Chapter Nine

Don't Get Your Panties In a Twist, Cherries.

Anna

"So, the French Revolution?" I ask Luke, grabbing the wheelie chair and sitting on it, with the back of it facing me.

"Yeah. The shittiest lesson in history," he hands me his textbook.

I decided to tutor Luke today since I had nothing to do and the teachers barely give us anything on Tuesday.

"It's not that bad."

"I don't care that you're a history geek, Cherries."

"You're calling me a history geek when you're a nerd," I roll my eyes, opening the book.

"I'm just simply smarter than you."

"Sure," I say, sarcastically. "Let's start," I look down at the book, but then I remember that I don't understand anything from it and I throw it on the bed beside Luke.

"Uh, that's my book that you just tossed," he raises an eyebrow at me.

"I know that," I stand up. "Okay, so do you know why the French Revolution started?" I ask.

"Cause the queen lady didn't share her cake and the French dudes wanted some?" He questions.

"Close, but not really," I say, putting my index finger and my thumb at a distance of two centimeters away from each other. "You see, the poor people of France weren't really a huge fan of, 'the queen lady', Marie Antoinette."

I explain everything about the French Revolution to Luke. I even used his own style way of talking, like 'the queen lady', 'the French dudes' and 'the war crap', but he didn't use 'crap'.

"And that is pretty much everything," I finish.

"Finally," he sighs, laying down on his bed.

"Now, that my work is done. I'm out of here," I announce and I walk towards the door of Luke's room.

"Whoa, whoa. Hold up," Luke says and I stop, turning around.

"Yes?"

"You didn't tell anyone that I'm staying here, right?"

"Well, I told my friends," I tell him, truthfully.

"You said you wouldn't tell anyone," he crosses his arms and the corners of his lips tug up slightly, but he presses his lips against each other.

"They're my friends. I tell them everything," I say. "Besides, it's not like you didn't tell anyone. You told your girlfriend," I point at him accusingly.

He furrows his eyebrows in confusion for a moment, before he realizes what I'm talking about, "Jennie and I are not dating."

"Right. Your 'bed-partner'," I air quote.

"I didn't tell Jennie anything," he says, then realisation appears all of his face for a fraction of a moment, before he sighs and rubs his face. "I bet it was that Katie chick."

"Katie who?"

"One of Jennie's friends."

"Yeah well, tell your 'buddy' to leave me the heck alone because I'm done with her psychotic bum," I say, before walking out of the room.

| | | |

"No, Josh! Go away!" I say frustratingly, throwing a small pillow at the laptop screen because popcorn shouldn't be wasted.

Suddenly, the door bursts open and it hits the wall with a thud. Liam walks in and he throws himself on my bed next to me.

"The sign on the door clearly says 'Don't come in!'" I say in annoyance.

"Oh, oops," he glances at what I'm watching. "Ugh! Can't we watch some Transformers or something?"

"We?"

"Right. The two of us and the guys," he corrects himself.

"The guys?"

That's when all three of my brothers barge in and plop themselves on my bed.

"What are we watching?" Cole asks.

"Why do you keep saying 'we'?!" I yell.

"Should we invite Luke too?" Cameron asks.

"N-"

"Luke!" Josh calls out.

I'm suddenly invisible to every single creature in this world.

"Oh, my Lord," I rub my forehead.

Luke pops up at the doorway of my room and leans against the door. His wet hair is laying against his head smoothly and his abs are on full display. I raise my eyebrows at his figure. I mean I don't mind though.

"What's up?" He questions.

"Wanna join our movie marathon?" Josh asks him.

"I didn't agree on this," I differ.

Luke catches me struggling and he smirks, "Sure. Why not?"

"Come here, then. We're getting started." Cameron gestures for him to come.

That's when I felt my breathing getting heavier and I quickly sit up properly. I fan my hand in front of my face to get some air and lower the warmness of my face, as my palms got sweatier by the minute.

"Cherries, you okay?" Luke asks.

"I-I'm...fine," I wave him off.

