Thank you @kriti.kachaturvedi for the perfect chapter photo!

So... 

Where were we? 

Chapter 68: Reaction

I saw a tenderness in his gaze and in the way he held me. He cared for me. No, he loved me.

"I heard you," I said, a small smile appearing on my lips.

"And?" Luke asked, waiting for me to say the magic words back.

Why do you love me?

He told me he loved me and then watched as I went flying on a zipline through the air, spinning round and round like a propeller.

My head was still spinning, partly from the physical trauma but also from all the emotion stirring inside of me. I now know what it feels like to be a sock in a washing machine.

He shifted slightly but kept his grip around me firm. He was being patient, in a ditch.

I pinched myself. I guess I'm not dreaming. It's too weird of a dream to dream I think.

I then spent a quick moment in gratitude that I was not standing in the muddy slime with him. I looked down at the gap between me and that brown bubbling goo. It's bubbling.

Luke looked at me wriggling slightly in his arms. "Any reaction, Minnie?" he asked, encouraging me to speak, "What do you feel when I tell you that I love you?"

Third time now. That's the third time he's repeated those three words.

He of all people should know how I need time to process these events. A lot has happened in the last 38.5 seconds and my reactions in the past haven't been the best.

I took a breath and exhaled.

He wanted honesty, so I gave it to him. My raw reaction and the thoughts swirling in my mind:

"Holy jumping mother of a weasel in a side-car with chocolate spread and a hot cross bun. You love me."

...

...

...

Luke is not known for patience.

I know he's tried hard this year, but I caught the way his jaw tensed now. He reserved his reaction, which is more than I expected. But I could hear a hint of disappointment in his voice. I could even see it in the blue of his eyes.

"It's OK," he said with the faint echo of a sigh, "I didn't tell you to hear it back. You don't have to-"

"I love you," I said.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and buried my head in his shoulder, feeling his warm skin against my cheek. I felt the weight lift off my chest. I wanted to repeat it, again and again.

"I love you," I told him.

I do love him.

I've never done this before. It's all new to me and damn is it scary. Now that he knows where my heart is... I had to trust that he wouldn't break it.

Don't think like that, I told myself, ignoring the memory of my dad walking out the door or my mom blowing out the candles on my birthday cake with a wish that she never had me.

I hadn't expected anyone to love me.

Luke smiled at me in a way I had never seen before. His eyes lit up and that smile was so genuine, so unbridled with happiness. His emotions weren't hiding behind a smirk.

"I love you too," he whispered, kissing me.

He started to walk through the mud with me in his arms. He took us to shore and, with each careful step, I flinched wondering what was in the gross, dense liquid we were wading in.

"How we end up in places like this," Luke muttered, "I don't even know."

Our matching green outfits were spattered with mud and I felt my dirty hair stick to the back of my neck. A beautiful moment.

We started out as the most reluctant friendship I've ever been a part of and now we've blossomed into... Love. Love and a laptop.

Love and two broken laptops, to be accurate.

Luke had no idea that I'd already found the title for the Hallmark movie version of our romance. He reached the edge of the ditch and inhaled sharply as he stepped up, holding me above the dirt. Isn't he tired by now?

I'm exhausted.

I heard a squilch from his shoes, caked entirely in mud. He lowered me on the dry grass and we both looked down at his lower body, covered in a thick layer of brown. I smiled at him, wondering how he can look so perfect in the middle of such a mess.

"Will you kiss me like this?" he asked, knowing he was the dirtiest I've ever seen him.

I brushed mud from his cheek and held his handsome face in the palms of my dirty hands, "Always."

We kissed softly and sweetly, with the type of emotion that words couldn't convey. The touch of his lips lingered on mine after he pulled away.

He laughed unexpectedly and breathed out, "You took your damn time responding, Minnie."

"I needed time to process! I had just gone flying over a ditch!" I exclaimed, blushing in embarrassment while feeling a sense of relief that we were still us.

"My heart was racing," he told me.

My own heart skipped a beat. "You're laughing, but I am bruised!"

I pulled up the end of my shirt to show my red stomach. The rope he'd tied around me had caused friction burn when I went spinning off the platform.

Luke tried to keep a serious face as he lowered his fingers to my stomach and gently touched the burn. I don't know why it didn't hurt. Even his hands had healing properties. Show me a flaw, Luke Dawson.

"I wish I could've recorded that moment," Luke continued, still entertained. "The way you flew off that platform, spinning so fast I thought you'd fly off the wire. Then you hung there like a pinata."

Oh, there they are. All the flaws.

