Laced • Luke Dunphy

VI

The sweet smell of pancakes and maple syrup fills my lungs when I open my eyes and I'm suddenly wide awake.

"Good morning." Lily says from one of the armchairs, stroking Larry in a cartoon-villain type of way. I chuckle and greet her, my voice croaky as I haven't spoken yet today.

I push myself off the couch using my right arm and stumble into the bathroom, where I stare at myself in the mirror. Mitch's reflection comes in through the the door behind me and smiles reassuringly.

"I'm not condoning getting yourself hurt, but it doesn't look too bad on you," he remarks as he changes the bandage on my face, and I giggle. "How'd it happen anyway?"

I start explaining how we were biking through the park and the boys were teasing me about my height, so I pretended to bump into them. I demonstrated with my right arm held out, as if I were riding a bike, and swayed just as I had the day before.

"I'm great at biking though. I must've been going too fast, trying to catch up with Luke..." I stared at myself for a moment and Mitch frowned.

"Catch up with him? Why wasn't her just riding alongside you?" I told him about how I had hidden behind Manny while Luke was flirting and stopped him from saying he was Luke's uncle. How, when the girls saw me, they asked who I was and I had answered in the sarcastic manner I almost always did when I didn't like someone and they didn't appreciate it.

I smiled at his reflection but he still looked perplexed.

"What?" I asked, turning around to look at him.

"You said you didn't like them. Why?" My cheeks flushed.

"They we're talking like they were better than us.. Making fun of Manny to his face. You should've seen them." I turned back to face the mirror, gripping the sink as my temper rose.
[edited for purposes of not sounding dumb]

"Luke, you're so funny," I imitated in a high voice, waving my hands like an idiot, "Luke, do you like my shoes? Luke, do you think I'm pretty?" I adopted my normal voice again and making a gun with my fingers, "Luke, could you shoot me in the head?" I pointed at the mirror and shot my reflection with a small pew and hung my head.

I could tell he was trying not to smile and I glowered at him. I cocked my eyebrow questioningly and he smiled.

"Well... it seems to me like you're jealous." My eyes went wide and my cheeks burned up, making him chuckle softly.

"Me? Jealous? Of girls being hit on by Luke? Never." I clutched my chest dramatically and walked out. He followed after me into the kitchen and Cam looked up from his pancakes, eyeing us suspiciously.

"Someone has a crush!" Mitch exclaims in a singsong voice and Cam's face breaks into a beam. I hold my elbow and look at the ground.

"Do not." I grumbled as Cam gleefully pulled a chair out for me, indicating for me to sit. Lily trots into the kitchen as her dads start singing "Luke and Jamie, sitting in a tree". I let my head fall into my empty plate and Lily giggles, pulling a few pancakes onto her own plate and marinating them with syrup.

"There's no shame in feeling this way, sweetie," Cam says when they've finished their song and strokes my hair. I lift my head and look up at him.

"But I'll be his cousin soon." It slips out without me even noticing, or thinking about it. Cam and Mitch stare at each other before looking at me and I silently slide a pancake onto my plate. I feel their eyes on me as I pour syrup onto my pancake.

"How- How did you know?" Mitch utters, the sound of Lily gobbling her food filling the silence that follows.

"Luke told me. His parents talked to them about it."

Cam starts but I cut him off, "I really like you guys. You're all like a family to me, but... I don't know. I had these really weird dream in which Luke and I were dating and I don't know what it means. I'm just really confused." I focus on the dripping syrup as tears brim my eyes, my peripheral vision blurring.

Two pairs of arms, one skinny and one big, wrapped around me as I shook silently in my seat. Lily's little body squirmed her way into the hug and sat on my lap, her small arms holding me around the waist.

"It's okay, honey, it's okay. We'll help you sort out your feelings. And you know, we don't really have to adopt you, we could just foster you, give you a home, food, education. It's okay." Lily wiggled and I smiled down at her, tears slipping down my face.

"Thank you."