11. pretty face.

✖️

"We have to go. Now," I tell Chase, spinning the cart around as I clumsily scan the milk myself. Dylan raises an eyebrow, I throw it into one of the bags, and the cashier just sighs; obviously done with our shit for the day.

"What? Why?"

"That'll be seventy-three dollars," she says, poker-faced.

"Seventy- what?! Why does it cost so much?" impatiently, I pocket my phone, wanting nothing more than for this to be over.

"Healthy living is a life of sacrifice," Chase shrugs. Inside, I'm screaming at them both, tearing them apart with the few simple words of we don't have time, get the fucking cart and run.

"Seventy-three dollars, sir." she reinstates, and Dylan just sighs, swiping his credit card with a grumble of annoyance. I grab his arm and a corner of the cart, before hurriedly pushing it towards the exit.

"Soph, what's the rush?"

"You look like you've just seen a ghost,"

"I'll tell you both when we're back at the car," I promise.

"Did you steal something?"

"Did you accidentally hit someone with the shopping cart?"

"Did you get the wrong type of vegan milk?" Chase stops then, quite abruptly, as if the milk is the only thing he cares about. I try not to let my impatience show through too much. "Did you get soy?"

"I got almond, Chase, and no," I say, pinching the bridge of my nose. "Can we just go?"

"See, that only makes me want to stay a little longer."

"Chase!"

"Come on," Dylan rolls his eyes, taking the cart from me and pushing past the other man. He gives him a raised eyebrow. "Quit winding her up, will you? And get the keys,"

"Jeez. You two are so bossy," Chase tells us, but he does what he's told and takes the car keys out of his pocket.

After stuffing most of the groceries in the back, waiting for Dylan to double check the receipt, slamming the back door shut and sliding into the backseat, I'm thankful once we finally start to pull out of the parking lot.

It's not until we get to one of the stoplights that I can breathe normally again, and even then, I'm aware of their judging eyes staring at me from the rearview mirror. I pause, linking my fingers together.

"What?"

"You basically just pushed us out of there," Dylan notes. The car turns a corner as his voice holds an amused tone. "Any particular reason why?"

"I saw a spider." Wow.

"Your excuses never fail to amaze me," Chase notes, replacing Dylan's gaze at me in the mirror. "How did you ever get past your parents with shitty lies like that?"

"They never dug that deep," I tell him nonchalantly, a practical reveal that I'm lying. "And fine, so I didn't see a spider. I saw something much worse."

"Your future?"

"A kangaroo," I say, choosing to ignore his statement. Bullshit baffles brains, I think, and right now, that's a phrase I'm choosing to abide by. "And almost a giraffe."

"Do we wanna know the rest?" Dylan asks in a sigh. A sense of triumph sparks in my chest; the less they press on, the better. They'll probably turn the car around to get me to meet Luke if I told them the whole story.

I shake my head. "I don't think so."

"Then don't tell us. We're nearly home, anyway."

'Home' is regarded as my own, and it's a good few minutes until we actually reach the driveway. As soon as we get through the front door, I run upstairs, slamming my bedroom shut with a muffled bang.

Flopping down on my bed, I can't help but heave a heavy sigh, in slight disbelief of how I was barely able to dodge Luke. That was way too close.

I'd tell Ashley, but she'd probably disown me for chickening out. And I'd tell Chloe and Bailey, but they'd probably do the same. I don't think it's easy for them to understand how strongly I feel about the whole thing because even I don't understand it all.

In a perfect world, I would not be like this, I probably wouldn't even be close. A perfect world would include me purposely trying to run into Luke, arms wide open as well as my legs, because it's no secret at all what kind of a person I am.

But it's not a perfect world, and I'm scared, and my phone is ringing and I am way too lazy to answer it, but I reach over anyway because it's the only thing to do to get my mind off it.

"Hello?"

"Where were you today?" Goddamnit, I think, recognising the voice in a heartbeat. Luke.

"Home."

