g a y l e

One foot in front of the other, technically, stumbling over my own feet, I firmly griped onto the handrails of the narrow flight of stairs.

Finally reaching the bottom, my bare feet tapped on the tiles creating an echo around my empty apartment. Slouching as I reached the kitchen island, I fixed myself a bowl of cereal, not even caring to put in any milk.

I miss him.

His curly brown hair and his hazel eyes that shimmered under the sun light. His warm hands that wrapped around my tiny torso and his strong grip, almost saying something along the lines of "Don't leave me." or "Please stay."

I miss him, every single part of him.

It's been a week. A whole week. That's the longest he's ever been away. It'd usually only be 4 days max but he's gone a whole week now.

A hushed buzz broke into my thoughts as my attention darted to my phone. A call. I ran for the phone and didn't even bother checking who it was and answered, "Hello?"

"Mama *hiccup* Mrs. Irwin! Your son is such a great maaann...such strong arms and all...muscle and such a nice boyyyy...ummmm." A high pitched voice sung into the phone.

"Yah, hi. This is his girlfriend, by the way."
And with that, I dropped the call, already knowing what's going on on the other side of that. It's too early to handle this.

I should be used to this. I knew that this was going to happen. Heck, it happens everyday! But, neither the less, i still cry over him. It's so pathetic. He knows that I know what he does. He just lets it happen. He doesn't care about me.

But something always snaps inside me and that little voice that comes along everyday whispers the same thing, "He loves you, he's just confused. He loves you and he cares." The cycle of lying to myself everyday has become something that comes involuntarily and I'd just be engulfed into the darkness of painful acceptance.

I'm so fed up and I know I need an escape. But I don't know where else to go now but just let my feet carry me to the only place I could think of right now, the local bar.

l u k e

"Am I even holding this up right?" I ask myself for the millionth time today. It seems like I've been going in circles all day trying to find my way around the city proper.

I folded my city map and sat at the bench beside the hot dog stand and bought myself one, since I was getting a bit tired.

I just applied for a music school the other day and wanted to explore the whole New York City freely the last time before I had to start schooling tomorrow and so far, the map hasn't been helping me that much.

After devouring my snack, I hopped back up to my own feet and followed the map around the whole place until night came.

That Night...

Walking back to my temporary hotel room, I heard shuffling from behind me and a bit of giggling too. Knowing from all the horror movies I'd watched, I repeated to myself, "Never look behind you." So I kept walking, but the foot steps got faster so I speed walked.

When I was slightly out of breath and knew that I probably lost whatever was following me, dare I ever looked back, I heard the foot steps again but before I could act fast, someone stumbled on me, and it was a girl!

It's been such a long time since I'd crossed paths with a girl, since that day. So I immediately felt awkward.

Blushing, I helped her up, and, as a habit, I studied her features a bit. She wore glasses that were brown and gold. She was shorter than me by a mile. She had brown hair that went all the way to her lower ribs. Her eyes were chocolate brown. She was fit. And I also found out that she was, indeed, drunk.

"Do you need any help?" I asked, knowing for sure that I myself wouldn't have known how to help, but I still tried.

"Piggy back ride!" She giggled as she hopped onto my back and I...obliged, quite unsure of how to be comfortable about it. To be frank, I was uneasy about the thought that a girl is seated on my back right now and I'm taking her to my hotel room.

When I finally got to my destination, I plopped her down on the bed and she immediately went under the sheets and sheepishly smiled up at me.

"Thank youuuuu." She hummed as she got under the sheets. Since my hotel room only had one queen sized bed, I took one pillow and slept on the floor.

Trying to get comfy, he heard her voice from above, "You do know you can sleep next to me."

"It'd be wrong, your boyfriend could possibly kill me if he found out." I teased as I flipped to face the other side.

"Feels like I don't have one." She said before completely dozing off to rest.

But that kept him thinking, what was that suppose to mean?
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Hello guyssss!! How are you all? I'm absolutely loving the persona of Luke in the book because...IT'S SHY LUKE!!

Hope you're also liking the playlist, I actually intended to put it first so ya'll can create the playlist and just listen to it whilst reading this book. Make use of the playlist!! It helps keep the mood up in the book.