Song of the chapter - Best Day of My Life by American Authors

Luke hadn't been kidding when he said he'd wait. He sat dutifully in my front room, talking with my dad for the few awkward minutes that it took me to change. I moved as fast as I could, stepping out of the sleeper and rushing around my room on the hunt for something to wear. I hadn't been spending as much time in my room as I used to, so the place was a mess.

Settling on black skinny jeans and a concert tee shirt, I attempted to tame my tangled hair. Having the hoodie up in the sleeper had caused it to become a matted mess. It didn't help that I had been sweating during the entire race, and for an hour before. To be honest, I was still sweating, mostly with nerves, but also with anticipation of the night to come.

Luke hadn't just pecked my lips while we stood by the car. He'd held my head between his hands, he'd run his fingers across my cheeks, down my neck. It had driven me crazy. And he kissed me as though he'd been dreaming of doing just that...for a long time. I found myself excited, nervous and confused all at the same time. But I was also hopeful, and that wasn't a feeling I was used to.

After I was able to make a somewhat cute messy bun out of my disheveled hair, realizing how nightmarish I had looked while Luke was caressing my face, and cringing because of that realization, I took the stairs two at a time to get back down to Luke. He was the picture of semi confidence, only squirming a little as my dad interrogated him.

The second I stepped into the room, Luke shot up from the couch, my only real indication that he was nervous. My dad smirked at Luke a little, almost making me laugh at the scene before me. Then Dad turned and winked at me. It was his secret sign of approval. A raised eyebrow would have been a warning, "this boy is trouble." It was nice to know Luke had passed the dad test. Even though it seemed way too soon for that test to have been given. Who gives a test on the first day of class, right?

"Well, thanks for the talk," Dad said as he shook Luke's hand. He gave me a pat on the shoulder as he walked past, then headed to the back of the house to relax for the night. His official dad duties were done

"Thank you, Mr. Bennings," Luke called after him. Dad just made a grunt noise. I wasn't sure what that meant. It's not like Luke called him Chuck. As soon as my dad was out of earshot, Luke turned to me and smiled, "You look good. Ready?"

"Sure. What do you have in mind?" I asked as he took my hand to walk me out the door, down the path and into his waiting car. My heart was as calm as it could be considering the circumstances. There I was, with a guy I had spent the better part of the year crushing on, and this was finally happening between us.

"That depends. Are you hungry?"

I was. Starving in fact. "Very." I was never going to be one of those girls who wouldn't eat in front of a guy. According to every romance movie ever made, guys don't care about that stuff. They prefer a girl who'd down a pizza in one sitting. Well, I'm their girl, if that was the case.

"Okay, then it's dinner at The Burger Joint, if you don't mind that, and then a drive...to a secret location." Luke opened his passenger side door for me, as he spoke.

His secrecy could have one of two meanings. Either he had an elaborate celebration planned and was being a cliché high school boy by not telling me and spoiling the surprise, or he had no idea where to go after the burger place. My money was on the second possibility.

"Sounds good." I answered as he got into the drivers side. "I love a good hamburger."

"That's what I like to hear," he said, keeping two hands on the wheel as he drove away from my house. I'm all for hand holding, but let's face it, teen drivers don't have the best track record with safety. I was fine having him keep those hands at ten and two.

We drove to the restaurant in comfortable silence. It was nice to know that even though he'd thoroughly kissed me in the school parking lot, there wasn't any type of tension between us. We were both pretty relaxed. Not even our 'meet the parents' moment back at my house had made things awkward. His car turned into the lot for the burger place, and the two of us hopped out and made a direct line for the food. I wasn't kidding when I said I was starving. If my stomach had growled any louder while in Luke's car, I would have insisted on the radio, something to cover up the sound. I may have been comfortable with Luke, but it was still a first date.

Or was it? Suddenly my mouth went dry. He had kissed me, a lot. But did he think of this as a date? I had never been good at broaching these types of concerns. I would rather just look for signs that things were or were not going in the right direction. Clues, hints, that's what I needed. Honestly, though, I just didn't have the time or the energy to keep playing those kinds of games. What I really needed was some guts. Woman up and just put everything out there, all of my questions. Ugh, not my favorite thing to do. At all.

