Somehow I ended up being next to Luke again while Calum and Ashton were ahead of us, chatting away about all the places they wanted to explore. Since the weather now was sunny they decided that after we explore around the city we'd go to the beach. Frist we'd return to the hotel, grab our beach stuff, and then head over there.

We were currently in a place where there were mutliple shops and Calum was pointing out a bunch of stores with useless knickknacks and then he'd drag Ashton inside with him, leaving me and Luke alone with each other.

When they were gone Luke would snuggle close to me. I'd just groan at how clingy he was, but I honestly didn't mind it at all; he's cute this way.

"Even when you're not insulting me you're still annoying," I told him when his arms snaked around me.

"I'm simply expressing my love, that's all," he said. "Do you know how long I've had to keep it in?"

"You had a strange way of showing it by being a douchebag to me."

"I'm horrible at expressing my feelings, I'm sorry. Punish me however you want to."

"I already punched you, and I've never punched anyone in my life. I'm pretty satisfied with that."

"Well, don't I feel special." I could hear the sarcasm in his voice and I laughed. I could feel his phone buzzing in his pocket and he pulled it out. I took the opportunity to look at the screan.

A message from Aleisha McDonald.

"What's that?" I asked, pretending I didn't know.

"A message from no one important," Luke grumbled, stuffing his phone back into his pocket. Well, at least he's ignoring her. Luke giving me all of his attention may be annoying, but I'd rather have that than have him talking to Aleisha.

She's okay, but not when when it comes to Luke. She acts like she owns him, which is something I'm not fine with now since now she's considered my rival. Well, not much of one, since Luke is apparently attracted to the Cliffoconda.

"Your hair is so fluffy," I heard Luke say.

"My hair was your least favorite part about me," I reminded. "You'd always tell me to shave my head, remember? It wasn't that long ago, Luke."

I saw him pout before he hid his face into my shoulder. "I hate me."

"I hate you, too," I deadpanned. Then his eyes looked into mine, hurt evident.

"What?" he asked, his voice cracking slightly. I began to panic as Luke just kept staring at me.

"No, no I don't!" Then his face showed anger.

"I should punish you just for that." He looked around before his hand darted for my wrist. He then dragged me away to wherever the hell he was taking me.

"Wait, Luke!" I began to protest. "Calum and Ashton will wonder where we are!"

"Forget them for now, will ya?" He brought me in between an alleyway and pulled me close to his body. "Right now it's just you and me."

"One minute you're a little kid and the next you're a seductive, dominant boyfriend. Pick one, Luke."

"I choose to be Mikey's penguin." My eyes flickered to his lips as he began to lean in.

"Not a choice, but okay." Our lips met and he brushed his hand through my hair.

"Is it weird that I want to eat your hair?" he asked when we pulled apart, earning a chuckle from me. "Fluffy like cotton candy."

"You can't eat my hair," I said. "I like my hair."

"Okay. Well, I guess I'll have to eat something else."

"Is that a sexual innuendo I'm detecting?"

"... Possibly."

"You need help."

"I need you." He turned us around so that now I was being pressed against the wall. He kissed the side of my mouth before he began kissing down.

"We're in public," I told him. "Remember what happened earlier this morning?"

"This time nothing will interrupt us," he said in between his kisses. I looked out to where most of the people are, fearing that someone was going to see us. "Don't worry, Mikey, no one's watching."

"I... I wouldn't be too sure about that," I mumbled when I saw two girls staring our way before they quickly walked off. God, this is so embarrassing, but it feels so good. "Damn it, Luke..."

He brought his lips back up to mine and I kissed back, wrapping my arms around his neck. Kissing him cleared my head and I didn't care who was watching. Well, I was feeling that way.

His tongue brushed my bottom lip, but I kept my lips closed. He tugged at my hair, causing me to groan. Then he slipped his tongue into my mouth.

I could feel buzzing come his pocket. At first I thought it was a text, but then when it kept going off, I knew someone was calling him.

I broke the kiss, both of us panting hard as we tried to catch our breaths.

"You should... you should probably answer that," I told him.

