After serving two hours in "detention" (really watching Ocean's Eleven), Etch walked me home. The walk itself was pretty uneventful, although Etch did tell a story about how once he decked a guy for dissing his linebacking skills. (Apparently, Etch is the star linebacker of the school's football team. He claims to be "the heart and soul of the most feared defense in the state.")

Boys.

When I got home, I was greeted by the scent of Oreo cookies, so I ventured into the kitchen to find Luke going to town on my secret stash. As soon as I saw that half the packet was gone, my humanity went down the drain and I tackled Luke to the floor, screaming profanities at him. In retaliation, he managed to swipe his glass of milk from off the counter and drench me in it.

So now, I'm sitting in my room, having just finished showering, while Luke sits outside my bedroom door, apologizing.

"Nessa," he starts. "I know I should've asked. I didn't mean to make you mad. It's just that I saw the Oreos and got homesick, because my mom keeps a secret stash too, and I couldn't help myself."

Gosh, I'm still beyond annoyed that he ate my Oreos, but how can I stay mad at him when those were his reasons? He should've led with that before he poured milk over my head.

Reluctantly, I stand up from my bed and slowly make my way to the door. I inch it open to find Luke making puppy eyes at me. "Forgive me, Nessa?"

With a roll of my eyes, I completely open the door and pull him in for a hug. "Yeah, yeah, I forgive you."

Immediately, Luke responds to the hug and puts his arms around my torso, pulling me even closer to him. As he hugs me, I realize something: Boys don't usually hug me like this. Actually, no-one does. As a sort of experiment, I don't let go, letting him dictate the length of the hug. He doesn't let me out of his arms for about another thirty seconds. I know Cady told me before, but right now I'd bet my life savings that he likes me.

When he does pull back, he doesn't even totally let me go. He lets his hands graze up my arms as he eyes me. After a moment, he asks, "How about we go to the store and get you more Oreos, bae?"

A broad smile makes its way onto my face as I say, "Really?"

Luke mirrors my smile and keeps gently stroking my arm as he nods and affirms, "Really."

As soon as he says that, I turn and hop back into my room, looking around for my closest pair of Converse. The first pair I see is my blacked-out pair and I jump into them, then I return to where Luke waits outside my bedroom door.

When I'm back in front of him, he eyes me up and down and gives me a once-over. "Don't get me wrong, you look amazing, but you don't wanna change or anything, Nessa?"

I look down at my current getup. I'm wearing red Adidas track sweats, an athletic long-sleeve white shirt, and white special-edition Coca-Cola Converse. Looking back at Luke, I answer, "I'm good."

A wide smile lights up Luke's face as he mutters, "That's my girl." I don't say anything in response as Luke throws his arm around me and leads me off towards the staircase. He lets me go down the stairs first, and as soon as we hit the floor, he rushes ahead of me and grabs my car keys out of their designated drawer.

Turning to me with my keys in his hand and raised eyebrows, I automatically know what he wants. Sternly, I tell him, "No, Luke, I am not going to let you drive my car."

He immediately makes puppy dog eyes at me. "Come on, bae, why not?"

I walk over to him and snatch my keys from him. "I'll show you why," I deadpan as I wave for him to follow me.

When we get into the garage, I make sure he's still by my side as I open my driver's side door and point to the clutch pedal. "Unless you know how to drive stick shift, that's why."

Luke's face falls just the slightest bit before he nods and heads over to the passenger's side of the car. As I get in and put my key in the ignition, Luke inquires, "How'd you learn how to drive manual if your parents are never here?"

As I ease out of the garage, I answer, "I have a cousin who's older than me, and I used my parents' money to fly him out to where we used to live. He was 22 when I was old enough to get my permit so I made him stay up here with me until I got my license. At the time my dad had a BMW 3-series that was a stick shift, but he was never home to use it, so I learned to drive in it."

By now I'm already on the road, and out of the corner of my eye I can see Luke paying close attention to how I'm moving my left foot on the clutch, and I can also tell he's glancing at my tachometer whenever I switch gears. "I take it you wanna learn to drive manual, bro?"

Luke nods eagerly. "Yeah, I do. Matt used to be able to drive stick, and he promised he'd teach me, but he died before he got to."

Feeling a pang of pity for him, I sigh and turn off of the main road I've been on. I find a good-sized, secluded residential neighborhood and pull over. After engaging the handbrake and turning off the car, I toss Luke the keys and tell him, "Take my spot."

I'm already out of the car, but Luke's still in the passenger seat with a dumbfounded look on his face. I poke my head back into the interior of the car. "Luke?" I prod. "I'ma give you a lesson."

That seems to snap him out of it, and he rips off his seat belt and bolts over to the driver's side of the car. I replace him in the passenger seat as he goes to insert the key into the ignition. "W-w-wait, you didn't adjust your mirrors. Nor did you put on your seat belt. And you don't have your feet on the clutch and the brake."

Luke seems to remember the fundamentals of getting into the car and proceeds to adjust his seat and mirrors. He puts his seat belt on and puts the clutch in. "Foot on brake too," I instruct him. He obeys and puts his right foot on the brake.

"Okay," I start. "Now you can turn the car on."

Luke does as he's told and as the car ignites, his body becomes rigid and stiff. In an attempt to soothe him, I gently start to rub his arm. Luke glances at me and then glances down to my hand on his arm, and then seems to calm down a bit. Not taking my eyes off of him, I ask, "You okay, Luke?"

He nods, slowly at first, but then with more conviction. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm good."

Feeling like he's better now, I continue. "Okay, so, what do you think you do now?"

Looking unsure, Luke mutters, "I think you take your foot off the brake and press the gas."

I know for sure that there's two reasons the car won't go anywhere if he does that, so I say, "Okay, go ahead and try it."

So he does, with the clutch still all the way in. He presses the gas gently at first, but when the car stays put, he floors it and the engine roars loudly in protest. In response he takes his foot back off the gas and looks at me with a confuzzled expression.

Laughing gently, I tell him, "Two things. One-you never disengaged the handbrake." I point to the handbrake for emphasis. "Two-you have to let your foot off the clutch for the car to go anywhere."

Luke looks a bit embarrassed, and I reach up and ruffle his hair to put him at ease again. He swats my hand away and gives me a fake-annoyed look, but then a small smile breaks through and I know he's ready to continue.

I clear my throat, then I state, "We're gonna do this slowly, okay?" With an eager nod from Luke, I keep talking. "When you go to pull away, always make sure you've disengaged your handbrake." He goes to let down the handbrake, but I stop him. "W-w-wait. We're gonna keep it on for now. You can let your right foot off the brake as long as your handbrake is on, okay?"

Luke gives me the same confused look as before. "Why do I have to keep the handbrake on?"

Giving him a little smile of encouragement, I reply, "Before you actually drive anywhere, I want you to get a feel for the clutch."

Luke's confuses look only intensifies. "Get a feel? It can't be that hard, Nessa."

With a pointed look, I deadpan, "Oh, but it is, for first-timers."

After heaving in a deep sigh, Luke mumbles, "Okay. What do you want me to do?"

Moving my seat back so I can get a decent view of Luke's left foot, I answer, "I want you to lift your foot up, but do it very, very slowly. About an inch off of the floor, you'll feel the pedal start to resist. Tell me when you feel it."

Complying, Luke starts to slowly ease his foot up. True to what I said, when Luke's foot is about an inch off the floor, he alerts me that the pedal is pulling. "Okay," I start. "Keep it there for a second."

He does as he's told, but turns to me with a blank look and asks, "Why?"

I shrug. "It's practice for driving in first gear."

"What's so special about first gear? Aren't they all the same?"

God, aren't most guys into cars? How does he not know this stuff?

After a heavy sigh of my own, I retort, "First gear is the hardest. If you can master first, the other gears are a breeze. It took me two months to transition from first to second consistently, without stalling the car."

Luke just hums as he keeps his foot at the clutch's sweet spot.

After about another fifteen seconds of making him keep his foot in the same spot, I say, "Okay, now come off the clutch, but do it slowly. Count in your head how long it takes to come out."

Slowly, he takes his foot off, and after he does, he turns to me. "Three seconds."

With a shake of my head, I tell him, "That's too fast. Try five seconds."

After he does so, I make him repeat the process a few times before I speak again. "So now, I want you to disengage the handbrake and put your foot back on the brake." After he does so, I continue. "Do the same thing you've been doing, except give it a little bit of gas while you do it."

He tries to obey my commands, but he comes out of the clutch too soon and the car jerks, and then it stalls. "You let the clutch out too soon, Luke. Remember, you gotta keep it at the point of resistance for a second, then let your foot off slowly. Try counting to five in your head."

So Luke repeats the process again, but he gives it too little gas this time, and once again, he stalls the car.

Before I say anything, he holds up a finger. "Don't say anything, Nessa, just let me try again."

He repeats the process again, and this time, the car doesn't stall, although it does jerk a bit because he comes out too fast. He drives forward to a stop sign, and then proceeds to brake. As he brakes, the car jerks once again, and I already know he didn't put the clutch in when he started braking.

After a deep breath on my part, I reach down and pull the handbrake up. "Okay. There's your lesson for today, Luke."

He automatically whips his head back towards me and begins to protest. "But Nessa! I promise I can do better, just let me keep going for a little while, I-"

I cut him off. "Luke, you've already driven farther than I did the first time I got a lesson. Be grateful, bro."

This seems to humble him, and he nods before looking down at his feet, which are still on the clutch and the brake. "How, uh, do I turn it off?"

"Well," I begin. "First, you engage your handbrake. I've already done that for you, obviously, but that's step one.

"Second, you put the car in first. Anytime you turn your car off, put it in first. It's a sort of fail-safe just in case the handbrake fails." I glance down at the gear shift to make sure it's still in the first gear position, then I resume speaking. "You never came out of first, so you don't have to worry about that now."

Luke nods and motions for me to continue. "Third, you turn the key towards you, which turns the car off." Luke complies, but when he tries to take it out of the slot, it won't budge, and I know why, so I giggle before clarifying, "You have to press the button that's on the key and turn it a bit more towards you. Then it'll come out."

He follows my instructions, and then looks back at me. "And now?"

With a simple shrug, I say, "And now, you can take your foot off the clutch and the brake."

Luke, once again, obeys, and then hands me back my keys. "Here you go, m'lady." I take the keys from him and he continues. "Thanks for giving me a lesson. I really appreciate it. Especially since this car is probably your baby."

I laugh. "You're right, it is my baby. And it's honestly no problem, Luke. I don't mind teaching you, bro. But if you scuff it I'm making you pay for it."

He beams and laughs at me before replying, "I love that you don't mind, bae." With that, he proceeds to exit the car, leaving me to wonder if that's all that he meant with that statement.

-

"Luke! My secret stash isn't big enough to give me diabetes!"

He laughs heartily as I put five of seven bags of Oreos back on the store's shelf. "I only need two. And I go through them slowly. I don't need seven, it'll tempt me too much."

With a smug smirk and an eyebrow cocked up, he asks, "Just like I tempt you?"

He proceeds to flex his arms and give me a cheeky wink, and I scoff and grab the tiny kiddie cart to keep walking. "In your dreams, bro," I reply over my shoulder.

Luke catches up to me and drapes an arm around me as he sings, "I dreamt about you nearly every night this week! How many secrets can you keep?"

"Luke," I interject sternly as I try to pry his arm off of me. He's got an amazing singing voice, but right now he's using it to annoy me, so, what else should he expect?

He ignores me and keeps his arm around me as he continues. "Cause there's this tune I found that makes me think of you somehow, and I play it on repeat, until I fall asleep. Spilling drinks on my settee...."

Luke lets me go and looks down at me with a hopeful face, and I already know what he wants.

After what feels like the millionth heavy sigh of the day, I continue the lyric. "Do I wanna know, if this feeling flows both ways?"

With an adorable large smile, Luke sings the next lyric. "Sad to see you go... was sorta hoping that you'd stay."

As we turn a corner to go into a different aisle, I keep singing the next line. "Baby we both know, that the nights were mainly made for saying things that you can't say tomorrow-day."

Luke and I make eye contact, and then in unison, we both loudly belt out, "Crawling back to you!"

As soon as we finish the line, we both double over laughing, because we happen to be in a crowded shopping aisle and we've just received bewildered looks from everyone here.

"Okay, okay. Luke, c'mon, let's go pay." I tell him as I straighten up. For good measure, I send the stink eye to the people who're still looking at us, and they all proceed to carry on about their business.

Luke's gotten back on his feet too, and he puts his arm back around me as we weave through the people in the aisle. As we continue to make our way through the aisles, Do I Wanna Know? starts playing on the store's speakers, and Luke and I just burst into laughter all over again.

We both finish laughing at about halfway through the first verse, and then we both start humming along to ourselves as we get into the line to pay.

When we get to the front of the line, we're greeted by a woman in her mid-fifties with a bored expression on her face. She scans our packets of Oreos with efficiency, and then proceeds to say in a monotone, "That'll be $14.18."

I take out my wallet and pay for the Oreos while Luke stands silently behind me, waiting for me to finish. When I do, he grabs the kiddie cart from me and walks it to the car with me. When we arrive at it, I hand Luke the two Oreo packets and go to put the small cart in a nearby queue with the larger ones. When I come back, Luke's already waiting in the passenger seat with the Oreos sitting on his lap.

I get into the car and send Luke a goofy smile, to which he laughs. Then I start the car and pull out of the parking lot.

While I pull up to a stoplight outside of the store's parking lot, Luke suggests, "Why don't we just drive around for a bit?"

After a quick glance at my fuel gauge to make sure it's relatively full, I reply, "Sure. Where d'you wanna drive to?"

The lights turns green again and I drive onto the road, glancing at Luke to see him with a pensive expression on his face. I let him think about it until he finally says, "Do you know any like, really secluded roads that'll make us feel like we're on a road trip, when in reality, we're not?"

I glance at Luke and give him a nod, then I proceed to make a U-turn at a light and go towards the more uninhabited side of town.

Fifteen minutes later, we're on a winding, narrow, back road surrounded by nothing but trees on the other side of town. From beside me, Luke murmurs, "This reminds me of one time that Matt and I stole his sister's car when she was home from college and drove to Vermont with a couple of his cousins."

This gets my attention. "You're not gonna elaborate? It sounds like quite the story."

Luke chuckles softly. "Okay. Uh, I don't know where to start."

I glance over to send him a reassuring smile. "Start wherever you see fit."

With a nod, Luke starts the story. "This was two years ago. Matt and I were in ninth grade, and neither of us had a license, but all we wanted that summer was to take one of those classic teenage road trips."

I keep driving, approaching the county next to ours, which happens to be the exact opposite of the county we live in. In short, it's the sticks.

Luke keeps relating his story. "We asked his older sister, Kayla, if she'd take us, but she refused. Matt pestered her for a whole month, but every time he asked, her refusals would get stronger.

"So one day, in about the middle of August, Matt called me up and said that his cousins Anthony and Jake were visiting, and that they'd helped them swindle Kayla out of her car somehow. He said that it was our big chance to take a road trip. So I packed up a bag for the weekend and they picked me up.

"Jake was the oldest of us. He was a senior, so we let him drive. Anthony was in tenth grade, and he was the definition of crazy. He did stuff so insane that I'm glad cops weren't around, because he would've gotten arrested for sure."

With my curiosity spiked, I ask a question. "What kind of stuff?"

Luke chortles and shakes his head. "Trust me, bae, you really, really don't wanna know."

I trust his judgment in not telling me and motion for him to continue. He does. "We got all the way to Caribou, Maine, before Matt's parents nicked us for stealing Kayla's car.

"Between traffic on the road and Anthony's wacky antics, it'd taken thirteen hours to get there. We'd already paid for a place to spend the night in Caribou. So the day afterwards, we slept in and got on the road to go back home at like one in the afternoon.

"It took another thirteen hours to go back home, and we got there at like 2:15 in the morning. They dropped me off before they went back to Matt's house to face his parents. I'd told my parents that Matt's had been okay with it, so I didn't get in trouble. But gosh, all three of the guys got in trouble so bad that they had every single thing suspended from them for the rest of that whole month. Like, the only thing they were allowed to do was talk to each other."

I let out a laugh as we finally cross into the next county. "Wow. I bet y'all had an amazing time."

Luke smiles and nods, a sentimental and faraway look on his face. "Yeah," he agrees. "We really did."

After driving for another few minutes, Luke fills the silence that'd taken over the car. "So what about you? You ever been on a fun, long road trip?"

I feel myself tense up as I give a stiff shrug. "I would necessarily word it that way. When my parents moved us... well, more like when they moved me up here, we drove instead of taking, like, a plane. They were only off for a week, so the move was really stressful and hard on us. Me, probably more than them. Either way, it made them irritable and they snapped at me a lot."

Luke stays silent for a bit, and I'm thinking I should've stayed quiet or answered vaguely instead of making things awkward. But then Luke mumbles, "That must've sucked."

I nod, intentionally keeping my eyes focused on the road instead of glancing back at him. "It did."

He keeps trying to break the air of uncomfortableness that's settled over us. "So if your parents were only off for a week, how'd your house get to look so nice? That couldn't possibly have been done in less than a week."

My eyes stay off of him as I answer, "They hired some people."

"Ahh." That's all he says before the deafening silence reigns again. It stays that way until I turn the car around and start heading home.

•

A little over a half hour later, I'm locked in the spare guest bedroom, silently listening to a playlist of depressing songs. Very appropriately for my mood, it's started to pour cats and dogs outside. I watch droplets of rain slide down the windows, and I can't help but compare it to the many times I've cried myself to sleep because of my horrible family life.

It's nighttime now. The clock in this room reads 9:56 P.M. The sun had set right as Luke and I got home from our evening drive.

We forgot about his promise to go eat with his family, so instead, he's up in his room doing a video call with them. I know Luke says his dad isn't the most loving guy, but at least he's got enough heart to talk to him.

My parents screamed profanities at me the last time I tried to video call them. That was five years ago.

I know if I keep listening to sad songs my level of depression will spiral out of control and I'll have a breakdown. So in an effort to keep that from happening, I rip out my earbuds and turn the television on.

The only thing that's on that catches my attention is Star Trek Beyond. I'm more into Star Wars than Star Trek, but it'll do.

I'm at the scene where the Enterprise is going through the nebula when I hear a knock at the door of the guest bedroom. A second later, Luke pokes his head in. "Hey."

I have a hunch that somehow he'll make it better, so I wave him in. "Hey."

He enters and shuts the door behind him. After he makes his way to my side of the room, he hoists himself onto the bed and plops down beside me. "Look," he begins. "I didn't mean to make you feel bad before. I hate seeing you this upset, and I was wondering if there was anything I could do to help?"

With a slight shrug, I answer, "It's not your fault about my parents, and I don't mind it when you ask questions. At some point you're bound to know the answers anyways. If you want, you can just stay here with me while I watch Star Trek.

Luke gives me a heartwarming smile and puts his arm around me, tugging me towards him. I scoot closer and he wraps his other arm around me, holding me. It's comforting, and I realize he's the first person to do manage to make me feel like that in a long time.

Even though I don't like him that way, his friendship means more than the world to me. It's been barely a bit more than a week and he's already wormed his way into my life, taking up a big chunk of it. I really, really hope he never stops being my friend.

While we watch the movie, Luke keeps commentating. At the scene where Scotty meets Jaylah, he says, "I could take all of those guys easily." His cockiness gets to me, and I slap his arm, earning me a chuckle from him.

When Bones is removing the shrapnel from Spock's torso, he comments, "Goddamn! That must've hurt like hell!"

I respond, "Yeah, no crap Sherlock."

Luke rolls his eyes at my sarcasm and turn his attention back to the movie. When we get to the scene where Krall uses his super-weapon for the first time, I glance up at Luke to see his reaction. He looks beyond creeped out, and I smile to myself as I keep watching the movie.

Finally, we get to my favorite scene in the movie, where they're outside of Yorktown and they blast some Beastie Boys to destroy all of Krall's ships. As the song starts, Luke looks a bit surprised. "They still listen to Beastie Boys that far into the future?"

I chuckle. "May I remind you that the U.S.S. Franklin, as well as the music that was onboard it when it vanished, was much older than that of the Enterprise, and that even if it hadn't been, Sabotage still would've been the perfect song for this scene."

