Our Little Secret//lh

23 • nerd

Meredith's p.o.v
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"Luke! Look at the sea turtle!" I whisper yell from next to him, our hands intertwined as we watch the sharks and many other fish swim about in the aquarium.

"Looks like Ashton."

I snort a small laugh and continue pulling Luke around the aquarium.

"Hey look," I tap his arm before pointing to a small portion of the aquarium where you can pet smaller sharks and sting rays, "Lets do it."

I pull Luke gently along with me before stepping up onto a stepping stool so I could reach my hand into the water. My hand gently grazes the smooth skin of a sting ray and I can't help but giggle as I watch Luke hesitantly put his hand into the water, and just as a small shark is about to swim underneath his hand, he quickly yanks his hand from the water.

"Bud," I giggle, "just be gentle--and don't be scared."

Luke nods his head and tries again, but again chickens out. I giggle, "Here, like this babe." I say before grabbing his wrist and sticking it into the water carefully. When a sting ray swims by, I lower his hand onto its back and let it gently rubs against his hand.

"It feels weird." Luke says, contorting his face as the sting ray swims off.

"Well, it is a sting ray." I shrug.

"Really? I had no idea." Luke says, sarcastically rolling his eyes before grabbing my hand and locking our fingers together.

"Don't get sassy with me, sir."

Luke just laughs and tugs me along through a dark tunnel and into the part of the aquarium with the starfish, crabs, lobsters. The fun stuff, I like to call it.

"I wonder what it's like to be a starfish." I say, examining the starfish stuck perfectly to the glass of the tank.

"Probably boring." Luke shrugs, stuffing his free hand into the pocket of his jeans.

"Why do you say that?" I ask, turning my head up to look at him. He shrugs again, "Think about it," he pauses, pointing to the starfish, "You're basically stuck, in one spot—and if you want to move, that's a bitch in an of itself—so what do you want to do? Not move."

"Well, yes, but that's how they were made as a species—so, is it really that hard for them to move?"

"Uhh—probably."

"I think you're wrong."

"And why's that?"

"Well, look at all the little feet it has," I pause, pointing to the starfish, "I feel like you're under estimating the power of five arms and hundreds of tiny feet."

"Maybe you have a point, but if I'm gonna be any ocean animal, it's a penguin."

"A penguin? Do those even count?"

"Does it swim in the ocean?"

"Well, yes, but—"

"Then it counts to me."

I chuckle lightly as Luke pulls me along, pointing to the glowing fish in the tank, "Or, I would be one of these."

"Oh yeah?"

"Dude, imagine being like, a literal glow stick at all times. You can't tell me that isn't cool as hell."

"I suppose it's cool. What about a seahorse?" I say, pointing to the tank filled with seahorses swimming about.

"Yeah, except I don't want to have the babies."

"Well too bad, the girls get slack in that department. Take it or leave it, pal."

"It makes me laugh that out of all the species where males could have the babies, never would I have guessed a seahorse would be one of them." Luke chuckles.

"Okay think about it like this. The females carry the eggs, okay? So, when they mate and give the eggs to the male, girlfriend has enough time to make some more eggs and get more babies quicker—well, I guess within ten to twenty-five days, that's about how long it takes for a male seahorse to reproduce."

"Nerd."

"You're just jealous because you didn't know that."

"I don't think once ever in my life have I needed to know why male seahorses get pregnant instead of the girl."

"You just asked because you needed to know, did you not?" I cock my eyebrow upwards at him.

Luke deadpans at me and puts me in a playful headlock, "We're done here—I'm taking you home."

"Lu." I giggle as he pulls me along with him out of the aquarium.

"So am I going back home then?" I giggle before Luke let's me out of his grip. He furrows his eyebrows and cups my cheeks tightly, puckering my lips like a fish, "Are you crazy? You think I'm done with you just like that? Oh baby, I got a whole night planned, just you wait."

"A whole night? What are we doing?" I ask, suddenly feeling a little giddy inside.

"It involves my brothers truck, pajamas and lots of blankets."

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This chapter was kind of boring, so my apologies in advance.

                                xoxo,
                                     natalie