothered me the most during that whole encounter was when he thought I had probably drifted off to sleep already, I heard him say, "She meant absolutely nothing to me, God damn it Tiana."

-•-•-•-•-

It's the next morning, and I wake up with a throbbing headache, thanks to Luke's alarm going out of control. Although I find myself in the tempting position wherein my face is buried into his chest, I grab his phone from the bedside table and turn off the annoying Marimba ringtone. I mean, who in the world still uses that? Sadly, after that's all done, I couldn't find a way to go back to sleep at four thirty in the morning, while Luke is still sleeping like a baby. I return to my previous spot where I'm snuggled against him, eyeing the pillows that were once between us that he had probably knocked down the previous night.