Chapter Fifty Five

Walls Are Sound-Proof For A Reason.

Anna

"...so, Anna. Any ideas for universities?" Emily asks me.

"I applied in Sapienza and Melbourne too," I tell her as I twist the pasta around the fork and put it in my mouth, savoring the salty taste. I'm currently using Luke for two things in this relationship: his mum's amazing cooking and his ability at doing my hair. The braid that he did is better than any braid I have ever done in my life and I wonder what did he have to go through with the girls to be able to do that.

"That's great. That means that you kids will be together," she smiles softly.

"Yeah," I nod, smiling back.

"Which field are you going to study in?"

"Astrophysics."

She raises her eyebrows in shock. "That's a complicated field, dear. I heard that it's about nine years long with the PhD program, the Master's degree and the bachelor's degree."

"Yeah, but I will manage to finish it all in five years or so. I know that it's difficult, but I want to finish early," I reply.

"That's good. Don't force yourself into studying what you don't like. I majored in business management and I regret it now. That's why I told the kids to study what they like." She smiles.

"Mom, mom, mom," Luna chants to grab her mother's attention. "Look at Anna's braid! Luke did it. Doesn't it look amazing?"

"It does," Emily nods, fixing her gaze on my hair.

"Told you," she nudges Clara.

Emily turns to Luke and frowns. "What's wrong, honey? You didn't touch your food."

"I'm not hungry," he mumbles, pushing his food around before he rests the fork down. Emily looks down at her plate and I see her gulping down heavily. It's as if she expected the answer, but she didn't want to hear it.

"But it's your favourite," Luna says.

"I know. I'm just not hungry," he shrugs.

"Are you okay?" I ask him in concern, furrowing my eyebrows a bit.

He turns his head and gives me a small reassuring smile. "I'm fine. I'm tired from work, that's all."

I smile back weakly and nod.

He's lying, I know.

After we're done with dinner, I tell Luke that I want to talk to him and we go upstairs to his room to have more privacy.

"Okay, what's really wrong with you?" I cross my arms, staring down at him and taking a step closer to the bed.

"Nothing's wrong. I told you, I'm just tired from work," Luke says, putting his hands on the mattress behind him and leaning back as he stares up at me.

"No, there's something else," I press.

"Anna, I'm fine. I'm swear."

He called me Anna.

"Clara mentioned something about a doctor's appointment tomorrow," I state.

"Yeah. I'm going to check this fever thing. It's getting worse," he responds and as if on cue, he starts coughing heavily and I uncross my arms, stepping closer to him to rub his back. He covers his mouth with his arm before the coughing fit stops and he clears his throat loudly.

"You okay now?"

"Yeah," he nods, clearing his throat one last time.

I take a deep breath. "Just please...please don't keep anything from me. I don't want anything to happen to you and I'm not aware of it."

Luke stands up and walks around me, totally ignoring me and avoiding my question before he heads for his closet to open it.

I turn around, feeling my throat close up and I bite at the skin inside my mouth. "Please, Luke? Please?"

He stops looking through his clothes and gives me a nod without facing me.

"What are we going to do about college?" I ask him.

He turns around and frowns. "What are we going to do about it? We applied in the same universties. Maybe one of us will get accepted into both and we will just settle for the same university."

"What if we get accepted into different ones? Like you in Sapienza and me in Melbourne?" I question.

He walks over to me. "That's okay. We will do the distance. If Clara and Aaron can do it, so can we."

"We will be eighteen hours away from each other." I inform him. It feels as if the personalities have switched. I'm the pessimist and he's the optimist.

"It doesn't matter. We can do it," he insists.

I nod my head. "Yeah. We can." I smile.

He smiles back and pushes a strand of hair out of my face. "Cherries?"

"Yes?"

"You won't leave me, right?" He asks, tilting his head.

"Why would you, out of all people, think that?" I frown.

"I don't know. I guess I'm just scared of losing you," he responds, casting his gaze down on the floor.

"Well, you don't have to worry about that because you're stuck with me whether you like it or not," I state, then I grab his face to make him look at me. "Okay?" I raise my eyebrows and he nods.

"You can stop squeezing my cheeks now," he muffles out and I grin, retracting my hand back.

