Laced • Luke Dunphy

II

Humming a song, I sit in front of Luke's bedroom window, my elbows on the ledge and my head in my hands.

"Watcha singin'?" His voice asks behind me.

"The healing incantation from Tangled," I reply, not bothering to turn around.

"The what?" He asks, genuinely confused.

"You know, from that recent Disney movie, Rapunzel?" I say, waving my hand and looking down at Phil tending the garden.

"Oh, yeah. I don't recognize the name of the song, though,"

"It's the one she uses to heal him, you know?" He stays silent, indicating that he doesn't know what I'm talking about.

"It goes like this:
Flower gleam and glow,
let your power shine,
make the clock reverse,
bring back what once was mine.

Heal what has been hurt,
change the fates design,
save what has been lost,
bring back what once was mine..
what once was mine,"

Still he says nothing so I tear my gaze away from Phil messily spraying water everywhere and turn around.

To my surprise, he's just standing there, smiling at me. But what catches me off guard is the fact that's he's shirtless, a white towel loosely wrapped around his waist. His hair is wet and small beads of water drip down his chest. My breath hitches as I see him and I stare for a bit too long. Although he doesn't really have abs, he has pretty big biceps and god do those get me.

"You sing really great," he says with a goofy smile, pulling me out of my trance. He didn't seem to notice I had just been staring at his chest.

"Thanks," I tuck a strand of hair behind my ear and look down before turning back to see whatever trouble Phil has gotten himself to while I wasn't watching.

He comes up next to me and looks down with a quizzical look on his face.

"What?" I ask with a grimace.

"I don't know, you're the one who's acting weird," he shrugs and looks down at his dad, who spotted us and started waving like a madman.

"Am not," I huff as I wave back.

"Offended, are we?" he mocks, waving back as well.

"Geez, get over yourself," I laugh, pushing his shoulder and he stumbles sideways.

"Ah, you admit I should be getting over something," he says, giving me one of those really bad winks people in commercials do to exaggerate.

I quickly try to retract my statement and become a bumbling mess of words. Luke had put on boxers and a pair of sweats while I had been talking and I didn't notice until two strong arms wrapped around me. Without warning, my feet lift off the ground and my body is thrown onto Luke's bed.

"TICKLE FIGHT!" He screams, attacking me.

"That's not fair, I wasn't ready!" I cry in between giggles and short breathes.

"Life isn't fair, deal with it," he says, clearly enjoying himself. After a while I manage to get him off and he turns some music on.

"I've got some homework to do." he says and I nod, picking up a book and reading the back. Stay Awake from Mary Popins comes on the speaker and soon I'm fast asleep.

•

Luke's pov

I smile to myself as I see that Jamie has fallen asleep. A shout from downstairs makes me get up to see what's going on.

"Gather 'round!" Dad is saying loudly, Mom and Haley already next to him, Alex on her way down the stairs and me on the landing, looking over the banister.

"What's up?" I ask, skipping down the stairs two at a time.

"You guys should sit down," Mom says, a serious look on her face. I look at my sisters, confused, and they look back at me just as puzzled. The three of us sit on the couch and our parents sit on the coffee table in front of us.

"Your uncles have been thinking about this for some time now, but they wanted us to ask you first," Mom says, nervously playing with her hands.

"Are they getting another pet?" Haley asks excitedly, only to be disappointing by mom shaking her head.

"They were thinking about, maybe... adopting Jamie?" Dad smiled weakly, as if unsure of our reaction.

The three of us just sit silently, thinking it over. I fight the sudden urge to get up and scream "They can't!" and just look at my shoes instead.

"That's alright, you guys just think about it," Mom's consoles and stands up, smiling down at us before walking away. Dad does the same and one by one, we get up as well and go back to what we were doing.

Why don't I want them to adopt her? She's my best friend and she's always been a bit like a sister to me. The idea of Cam and Mitch having her as a daughter doesn't seem appealing... but why?