before the pain | luke (JATP)

XLIV

The house smelled of peppermints and home-cooked goods as December 1st had come. Neighborhoods began decorating their houses for the holidays, as the biggest holiday had come. A holiday filled with family, love, snowflakes, and presents.

Luke woke up that morning with a smile on his face from the dream he had been having, he put on his clothes and a beanie, before walking to the kitchen, where Emily, his mother, was in the middle of baking Christmas cookies. He kissed her on the cheek as she took one of them from the tray, burning his fingers as he took a huge bite.

This caused his mother to giggle as she shook her head, looking at her son. "When will you be home today?" She asked as leaned against the counter. He smiled as he thought for a second or two. "Around seven I think, I have to go and buy a gift for someone, as me and the others are playing secret Santa"

She nodded before smiling brightly. "Have you forgotten what day it is?" She laughed nodding towards the hanging socks on the bookshelf, Luke's smile grew like a kid on Christmas as he hurried towards his Christmas sock and put his hand down in it, he felt the small gift and took it up, finding a plectrum.

Luke looked over at his mother who took a deep breath looking at his son. "I may not understand your passion for music and may not agree with you, but if you say music your feelings you should play that song you have been writing to her, it's about her isn't it?"

The door to locker 272 got smashed as Mila tiredly leaned against it. "I mean, it's not like he had any bad intentions, it was one kiss, that's all," She said as she looked at Alex for help, even though he couldn't help much either, not truly understanding the problem between her and his best friend.

"So he kissed you, what's the problem exactly Mila? " He asked as they began walking to history class. "I mean if he can't like me, because we are just friends and the time at the Halloween party he was drunk and the other was... well must have been because he just wanted me to have a real first kiss right? "

"You two are hopeless" Alex laughed as he sat in his seat beside her, her still having a mind wandering. "I don't know what to do" Alex bit his lip as he looked at his best friend before getting an idea.

"What would your character do? That Ghost boy?" In all honesty, Mila had not been writing on her book ever since she got kicked out, something inside her just hadn't felt the same, or maybe it was because it was so hard for her to write about love stories when she felt like she was in her own confusing one.

It seemed easier for her to write about love, when she knew the boy she liked, never in a minute would look at her, but when it came to Luke, she never knew what he would do. It felt like for one minute he was crazy about her and the next he wanted just to be friends. This had caused Mila to decide she no longer liked Luke, she did not want her heart to be broken again by a brown-haired boy.

Luke on the other hand was sitting in math class, trying his best to ignore the football player who was sitting beside him once again. "So you and Mila huh? Gotten any better yet?" Luke sighed as he tried his best to focus on the math on the board.

"You know, our dads bought us a house" This however made Luke look directly into his eyes as he looked hurt, it was clear you could see it. No matter how hard he wanted to hide it, he liked that curly-haired girl.

"What do you mean?" He asked as he leaned back in his chair, Oliver bit his lip and nodded. "Yea I guess our parents can see that Mila and I belong together"

It was like something clicked inside Luke, something he had never felt before, but he clenched his jaw, trying to ignore Oliver again.

"Good for the two of you!" was all Luke answered before focusing on the test, the school day slowly came to an end, as Luke closed his locker door looking at his best friend Bobby who had seemed off since the night he declined Daliah on a date.