"Promise?" He's the one to put up his pinky finger first this time.

"Promise." I wrap my finger around his.

He tugs on my finger and pulls me closer, then he plants a kiss on my lips, his other hand resting on my face cheek and I kiss him back hard before we pull away slowly, his lips lingering on mine.

Suddenly, I remember something and my eyes widen. "Your birthday is next week."

"Yeah," he nods with a small smile on his lips.

"You're going to be nineteen," I smile widely, rocking on my shoes before I scrunch my nose up. "You're old."

"Thanks, Cherries," he replies sarcastically and I let out a small laugh, then I fall back on his bed where Duke is already lying and he shoots up at the sudden action.

"Sorry, baby," I pat the top of his head and he rests down again.

"Can you stay over tonight?" Luke asks me.

"What's in it for me?" I ask him.

"Spending quality time with your boyfriend who wants you to stay over?" He replies, raising an eyebrow.

"I guess that's good enough." I grab his pillow and hug it tightly, feeling a squeezing pain in my lower abdomen. Just lady things.

A knock comes from the door and it opens before Emily pokes her head inside the room. "Hey, honey. I'm heading to bed, okay?"

Luke nods. "Oh. Can Anna stay over?"

"Yeah, of course, but she has to ask her mother first. We wouldn't want any troubles with Anne," Emily says and I nod, giving her a smile. Mum might kill me, but I will manage to persuade her.

"And no funny business, you two. You're still under my roof. That means no fornication," she states in a serious tone.

"Mom, you know the walls are sound-proof for a reason," he smirks at her.

I throw the pillow at Luke with all of my force."He's kidding." I glare at him as it hits him in the face

"I know he is, dear," she chuckles. "Don't ruin my little Anna." She gives her son a pointed look.

"She's a tease. You would feel bad for me if you knew what the hell she does–" I throw another pillow at him to shut him up.

I smile at Emily. "Nothing will happen, Em. I promise."

"Alright," she laughs at our bantering. "Good night."

"Night," I wave and she disappears outside, closing the door behind her.

"Give me back my pillows," I gesture for him to throw them back.

"Your pillows?" He picks them both up and gives them to me.

I hug them to myself. "Yes. They're mine now." He chuckles softly in response.

I press the pillow against my lower stomach harder and I consider punching my stomach for a moment before I realize that I might look like a psychopath to Luke.

"What's wrong with you?" He raises an eyebrow.

"What's wrong with me?"

"I don't know. You look like you're in pain, as if you're on your period or something," he guesses.

I gape at him. "How did you know that?"

"So you are," he takes a seat on the bed.

"No seriously, how did you know that?" I narrow my eyes in suspicion. Maybe it's because of Fiona, a stupid thought tries to convince me, but I push it off of the roof and give it my mental middle finger.

"I live with two sisters and a mom. Most of my time consists of doing car trips to Wal-Mart and comforting crying, menustrual, hormonal women. I think I'd be aware of what my girlfriend would seem like whenever she's on her period," he informs me with a grin.

"You are literally so freaking amazing," I blurt out even though I had no intentions on keeping it inside my mind.

He chuckles. "You are 'literally' so fucking amazing too." I give him a wide, kid-like smile as a response. "Do you need anything?"

"Nope, the pills are starting to kick in at last," I grin.

He stands up. "Tell me if you need anything." I nod in response with a smile. I hit the jackpot, ladies and gentlemen.

Then he bends down and brushes my hair away from my forehead before he leans his head down to kiss it. "Good girl," he says, patting my hair and leaning back up. My smile turns into a scowl and he grins.

I roll my eyes and slide my phone out of my pocket so I could call mum since she doesn't like texting. She says 'we can write just fine, why would we text when we can write a letter?'. She uses emails most of the times, so I don't know what does she have against texts.

"Hey, mum," I say once I hear the ringing stop.

"Daughter," she greets me back.

"How was work today?" I question her, so I wouldn't pop up with the question so fast. I am really curious about how was her work.

"What do you want, child?"

"Can I stay over at Luke's?" I ask in a small voice.

"Anna–"

"I promise nothing will happen. Please, mum. You always told me that you and dad used to sneak out which was too much information, but I listened because it was cute. And I actually took the liberty of asking you. No offense," I hurriedly add and I see Luke giving me a questioning look.

