𝙏𝙀𝙈𝙋𝙏𝘼𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉 • 𝙇𝙍𝙃

14. the dreaded friend-zone

THE DREADED FRIEND-ZONE

emma was the first one to step forward, feeling an overwhelming sense to defend the blonde, even though he was clearly winning.

over the years, luke had found himself in the center of countless bar brawls. whether it was frat boys or glorified business men, luke never backed down.

emma thought it was because he liked the pain. it made him feel something after his father died, it was an outlet to focus on the physical pain versus the emotional pain.

he tried to never fight around emma, though. and she got more phone calls in the middle of the night from a certain boy who'd been arrested than she cared to admit.

once, a stranger offered to buy emma a drink at some bar, and wouldn't back down when she told him to scram. luke knocked him clean out without an ounce of hesitation.

that was one of the first "fights" luke had encountered, and emma found it so attractive that she and luke ended up hooking up in the bathroom at the same bar.

in hindsight, she realizes it was probably a bad idea and only encouraged his bad behavior.

emma seemed to be the only person whose mouth wasn't hanging open in shock at the scene in front of them.

though she did grow worried when another man, most likely a friend of the guy luke was beating to a pulp, stepped in.

so she stepped forward, as if her tiny frame would offer any assistance to stop the fight.

the sound of knuckles connecting with skin always made emma flinch, especially when luke was on the receiving end.

caleb stepped in front of her, already knowing where her mind was at. he gently pushed her backwards and placed his hands on her shoulders. "take maya and get out of here, i'll take care of it" he said.

emma peeked over his shoulder and frowned. "what are you going to do?" she asked him while he took off his suit jacket and handed it to her.

"don't worry about it," his voice was stern, his sole concern being that emma would get hurt. "just go somewhere else, please"

she nodded. emma grabbed maya's wrist and dragged her away, not daring to look back.

♛

hours after the party had ended, everyone had gone home. the alcohol had surely worn off by now as maya was interrogating luke about the fight he intentionally sought out.

emma and caleb were in the kitchen, she had an ice pack pressed gently to his cheek as she fumbled with the lid to the bottle of advil.

"i can't believe you did that" she mumbled.

caleb huffed, angry that he and emma weren't seeing eye to eye on this. "what was i supposed to do? watch them fight like everyone else?"

"yes," emma exclaimed, shoving a few pills into his hand. "anything would have been better than jumping in and trying to be the hero — you could have gotten seriously hurt, caleb"

"but i didn't," he said matter-of-factly. "it's just a scratch" he gestured to the bruise on his face, ignoring emma's sigh of frustration.

"it's a nasty bruise babe, you got lucky" she weakly smiled and removed the ice pack.

"well i guess we have luke to thank for that" he chuckled and clutched his face in pain.