If you follow me on Instagram at @NatalieInACorner then you recognize this picture. Thank you @Nikibookgram for this basketball filled poster 

Chapter 21: Dysfunctional

"You finished," Luke told me, kissing me all over my neck and down to my collarbone, "Proud of you."

His words muffled between kisses. 

If I get this much attention after every test, then I'll stay in school forever. 

I leant towards him and my hand accidentally pressed the window button. It started to roll down, but we were too busy making out to notice.

Until a girl squealed, "Is that Luke Dawson?!"

He looked up, shoving his hair back. A girl was gawking at him and the people around stared.

While Luke's other hand rested against the seat, he reached out and, as the girl kept talking at him, he pressed the button and the window rolled back up.

"Luke, can you-"

He waved as the outside voices were drowned out.

I sat up from underneath him, adjusting my shirt. Luke leaned back into the driver seat of his car and exhaled. He smirked at me.

We'd gotten a bit distracted.

We were still in the school parking lot, though most people had already dispersed to enjoy the weekend after exams. 

My duffel bag was in the back seat, and Luke was about to drive me to the lake house. I decided to leave my car in the school parking lot until Monday.

We would be back by then.

**

Soon, we would be at his lake house with his parents and brother. Jake, who I haven't really spoken with since Luke and I started dating.

I couldn't imagine the dinner conversation, let alone what we would all do. 

I come from a pretty dysfunctional family. I don't actually know what families do when they hang out. Fish?

But I was excited to see. And I was grateful to be invited. Warm cooked meals and friendly laughter would be a welcome change.

I tried not to look at Luke too many times. I wanted to pinch myself from dreaming. He looked dreamlike: messy black hair and blue eyes, fringed with black eyelashes. Eyelashes I've kissed a few times now.

And that I intend to kiss again many more times.

The top of his hoodie touched the cape of his neck and it moved ever so slightly when he moved.

"You missed the exit to the highway," I pointed out, as his car turned in the opposite direction.

"We have to make a stop," he told me, "We're picking up Bianca."

Bianca. Did the boy seriously say Bianca?

"Bianca," I repeated, "Like the girl?"

"Yeah," he nodded, giving me a weird look, "Like the girl."

Oh-kay.

I think I've been understanding so far. Bianca threatened me, told me she was destined to be with my boyfriend and that I was a nobody.

Friendly girl, really.

Then she and my boyfriend go for dinner the night before my SAT subject tests and go back to his place after.

Oh, not to mention - he throws a little party there... while I'm across the street... studying.

And now, Bianca is coming to the jake house?!  Damn it, I got to stop saying that!

"Why is Bianca coming?" I asked, keeping my cool.

"She asked." He shrugged, his eyes focused on the road ahead, "She's having a tough time at home. Her parents have been arguing a lot lately and we have a spare room."

"Can she not?" I asked.

"What do you mean?" he glanced over and saw my expression was serious.

He pulled up to the side of the road. When the car stopped, he turned to give me his full attention.

"You know I care about you more than any other girl. It's not even close," he told me, "But I have friends who are girls and sometimes, they'll need me to be a friend."

"I get that," I said.

I do. 

I mean, I don't have many friends, but I get that you need to help them. It's just, this feels like Bianca's trying to get with him. And that's a whole new level of friendly.

"I've known Bianca, Jamie and Oma since we were kids."

"I'm not trying to get between your friendships," I told him.

I knew he was thinking about the incident with Jamie. It almost stopped us from becoming... us. 

I had incorrectly thought there could be something going on between them – because Austin called her "Luke's girl" at his grotto party all those months ago and because she went over to Luke's house late at night.

I mean, who doesn't run 1,000 scenarios in their head when the boy they're crushing on is hanging out with another girl?

But what Luke doesn't get, is that he still thinks I was angry about that. In truth, I was angry because he followed her inside his own house right after I told him I liked him. That one hurt.

He basically ended the conversation after I said I was falling for him.

Now I'm not suspicious of him and Bianca. I'm not afraid.

I still have memories of my ex-boyfriend cheating on me, but I'm trying to compartmentalize. That's my word of the day by the way. Compartmentalize.

This is a new relationship, and it's better than any I have ever experienced before. I don't want to ruin that.

But I also don't want to be around Bianca.

"OK Luke, I haven't really told you this," I confessed, "But Bianca has not been nice, to say the least. She said she was your one constant and when you tire of me, you'll go back to her. So excuse me if I don't want to spend this weekend in her company."

"She told you that?"

Why was he laughing?

"Yes," I said.

"So why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I don't want to get between you and your friends," I said, hoping Luke would see that I'm not trying to disrupt his life.

"Next time, tell me."

I continued to explain, "I'm fine for you to hang out with her, because I trust you. But she has explicitly told me that she wants to be with you and that makes me uncomfortable. I don't want this romantic weekend to include her."

Luke was about to say something, but I kept going. "And I do want you to support your friends, but knowing her ulterior motives, I doubt the reason she's asking you to take her on a romantic weekend to your lake house is because she wants to 'get away from family'."

I've been through a lot of home drama. But I never once thought about using that to get with a guy.

I exhaled in relief. I said the lake house and not the jake house, so that's a win.

I just really hope I expressed myself correctly. The last thing I wanted to do was create a fight before this weekend even began.

Luke didn't say anything. He twisted the key in the ignition and started the car up again. We were very close to Bianca's house, so it was only a couple streets before we arrived.