"Don't guilt-trip me, child. And lots of offense. You're lucky you're not here right now," she sighs. "No funny business?"

"Not a single thing," I nod to myself.

"Alright then," she pauses. "Will you be sleeping in different beds?"

"No..." I answer truthfully, but I quickly speak up before she can interject. "Nothing will happen, I swear." I repeat pleadingly.

"Fine. Fine," she finally says as if she's telling me to shut up and I smile to myself.

"Be careful," she tells me in a small concerned voice and I nod to myself before I remember that she can't see me and reply with an okay. "Good night, honey. I love you," mum says.

"Night. I love you," I sing and wait for mum to hang up before I do, then I slip the phone back in my pocket.

"I will get you something to wear from Clara's," Luke says, gesturing for my shirt.

"No need for that." Standing up, I walk over to his opened closet, then I look through his clothes. I find a black hoodie and bring it out to look at it. "I'm taking that." I hold it up for him to see.

"Does that mean I'm never getting it back?"

"Yeah. It's mine now," I declare, holding it close to me and closing the wardrobe door.

"Okay," he chuckles.

I do circular motions with my finger and Luke raises an eyebrow at me in question.

"Turn around." I speak up. "Or don't. It's your choice." I add, smiling sweetly.

"It's not funny," he states with an empty look.

I snicker slightly and maybe a bit evilly, then I grasp the end of my shirt and raise it a bit, getting ready to take off the shirt.

"I'm turning." Luke turns the other way, his back facing me and I let out a small laugh. The black ink on his skin is visible from the thin white material of his shirt.

I take off my shirt and put the hoodie on, then I reach under it to unclasp my bra and slide it out from the sleeve.

"All done," I say and he turns around.

"Nice abs by the way," Luke comments jokingly.

I pull my shirt up and look down at my stomach. "Thanks, bro."

"No problem, bro," he mimics me and I laugh as I place my clothes on the desk chair, then I turn back around to see Luke taking his shirt off and my hands fly to my eyes to cover them, out of instinct.

"Cherries?" Luke questions.

"Yeah?" My reply comes out slow and long.

"What are you doing?"

"Um...I don't know," I respond hesitantly.

He chuckles and I hear his quiet padding footsteps against the carpeted floor. I feel his large hands on mine as he takes my hands off of my eyes. His sea green eyes appear in my vision along with the two beauty marks on his face. One on his chin. One on his cheek where the cheekbone is. A smile comes on his lips and the two dimples curve out horizontally by each side once his eyes lock with mine.

"You're so adorable," he cups my face with one hand.

"Are you going to sleep like that?" I ask him, my voice coming out muffled.

"Yeah, but if you feel uncomfortable and you want me to put a shirt on, it's fine," he tells me.

I shake my head in response. I certainly don't mind sleeping next to a shirtless Luke. He grins and places a quick kiss on my lips, then he lets go of my face.

"There's a spare toothbrush in the bathroom in the cupboard under the sink since you will probably want to brush your teeth," he informs me and I nod, giving him a kiss on the cheek.

I head to the bathroom to brush my teeth with the spare yellow toothbrush I found before I walk back in Luke's now dark room. The only source of light is a lamp that is lit up on the dresser by his bed and it casts a shadow of a leafy tree on the green wall above.

Luke is on the bed, leaning back against the headboard with a book in his hand and his glasses on his face, while his other hand scratches the top of Duke's head who is nestled beside him. A lock of hair falls in his face and his hand goes up to run through his hair, pushing it back before it goes back to the puppy's small head.

I act like I'm not fazed by how handsome he looks and gaze at the beautiful lamp in admiral. "This is the prettiest thing ever!" I almost squeal, catching Luke's attention as I hurry to the lamp and stare at it.

"Can we keep it on?" I ask, switching my gaze to him for a moment before looking back at the lamp with a smile on my face.

"You want to sleep with a light on?" He questions.

"I always sleep with a light on 'cause I hate the dark," I tell him. "Can we please keep it on? Please, please, please?" I beg childishly, loving how beautiful it looks.

"Okay, okay," he answers with a small chuckle. "We will keep it on."

