𝙏𝙀𝙈𝙋𝙏𝘼𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉 • 𝙇𝙍𝙃

14. always such a gentleman

DAY THREE: 1:46am

luke couldn't tell you how long he had waited for emma to come back to the motel. not only was she ignoring all of his phone calls, but she also managed to drag michael along to wherever the hell she had gone. luke thought she was overreacting— they weren't close, he didn't owe her any type of explanation, yet he was worried sick about where she was.

a small part of him was tempted to go out and look for them, but he wouldn't know where to start. luke wasn't entirely sure where they were and he assumed he would just get lost. luke had been pacing around the room for hours, constantly calling emma every five minutes until she eventually turned her phone off.

luke felt like a jerk—all he wanted to do in this moment was apologize and pull her into a hug. he huffed and sat down on the bed, running his hands through his tangled hair for about the hundredth time that night. he sat in silence for a while, but didn't bother trying to fall asleep—he knew it would be impossible.

another hour had passed and luke still hadn't heard from michael or emma. he was growing increasingly angry—how dare they run off in the middle of the night and not even bother to tell him they were okay.

it wasn't until nearly four in the morning when luke heard the wiggle of the door knob and fits of laughter from outside. he was furious with them. but somehow—when emma walked inside and luke realized she was drunk, all of his anger was replaced with relief.

the stubborn part of luke wanted to yell at them for being so careless and irresponsible, but knew there would no point considering neither of them would remember it by morning. luke settled for pulling both of them into a hug.

"you had me worried sick" luke mumbled into emma's ear as he embraced them. emma responded back with a giggle. even after luke had broken the hug, she was still holding onto him so she wouldn't fall over. Michael seemed uninterested and slowly tried to walk to the bed—but failed miserably. he tripped over absolutely nothing and landed on the floor with a thud.

"I think i'm going to sleep here tonight. goodnight friends" michael said as he sprawled out on his stomach and closed his eyes.

"we got druuuunk" emma snorted and wrapped her arms tightly around luke's torso, resting her head against his chest as she did so. "my head doesn't hurt as bad when i do this" she smiled and closed her eyes as luke swayed them back and forth.

luke would have been content if they had stayed like that all night, but he could feel the exhaustion setting in and wanted to get a couple hours of sleep before making the drive back home tomorrow morning. he slowly pulled away from the girl and patted her back softly.

"come on, let's get you to bed" he began pushing her towards the bed, making sure emma kept her balance as he did so.

emma stumbled over michael's long ass legs and almost fell to the ground, but luke was fast on his feet and grabbed her before anything could happen.

"walk much?" he asked her, smirking as she regained her balance. even in her drunken state, emma's eye rolls were still easy to make out. "i could have died, show some respect" she slurred, slowly taking a seat on the bed and grabbing the ends of her t-shirt.

luke's eyes widened once he realized emma was taking her shirt off. "what are you doing?" he questioned her, grabbing her hands and forcing the fabric of her shirt to fall down. "i want to change, my shirt is itchy. help me" she pouted, giving luke her best puppy dog eyes.

"i can't help you change, emma. you'll just have to sleep in this tonight" luke noticed a frown was forming on her face, which caused him to frown, too. he thought it would be inappropriate to undress her given her current state, and luke didn't want the girl to think he was taking advantage of her. he sighed and helped her into bed, making sure to pull the blanket all the way up to her chin—he knew how cold she got at night.