"You're actually upset right now? Look at everything the world has given you, Luke."
"And that's great, but I'd rather have you."
• the story before "count on me" by sircalyum • book 1
// smut included //
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THURSDAY MORNING. I started to wake up as I heard a quiet "Jos?" sound from someone's lips. A soft nudging of my left shoulder caused my eyes to flutter open and I squinted as I tried to find out what was happening.
"Good morning," Luke whispered as he let out a breathy laugh. "I need a wee—could you scooch?"
Luke and I were laying on my couch, where we had fallen asleep the night before. I had been laying on top of him—my legs tangled with his as we laid longways—and Luke's head was in the corner of the couch.
"Oh, sorry," I whispered quietly as I started to move. As Luke got up and made his way to the bathroom, I searched around for my phone. I found it a couple of moments later, but was surprised to see that it was dead.
Thank god Luke had woken up; otherwise, I wouldn't have had an alarm clock to get me to work on time.
I got off the couch and made my way to my bedroom, wanting to plug my phone in. I still had no idea what time it was, so as I waited for Luke to get out of the bathroom, I pulled my laptop from its case and woke it up. It was just around six, so there'd be no reason for me to go back to sleep.
I put my laptop away and started to make my way out of my room; I bumped into Luke the second I stepped out of my door and we both laughed in surprise.
"I'm gonna hop in the shower—feel free to go back to bed or whatever," I told Luke, wanting him to know he had the freedom to use the space in whatever way he deemed fit. Luke nodded and stepped to the side to allow me clearance to get to the bathroom.
I turned the water on and impatiently waited for it to heat up. Once it was warm enough, I stripped and hopped in. About five minutes into my shower, I heard the door to the bathroom creak open and I didn't hesitate to peek out to see what Luke was up to.
His head peeked around the door and he smiled at me before taking a step in.
"You look lovely." I rolled my eyes as I stifled a laugh—I could only imagine that I looked like a rat with my hair completely wet and slicked back. "I figured I'd make breakfast... any requests?"
"Oh, shit," I said to myself as I realized the lack of food Madalyn and I had—we hadn't been grocery shopping in a while. "You might have to get creative, we're sorta low on supply."
"Yeah... I kind of noticed. I was hoping you'd have a secret stash of something," Luke said which caused me to laugh.
"Madalyn just started a new job and she visited family this week. We haven't found the time to go to the store, so sadly there's no secret stash around. Feel free to use whatever you can find, though... the world's your oyster, you know?" Luke's lips curled into a smile and I felt my cheeks heat up as I took in his appearance for the first time—he looked tired, but in a cute sort of way as he stood there with his curly hair messily laying atop his head.