I smile widely and get in bed next to Luke–well, next to Duke actually–then I pull the cover on me and grin up at Luke who's watching me the entire time with a smile on his face.

Suddenly, Duke rises on his feet and he jumps over me to switch his place from between us to my other side, then he rests down on the bed and snuggles into me, letting out a soft whine before he closes his eyes and he even places his paw on my stomach.

I found the third thing to use Luke for in our relationship.

"Someone's in love," Luke points out, letting out a laugh.

I giggle and press a kiss on Duke's head, then I pull the cover on him. "What are you reading?" I ask Luke.

He shows me the cover. "Wuthering Heights."

"That's such a sad book," I comment, remembering the amount of people that died.

"It's realistic fiction. No shit, it's sad," he replies. "Plus, Heathcliff is an asshole and that makes the book better."

"You like the book because Heathcliff is a jerk?" I laugh.

"I said that it makes the book better," he corrects me with a proud look on his face. "I just like it because it's realistic."

"Of course, you do." He grins in response and he continues reading the rest of the page before he turns his head towards me again. "Cherries? Remember that one time when I called you to come pick me up from Zach's party and I was drunk?"

"That was like, four months ago," I respond, pulling the cover up a bit and turning on my side carefully so Duke's paw wouldn't slip off.

"Yeah," he nods, a small smile gracing his lips.

"I never knew why you were drinking that day," I realize.

"It was," he pauses, clearing his throat. "Dad's birthday. Dad's fifty-first birthday to be exact."

My eyes widen and I sit up quickly. "Oh, my God. I'm so sorry. You were going through a lot that day and I was being rude to you. I'm so sorry. I-I didn't mean to. I'm really sorry."

He looks at me with alarm like he wasn't expecting me to burst out like that. "It's fine. You didn't know."

"Still. I was being so rude and mean and–oh, God, I'm so sorry," I stammer.

"Cherries, stop apologizing," he lets out a chuckle.

"Right. Sorry. I mean, sor–I'm just going to shut up." I clamp my mouth shut.

"It's okay. You didn't know. Besides I was being a dick to you that day, I should be the one apologizing, so I'm sorry, but I'm going to drag you in worse shit. That's nothing."

"I don't mind," I smile with a shrug. "I told you that you're stuck with me and I'm going to stick right by you whenever, because I'm that clingy girlfriend."

"I wouldn't want it any other way." He leans in to kiss my cheek, then he puts a white bookmark in the center of the book before he closes it and places it on his nightstand along with his circular glasses.

I gaze at the gorgeous branched-tattoo on his back and my hand goes up to trace the black lines across his smooth skin and I feel him shudder slightly at the contact of my warm fingers against his cold back.

"This is so beautiful," I mumble.

"You seem to be really intrigued by it," he breathes out a laugh.

"I am," I respond, retracting my hand back.

Luke slides himself under the covers and turns his body towards me. I tuck my hands under my head as I smile at him and he smiles back instantly.

"This is beautiful as well." His hand slides under my hoodie to brush against the sun drawing near my hip.

"You saw that?"

"I might have turned around, but I managed to catch it, along with the freckles back there." He says in a low deep voice and his hand slides upwards over my hip to my back where the splatter of freckles I have is.

My face heats up. "Someone is really observant," I joke.

"Only of the best of things." His nose lightly bumps with mine and he connects his lips with mine in a soft kiss. I move my lips with his, my fingers lightly brushing the side of his face, then we pull away when we find ourselves running out of breath.

"I almost forgot," I say and Luke frowns in confusion as I slip my hand in my sweatpants' pocket and take out Luke's pack of cigarettes.

His eyebrows shoot up in suprise. "You kept it?"

"Yeah," I reply. "It's still yours after all. Um...so here, I guess." I hand it to him.

He takes the pack from me and looks at it. "I'm not one to judge your actions or make you do something, but I would really prefer it if you don't go back to smoking. I already lost lots of people and to be honest, I don't want to add your name to the list," I chuckle humorlessly and look at Luke pleadingly. "Please don't go back. Don't do it for me. Do it for yourself. Emily. The girls; they want their brother and I'm sure them finding out that he's hurting himself like that, isn't going to help."

Luke fixes his gaze back on me, then he sits up and opens the third drawer of the nightstand which was locked by a key before he