Between You & Me || Luke & Jai Brooks

Chapter XV - "They're A... Couple?"

"Hey babe!" Jai greets me as he opens the door. "Pukey's upstairs." I grin at him and give him a one armed hug before continuing upstairs. I walk past Jai's room on my way and it takes me by surprise to see Mel there on the sofa.

"Hey, Lenny! What are you doing here?" I question, slightly pissed off. Inside I'm a bit possessive. I love Mel, her, Jai and Ali are my best friends but all I can think is, they're my boys, stay away.

"I was really bored, and I thought you'd be with Luke, and Ali with Skip, so Jai and me are just watching some movies!" She says cheerily, and Jai walks in at that moment and sits down by her. Not next to her, I notice, but close enough.

"You should have called, we could have watched some movies at mine." I say, annoyed. She just shrugs, and that infuriates me. Well, it's whatever.

I knock lightly on Luke's door, three short ones and two long ones, our little code. I hear his wheelie chair rattle as he slides over, and the handle clicks to unlock before the door swings open. "Hey baby!" The sight of him, his dark curls and warm eyes, erases any anger I had in me.

"Hey Pukey!" I beam, and he pulls me onto his lap. His wheelie chair has a tall back and it's pretty sturdy, but it still scares me shitless to sit on his lap on it. He shuts the door and pushes off it to get over to his bed. His laptop lies open on his desk, iMovie open. He shuts it as he sees the direction of my gaze.

"Later." Is all he says. Then he gives my forehead a peck. "So, what do you wanna do?"

"I don't know." Now that the initial feeling of seeing Luke has blown over, I'm kind of mad at Mel again for just deciding to hang out with Jai.

"We could watch a movie?"

"Yeah, okay!"

"We'll have to watch it in the lounge room downstairs though, because Jai has the portable one for him and Melanie."

I nod. "It's cool."

We decide on watching one of our favourite movies to watch together; The Conjuring. Hah, not my favourite anyway. I hope I'll be alright with it now, especially during the day, but I'll still cuddle up to Luke. Which is always good. I privately think that's why he still suggested watching it, because the first time he said he didn't even like it and we've seen it probably twice since. We bring down a bunch of blankets with us and I purposely turn my head away so I don't see in Jai's room. I just keep going.

We dump all our shit on the big, squishy sofa and Luke goes an grabs a bag of M&Ms and a can each of Raspberry Schweppes, my all-time favourite, while I put the disc in. He peers into Jai's room as he walks back and winks at him, making the sex gesture with his hands. A pillow flies through the door, narrowly missing Luke, and he laughs.

When he collapses onto the sofa beside me, I corner him. "What was with that whole scenario?"

He looks taken aback. "I dunno? I was just mucking around. They're a cute couple."

"They're a... couple?"

"Uhm, about that-"

"Mel's going out with Jai?"

Shit, I sound like the overly attached girlfriend. But that's a blow. I can't help feeling jealous, a little. I know we're just friends, but... he's mine. Luke's gazing into my eyes and I know he's reading my expression. He slowly shakes his head. "Meghan, you can't have both of us. If you want me, you'll have to deal with Jai getting a girlfriend. It's gonna happen."

I try to hide the pain that follows his comment but inside I'm tearing apart and I just want to curl into a ball and hold myself together. I look down and feel my throat start to close up like it always does before I cry. "I'm so sorry Luke. I'm being so mean to you, I just- I'm just so used to Jai being mine and now you're mine and I..."

He purses his lips and nods. "I know, but you need to understand that he's not anymore."

I swallow heavily. "I do."

"And do you, Luke Anthony Mark Brooks, take Meghan Mariah Bradley to be your lawfully wedded wife?" He jokes, wrapping his arms around your waist and pulling my hips into his. He kisses down my jaw until he reaches my neck then whispers, "I do."

I can't help but smile. "Luke?" I ask tentatively.

"Yeah babe?" he speaks into my neck.

"Do you think we'll ever get married? I mean, do you want to? Not now, but eventua-" He breaks me off with a kiss.

"I do."

I smile. "We'll always be together?"

"Always and forever, my beautiful babygirl." He attaches his lips to mine again and pushes me to the couch, straddling me. "I love you." He reminds me.

"And I'm not ready." I remind him.

"I know, I know. I just want to kiss you." He says, and he does. I can't remember what it was like before I had a boyfriend. When Jai was still in America. How did I live?

Luke's kissing my neck now, hungrily, and I drop my head to one side. His hands roam up to cup my face, to hold it still so he can continue kissing me. Suddenly, the doorbell rings. "Fucking hell." Luke mumbles against me, and I grin.

"You're like an animal, Luke!" I giggle and he mock growls, grinning, before hopping up. I lay there for a while, trying to wrap my head around everything. As long as I have Luke, I'm happy.

Luke's been gone for five minutes when I decide to get up and go check on him. The door's shutting when I reach the hall and Luke's already walking back, pale faced. "What is it?" I ask anxiously, fear rising quickly.

"It's nothing." He says but I throw my arm out and stop him.

"Luke Anthony Mark. Tell me now who that was and what they wanted." He shakes his head stubbornly. "Luke, fucking tell me!"

Jai pokes his head out of his door. "Can you keep the- Luke?" He rushes out and nudges me out the way to hold his twin by his shoulders. They're not really identical, the Brooks twins. There's a lot of differences if you know them well enough.

"That was Ms Lewis." He says numbly, and Jai's eyes widen in worry. Luke's voice cracks as he starts his next statement - just like my heart. "And we're going back to America."