The guys notice me and they spring out of the bed. Then, Cole hands me the glass of water on my nightstand and I take it from him with shaking hands, before I gulp down the water.

I breathe through my nostrils, inhaling and exhaling until I feel my breathing getting back to normal. My brothers all watch me intently with worried looks on their faces and I send them a reassuring smile.

"Are you okay now?" Liam asks, worry etching on his face.

"Yeah."

"Since, the room is obviously not a good choice for marathons. We will use the living room," Cameron says and the three of them nod in agreement.

"We'll see you downstairs," Josh says and I nod at them before they walk out of the room, leaving me and Luke in the room.

"What was that?" He questions.

"What was what?" I reply, playing dumb and smiling nervously.

"You know, what," he narrows his eyes at me.

He turns around to close the door and my eyes widen when I see his back. A humongous tattoo of a black tree with branches is plastered on his back. The inked-bark goes down the end of his back and disappears under his pants and the dead branches go up to his shoulders, stretching to every inch and corner of his back.

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against tattoos. I even have four of them. My cousin, Avianna, drew them for me since I'm still seventeen and she owns a tattoo parlour, so she didn't really seem to mind. I actually had to travel to Miami with her, just so she can draw them for me and apparently, it was legal for me to get a tattoo in Miami, so nothing stopped her...except my father, but that was handled. Not really.

Luke leans against the door and stares at me with his arms crossed. And I just stare at him back. Then he stares some more and I stare some more as well, because equality or whatever.

"Will you explain to me what the hell just happened or I'll have to find out on my own?" Luke says.

"You know, just fighting with my brothers, the usual," I smile.

"I'm not talking about that."

"Look, my nose was just hurting me and I couldn't breathe properly. That's all," I lie.

"Are you lying to me, Cherries?"

"No, I'm a good person. I don't lie. I don't want to go to hell," I tell him.

Satan, you better have a good seat for me.

"Alright, then," he eyes me suspiciously, opening the door and turning around to walk out of the room.

I sigh and throw my head back on the pillow. I didn't even know why I had a serious panic attack like that. I only get them whenever I'm in a tight place or nervous. It's not because of tight places because my bed could fit all of us and I have already gotten used to my brothers' proximity, so it must have been because of nervousness, but from what?

| | | |

"No, his personality is crappy, but he could definitely be your type," Sophie comments pointing at one of the jocks sitting on their table.

"What about him?" Riley asks her, pointing at another one.

We were sitting on our lunch table. Riley was asking Sophie about the popular guys and which guy could be their type. They had nothing to do and that's the first thing that came to their mind.

Colette is eating her sandwich and listening to music, while I'm just eating and wondering if chocolate is going to grow on trees in the future. I have a wild imagination.

"My type definitely," Sophie answers.

"Alexander Hills?" Riley questions and I roll my eyes.

"Anna's, duh," Sophie replies.

"Zach Thompson?"

"Colette's."

"Hold up. Zach Thompson is not my type," Colette says. "None of those tossers are my type."

"Right. Your type is the guys who don't exist, who are in books and movies," Sophie says.

"Good guess."

"What about...Luke Carter?" Riley asks and my eyebrows shoot up at her question.

"I don't know. Probably any popular girl, but not one of us," she says.

"He could be Anna's," Colette pipes up, twirling a lock of dyed purple hair around her finger and I look at her with shock.

"I beg your pardon?" I ask, making sure I heard her right.

"Yeah, he could be," Sophie agrees, nodding.

"Yup," Riley nods too.

"Nope. No way," I shake my head frantically. "He's Luke and I'm Anna. It just can't happen."

"Why, though? It's not like you guys are complete opposites. You have some similarities between you," Sophie shrugs.

"It doesn't matter. Luke's type is definitely not me," I tell them.

"And what exactly is his type? Fiona? You saw how that turned out," Colette snorts.

"Yes, but he loved her," I remind her. "They were like one of those couples that have completely opposite characters, yet were absolutely in love with each other."

