"Woah, woah, woah, it's ok," Luke's voice was the first thing I heard as I entered back into consciousness. I opened my eyes to him leaning over me and it took me a moment to figure out where I was. That night, I'd sat down on the lounge chair that was on our balcony and I guess I'd fallen asleep.
"Was I?..." I trailed off, catching a glimpse of my painfully sleep-deprived reflection in the sliding glass door.
"Another nightmare... you were mumbling but I caught you before you started screaming... I feel like that might not have made such a great impression on our neighbors," he offered me a halfhearted smile and I replied with a similar one.
"Ok, I should... yeah..." I trailed off. "What time is it?"
"Four in the morning," It was easy to feel Luke watching me closely as he backed off from being above me and I took a deep breath. I ran my fingers through my chaotic hair, pushing it back as well as I could.
"This feels like pattern," I said, standing up to stretch.
"It's fine, Madeline," Luke tried to make me feel better.
"No, seriously, if someone wrote a book about us, half of the pages would be filled with you waking me up from nightmares or us falling asleep together because there are too many demons in our solitude." I snapped back, slurring my words a little bit in frustration and exhaustion.
Sleepily, I marched into the kitchen and dug through a bag full of groceries Luke had picked up earlier in the day. I assumed he'd picked up some of his favorite tea and I was not disappointed as my hands made contact with the box.
Luke watched with a disgruntled face as I microwaved a cup of water.
"Just... just use the kettle," he complained, pointing to a kettle sitting on the stove. "You can't microwave water for tea, that's..." he trailed off, running a hand through his hair in distress before moving to put water in the kettle himself.
I snorted, moving out of his way.
"I swear, in another life you were British."
"Why? Because I know how to make tea?"
"That and you call your mom 'Mum' and you have the stupid dreamy eyes that everyone goes gaga over."
Luke cracked a large grin, laughing at me.
"You sound bitter," he teased.
"I am!" I laughed out, smiling and shaking my head.
For the rest of the night, Luke and I drank tea, watched the TV and city lights, and avoided the subject of Travis altogether.
YOU ARE READING
Stepbrother (Sequel to Stockholm Syndrome)
Ficción General"I just want you to know how terrifying it is to have no control. Like, physically, no control over what happens to you. Nothing. Being at the mercy of someone else's hand." The look he gave me was glazed over with pain. "The thing is, you aren't th...
