Toxic Lips [l.h]

t h i r t y n i n e

In the end, Luke does make the same seven eleven tea we had last time. We both sit at the kitchen counter, looking out the window as the rain starts to fall outside.

"Hey," Luke says suddenly. "It's the first day of October."

"Yeah," I say. "It is."

It stays silent after that.

I'm emotionally drained from the events that took place not even an hour ago. I know I shouldn't be so upset about a relationship that wasn't good for anything, yet here I am moping around. 

Luke stirs a spoon in his tea, humming lowly under his breath. It is only now that I realise how lovely he really is; with his ocean blue eyes cast down at his mug, his long eyelashes fanning out onto the top of his cheeks. His tattoos are visible from out the bottom of his navy blue shirt and his face is relaxed, a sharp contrast from how it is most of the time. 

"Do you have any siblings?" I ask randomly.

"Siblings?" Luke asks, looking at me confusedly. 

"Yeah. Brothers or sisters."

"Yeah," he says, looking down. "A sister, Emma" He looks out the window at the pouring rain. 

"How old is she?"

"I don't remember," he bites his lip as he looks back at me. "I haven't seen her in three or four years."

Feeling as though I hit a nerve, I back down. "Oh."

"What about your sister?" He asks.

"What about her?" I frown.

"How old is she?"

"She's... eighteen. I haven't seen her in a year."

"Why not?"

"Because she hates me."

Luke looks as though he wanted to ask me more, but decides againt it. I swallow the rest of my tea and stand up.

"Thanks for the tea," I say.

"You don't want to stay?" He asks, and I shake my head. "Alaska, are you sure you're going to be okay?"

I shrug, looking to the floor as he steps towards me, tugging on my arm until my face is burried in his chest in a warm embrace. Tears slip out of my eyes and roll down my cheeks. This is the third time I have cried in front of Luke, and I feel just as horrible about it as the other two times. I hate feeling this way, and displaying it in front of Luke just makes it worse. 

I feel his walm palm soothingly rub my back as he whispers 'shh' into my hair. I don't want to be crying over Tyler, I honestly don't want to cry over the downfall of that relationship.

"You're alright, Alaska," Luke says quietly and I pull away, nodding as I wipe the tears from my face. Luke rests his hands on my shoulders, trying to get me to look into his eyes. 

"I'm sorry," I say.

"Don't be," he says. "It's okay to cry."

I nod again and he lets his hands fall to his sides, and he leans back against the wall. 

I take a few deep breaths and Luke watches me, his eyebrows furrowed and his eyes sympathetic. The blue pigment in his irises seem to hold some sort of empathy that intrigues me as well as breaks my heart. 

"Did you love him?" Luke's deep voice breaks the silence.

"Tyler?" I ask, and he nods. 

"No," I say quietly. "I've never been in love."

"You're lucky."

I look up immediately, locking eyes with him. "You've been in love?"

Luke takes a deep breath and looks out the window, nodding slowly. 

"What happened?" I dare to ask.

"Nothing."

"Come on, it had to be something."

"That's just it though, nothing happened between us," he says sadly.

"Why not though? Seriously, in a non-platonic way, you're hot." As soon as I realise what I said, I turn a deep shade of red and cover my mouth. 

Luke smirks. "Same to you," he says. "Platonically, of course," he says and I blush even more. He just called me hot?

"Luke?" I ask. "I know it doesn't seem like it, but at times, I'm really glad I met you."

He smiles at me. "Believe it or not, the feeling is mutual."