start over // lrh

two

"Why do they even call this place Pine Hills, like I haven't seen any of those pine trees in a hundred mile radius", I continued to blabber and do weird hand gestures as Luke kept staring at his plate of food, as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. He had a salad while I had french fries and fish.

His hair looked greasy, and were a tangled mess. He had changed his clothes and was now wearing skinny jeans and a black hoodie over it, which had something written in Korean on it.

I wish I could shut up but I had no control over my mouth, it was the only way to push back my anxiety.

You know, we all have those little cousins who are very shy when you meet them, and blush almost every time you try to talk to them. But literally five minutes later, when they overcome their shyness, they start jumping around the house yelling some shit like, "I'm a kangaroo, ya hoo"

Well, I was one of them, just a bit larger in size.

I was so nervous when I went to the airport to pick up Luke, and I couldn't talk all the way when drove him here to Pine Hills, but now when I had gotten past my shy phase, I was ranting non-stop, a person who looked at us from the outside would have thought that I was a long lost friend of Luke's, telling him about my first boyfriend and getting my period, that he had missed while he was away. And might have assumed that Luke was deaf too.

"Did you see the receptionist in the lobby? She was totally checking you out", I started once again, maybe this would catch his attention, I thought to myself.

I place my chin on my hand and wiggled my eyebrows at him. The though of the redhead sitting behind the counter at the lobby, ogling Luke, came to my mind.

He just scoffed at my comment, still keeping his eyes trained on his food. I huffed, this one person talk was not interesting at all.

"Why was the sea wet?", I had asked Luke. Maybe he liked jokes. He turned to me and gave a ridiculous look, and I realized that this was the first time he had actually looked at me, disregarding the imaginary unicorn that was probably using one of the union ring from his salad plate as a hula hop to play.

"Come on, give it a try?", I tried to persuade him to make an attempt.

"Uh, because water is wet," he suggested, shrugging. I know it was a very dumb answer and scientifically incorrect- water isn't wet. It just takes other things wet that come in contact with it, but I smiled anyway because he had tried.

"Because sea weed"

And he chuckled.

Yay, progress, I thought to myself and decided to go for another one, before he started to ignore him again.

"Knock, knock"

"Who's there", he said, after some thought.

"Daisy"

"Dasiy who?"

I took in a deep breath, as if i was about to give a speech after winning an Oscar.

"Daisy me rollin', they hatin'" i said, nervously in a sing song was.

And then he did what I least expected him to do. He laughed. And that caused thousands of butterflies to erupt in my stomach.

He looked beautiful when he laughed, golden locks cascading his face and his eyes twinkling. His smiled until perfect teeth were showing and his pimples popped. And then I laughed with him, it was contagious. We laughed together for a few moments, until it died down to a chuckle.

"I'm giggling, It's hideous", Luke said, smile still evident on his face.

"It's beautiful", I said, dipping a french fry into my can of Coca-Cola.

"You're not going to eat that, are you?", he said with a disgusted look.

"Of course, I am", I replied as I ate the whole fry in one bite.

Mixing food is cool.

***

My stupid jokes had kinda broke the ice. Luke had asked me where his room was, I could tell that he didn't like me much, regardless of my amazing joke. At least he was speaking now.

I had showed Luke to his room and now I was sitting in the kitchen, eating biscuits and thinking if I should call Iselin- my best friend- and tell her about this whole ass day. I said when I heard footsteps and Luke walked into to kitche.

He was wearing golden socks. That was the first thing that I noticed. Cute, I thought to myself when i saw them. I dropped my biscuit on my lap at the sight of him. Great.

"Uh... sorry, I was looking for the sleeping pills, couldn't find them anywhere in my room", he said awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Oh, I was supposed to keep them under my watch-" cough "-because of your condition with drugs". Oh boy, this was just starting to get awkward.

"So, I kinda need them now, I'm thinking you can get me some"

"Of Course", I said, putting the tupperware box away and jumping abruptly off the bar-stool. I rummaged through the kitchen cabinets, where I had kept them before Luke arrived.

"Aha", I said as I got the container and took out two of the tablets, handing them to him.

"Thanks", Luke said, taking the tablets and started walking back to his room, when a sudden wave of panic ran through me.

"Wait!", I called it (not with a hand reaching out to him and sentimental music playing in background, like it happens in the cliche movies. I promise")

"Yes..", he turned around and looked at me expectantly.

"You're n-not going to try anything, are you?", I asked him worriedly.

"Of course not, you don't have to worry about me" he gave me the smallest smile, which made me believe him.

Of course, he just wanted to get some sleep, not kill himself, you idiot, I thought to my self.

"Goodnight... sorry what's your name?"He said while I remained frozen in my tracks. I knew that Luke was trying to be polite, and smiled.

"Xan", I said, still smiling.

"And that's short for... Alexandra?"

"Yep", I said, popping the p into the air, leaning awkwardly against the kitchen bar.

He nodded "Goodnight, Alexandra. And no, I won't try anything"

With that, he shoved his hands into his pockets, and walked off.

Did he really just call me by my full name?