"I was thinking," I said, justifying my pinata behavior before adding, "But you should've seen your face. You looked so nervous."

"I was terrified," he answered.

**

~20 minutes earlier, in the forest~

Cearra's POV

I've never struggled so hard to make a move.

Austin was such a charming and energetic guy. He's also a paradox: friendly but hard to approach.

I think of it like sunlight. You want to bathe in the heat, but you know you can never approach the source. Austin was always surrounded by people and, at the same time, unattainable. I've been crushing on him since freshman year.

Along with almost half the school.

Austin looked up at the giant tree looming over us. He held the map in his hands that marked this location as the spot of our next activity. I tried not to stare at how the light filtered through the leaves and scattered across his face. Today had started off cloudy and now the sun was out.

"We need to climb up the tree and take whatever is in one of those buckets?" I clarified.

Buckets were hanging by their handles on various branches. The map said this was our task but didn't provide more guidance on what to do.

"Yeah," Austin nodded, crouching down and picking up a stone from the path we had just walked, "Or we can knock it over."

That would be easier.

I watched him draw his arm back and throw it with impressive aim. There was a loud clang as the rock made contact with the bucket. I watched the bucket rock back and forth before Austin's hand reached out for mine.

"Watch out," he said, pulling me back before the rock fell back to earth with a thud near our feet.

I tried not to overthink these small moments. We'd touched.

I know I idolized Luke and Austin since the day I stepped foot in high school. It's fun to have a crush. I didn't even know them, but I imagined that I did.

Now I know that Austin and I get on much easier than Luke and I do. Luke seems a little colder, a little harder to understand. But I guess Millie cracked his surface.

So, I struck up a conversation with Austin that would hopefully steer towards the subject of us. "It must be nice seeing your best friend really care for someone," I said.

What I really wanted to say was: Don't you want to feel the same?

"Yeah," Austin nodded, selecting a few heavier stones, "Millie's always been different."

That's an understatement. I was as shocked as everyone when I found out that Luke Dawson was dating Millie. But after seeing them together, it makes more sense. Luke's always been so stoic at school, but with her, he lets his guard down.

Millie's so random that it takes most people off guard. That's my girl.

Austin threw the rock with more force this time. The bucket tipped over and a yellow painted figurine fell out. We were expected to collect these figurines from each activity to prove that we did it.

"Yes!" I exclaimed, giving Austin a high five.

My mom would be so mad if she knew I was making any moves. I turned the figurine in my hands to control my nerves as I said:

"Hey, Austin? Are you seeing someone?"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

We heard the distant sound of a bird screeching.

Austin said, "That sounds like Millie."

**

~Chad's POV~

If anyone expected me to be paying any attention to these activities, they were delusional. What's the point of a team if you can't rely on them to do everything?

"How many bars do you have?" I asked, raising my phone in the air as I tried to get more cell service.

I was trying to watch a video, but it kept buffering. There must be somewhere in this forest where I can complain about customer service.

"We're busy, Chad," Bianca informed me, stuck in some kind of gymnastic position, "We want to finish so we can go home."

"Fine by me," I replied, "You're doing a great j-"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

I dropped my phone in shock.

"What in the world was that?!" Oma exclaimed.

"Sounded like a gargoyle," I muttered, checking my heartbeat. I'm OK.

"We have to see if they're ok," said a kindhearted Oma.

"That's exactly what I was thinking," I agreed, following in her footsteps.

**

~Millie's POV~

Luke was leaning on his elbow, using it to prop his head up as we said sweet nothings. We had completely given up on doing the activities. I was looking at him when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw several shadows in the trees.

Luke noticed that I'd lost focus and turned his head to look at the source. He groaned.

Usually I hated interruptions, but this time felt different. I looked at this group and saw my friends. It really felt like I had friends. And that meant the world to me.

Oma's wisdom and Austin's heart. Chad's overconfidence and Cearra's strength. And maybe, just maybe, I could find it in my heart to admire something about Bianca.

"Come on," Luke said, getting up and extending his hand to mine.

"What are you doing, Luke?" I said, turning back to see if they had noticed us, "I think they're looking for us."

Luke kept his hand over mine as he pulled me further into the forest and away from them.

"I'm tired of the interruptions," he said.

He can take me away any day.

Hey, that rhymed.

A/N: PLEASE VOTE IF YOU ENJOYED THIS CHAPTER! And the last one!  :) Thank you

I've been asked what my inspiration for the zipwire scene was and you can see it on my Instagram (@NatalieInACorner).  I went on a walk the day I wrote that scene

Next one is on Thursday ✦

See ya!