"No, really."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, where the hell were you today?" his voice sounds strict, on the edge of demanding as I try to think of better lies to say.

"I went out,"

"I know that. Where did you go?"

"You sound like my dad," I joke.

"Now's not the time, Sophie."

"Why do you sound so stressed?"

"Where were you?"

"I don't need to tell you that,"

"But you're going to. Aren't you?"

"If I say no, what are you going to do?" I challenge him. I notice how I do this a lot to Luke, more often than he probably wants me to; it's a wonder why he hasn't dropped me yet. I know for a fact that I'm stubborn to the point where it's just downright irritating.

"Sophie, I'm driving. And I'm a little angry, just a little, so it'd make me feel a whole lot better if you'd just cut the shit and answer my question,"

"Sorry, but my mom told me to never give any of my personal details out to people on the internet," I tell him, hanging my head off of the edge of the bed, a small smirk on my face as I feel my hair flow over it. Over the phone, I hear Luke groan.

"Sophie."

"Why do you want to know so bad?" I ask him, disregarding his exasperation. "It's not like I did anything wrong today, and even if I did there's no way you'd know."

"You're assuming I called you just to tell you off for something? You must have really screwed up,"

"Oh, god. Your voice is giving me chills," I tell Luke truthfully, not particularly enjoying his borderline sarcastic tone. "What's going on?"

"You tell me."

"Okay, I'll tell you. I'm upside down, on my bed, on the phone, to a guy who won't tell me why he called me. Again, what's going on?"

"Answer my question first."

"I don't need to. It's not compulsory-"

"You're so fucking stubborn,"

"Well done, you cracked the code," my heart is hammering in my chest as each snarky remark comes out after the other, knowing that I'll probably regret them later on. "Want a medal?"

"You avoid a lot of questions,"

"You ask a lot of questions." I fire back.

"Touché, but at least I'm honest and straightforward," Luke says. "You got something to hide, Hayes?"

"Eyes on the road, Hemmings."

"My eyes are perfectly fine," he dismisses my comment.

"Whatever you say. And no, actually, I've got nothing to hide." Lies.

"Yet you still won't tell me where you were today."

"Because you shouldn't be caring so much about what I'm doing. You're famous, go do some famous-people things," I state, wanting to leave it at that.

"I'm not that different to you. I do things you do because I'm human," I hear the sound of a blinker flickering on and off. "Humans grow curious. Is it a crime to want to know where you were for the day?"

"Yes, especially since I don't see why I should tell you," I say. "You could be an axe-murderer waiting to kill me, for all I know."

"We've been over this," Luke sighs. "I'm not a murderer."

"Just an axe-murderer."

"What? Sophie, no-"

"Can't blame a girl for being careful, right?"

"Fucking hell, you make my head ache," he grumbles. I can't help but smile a little. "Do you enjoy giving me pain?"

"Kind of. It makes my life a little less boring,"

To my relief, Luke chuckles. It eases my mind and makes me less tense immediately. "To be honest though, if I had a life like yours, I'd be putting people in pain left, right and centre too."

"Hey!" I frown, slightly offended. "I'll have you know, my life is boring, but only because it's uneventful."

"Are you sure about that?"

"I'm sure." I keep my expression stubborn as Luke unlocks his car door. I hear footsteps, the sound of him locking the vehicle, and a puff of breath.

"Really?" he presses on, after a short silence, and it makes me furrow my eyebrows in confusion. I kind of want to virtually shake him through the phone screen just to prevent him from saying any more.

"Re-"

"Then I'm guessing that's why I saw you run out of the supermarket with a carton of milk earlier," Luke states, quite nonchalantly, as I take a short pause. "Because your life is just so uneventful."

I sit up, very slowly, as I realise what the main focus of this conversation was initially supposed to be. My heart stops altogether as Luke carries on.

"Or was that some other little girl with a pretty face?" he asks, his voice low now. "Was that somebody else who I saw run out, with her head ducked down, just hoping she wouldn't see me?"

✖️