What Really Matters (Lumity AU)

10. Amity

This was getting out of hand. 

Luz started talking to me every single time she found me alone. She wouldn't approach me if Boscha was with me, but she came up to me as often as she could. Every morning I had started to look for Boscha so that Luz wouldn't talk to me. I tried not to separate from her until the very end of the school day, and I tried to stay near her during lunch, all in hopes that Luz would approach me less. If not because of dislike for me, then maybe out of courtesy of Willow, who was bullied often by Boscha. But it didn't help. 

For some reason, she wouldn't leave me be. I tried to make her hate me. I tried to be curt, I tried to ignore her, I tried to avoid her, and I tried to make her dislike me. 

Apparently, I just wasn't meant to stay away from her. Emira, who I thought I could trust, invited her to our house one day. "It's not like I'm trying to set you two up together," she told me on the way home from school, probably lying through her teeth. "She's hanging out with Edric and I tomorrow afternoon and we're having a water balloon fight. She is bisexual, though, so I can't make any promises about Edric trying to set you two up." 

"She's bisexual?" I repeated, wishing that a different part of that statement stood out to me. "Did she tell you?" 

"Well, not yet," she admitted. "But trust me, I can tell." 

"It's really easy," Edric interrupted, slinging his arm across my shoulders. "Have you never felt your gaydar at work before?" 

I shoved his arm away. "I'm straight, remember?" 

"I remember that you expect us to believe you're straight." 

I took a deep breath, reminding myself that screaming at him would get me nowhere. "Did you get permission from Mother to have this water balloon fight?" No one answered, and I rolled my eyes. "She's not going to be happy." 

"She's not going to know," Edric corrected me, and I frowned. "Please?" he begged before I could threaten to rat them out. "You wouldn't want Luz and her friends to get in trouble because of us, do you? Besides, Viney and Jerbo are both going to be there and I need more chances than lunch to get together with him." 

I bit my lip. I had to admit, it was fun to watch Edric do crazy stuff for his crushes. Once, he had gone as far as to try to hide a dog in his room for a week when his crush asked him to dogsit. And I didn't know why, but I really didn't want Luz to get in trouble with my parents. No one deserved that. "Fine," I agreed. "But it's because I want to see you and Emira act like idiots, not for any other reasons. And if Mother or Father finds out, I'm not taking any of the blame." 

Author's note:
505 words. I'm sorry, I swear I didn't forget about my readers! I just had a lot of stuff to do. School is awful. But I have a kind of longer chapter this time! Does that kind of make up for it? And do I get my kneecap privileges back? 
I might take forever writing the next chapter. There is now supposed to be a giant water balloon fight, and I still have to decide just how soon Luz gets to meet Mr. and Mrs. Blight. But maybe I'll make it two chapters that take less time. We'll see.
And I have almost 300 reads on this. 300. Two chapters ago, I was thanking you guys for one hundred reads. How did I get this far? I also happen to have 32 comments and 32 is my lucky number. All in all, this is a very lucky day!
Thank you for reading, commenting, and/or voting!