Luke grunted, but pulled out his phone. He looked at the caller ID, hit the green button, and brought the phone up to his ear. "Yeah, Cal?" I tried to stay quiet to see if I could hear what Calum was saying. "Oh, Mikey and I just went to check out a shop, because we were bored of waiting for you guys... We, uh, ran?"

I chuckled, because I knew what Calum was asking. Or at least, I had an idea.

"Yeah, okay. Meet you back there." Luke then hung up the phone and he turned to me.

"They're wondering where we are?" I asked him, and he nodded. I returned the nod and was about to walk out when Luke grabbed my wrist and pulled me back to him.

He gave me a kiss to the temple, mumbling, "I love you, Mikey." Then he pulled away and walked ahead of me, leaving me speechless for a moment before I recovered from the surprise and followed behind him.

Calum and Ashton were outside of the shop, empty handed. Calum must've decided that he didn't want anything.

"After we explore some more we're going to McDonald's," Ashton said, "and then we'll go to the beach." Luke and I nodded.

"Onward, my trusty men!" Calum shouted, marching like an idiot, earning a lot of stares from people. Calum stopped in his tracks, twisted himself around and ran right at Ashton. He jumped onto his back, causing Ashton to shriek just a bit. "Move at the speed of light!"

"Fatass Calum strikes again," Ashton sighs before carrying him away. Calum would occasionally smack Ashton's bum, telling him to move faster, and Ashton would threaten to drop him of he kept going.

Luke and I were laughing at the two, because this was too entertaining to watch. Then I felt fingers lace with mine and I looked down, seeing Luke's hand holding onto mine.

"Just wanted everyone to know you're mine," he said, his eyes briefly glancing at me before he returned to looking ahead.

At first my fingers didn't respond to the gesture, but I soon returned it.

------

While exploring Ashton got a pair of sunglasses and Calum got a beanie. They were currently checking out at another store, and Luke and I just stood in front of the shop, talking and laughing with each other, which I never thought would ever happen in my lifetime.

"Are you serious?" I laughed when he told me about how he and Calum met. It's a really funny story, actually. I can't tell it the way Luke did, so I guess you'll just have to hear the story from him.

"Yeah, and ever since then we became best friends," Luke smiled. I never would've thought that's how they met.

Even when Calum and Ashton came out of the shop we were still laughing. They looked at us with a puzzled expression.

"What's so funny?" Calum asked.

"Nothing," Luke smiled innocently. I pressed my face into his shoulder, trying to prevent another laugh from coming out.

"I want to know as well." Calum began to pout and another laugh escaped from me. Luke wrapped his arm around me, pulling me closer to him. "Fine, whatever. I'll figure it out sooner or later."

"Will you tell me?" Ashton asked, hope in his eyes.

"Yeah, I'll tell you later," Luke answered, earning a huff from Calum.

"What?! Why am I being excluded?!" he complained. "I'm your best friend! Either you tell me or I steal Mikey from you!"

Luke let out a loud gasp. "You wouldn't dare!" Calum reached for my wrist an Luke smacked his hand away. "We were talking about a vine!"

"Yeah, like I'm going to believe that bullpoop. Whatever, I don't care." Calum flipped his imaginary hair and began strutting off. Ashton went after him and Luke and I followed behind.

"Nobody steals Mikey from me," I heard Luke huff, and I couldn't help but laugh. He's just too adorable. I gave him a quick peck on the cheek, and he looked taken aback from it.

"You're cute," I told him, chuckling. Then he broke into this smile and hugged me tightly.

"I love you."

We got to Calum and Ashton and they were sitting on a fence that surrounded a little bush.

"So now that you two are together," Calum started, "do you not want to be around us anymore?"

"What are you talking about?" Luke questioned. "We'll still hang around you guys."

"Oh, good, because I want some Lukey love, too!" He shut his eyes tightly and stretched his arms out at Luke, only to receive a shove backwards and into the bush.

"Idiot," Luke laughed. Ashton had to help Calum out of the bush, because he couldn't seem to pull himself out, and I was just laughing at how stuck Calum looked. "Let's go to the beach already."

