Treacherous ❅ Hemmings

346 Days Before (1/2)

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:: 12 :: FRI, March 7, 2014

"HEY, Jay" Luke bumped me with a plush toy.

"Yes, Luke?" I stood up and finished putting all of the toys away.

Everyone had gone home already and our daycare schedule went back to normal. Luke returned to his original shift with me and just earlier he had told me the reason why he switched. Apparently his grandma had been acting up earlier this week so it wasn't much of a surprise to him when he found out she's in the hospital two days ago to this hour.

Luke went home the very next morning when he slept over. When I woke up, he wasn't beside me anymore and my Mom downstairs told me he had already left. She liked Luke. She told me they talked about college over toast and OJ. She even bragged about him washing the dishes for her.

Luke was known for disappearing out of the blue a lot of times. We haven't had an actual conversation since I told him I loved him at 2am, when our shift ended and we're out of school. I'm used to that though. At one point, you would feel inseparable from him then the next time, he'd seize to exist.

"Did you mean it?" He asked me, throwing out the last juice box.

"Did I mean what?" I retorted.

"That you loved me."

"Love is a big word, Luke." I walked away, carrying the toy chest to the closet.

"No it's not. Saying love is a big word is like saying saying corn is too." He followed me. I turned around to see him crossed arms, resting against the doorway of the closet.

"Love can make you question about everything." I laughed, "Curiosity killed the cat."

He shut the door behind us. "No one lives a life without pondering what lies behind the door."

"Sometimes it's better that way. The unknown could be your best friend. It keeps you going." I said.

"To the wrong direction." He smiled, "It makes you run away from what was behind you. You wouldn't know what was behind you if you didn't turn around."

"What if what's behind you is a monster ready to eat you?" I started walking towards him.

"It could be an adorable little puppy too." His eyebrows furrowed.

"Isn't it better to play safe and just keep running from it?" I stopped walking, my face just in front of his chest.

He lifted my face with his thumb to make me look at him eye to eye. "That's what killed the cat, Jay."

"As soon as the cat saw the dog in the dark cage, it panicked and ran away, unaware there was a un-triggered mouse trap on the opposite side." He stared at me with so much focus.

"How ironic, the mouse trap was set for -well the mouse for the cat to eat."

"Exactly. If the cat just stopped and thought about going around the dog house instead of running back, it wouldn't have died." His head dropped closer and closer to meet my face.

"How do you go from corn to cats?" I jerked away from his hold and walked back.

"Being in love is being human," He answered plainly. "Curiosity is in our nature as humans. We fall deeply just to fall back out of it and we keep falling again until someone actually catches us. It's just a matter of being smart and knowing who would catch us and who would let us go." Straightening himself, he held on the door knob tightly.

"Curiosity didn't kill the cat, ignorance did." I nodded, finally understanding what he was saying.

"Love wouldn't hurt you. Not being in love would." Luke twisted the knob and pushed the door open. "How would you know something would hurt if you've never tried it. Don't be the cat, Jay."

I followed him out and to the locker room. We were silent until we reached the parking lot, where we were about to go our separate ways. Calum promised to drive me home. When I saw his blue sports car not too far from where we stood, I turned to Luke.

"I don't know if I meant it, Luke." I searched his face for any sign of emotion but there wasn't any.

"That's why I never actually said it, Jay." He pressed his lips together. That partly explained why he started to say it but never really said it.

"I don't know why I said it either. I'm sorry if I said it. I don't want to ruin anything we have." I exclaimed, making sure neither of us even mention 'love' and just mention it as 'it'.

"It's okay. We're okay." he parted his lips slightly, "I'm the cat, Jay. It's a dangerous thing to be it."

"But you just gave me a whole speech about not being the cat." I bit my nails, unsure of anything anymore.

He leaned in quickly and kissed me on my cheek. His warm press sent shivers to all parts of my body. It was so quick yet so sentimental to me already.

"I don't know what I'm doing anymore, Jay. I'll see you around." Then he ran away, back to the doors of the mall.

He is the cat. He ran away to the opposite direction but this time I think he's already fallen in the mouse trap. That's not fair. Now he's running with a trap clipped onto him. He didn't tell me anything about that situation in the metaphor.

Walking to Calum's car had to be the longest walk I've ever gone on since I came back to the funeral building. When Calum finally saw me, he unlocked the car and I went in the passenger's seat.

"Well you're later than usual. You should've been here like five minutes ago." Calum laughed.

"I'm sorry, Marilyn made us stay a bit." I lied, silently wishing he didn't see me with Luke minutes ago.

"Oh alright, how's Luke? Can we all hang out sometimes?" He spoke louder.

I scratched my nose and smiled at him, "Sure, maybe one day this week."

"I feel kind of left out, Jay." He started the engine.

"What do you mean?" I asked, buckling my seatbelt.

He shrugged his shoulders while he hit on gas. "You didn't tell me Luke was your boyfriend."

❆

"Being in love is being human:

In this world, we ponder

Why things are the way they are

It is inevitable

One does not live a life

With no interrogations and doubts"

- (Stanza 1, Being in Love)

-

(A/N): this is just a filler chapter so sorry it's short. I hope everyone got the metaphors. sorry this story is full of metaphors. luke is a pretty metaphorical guy lol.

Will proofread later.

They're getting there. don't think I'm hurrying stuff bc trust me this is gonna be very long lol.

Btw if you remember that stanza from the story outline, I hope you could tell why I put it there for a reason.

*Hint hint* remember when I said watch for the number of days? Yeah. You'll figure it out soon. Everything is falling into place. You'll see :)

*Hint hint* how about go back to the outline|| Being in Love ;)

Follow @lukeanillusion on Twitter and turn your notifs on. *LUKE not LIKE

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