The eleventh time I saw him, he was adorable and awkward and apologetic.

Allie's P.O.V.

I was in an extremely bad mood, and I had no idea why. Maybe my period was coming up. Maybe I was stressed out. Maybe I was suffering from lack of sleep. These were all possibilities, but it most likely was due to the large group of idiots that were in my English class.

As a freshman in college, you had to take certain classes along with other classes that required your degree, and most students had to take English. I'm not sure how half of these people got into college due to the stupid questions they kept asking.

The most recent "paper" we had to do was write a short story, a simple two-paged paper to 'exercise our creative minds' and while we were working on it outside of class, this class was dedicated to questions students had about it.

I was typing mine on my laptop during class and it was about a girl who loved the dark. It was based on a work that I had found while scrolling through Tumblr, Nyctophilia, which means to find comfort in the dark or in night. I thought it was pretty cool and I was now writing a story about it. 

I was, however, finding difficulty in concentrating on it due to the amount of stupid questions that were being asked.

"How do I use dialogue correctly?" someone asked, raising their hand.

I literally slammed my hand down on my keyboard, causing a string of nonsense to go on for a couple of lines. I hastily back-spaced and continued typing.

The professor sighed. "To use dialogue correctly, you first put quotation marks, then what you want to say, and then when you finish the person who's speaking sentence, and it was a statement, you put a comma, then quotation marks. If it's a question or an exclamation, use a question mark or a exclamation mark."

He rubbed his face and sighed. It was clear that he was regretting giving us this assignment, due to the fact that no one seemed to be getting it.

A girl who was sitting next to me leaned over and whispered, "People are stupid, huh?"

I blinked and looked over at her, my concentration broken. "Um, yeah, they are."

"I'm Destiny," she said, holding out her hand for me to shake.

I shook it and took in her appearance. She had long blonde hair and eyes that looked blue in some lights and grey at other angles. "I'm Allie."

"So what are you writing about?" she asked, peering at my laptop screen.

"Um, a girl who likes the dark," I said lamely, trying to close my laptop screen.

"Cool!" she said. "I'm writing about a girl who meets a guy at a concert."

"That's cool," I said. "What concert?"

Destiny shrugged. "I dunno yet, I haven't gotten that far."

I nodded and turned back to my screen, trying to find where I'd left off. I heard someone ask, "You can't start a sentence with and, right?"

I slammed my laptop shut and said loudly, "Wow, how did some of these people even graduate?"

Next to me, Destiny snickered. Everyone turned to look at me and the professor was trying to look at me with disapproval, but a small smile was tracing his lips.

"Um, rude," a guy in the back said.

I turned to look at him. He was a jock, wearing a football jersey and a snapback on his head. "Um, no, it's sad that people who are in college, a very good college, I might add, still can't figure out sixth grade English."

"Alright," the professor intervened. "Class is over."

...

I was positioned in my corner in the little coffee shop I always went to when Luke walked in the door. 

God dammit, I thought, trying to subtly curve down in my seat and not draw attention to me.  This was the one time I was glad I was small. 

The last time I had seen Luke, he had yelled at me about how I didn't understand his family. While that may be true, he didn't need to scream at me. I was only trying to help.

Luke scanned the shop, his eyes passing over me and I let out a sigh of relief but I must have exhaled a little louder than I realized because he glanced back at me and his eyes widened. His hand immediately went to the back of his neck and he looked like a deer caught in the headlights.

I frowned. He was nervous of seeing me? I wasn't the one who had screamed at him. Luke went to the counter and bought something, fumbling over his wallet as he handed over the money.

I averted my eyes and stared at my laptop screen, trying to focus on the article I was reading. It was hard to do, while I could see Luke out of my peripheral vision. He was tapping nervously on the counter, waiting for his coffee. I found myself doing the same thing with my hands; my fingers fiddling anxiously with the button on my shirt.

Luke got his coffee; he accepted it with a thank you and made his way over to me, weaving between tables and he stubbed his toe on a stool. He stumbled and almost dropped his coffee but he recovered quickly, straightening up and smiling sheepishly at me.

"May I sit down?" Luke asked, coffee shaking slightly in his hands.

It warmed my heart slightly to see him so nervous, but I wasn't so sure why I was nervous. "Sure."

