ᴋʟᴜᴛᴢ | ʟʀʜ

𝟏𝟑. 𝐒𝐨 𝐘𝐨𝐮'𝐫𝐞 𝐓𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡?

Luke and Alina were friends.

Friends are what Alina'd called them by now. Less than two weeks after the water fight, the two were bonding over one of Alina's favorite pastimes: eating.

Every Thursday and Tuesday after their shifts, Alina picked something off the menu and they'd both order it— something Luke had done anyway the first time they had dinner together at Ketchup's. He enjoyed trying the buffalo chicken sandwich and trusted her gastronomical opinion.

So far, they'd eaten the classic burger, the creamy macaroni and cheese, and today—Thursday—would bring another surprise dish.

It had been basically two weeks since Alina caught Macy and she still hadn't told Luke even though she had plenty of time to do so.

Call her selfish and horrible, but Alina just wanted to savor the time she had with Luke before he could possibly push her away or distance himself. He'd obviously be upset and angry, something she dreaded seeing. And Alina knew that she shouldn't get to choose his every emotion but Alina sensed that something, this friendship, she had with him would be broken once she told him. 

The look on Luke's face when she'd tell him would kill her and was it really so bad that she just wanted a bit more time?

After her morning psychology class, Alina had met up with Nina at one of the campus greens; lucky Calum had no classes on Thursday. California weather generally clear during even December, they had been surprised when gray clouds swallowed the sky and drowned them in heavy rain.

As they raced towards their apartment complex, she promised to herself, I'll tell him Saturday after work. Alina could hear her phone buzzing in her backpack, causing her to surface from her thoughts.

"Forgot to put it on silent again?" Nina teased, yanking the door open before taking the steps two at a time.

"Forgot to state the obvious again?" Alina muttered sassily, giggling hysterically as Nina trying to grab her sweatshirt hood to pull her down. Tripping on a step in her attempt to out-run the girl with much longer legs, Alina scrambled back up the stairs and caught a glimpse of a package outside their door.

She snatched it off the ground and proclaimed, "For Nina. Aww and two x's!"

"What is it? Who's it from?" Nina gasped, clutching a stitch in her side as she finally made it up the stairs. Alina could sure run when she wanted to.

At this moment, Alina was very grateful that Calum tended to leave the door open when he was home because Nina looked impatient and somewhat scary with her deep frown and tall stature. Shoving the box of, what looked like, chocolates in her huge sweatshirt pocket, Alina flung the door open and ran inside, goading Nina to chase her.

"Give it here, Lina," Nina yelled before cornering the girl folding herself in a little ball on the floor.

"Say the special word," Alina cooed from the ground.

"Now."

"That's not it, unfortunately," the girl responded sarcastically before gasping and shrieking as Nina's fingers tickled her under the chin. "Haha-stOP," Alina twisted her neck in a feeble attempt to get away from Nina's incessant attack.

"Give it then," Nina countered, knowing one of Alina's weaknesses was that she was extremely ticklish under her chin and knees.

"Ok, ok," Alina spluttered, reaching into her pocket to pull out the chocolates. She handed the small box to Nina, seeing her friend's eyes lighten up before sizzling out in a self-imposed act of nonchalance: