Chapter eight- Fearless
I spent the rest of the afternoon with Luke, Beau and Jai watching TV at their house. From the time I came over to 4pm we watched ‘Stepbrothers’, ‘She’s the man’ and ‘Justin Bieber’s Never Say Never’ because Jai insisted that we watch it a seventh time.
We were all taking a break from watching movies when Luke turned to me and smiled.
“Want to go to the beach?”
“At four thirty in the afternoon?”
“Yep!” He grabbed my hand and ran with me out the front door to his car.
We drove for about twenty minutes, while blaring hit songs and singing at the top of our lungs until we got to the nearest beach.
I got out of the car, still in my hoodie and denim shorts. Luke came around to my side of the car and held my hand as we started walking along the sand as the tide crashed onto the shore. The sun was still out and the air was still quite hot, so I took off my hoodie and chucked it on the sand as I had on a plain black t-shirt underneath.
For a long time, Luke and I just walked hand in hand down the beach, picking up random pretty shells and running in and out of the ocean; it finally made me forget about all the hate I was getting. For a while I was able to clear my mind and I had a smile on my face even though just earlier today I was bawling my eyes out cuddled up to Luke’s chest while he tried reassuring me that everything was going to be okay. I was always that girl who said that I’d never date someone who was in the public eye and who had girls falling head over heels for them- but that didn’t stop me from getting into this situation with Luke.
The entire time we were at the beach, I had this thought in my head. I couldn’t make up my mind whether it was a bad thought- I was still confused about the whole thing. I did my best to put on the best fake smile I could just so Luke wouldn’t think anything was wrong. The thought kept racing through my mind and I knew that I had to come to a decision about it; so I weighed up the pros and cons. It could potentially hurt both of us so much…but at the same time could save us a lot of hurt, hassle and torment. I stopped walking along the sand and turned to Luke; I had made my decision.
“Luke?” I looked at him with nervousness written all over my face.
“Yeah babe?” He smiled at first, but his smile soon faded once he realised the seriousness in my face
I bit my lip, not sure if I really wanted to go through with it or not; but I threw back those thoughts and just said it.
“I don’t think we should take our relationship any further.”
“What do you mean?” Luke looked at me puzzled, with a worried look on his face
“The hate that I’m getting right now is just overwhelming, and it’s just going to get worse. Luke I don’t know if I can handle that- and besides I’m sure you wouldn’t want a burden to be with you at all times.” I looked down and the sand, moving my toes around in it
“Don’t you dare say that you are a burden to me. You’re the one who I want to be with- not anyone else! People are going to have their opinions, but I’m going to be there for you in every way that I can. You have to trust me. Please, just give us a chance…please?” Luke looked at me with a tear in his eye- I’ve never really seen him get this emotional over anything…he really must have meant the things he said.
“But there are so many other girls throwing themselves at you. I’m scared that one day you’ll see someone much better and leave me.”
“I promise you that I’ll never do that. You can take my word; you’re the only perfect girl in my eyes.” I smiled at Luke and hugged him tightly- grateful for what he just said.
We didn’t say much after that conversation; we just hugged, kissed and enjoyed each other’s company for a while.
It was almost sunset now and Luke suddenly grabbed my waist and pulled me down onto the sand with him. I laid on his chest and we watched the sun set slowly across the horizon. In that moment nothing really mattered to me anymore. I didn’t care about the hate I was getting from everyone, I was just content with being with Luke. It was almost like he made me feel fearless. Like he would protect me through everything and never leave me stranded and alone. I’m by no means perfect…but he makes me believe I am. And I can never thank him enough for that.
“And I don’t know how it gets better than this- you take my hand and drag me head first, fearless.”
