We got on the bus and drove off chatting about stuff and I was actually beginning to feel a lot better. I was going to be okay. After 5 minutes of driving, the bus stopped to let some people on and then to my surprise, Mel and Michael stumbled onto the bus giggling.
“Hide me,” I joked to Lori, “that’s Mel and Michael that I told you about.”
They walked past us and sat down at the back of the bus, Michael had his hand on Mel’s upper thigh and she was grinning at him. Then Michael leaned towards her and kissed her roughly on her lips.
“Break it up guys,” I yelled, making them jump away from each other and yell in surprise.
“Rose, what the fuck, you scared me,” Mel giggled, coming over to sit in the two seats behind Lori and me, “who’s this?”
“I’m Lori, and you must be Mel, right?” Lori chuckled.
“Okay, Lori, how do you know Rose then?” Michael challenged.
“I’m... well I’m Luke’s cousin,” Lori said, looking confused at how weird that sounded. He was my ex’s cousin and I was hanging out with him.
“Oh that’s awkward,” Mel chuckled. Lori scratched the back of his neck with his hand and nodded with a little laugh, clearly feeling incredibly awkward in the situation.
“Well, this is our stop,” I chimed in, grabbing Lori’s wrist and pulling him up.
“No it’s not-” he started, but I had already pulled him off the bus saying that he was clearly not happy being in that situation so I didn’t want to keep him there any longer, “thanks but... where now?”
“We can walk, come on,” I said, tugging at his arm to get him to walk but he strode ahead and then pulled both my hands to get me to run with him.
After 10 minutes of running, walking and just chatting, I got tired.
“I’m tired Lori,” I complained. Lori ran over to me and pulled me off the ground much to my squeals as he slung me over his shoulder, laughing, “put me down! Lori!”
“Nope,” he chuckled, so I kicked my legs on his stomach to get him to put me down but he just held onto my legs, restricting my movement. I was giggling helplessly until Lori was laughing so hard that he had to put me down in fear of dropping me.
“You bastard,” I teased. I realised that we were back at my apartment so I practically ran upstairs and let myself in. It was 9:50pm but I was really tired, “can I sleep now?”
“Sure,” Lori chuckled, “I’ll sleep on the sofa.”
“Thanks,” I said, leaving Lori to go to sleep as I forced myself upstairs and pulled on my PJs.
I fell asleep into a mindless, dreamless, yet pleasant sleep.
Luke’s P.O.V.
After Lori left, I sat with my phone out and Rose’s number typed in. I’d been doing that a lot recently, just typing a message to her but not sending it. I missed her so much that I was aching inside and there was an emptiness in my heart that only she could fill. Lori didn’t say where he was going, not that I really cared, but he said he’d be gone for the night.
I was just so lonely.
I was about to go to sleep when I decided to text Rose.
‘I still miss you. I love you, goodnight x’
But I couldn’t send it.
-
Rose’s P.O.V
I woke up to Lori continuously knocking on my bedroom door in a constant rhythm.
“Wake up Rose,” he whined.
“What the fuck Lori, go away,” I groaned, turning over and pressing a pillow over my head. Lori opened the door but I waved him off, which he clearly ignored because the next thing I knew he was sat on the edge of my bed bouncing up and down, giggling.
“Rose come on, get up,” Lori complained, tugging at my arm. I sleepily turned over and opened my eyes and giggled at him because he had stopped bouncing and he was now just giving me a death-stare to try and get me up.
“No-o-o-o,” I whined, pulling the duvet back over my head. Lori pulled the side of the duvet and then rolled it around my body.
“You’re a burrito,” he giggled, putting his arms round the ‘burrito duvet’ that I was in and shoving me onto the floor, “now get up.”
Reluctantly I crawled out of the duvet and told Lori to leave so I could get dressed, so he left and I got changed into some jeans and a baggy top. When I stepped outside my room Lori had, I assumed, gone downstairs so I went to the bathroom and stuff before going downstairs to find him drinking coffee...
“What are we gonna do today?” Lori chimed.
“I don’t know, what do you want to do?” I asked.
“Do... do you want to go for a picnic?” he asked, nervously biting his lip, “don’t say it’s lame okay because picnics are cool.”
“Okay, sure,” I giggled, “wait... Lori, this isn’t like... a date is it?”
“Not if you don’t want it to be,” he smiled.
“A half-date then,” I joked as he picked up a little picnic basket and lead me out the door.
We arrived at a little park and Lori sat us under a tree so we weren’t in the midday sun as he placed the picnic basket down on the floor. He was chewing at the inside of his mouth and I thought: why is he so nervous. Oh god, what if he wanted this to be a date?
