teeth → l.h

chapter seven;

"Y'all look absolutely dead." Calum observes as Luke and Helena walk into the kitchen.

Luke rolls his eyes. "You're obnoxious."

Calum chuckles before looking back down at his phone. He's kind of dying. He's known about Luke and Helena for three weeks and it's quite literally been hell, to say the least. Part of him wishes he could just scrub it from his brain. He walked in on them a few nights ago and he still hasn't recovered. He wants death.

"Can you cover for us tonight?" Helena asks as she wraps her arms around Calum's neck, leaning against his back. "I'd be forever grateful."

"Don't you already owe me?"

"For what?" Helena furrows her brows.

"I don't know," Calum scoffs as he shrugs Helena off of him, standing up and walking across the kitchen. "Maybe from scarring me for life after I walked in on you two f-"

"You walked in on them what?" Ashton comments as he strolls into the kitchen casually.

"Fucking." Luke states. "Wildly."

Ashton rolls his eyes, and Helena sighs. She is so done.

"I'm going to kill you." Helena huffs as she sits down in the car. "He's going to believe you someday, what are you going to do then?"

Luke shrugs. "Tell him we're together, I guess."

"We're not." Helena scoffs.

Luke rolls his eyes. "How the fuck else am I supposed to tell him about us then?"

"What?"

"Am I supposed to just tell him I've been fuck buddies with his little sister since we were fifteen? Telling him we're together is easier and you know it." Luke snaps.

"Oh." Helena looks down as tears well up in her eyes. She's not used to Luke snapping at her the way he did and she never wanted it to happen again.

The ride to the university is completely silent after that. Neither of them even know what to say. They don't fight often, but when they do, it's horribly awkward and tense. Luke doesn't want to be rude to Helena, obviously; but after eight years of Helena repeatedly reminding him that they're just fucking, it's kind of hard for him to just take it. He is so desperately in love with her that he thinks it's literally killing him.

"Does it bother you when I say that we're not together?" Helena says softly. Luke sighs. Helena has got to know the answer to this by now, Luke thinks, and she's acting like she doesn't on purpose.

Yeah, the fuck? Of course it does. I've been in love with you since we were eighteen, what the fuck. It hurts so bad, you really haven't noticed?

"A little, yeah." Luke scoffs. "It kind of just seems like you're making it a point to say that you don't actually care about me for anything besides sex."

"What?" Helena looks over. "Of course I care about you for more than that. What the fuck?"

Luke shrugs. "It'd just be easier to say we're together if Ashton ever found out, you know? And you know it would, but when you go out of your way to say that we're not, it doesn't feel good."

"I'm sorry," Helena mutters. "I didn't know it hurt you." She did. It hurts her, too.

"It does."

Things are technically better, but they're worse in so many ways. Luke wants to cry; Helena does cry in the bathroom before her lab. Luke doesn't cry until later that night.

Regardless, Luke still crawls in bed with her after crying in the shower for twenty minutes. He knows how completely fucked he is, but he's not sure how much he really cares. "Are we okay?" Helena asks as she lays her head on Luke's chest.

"Yeah." Luke replies. They're so far from okay.

"Good." Helena smiles.

Helena only says one word, but it hurts Luke so bad that he can't breathe. The fact that Helena can't even see that Luke is lying finally solidifies in Luke's mind that he will never be more than a friend to her.

Part of him wants to just end it, to move on from Helena, but the other part of him- the part that's hopelessly, completely in love with her, can't let go. She was so familiar to him, so comforting, that he didn't think he'd ever be prepared to end it.

However, the cute barista at the coffee shop made Luke's heart do a backflip. Her name was Sierra, and she made Luke's coffee better than anyone ever had.

"Can I ask you a question?" Luke looks over to Sierra as she leans against the outside of the building.

"Shoot," Sierra replies. "But quickly, my break is almost over."

Luke smiles softly. "Do you want to hang out sometime? I'd ask if you wanted to get coffee, but I figure you're sick of it."

Sierra laughs. "Yeah, no coffee. I'd love to get lunch though."

Luke smiles the whole way home. It takes him three hours before he realizes that he has to tell Helena about Sierra. He stops smiling. It hadn't occurred to him that Helena would need to know, and he was not looking forward to telling her.

"Hey, can we talk?" Luke says casually as Helena walks in the bedroom, plopping down next to Luke on the bed.

Helena nods, and Luke goes on. "So uh, I may have-" He sighs. He briefly remembers the day Helena found out about Arzaylea. It was not fun.

It can't go worse than that, right? Luke could only hope. It probably could though. "I kind of uhi I've got a date tomorrow afternoon."

"What?"

Helena is feeling a lot of things, and none of those things are even close to happy. Obviously, Luke can do whatever he wants, she just didn't expect him to actually do it, and she hated it more than anything.

"You- you what?" Helena furrows her brows as she turns to Luke. "Arzaylea? Really?"

"What about her?" Luke replies. "I like her. What's wrong with that?"

Helena rolls her eyes. "She's so fucking rude. Why the hell do you like her?"

Luke shrugs. "She's nice to me."

"Oh my god," Helena scoffs. "Wow."

"I don't know why it matters," Luke pushes off from the counter and heads for the front door. "It's not like you and I are actually dating."

"Seriously?"

"You've made it pretty clear, yeah." Luke crosses his arms.

"Why the fuck are you being a dick?" Helena asks.

"Why are you being one?" Luke raises an eyebrow at helena. "By the way, I'm spending the summer with her in california." Helena jumps as Luke leaves, slamming the front door behind him.

That one stung, and would continue to sting until Luke got back from California, Helena decided. She was way too jealous of someone she's not supposed to have feelings for.