We got our food and found a booth in the back corner of the restaurant, as private as it could get in a fast food environment. I sat on one side and Luke sat on the other. He looked up and smiled at me, that happy "I'm glad you're here with me" kind of smile. It gave me some courage to start asking all of my questions. But I was too hungry to talk. So instead of opening my mouth to speak, I opened my mouth to take an enormous bite of burger. The faster I ate, the faster we could talk.

"Whoa, Mal! You're going to choke if your not careful!" Luke laughed. I just shrugged, continuing to chew my food carefully. So I wouldn't choke. I smiled at him, mouth full of food so it was a challenge to keep my lips together, but I did. He just laughed again.

It only took a few minutes for me to polish off the burger. Like I said earlier, I'm not a nibble, nibble kind of girl, more like a nom nom kind of girl. Take it or leave it, I guess. I took a gulp of soda, washing everything down and readying myself for the big talk.

What did I want to ask him, again? My mind went blank. I blame the nerves. But the second I was finally physically ready to "put everything out there" I had forgotten what the heck I wanted to put out there in the first place. I sat there, looking at Luke with my mouth slightly open and my eyebrows scrunched up, concentrating on the situation. Luke noticed right away.

"Everything okay?" he asked. Because of course the look on my face caused him to worry. Now I needed to explain that I wanted to drag all of the answers out of him but I had forgotten the questions. Drat!

"Um...yeah, fine." I shrugged, closing my mouth and suddenly becoming extremely interested in the French fry wrapper.

"That doesn't sound fine, at all. What's up, Mal? Talk to me. I finally get you here alone, and now you're bothered by something."

His little speech jogged my memory, and I did have something to ask him. "'Finally?' Since when did you want to get me here alone?" And there it was: the question of the century.

Luke looked down at his own food then took a deep breath. Before answering me, he ran his fingers through his hair, classic teenage boy move. "You caught that part," he said after a heartbeat of silence.

"Yeah, I did." My answer was pointed, direct. I had crossed my arms on the table, leaning forward slightly to keep the pressure on his side.

"Okay, listen. The weekend that Lillian and I broke up, I realized that I was thinking about you. A lot. That's why we broke up. I kept talking about things you had said in class, suggestions you made. Even the answers you were giving Mrs. Thurber. Lillian got really mad and called me out. She accused me of having a crush on you. And she was right. I did.

"We both decided to break up. I should have felt worse about it than I did, but I couldn't wait for school so I could talk to you, ask you out. But you didn't come to class that day, TJ did. And all he did was talk about you. I kept telling myself that it wasn't a big deal, that you couldn't know the guy that well.

"The next day, when you showed up, it was all I could do to sit there next to you, having TJ on the other side. I know it makes me a bad person, but when you two finally walked in holding hands, all I could picture was my fist in his face. I decided to take a step back, but it was harder than I thought it would be."

My heart practically paused its own beat hearing his words. It was difficult to take in a breath. How did I miss his frustration? Why hadn't I noticed?

The truth is, I did notice, but I was either so focused on TJ, who wasn't afraid to show his interest, or I was too afraid that Luke's interest in me wasn't strong enough. So I ignored the whole thing, pretended it didn't exist. I couldn't do that anymore, and I didn't want to.

"I really like you, Mal. It's only grown the more I've gotten to know you. Can you give me a chance?" Luke appeared to be concerned that my answer might possibly be no. In what universe would I say no? I'd already kissed him like crazy, how could I say no after all of those tingles?

I unfolded my hands, reached across the table and took his hands in mine. He looked at our connected fingers, then let his hazel eyes focus on mine in quiet expectation. "Luke, after that sweet speech? How could I not give you a chance?" He seemed to visibly relax, dropping his shoulders and exhaling slowly. "Besides..." Luke's gaze shot back to mine with lightning speed. "I've had a crush on you since you started Jefferson last year. Took you long enough." I ended with a wink. Luke rewarded me with his crooked smile. My heart was back to racing and my palms were starting to sweat. Yay me, perfect timing for my nervous system to kick in with Luke's hands holding my sweaty ones.

"Are you kidding?"

"One hundred percent not kidding." I nodded my head for emphasis. Too bad about my sweaty palms, though. Meh, he'd just have to get used to it.

"Well, I'm glad I took the risk, Mal." He gave me his adorable wink. "Ready to go?"

I nodded yes, then we cleared our table and headed for the door. As we were just reaching for the handle, it swung open, revealing my hallway nightmare in the flesh.

"Yo, Sally!"

Dylan. He was with Mia, again. I did not want another confrontation with her. I felt myself scoot closer to Luke as his arm went around my waist. His body seemed to tense a little, too. Boys are so territorial!

"Who's Sally?" Luke asked, causing Dylan to frown. Mia just looked at her perfectly manicured nails, not bothering to acknowledge my existence.

Dylan pointed at me, "Well, she is. Duh."

Luke's grip tightened and he glared at Dylan. "No, man. This is Mallory."

Dylan looked at us like we were crazy. "Mallory? I thought your name was Sally?" Mia continued to look bored.

Luke's glare intensified, if that was even possible. "Nope, it isn't. Get her name right." Even I was ready to get my own name right, with the tone Luke was using.

Dylan's hands went up in surrender. "Whatever you say, bro. Mallory it is." It looked like he pushed Mia into the burger joint, trying to get away from us. Mia started to whine in protest but Dylan actually shushed her.

"That was the most fun I've had all year." I remarked to Luke as we got into his car.

"Yeah, me too." Another cute wink. He was just spoiling me now. "I hate that guy."

"Me, too. Nothing but trouble." I laughed, actually laughed, thinking of Dylan on Monday, trying to remember which name to use. He'd have Luke's glare on his mind for a while. Worked for me.

After a while of driving, Luke pulled onto a side street, which led up a hill. All of the rich people in town lived up that road. I looked at him, a silent question lingering between us. Luke kept driving, though.

He got to the top of the hill, and the end of the road. Literally. There was a barrier built up to keep cars out of the unpaved hillside. Luke pulled his car off to the side and put it in park. Then he shifted in his seat, giving me a long look.

"What do you think?" he asked quietly. It was up above the town, past the houses on that street, completely remote. There was no need to whisper because no one would hear us. But staying peaceful and quiet with the view in front of us seemed appropriate, as if it would all disappear if one of us was too loud.

"It's beautiful," I said, equally quietly. "But I hope you didn't bring me here to make out. I'm not that kind of girl." I managed to bat my eyelashes at him while I said that. Even though I was that kind of girl, I would totally kiss him on top of that hill with the entire town lit up down below, the view pressing on for miles. But I didn't want him to think I was overly eager.

"Of course not!" Luke put his hand over his heart in protest. Although he didn't sound too convincing. I knew he'd been planning a make out hill scenario the minute he turned on to that road. "But could you blame me if I did? You're very kissable, Mal. That parking lot encounter proved it."

"Come on, let's get a better look at this view." I opened the passenger side door and jumped out of the car, eager to allow space between Luke and I and that parking lot encounter. I felt the same way, and that could be dangerous. He followed me past the barrier, over closer to a better vantage point to view the city lights. We stood taking in the view for a while, too long to be able to time, Luke wrapping his arm around my shoulder, drawing me closer to him. It was perfect. I couldn't have dreamed up a better date with him. And I had tried!

"I'm glad we won, Mal. I was betting on you, on us." Luke practically whispered his confession.

"Betting? As in money?" I was confused.

"No. Betting as in putting all of my hopes in our chances. But not really to win. Just to be here, now, together." He pointed to the red heart he had inked onto his bicep. "I was willing to put my heart out there for you, Mallory. Even if it broke, I couldn't let the chance pass me by."

"So, 'Sweet Heart' wasn't a joke?" I asked, referring to the sleeper he had purchased for the blanket race.

"Not a joke. It was the most honest thing I've ever said. I'm really hoping you'll be my sweet heart for a long time." Luke and I looked into each other's eyes, another romantic cliché, but one that curled my toes right in my shoes.

"Pinch me." I demanded.

"What?" Luke laughed.

"Pinch me, because this can't be real. I must be daydreaming." I picked up his hand and placed it on my arm, insisting that he literally pinch me. Instead, however, Luke just smiled his crooked smile, leaned closer to my lips and kissed me.

Better than a pinch any day of the week. And I was convinced. I wasn't daydream dating anymore. I had finally found the best reality there was.

^^^^^

Bam! And "The End" yay!!! So I ended up rushing to finish this because I have the opportunity to submit it for a chance to get published! I'm not holding my breath, this isn't my strongest story. But the experience of preparing all of the aspects a writer needs in order to submit a manuscript is a great lesson. It's just giving me more information for the future.

I hope you liked it! I would love any feedback you could leave to help me improve this story. And of course I will leave you with the last song of the playlist, because this was the Best Day of Mallory's Life!

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