He slid into the booth across from me and smiled nervously. "Hi."

"Hi," I said, closing my laptop and sitting up straighter. 

"Um," Luke swallowed. "People are stupid," he began, clearly starting some long speech.

Huh, I thought. Two people have said that to me in one day, maybe it's a sign to stay inside all my life. 

"And, I just wanted to apologize for being such an asshole to you the other day, you were nice enough to take me to your apartment and make sure I didn't die, and I yelled at you. That was completely uncalled for, and I'm sorry. My family is a rough subject for me but I shouldn't take it out of you," he finished and smiled.

I wasn't expecting a heartfelt apology, and it surprised me. Luke was different, and it was just in his appearance and body language. He was wearing a simple hoodie and tan pants with converse and his hair wasn't styled, but hung down in his eyes. He was hunched over, his fingers clutched around his cup and he didn't look confident, like he was trying to call attention to himself like before; rather, he looked like he wanted to be ignored. He looked unsure of himself.

"Okay," I said. "Well, um, that's okay. Everyone has issues."

Luke frowned. "But I yelled at you."

I sifhed. "You aren't the first person to yell at me in my life."

Luke looked at his hands. "Well, I know I've been a dick lately, and I was dissapproving of your relationship with Chris, and I've been nothing but mean to you, but I'd like to be friends."

He looked so hopeful, like a little kid in kindergarden, his beautiful brown eyes filled with promise that I couldn't say no. "Okay."

"Really?" Luke was astonished.

I laughed. "What, did you think I'd say no?"

"To be honest, yes," he admitted. "You're not the most approachable person, and I made a bad first impression."

"Hey," I bumped his knee with mine and smiled. "It was a funny first impression. You face-planted."

Luke laughed. "I vaguely remember that."

"Then you asked me to fuck, straight up," I chuckled.

Luke shook his head and laughed. "God, I'm a dick."

"You tried to convince me you had a big one," I pointed out.

Luke half smiled. "And you seemed to think so for a while."

I snorted. "Yeah, for the three minutes you lasted."

Luke pretended to be offended. "It was a great three minutes."

"Sure," I said, drawing out the word.

"Where are you from?" Luke asked randomly. "Like, you sound American, but sometimes on certain words your accent is different."

"I'm originally from Australia," I said. "I moved here when I was eleven."

"Wow," Luke looked at me with awe. "What's Australia like?"

I shrugged. "I dunno, it's kinda like, a lot of my memories of Australia are mixed in with my memories of America, so I'm not sure which is which anymore."

"Huh," Luke looked quite interested and enthralled. "So, where in America did you move to? Ohio?"

I shook my head. "Nah. I moved to California, so if wasn't like,  big change from Australia, just the culture and people were different, plus, not everything was trying to kill me. Australia was kinda hardcore."

"Do you think you'll every go back?" Luke asked. "To Australia, I mean."

I shrugged. "I mean, I still have most of my family there, but I don't really talk to my parents much."

"Why not?" Luke asked curiously, then backtracked. "You don't have to tell me, if you don't want to.zz

"No, its okay," I said. "My parents.... they expected better from me."

Luke frowned deeply, worry lines coming around his dark eyes. "Better? You got into Ohio State, a division one college, to be a therapist for troubled kids, and they want better?"

His incredulous and slightly angry tone made me smile. "They don't get it. They think that kids aren't a stable career to get into, and they wanted m to be a lawyer, which to them is a stable career. They wanted me to get into Harvard."

Luke wrinkled his nose. "That's dumb. I didn't even go to college, and my parents still talk to me. Granted, they want me to go to college, but still."

Suddenly I was curious. "How old are you?"

"Nineteen," he said. "How old are you?"

"Twenty," I winced. "I'm old."

Luke winked. "I always liked the older ones."

I laughed and shook my head. "Shut up."

"I'm your friend now," he said. "You have to put up with me." 

I smiled sincerely. "Yes, friend."

____________________________________________________________________

Damn this was a long chapter and I hope you all enjoy! 

Tbh I've been spending the last week of my summer indoors bc its cold watching nigahiga on YouTube and Ridiculousness and Catfish: The TV Show in jeans which is nice to wear jeans again and freaking out over starting a new school.

What have you guys been doing? 

Hope you enjoy and please vote and comment! 

Love ya!

-T A Y L O R