Sugar and Spice / l.h ✔️

16

~Maeve's POV~

"Would you tell me exactly what happened, Mae?" Luke muttered, trying to keep calm despite the fact that I could easily tell by the look on his face that he was irate.

I looked away, biting my lip as I sighed quietly. "Well, we just got into an argument because he had to wait a little bit for me to eat breakfast before we could leave and I told him that I wait for him all the time, so it wasn't fair for him to be angry. And then he told me that I'm fat, so I probably shouldn't even eat breakfast anyways because I don't need it." I explained, my cheeks heating in embarrassment as I recalled the insult. It felt almost humiliating to tell this to him.

"And that's basically what we got into an argument about was him calling me fat. He got mad at me and pushed me a little too hard, that's all." I finished, shrugging my shoulders softly. I didn't want to make this into a bigger deal than it was, but Luke was still visibly upset about it. "Where is he?" He asked lowly, his eyes darting away from me to search the cafeteria table for the presence of my brother, who still had not arrived. "I left him at home because I was angry." I answered, gently nudging the side of his thigh with my knee.

When he looked down at me again, I sent him a small smile. "Please don't make a big deal about it. I promise I'm fine." I asked hopefully, peering up at him. He scoffed and crossed his arms over his broad chest, narrowing his eyes at me. "You can't be serious. He's enough of an asshole to you as it is, Maeve. I'm not gonna just around doing nothing when he's injuring you. The more you let shit like that slide, the more he's gonna keep doing that." He said harshly.

A frown formed on my face, wiping the smile away that I had a few moments ago. "Luke..." I sighed, furrowing my brows. "Please, just leave it alone. It's not a big deal." I said softly, not wanting this to become a thing between him and Jase. Knowing my luck, if Luke said something to him, that would just make Jase hate me even more.

"No, I won't leave it alone." He stated, making me sigh softly as I shot him a pleading look that he ignored entirely. "You wanna know something, Maeve?" He asked suddenly, catching me a little off guard. Curious, I nodded my head, cocking my head to the side. "What?" I asked, biting my bottom lip. He leaned towards me, placing a hand on the back of my chair while the other planted on the surface of the table beside me, his arm brushing my bicep. "I think you're too soft on dickheads like Jase and Nicolai." He noted to me.

I blinked up at him, opening my mouth to disagree with him, but he spoke again before I could even get a word out. "I think you're so used to those two treating you like shit that you don't even see the point in trying to defend yourself when they act like assholes. And who can blame you? They're the types who get more pissed when you tell them they're wrong, not the types who reflect over why. So you just let them walk all over you." He continued, making me duck my head in embarrassment. I felt ashamed at how right he was, because he had hit the nail right on the head. "But I'm not gonna allow it, not anymore. You're my friend, and I don't like when people fuck with my friends." He added, leaning so close that his nose almost brushed mine. I quickly leaned away, my face burning hotter than the sun. "B-But..." I sputtered out, trying to think of a response.

He smiled at me and nudged my knee with his. "Don't even try to change my mind about this, Maeve. I'm tired of them treating you like garbage, even when you're not around." He murmured, his blue eyes glinting. I just stared at him, wide eyed and uncertain.

Funnily enough, Jase never showed up to school that day.

**

The next day, I walked into the cafeteria at lunch and, at first, I didn't notice anything out of the norm. But when I began to head over to the table where Priscilla and I sat with the football team, I saw that Luke and Jase were talking.