------

After we returned to the hotel to get our beach stuff we finally got there. While Ashton and Calum ran for the waters I stayed sitting on a beach towel, watching as they splashed water at each other. We had brought snacks as well, and I was eating some goldfish crackers.

Luke had left a few minutes ago. I don't know where he went, but I'm sure he's fine.

I saw Calum grab a handful of the wet sand and dump it right on Ashton's face. I gasped at first before I started laughing. Then Ashton shook off the sand, picked Calum up and threw him the farthest he could into the water.

"I'm blind!" I heard Calum shout when he emerged from the water. "I cannot see!"

Ashton began laughing at Calum's idiocy before he began to lead him towards me. When they approached me Calum waved his arms at me.

"Towel! Now before I become blind!" he exclaimed. I shook my head and handed him a box of oreos instead. "Okay, I may not be able to see, but I know this isn't a towel."

I threw it right at his face and he began wiping the salt water from his eyes.

"Ashton's a big fat meanie!" Calum shouted.

"You're a dork," Ashton laughed. The two took a seat down in front of me and Calum continued to rid his eyes of the seawater.

Suddenly Luke was back with a bunch of rocks and I raised an eyebrow. What in the world? He went off to get rocks?

This is the idiot that I like.

"What's with all the rocks?" Ashton asked when Luke got onto his knees and displayed the rocks in front of us.

"Which one looks nicer?" he asked.

"Why do you want a rock?" Calum asked.

Luke groaned, "Just pick." Calum thought for a moment before finally selecting one. It was small, a light shade of grey, and the surface looked really smooth.

Personally, I would've picked the same one as Calum did.

Wait, what am I talking about? They're rocks. They all look the same to me. I don't know why I even bothered to think of which one to choose.

Luke took the rock from Calum and handed it to me. I raised an eyebrow.

"You're giving me a rock, because...?" I began, because I honestly didn't know. It'll take me a long time to understand him.

"It's a pebble," Luke said, frowning. "I'm giving you this pebble, because when a male penguin falls in love he searches the beach to find the perfect pebble for that special penguin. It's like a proposal, in a way. I found way too many that I thought were perfect, so I needed a second opinion. So..." He closed my fingers over the ro- pebble. The pebble. "... this is my pebble to you."

My cheeks turned red and I felt butterflies forming in my stomach. My heart was racing also. That's probably one of the cutest things Luke has ever done and said. I couldn't help the big smile form on my face. I probably was smiling like an idiot right now, but I didn't care. This is a really sweet gesture from Luke.

"Do you like it?" he asked, seeming a little bit shy. This is probably the first time I've ever seen him act shy, even just for a brief moment.

"I love it," I said, not removing my eyes from the small pebble. My fingers grazed over it, and it was indeed smooth.

I could see Luke scoot closer to me so that he was sitting right beside me. He wrapped one arm around my waist and pressed a kiss to my cheek.

"I love you, Mikey," he spoke softly.

"What the hell, Lukey!" Calum screamed, his hands placed on both sides of his face while he vigorously shook his head. "That's so cute! I'mma die from this cuteness!" He threw his arms into the air. "Ashton, catch me!" He began leaning towards Ashton, but at the last second Ashton scooted out of the way before Calum plopped face first into the sand.

"Oh, no! Calum has fainted!" Ashton exclaimed, feigning surprise and panic. "I must carry him into the water again where his eyes will burn from the salt!"

"Wait, what?!" Ashton picked Calum up and began carrying him off. "No! Put me down! Mikey! Lukey! Help! I'm being abducted!"

Instead Luke and I just laughed as we watched Ashton laugh and drop Calum into the water.

"Do you love me yet?" Luke asked, turning to me. I looked up into his blue eyes that were shining with hope.

"Maybe," I answered, but honestly it wouldn't be too long before I actually do.

Or maybe... I already do, but I want to know for certain before I say anything.

------

AN: Do you guys remember the orange juice thing? I'm sorry about that. I love orange juice, just saying. There's nothing wrong with it. I just needed to tell you that.