Begin Again (Lukesse)

sleeping over

Lukas's PoV

The moment the door opened, I was greeted by the towering figure of a man. Jess looked up at him and her jaw dropped a little. "Hi Diesel." I said meekly, looking up at the eyes of the man. He frowned at me a little, looked at Jess and his gaze passed over to Ivor, who looked positively amazed.

And Diesel's expression changed drastically. "Ivor?" Diesel muttered, his eyes full of disbelief. "Sir, we found your son for you." Jess said quietly, nudging Ivor towards Diesel. The father and son stared at each other, their resemblance similar. "Ivor." Diesel pulled Ivor into a hug, making Jess smile.

Ivor glanced at his dad and frowned, looking a little confused. "I don't know you. I just found out today that I had a living family, sir." Ivor said politely, gently pushing Diesel away. "Sir? Ivor, you're my son." Diesel looked at Jess and I. "He doesn't remember you, or.." my voice broke a little, "Or Petra."

"But how? What happened?" Diesel asked, but was interrupted by someone I didn't want to meet. "Dad? Who's there?" Petra's voice. I stepped back, feeling guilty. "I- gotta go." I said, quickly turning around and dashing away, with Jess calling for me.

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Somehow, I ended up at the roof garden, where there were plants everywhere and flowers slowly blooming. I inhaled the fresh air and tried to calm my nerves. This was guilt. Hearing Petra's voice just shook me to the core and I could barely feel my legs.

"How many times do you want to run away from me, Fletcher?" a very familiar voice asked from beside me. I turned, expecting Jess to be there but instead, it was Petra herself. "P-Petra?" I stepped back but she shook her head.

"Stop being afraid of me, Lukas. I forgive you." Petra said, looking at the sinking sun. "Wouldn't your boyfriend look for you?" I asked, emphasising the word, boyfriend. Petra glanced at me before gazing back at the horizon.

"A lot has changed, Lukas. But I forgive you. You brought Ivor back to me, even when my father and I searched for him for a very long time."

I nodded, gazing at the horizon as well. "It's the least I could do." I looked her, suddenly remembering that she just came out of a coma. "Aren't you supposed to be in bed?" I asked, blinking. Petra smirked and waved a hand. "Yeah, but I just wanted to come out here to see you. You ran away just now, so." Petra shrugged.

I could literally feel myself struggling to choose between Jess and Petra. Both of them can understand me and both of them can make me happy. I just couldn't choose. The tipping point was that Petra had Jesse. I didn't want to go after someone if they already had a boyfriend/girlfriend.

Why was it so hard? Choices in general. "You should get back to bed." I said, breaking the silence. Petra looked at me for awhile before nodding, her eyes looking a little tired. "Thanks Lukas. You'll always be a good friend to have."

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I was at Jess's house, waiting for her. "You're not kidding." I said monotonously, watching her gather pillows from the living room and dump it all on her bed. "My parents are out, your dad won't mind, will he?" Jess asked, stopping her frenzy.

I shook my head and I could feel my face heating up a little, despite the cool air from the air conditioner. Jess had invited me to sleep over at her house all of a sudden and I didn't know how to feel about that. I mean, we were sixteen. That's okay, right? No? Oh god.

"That's about all." Jess said, clapping her hands together as she surveyed the stack of pillows. "Is this how you sleep?" I asked, looking at the mountain of pillows she had gathered. "Maybe not." Jesse muttered, "Am I going a bit overboard?"

Again, I nodded but she stuck her tongue out at me, "Nah. This is my house. I can do whatever I want." I raised an eyebrow. "Now come on. Wanna watch a movie?" Jess pulled me onto the bed and turned on her TV. Somehow, Jess could act a little snobby at times. Maybe I should reform her or something.

After bickering for a few minutes about what movie to watch, we chose Harry Potter, Jess finally relaxed against my shoulder. I wondered how could she be so calm about this. I could barely sit still, since I was kinda ADHD and occasionally had to do something repetitively to stay sane.

"Hey Lukas." Jess whispered, after an hour into the movie. I stopping tapping my fingers on the bed to look at her, "Yeah?" "Have you done anything like this before? As in, sleeping over at a friend's house?" I gazed at the television, not taking anything in.

"No. My father didn't allow me to. My life has been pretty... horrible." I glanced at her, wondering if she understood. Jess nodded, settling down beside me again. "And Lukas? Are we... going out? As in, we're in a relationship.?" Jess asked quietly. I didn't know how this worked, but I nodded anyway.

Jess smiled a little, starting to close her eyes. "Then I'm glad we met, Lukas. You're.. my best friend." Jess whispered, falling off to sleep. I smiled, stroking her hair as she leaned against my shoulder.

"And I love you." I whispered quietly.

-End