Rich / l.h ✔️

56

~Lilith's POV~

Surprisingly enough, Luke stayed true to our agreement and let tutoring remain just that—tutoring. Not once during our tutoring sessions did he try to bring up what had happened between him and Ruby. He hadn't even tried to hint at it, either. To be honest, I was grateful for it. He'd done exactly what he said he would and that meant a lot to me that he wasn't trying to use our sessions as a way to talk to me about it.

It had been nearly a week since he and I had picked up tutoring again, but he still hadn't tried to do anything. Maybe it was dumb of me, but I couldn't help but to feel a little disappointed. Did he just not care anymore about talking to me about it? I mean, he didn't even try to text or call me anymore either.

"Lilith?" Scarlett complained from beside me as we sat at lunch, snapping me out of my thoughts. I blinked and focused back on her, realizing that I'd become so zoned out in my thoughts that I hadn't even paid any attention to her while she was talking. "Sorry." I apologized, giving her a sheepish smile. "What were you saying?" I asked, causing her to huff and cross her arms over her chest. "You'd know if you weren't so busy in that head of yours. What's going on up there?" She asked back, sass in her tone.

My lips tugged into a small smile. "It's nothing, really." I assured, brushing her question off. I wasn't really in the mood to talk about my thoughts on the situation with Luke, especially since I had been the one who initiated the bout of silence that we commonly had between us. That'd just make me seem stupid.

"Now, back to you. What were you saying?" I pressed, raising a brow at her quizzically. After a bit of hesitance from her, she shrugged and went right back to what she'd been talking to me about before I had zoned out. "I was saying that we're all going to spend the weekend together. But none of our houses are big enough, so I was wondering if you'd host the sleepover." She said, giving me a pleading look. After a bit of consideration, I simply sighed and nodded my head. "Okay." I agreed reluctantly, frowning a bit. She smiled widely and clapped her hands in excitement. "Great." She chirped. "We'll be at your house after school."

Scarlett turned to everyone else, announcing to them that I had agreed to host the sleepover at my house. Although I loved Scarlett, sometimes I hated that she would just spring things on me at the last second. I hadn't even had the chance to ask my mom about this, but I assumed it'd be okay.

The rest of the day continued as normal and, before I knew it, I was heading home quickly to make sure that I got there before anyone else did. However, as I went to pull into my driveway, I saw that someone else had already arrived and was parked in my driveway. Specifically, Luke.

Frowning a little, I parked my car behind his and got out at the same time as him, a little confused. I locked my car and peered over at Luke as he stood beside his car, his hands in his jacket pockets. "How did you get here so quickly? I thought you had to go home to get all of your things, like everyone else." I mentioned, frowning in confusion. Right as I said that, I noticed the large bag that he had sat on top of his car. "I kind of figured Scarlett would ask you to host the sleepover." He said, shrugging. I raised a brow. "But how did you know I'd accept?"

Luke's full lips tugged into an amused smile. "Because you're you." He answered casually. I stared at him, unsure what he meant by that. "What's that supposed to mean?" I asked, frowning. He must've known that I was unsure whether or not to be offended by his words because he smiled a little bigger. "It means that you're nice. You're a nice person, that's all." He clarified, grabbing his bag from on top of his car. I hid a small smile as I stalked past him, hearing him follow after me up the driveway and into my house. When I had the door shut and locked, I turned to Luke, finding his gaze already on me. "Um," He began quietly, biting his cheek. "I was wondering if I could sleep in your room." He requested politely, surprising me.

I raised my brows and sent him an uncertain look. "I don't know if that's a good idea." I said quietly, quickly skirting around him and heading up the stairs. Instead of accepting my answer, he followed after me hurriedly. "Please? Y-You know I sleep better in your house when I'm with you." He pleaded softly, letting out a sigh.

My door swung open as I pushed it, turning on the chandelier when I entered my room. "Can't you sleep with Ruby? You two seemed pretty cozy the last time I saw you in a bed together." I said bitterly, not even realizing what I was saying until I had said it already. When I realized, my eyes widened and I felt the heat creep up my neck at my apparent jealousy, placing my backpack on my desk chair. As I forced myself to turn to Luke, he had a little frown on his lips, sighing softly. "Lilith, it's not what you think." He told me, his voice soft and upset. I just crossed my arms over my chest and looked down at the floor. "I don't want to talk about it." I informed him simply, keeping my tone level and disinterested. I hadn't meant to bring it up, but it was hard for me to get out of my head.

Instead of trying to force me into listening, he just sighed deeply and gave me a light nod of his head. It was easy to tell he was just as upset about the entire thing as I was. For some reason, it made me feel bad. "Okay." I said softly, causing him to look up at me. "You can sleep in my room."

**

Later that night, as Luke and I were in my bedroom while everyone else was already sleeping in theirs, he spoke to me. "I can sleep on the floor, if you want. I don't want to make you uncomfortable." He offered quietly, crossing his arms over his bare chest.

Sitting in my bed in my pajamas, I looked up at him as he stood in front of me and pushed my glasses up my nose a little more. "On the floor?" I repeated, frowning. Why would I make him sleep on the floor? I might've been a bit mad, but I wouldn't do that. "Yeah. I know you didn't really want me to sleep in here, so I can take the floor if you want me to." He elaborated, waiting for a response as the two of us stared at one another. After just a few moments, I shook my head. "No, no. It's okay. You can sleep in my bed. I don't mind." I assured, a blush creeping up into my naked face. I wouldn't tell him this, but I had missed him. I had missed him holding me and hugging me and kissing me. I'd missed it a lot.

Luke's face lit up with surprise before he smiled and crawled into his side of the bed after turning out the chandelier light, the room now dark. I slipped beneath the blankets with him and absentmindedly scooted closer to Luke, feeling my knee lightly brush against his thigh. My skin brushing his made him jerk away, thinking that I would've been mad about it. That wasn't the case, though. "S-Sorry." He stuttered nervously, my lips pulling into a small smile. "It's okay." I assured softly, placing a hand beneath the pillow while my other held some of the fabric of my blanket.

He and I laid in silence with one another, the room quiet for so long that I thought he had fallen asleep. He had spoken or even moved at all. It was natural to think that he'd fallen asleep.

However, I knew that wasn't the case when I felt his fingers brush mine, just ever so slightly, as if he were trying to grab my hand. I could tell he thought I was sleeping and didn't want to wake me up. Even though I could've easily moved my hand away from his, or just simply just done anything to let him know that I was definitely awake, I didn't. All I did was let him carefully slip his hand into mine until his fingers were intertwined with mine, feeling the bed dipping in a bit as he scooted towards me more. My heart raced in my chest as I felt his arms carefully encircle my frame, pulling me against his chest. I couldn't stop myself from smiling softly as my face was pressed into his chest, his scent of green apples and vanilla surrounding me. It made it hard to resist kissing him, but I managed.

I felt Luke's head duck down to be closer to mine, which made me momentarily wonder if he actually knew that I was awake and had a plan to kiss me. However, I realized that he, indeed, did not know when he just buried his head into my neck. His soft lips could be felt brushing my skin, making it hard for me to control the shakiness of my breaths. Still, he was holding me in a way that wasn't sexual. He wasn't trying to do anything other than hold me, his breaths soft and deep as he savored his time being allowed to hold me like this. To be honest, I couldn't say why I let him hold me this way, but I didn't care why. All I cared was that it felt nice. It felt right.

While my head rested on his firm chest, I could hear his heart racing away. I wondered if he thought it felt right, too, to hold me like this.