Daydream Dating

Chapter 22 - Gymnasiums

Song of the chapter - Believer by Imagine Dragons

The place was packed and the crowd was screaming. There I was in my Sweet Heart sleeper, hood up, feeling foolish, with Luke standing just behind me. He was wearing track pants and a white t-shirt, looking like an average athlete instead of an overgrown baby. My palms were sweating, not a good thing to have just as this crazy race was about to start. I felt like I might throw up.

"I can't do this," I said, mostly to myself because I didn't think Luke was about to back out anytime soon. But he heard me.

"Yes you can. We can." He emphasized the 'we,' which was a nice gesture, just a bit too late for my nervous system. It was about to blow. Chunks.

"Nope," I said, putting my hand over my mouth to hold the spewage back. As if that would even work.

"Mal! We've got this. You don't have to even do anything, just lay stiff and I'll do all of the work." Luke tried to reassure me, but it wasn't working. He must have been able to tell because he took me by the shoulders and spun me back to face him. His touch did two things at the same time. The sick rolling of my stomach came to a complete halt. On the other hand, the tingles that ran down my body at his touch threatened to knock me unconscious. He had never touched anything but my hands before. Technically, he wasn't touching me. He was just touching the fabric of the sleeper. But I could feel his warmth, the muscles in his hands, and his grip as his fingers held me firmly. Gosh I was such a fangirl for him!

The blush in my cheeks heated my entire body. I could tell that Luke noticed too. His grip released from my shoulders and he took a step back. Perfect. My reaction repulsed him. But on the other hand, I didn't feel like spewing anymore. Instead, the urge to run and hide in the girl's bathroom was strong. I didn't think Gina would be there to rescue me, though.

What had I been thinking when I said yes to this? I hadn't been thinking at all, to be honest. I had just reacted. Like I was in this moment facing Luke in front of the entire school, just reacting. Needing to get a grip on myself, and my insanity, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Luke seemed to do the same, both of us now requiring meditation to function. What a pair we made! When I opened my eyes again, Luke was staring at me, hard.

"You good?" he asked, his eyebrows raised in expectation.

"As good as I can be considering what's about to go down," I said.

"And that would be..." he said, expecting my reply. I just shrugged instead. I didn't want to voice the humiliation out loud. There was a name for that: Self-fulfilling prophesy. Not that I was a prophet. But just to be on the safe side, I decided to zip it up tight.

"Well, it's time to find out, sweet heart," Luke said, as if the fact he just referred to me as 'sweet heart' was no big deal. As if my heart didn't just explode. As if I wasn't suddenly feeling things I had stopped feeling months ago. As if that was a completely normal thing for him to say. He needed to stop playing with my emotions. It wasn't fair to be yanked back and forth.

Or was I doing that to myself? UGH! I gritted my teeth, completely irritated with my own brain and its ability to take me on unwanted emotional excursions at the drop of a hat. Or in this case at the drop of a nickname. Which it wasn't, because he was just calling me what was written all over my sleeper. Stupid high school girl emotions. Blech!

Luke had taken me by the hand to drag me to the starting line, because apparently while my brain went on it's overly dramatic freak out trip, I had also spaced out and didn't respond to his shouts of "Come on, Mal!" Just keep heaping on the embarrassing moments, Mal.

Once my feet picked up the pace, Luke dropped his hold on me. I needed to get my head in the goofy game, or the silly sport, or whatever, and stop getting caught up in Luke's warm touch. Or his gentle gaze. Or his close proximity.