I wasn't sure why we were still going there.

He didn't even have to call her, because she'd been waiting for him. She opened the front door and her dark hair was long and wavy, falling over a cute winter sweater. She was putting on a pair of moccasin shoes.

"Hi Luke," she cheerfully called out, "Thank you for agreeing to this. I'm sorry to intrude on your little weekend together. I wouldn't have asked unless I had no other options."

Luke still hadn't said anything. And that worried me. Why were we doing this?!

Bianca tilted her head at seeing me in the passenger seat of his car, as if she was surprised to see me, and gave me a fake wave.

Did this innocent act really work on him? 

The girl has other friends. She's the most popular girl in school. She can spend the weekend with any one of them.

The windows in Luke's car were rolled down so we could hear her clearly. Plus, her house was only a few feet from the road.

"Turns out we don't have space in the cabin," Luke told her, unclipping his seat belt and getting out of his car in one move.

"What do you mean?" she asked, her hand gripping her suitcase, "You have a lot of spare rooms."

"We're doing a romantic weekend," Luke said, walking round the car to stand near my side. I was on the side of the street, where Bianca was standing.

I couldn't tell if that was his defensive instinct. 

I knew he was the kind of guy who liked looking people in the eye when he told them something heavy.

The smile on Bianca's face had dropped. "But I thought your parents and Jake are all going to be-"

"Three's a crowd, B."

My eyes widened and I almost cackled. Luke was a straight shooter.

Bianca's face went through a couple emotions. She wasn't sure how to react or how to salvage the situation. 

She let go of her suitcase and it sat abandoned on her doorstep. Bianca walked down the steps to get closer to Luke.

"I don't want to be a burden," she sounded so sweet, "My living situation is a bit difficult right now but I understand if you-"

"No, I don't think you understand," he said, "I'm saying three's a crowd. My relationship has nothing to do with you."

Luke saw she was walking towards him, but he'd finished. He had made his point clear and wasn't about to hang around to discuss it.

He walked back to his side of the car and got inside.

I dared not move.

Bianca looked like she'd seen a ghost. Maybe the ghost of relationships passed. Her gaze narrowed on me.

"What did you say to him?" she raised her voice and made a final call out to him, "Your girlfriend has poisoned you against your friends!"

Luke answered under the sound of the car's engine, though he wasn't even looking at her anymore. "The only poison I see is outside my car."

He looked back as he drove in reverse, to get us out of parking. I was stone silent in the car and it reverberated with his last words.

I was going to say something. My mouth was hanging open, hoping speech would come out of it soon.

"I wanted to end this narrative before it began," he said of his decision to confront Bianca.

He's seen how these stories go.  Bianca begins to taunt me, rumors begin to circulate and ultimately impact our relationship.  Luke didn't want the drama.

Which is very ironic, since drama seems to love us.

I looked in the rear view mirror at Bianca's retreating figure. Her face was deflated.

We drove so fast out of there that I gripped my seat belt. Wow. If that didn't make me her number 1 enemy, then I don't know what will.

**

Today had become a strange string of events. I thought taking the SAT subject tests was enough. Now we added a trip to the lake house and a take down of Bianca Rodriguez.

Witnessing the take down made me really reconsider getting on Luke Dawson's bad side.

He has a no prisoners' strategy.

He went hard on her.

In all our time hanging out together, Luke and I have fought a hundred times, and he has never treated me that way. 

I almost felt bad for her. And then I remembered Roger, the threatening letters and her open threats to me. Was she the blackmailer? 

And if so, Luke's smack down may have set her off.

A problem for another day.

**

We had no more stops to make before reaching the lake house. We were already behind schedule. I think his parents expected us there by 2PM and it was already three.

I always feel a weight lifted off my shoulders when I leave town. My worries feel smaller when they are further away and the opportunities seem brighter under a new horizon.

We drove through a luscious evergreen forest. Tall and thick tree stumps blurred into one color as we drove fast through the smaller roads. We were off the main road now so I knew we must be getting close.

I rolled down the window to breathe in the fresh air. I listened to the breeze as it rustled through the leaves. Luke slowed the car as we entered into a clearing. The wheels crunched over fallen sticks and I felt excitement for the weekend ahead.

Luke smirked, "Welcome to the jake house."

"You think you're funny, don't you?"

**

Their cabin was a beautiful wooden building with a sloped, dark blue roof. It was two floors with a balcony on the second. A warm yellow glow emanated from inside the windows.

"It's lovely," I gazed up at the picturesque view.

The cabin was nestled in a beautiful backdrop of forest. A lake must be nearby, but I couldn't see it. I felt Luke's hand on my back as he escorted me to the front.

I turned to get my bag, when I realized that he was carrying both his and mine.

"Thank you," I kissed him on the cheek, "For everything this weekend."

"Minnie, it hasn't even begun."

I had no idea what he had up his sleeve.

Maybe he was teasing me, maybe he meant nothing by it and just maybe he knew by now that nothing for us goes smoothly. But I wouldn't have it any other way.

"There you two are," Mrs Dawson said, emerging from the cabin with her husband behind her, "We were starting to get worried."

OK.  This is it.  Welcome to the weekend.

A/N: I put a poll on my Instagram asking whether Bianca should crash Luke & Millie's weekend at the lake house... and you voted no.

So she didn't!  But she was very close to :)  You can find future polls on Instagram at @NatalieInACorner!  

Next chapter this Thursday?  Please vote on this chapter if you're up for that!