the bucket list | lrh

43 - kissing someone at sundown

When Valentine and Luke woke up the next morning, neither of them had all of the memories from the night before. As they slowly got dressed back into the previous days clothes, they attempted to talk through it enough to put the puzzle pieces together.

"So... Mariam is the one who wanted you to do the body shot, too?" Valentine asked, trying her best to fill in the blanks and cloudy parts in her head. She had a pretty good idea of how foolish she'd acted before, but thankfully she couldn't really remember enough to feel embarrassed by any of it.

"Yeah, and I really did it? I could've sworn I dreamt that," Luke sighed out dramatically, making Valentine giggle a little as she grabbed her phone from the floor where she'd carelessly thrown it. The two were rather chipper to be waking up after such an intense night, but the alone time that followed what was what really had them feeling so good.

"Yeah, you did do that," Valentine laughed again, remembering the way she had practically gotten half naked for a whole crowd of people to see. She certainly hadn't expected the party to be so big.

"And you said I could kiss you any time I wanted," Luke smiled, speaking so matter of fact he could probably convince himself. "Hmm, I specifically remember saying no to that point, but whatever you say," the little brunette grinned, standing with all of her belongings next to the door. Her phone had been dead for hours then, and she almost never wanted to come back down to earth.

"You're proud of that, aren't you?" Luke narrowed his eyes on her playfully. She shrugged a little before the two started making their way through the large house. Valentine noted that there was no sign of Mariam or her brothers, and in fact no one really seemed to be awake yet.

"Can I borrow the charger?" Valentine asked as the two got settled into the seats in the minivan. Luke quickly handed the girl his car charger before pulling out onto the road like he was on a mission.

When Valentine's phone finally came back to life, her inbox was flooded with texts.

Mary
Please tell me you don't hate me...

I may have slept with Chase last night

I'm missing you a lot right now. Wish we could cry over this together.

Oh god. Are you crying? Please don't cry. I love you so much

How could you just disappear after I dropped that bomb you could be in New Mexico by now, on your way to murder me

Oh god. Please don't murder me...

Valentine

Jesus, Mary.

I don't hate you at all, you'll have to tell me all about Chase when I get home, and I will talk to you soon. I'm sorry, last night was chaotic but I'm fine. No need to worry
about me

꧙꧙꧙꧙꧙꧙

After Luke bought Valentine breakfast, and an iced coffee as a treat, the two drove around and talked for nearly an hour before finally deciding to go back to Mariam's house.

When they had finally arrived, the curly haired girl was just waiting to pounce on Valentine for some much needed girl talk.

"What have you two been up to? Long time no see," the girl sneered, referring to their sudden disappearance the night before. The Spirlings had spent the night on the assortment of couches downstairs, and none of them caught sight of Luke slipping upstairs with Valentine. Unfortunately so, because Elise of all people got the pleasure of saying she'd seen it with her own eyes. It was strange for that crowd to see Luke interacting with a little girl in those ways, but it just felt normal to some. It was almost like Luke didn't make sense with anyone besides Valentine, but then again he didn't really get along with people in general.