"Like Lottie said, Anna, you saw how that turned out. They were complete opposites, but it did not work out. You however have lots of similarities with him," Riley says with determination in her voice, trying to convince me.

"And this is not a 2000's movie where the "bad boy" ends up with the "good girl", it doesn't matter what people say, you do what you wanna do," Sophie says and Colette and Riley nod along.

I continue eating my pudding and try not to think about what they just said because it was absolute bullcrap. Luke likes girls like Fiona. The girl with the perfect life: perfect looks, perfect grades, perfect lifestyle, perfect mentality. Not the girl with anxiety disorder and gets panics attacks every now and then.

"Think about it," Colette says in a sing-song tone, while scrolling through something on her phone.

| | | |

"I'm ho-whoa," I stop in my tracks as soon as I see Luke, Zach and Alex sitting on our couch and watching TV.

"Uh, hi," I say, slowly.

"Hey, Anna," Alex smiles, waving at me.

"Hello, clumsy person," Zack grins.

"You still remember that?" I laugh nervously, remembering that one time when I bumped into Jennie and my bag fell.

"Wait, you met before?" Luke asks in confusion and that's when I notice that he's actually smoking. Disgusting. He better not ruin my favourite couch.

"Yeah. She was walking out of class and she bumped into your bitch of a girlfriend, then her bag fell and I gave it back to her," Zach explains.

"She's not my girlfriend and she's not a bitch either," Luke glares at him.

"You're right. She's a hoe," Zach says.

"She is a bitch though," Alex says and I'm shocked by the fact that he just cursed.

"Shut up," Luke mutters, taking a drag from his cigarette.

"Make me," Alex retorts, challengingly.

"You-," Luke starts.

"Okay, okay. Please don't fight in my house," I interrupt.

"So, Anna?" Zach says, questioning my name.

"Yeah, but my actual name is Annalyn," I inform him.

"That's a really pretty name," Alex comments with a grin.

"Thank you," I smile as I feel my cheeks getting warm.

He thinks my name is pretty. Oh my God, he thinks my name is pretty.

"So, Leni," Zach starts. "I heard you are a singer?" He says and my eyes widen, before I turn and glare at Luke.

"You told him?" I exclaim in disbelief.

"I just told him that you're a singer, that's all. Don't get your panties in a twist, Cherries," Luke holds up his hands in defense, placing the cigarette between his lips.

"Are we missing something?" Zach asks, glancing at Alex.

"'Leni' here is in a band," Luke smirks.

"That's cool. What's your band's name?" Alex asks, smiling a bit and that was enough for me to fall for his charm.

"Um...The Night Chicks?" I answer, nervously.

They look at me with surprise, "Holy shit, you're the singer of The Night Chicks?" Zach's eyes widen.

"Yeah," I nod.

"Do you know that red-haired drummer?" Zach asks, curiously.

"Colette?" I frown, tilting my head to the side.

"Hold up, isn't Colette that girl that was with us yesterday?" Luke pipes up.

"Yup, that's her," I reply.

"Yesterday?" Zach smirks, then he looks at Alex and he smirks too. Obviously, the whole clique never heard of smiling before.

"I was helping her get something back. Don't let your mind get too screwed up," Luke throws the butt of the cigarette in the container that's on our table, then leans back and crosses his arms.

"Luke Carter helping someone? Never thought I'd hear about this day again," Alex says.

"That's the last time I'm inviting you guys over," he tells them, annoyed.

"He only helped me because he wanted me to explain that French Revolution lesson to him," I state.

"I see," Zach nods slowly.

"Well, if you excuse me, I have a few things to do," I say. I wasn't really lying, I had to get ready for tonight's performance.

"Will we see you tonight?" Alex asks.

He wants to see me. Don't freak out.

"Of course," I reply and smile at him, staring in his deep grey eyes.

"See you tonight then, Cherries," Luke smirks.

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I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Now, I'm going to sleep because I have a trip tomorrow and I'm waking up at 5:30 AM.

Don't forget to vote, comment and share! (I'll seriously love you)

Until next time!

Bye!

-W.A ❀