Luke scoffs. "But like, if I lived in a world that futuristic, I'd think the memory of Beastie Boys would be long-gone."

With a passive shrug, I tell him, "Apparently not."

After the movie finishes, Luke flips through the channels a bit more until he finds something that I wouldn't have expected him to want to watch.

He puts on I Want My 80's.

The song that's playing when we turn it on is I Ran (So Far Away). The first verse is just starting, and I have an urge to jump up and sing along.

So I do.

After wrenching myself out of Luke's grip, I jump up so I'm standing on the bed and begin to belt out the words. "I walk along the avenue. I never thought I'd meet a girl like you! Meet a girl like you!"

I glance down at Luke to find him staring at me in wonder. I let out a quick giggle then I keep singing along. "With auburn hair and tawny eyes, the kind of eyes that hypnotize me through! You hypnotize me through!"

Without giving him any warning, I grab Luke's hand and haul him up so he's standing on the bed beside me. I don't have anything to use as a fake microphone, so I improvise and use his hand as one as I start on the next part of the song. "And I ran! I ran so far away! I just ran! I ran all night and day! I couldn't get away...!"

Luke gives me a sarcastic smile and I giggle and stick my tongue out at him. I then proceed to let go of his hand and dance goofily to the song.

However, Luke has his own ideas at the start of the second verse and grabs his phone from out of his back pocket. He holds it up to his lips like his own microphone and cuts me off before I can start singing. He's obviously using his fake singing voice and not trying to sound nice. "A cloud appears above your head. A beam of light comes shining down on you! Shining down on you!"

I eye him, feeling rather impressed. I didn't know he listened the eighties music.... Huh. This boy, other than Etch, is the greatest mystery I've ever come across.

Luke drowns out any further thoughts with his voice as he sings even more. "The cloud is moving nearer still. Aurora Borealis comes in view! Aurora comes in view!"

I join our voices as we go into the chorus together. "And I ran! I ran so far away! I just ran! I ran all night and day! I couldn't get away...!"

Luke and I burst out in laughter, and he inadvertently steps on the controller, causing it to change channels. "Luke!" I complain.

In response, he lets his legs go slack beneath him and he flops back down onto the bed. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to," he tells me while chuckling.

I groan playfully and flop down beside him. "I'll get you for that later." As I turn on my side to face him, I catch a glimpse of the clock behind him. It reads 12:04 A.M. Without realizing, I let out a gasp.

Luke sits up and reaches for my arm. "Nessa, are you okay?"

I nod quickly. "Yeah, yeah. It's just that it's midnight and we have to get up early for school."

He looks behind him at the clock to confirm my words and sighs. "Good point."

Walking backwards slowly to the door of the room, I give Luke a sincere smile. "Hey, bro, thanks for coming in and cheering me up. You really helped make me feel better. No one's done that in years."

Luke returns my smile. "No problem, bae." He hops off the bed and makes his way over to me. I give him a hug, which he returns without hesitation. A few seconds later, he pulls away and kisses my forehead lightly. "Goodnight, Nessa."

With that, he ambles past me and back up to his room. I follow suit and make my way to the other end of the house, and into my room.

Once I'm in bed, I think about Luke, and how great of a friend he is. I think about Cady, and how I've never met someone as... unique... as her. I think about Etch, and how wonderful it is that he was generous enough to lend me his room.

My last thought before I fall asleep is, Gosh, what did I do to deserve such great friends?

A/N

Hiii!

As always, feedback and constructive criticism is very welcome!! I'd love it if you shared or voted or commented if you liked it. It honestly makes my day whenever even so much as one person does.

So as you'll recall from my previous author's note, I was reading The Kill Order. Well I finished it and I'm telling you man, the PFC and the PCC are the worst. Also. At the end, I cried. I don't wanna spoil it but for those of you who've read it, y'all know what I mean. Now I'm on The Fever Code and I honestly feel so bad about what happened to Newt's parents. I cried at that too.

Anyways. Enough about that. Lol. I wanna know something. How many of y'all can drive stick-shift? Do you prefer that to automatic? Let me know in the comments :)

~Alex