"Are you good at keeping promises?" Luke slammed his lunch tray down on the table in front of me, his usual lunch sitting on it.

"I guess?" I questioned.

"Okay, you're coming over tomorrow." Luke nodded. He smiled, popping open his can of Coke and taking a big sip.

"What?" I asked, not having any idea what he was talking about.

"Don't ask questions." Luke held up his hand to stop me.

"I'm so confused." I let out a laugh. I wasn't fully used to Luke doing spontaneous things like this, I was used to being told exactly what was going on.

"It won't be as fun if I tell you right away." Luke rolled his eyes. He leaned back on his chair, putting his arms behind his head.

"What if I decide not to like whatever you're planning?" I questioned, raising an eyebrow at Luke.

Luke bit his lip and looked down, then back up at me. I couldn't stand when he did that, the lip biting combined with the little glance he gave me with his eyebrows raised and his eyes wide. I hated the way Luke somehow always looked attractive, even when he clearly didn't put any effort into doing so.

"You'll enjoy it, I know you." Luke said, barely shaking his head. He pushed his sleeves up slightly, revealing the now fading bruises that I noticed for the first time last week.

"Are you ever going to tell me what those are from?" I asked, pointing to his wrist.

"I did tell you." Luke's head shot up, a worried look spread across his face.

"No, I want you to tell me the truth." I said. I wanted to believe Luke more than anything, but I know that he was hiding something from me. I know that it wasn't Ashton who did that to Luke.

"I told you to truth. Jesus, Stel. I thought we already talked about this." Luke let out a shaky sigh, followed by him grabbing his wrist and examining the bruises himself.

"I don't believe you." I said. I leaned over the table, reaching out for Luke. He pulled his arm away from me, scooting the chair back a little.

Luke shook his head. "Can you trust me, please?" He whispered.

"I want to, but you're making it kind of hard. These things don't match up. Those bruises didn't come from Ashton." I sat back down, giving up.

"Please, Stel. I'm fine." Luke muttered. He pulled his chair towards the table again, seeming to have calmed down from a few seconds ago.

"No you aren't." I said I remembered what Luke told me a little while ago, he was never really fine.

"Yes I am, Stel! You're not my babysitter, I don't need you taking care of me!" Luke stood up, kicking the chair behind him. He stared down at me for a long time while I sat there, looking back up at him. Finally, Luke groaned one more time and walked away, leaving me sitting by myself.

I sat back in my chair, having an internal battle with myself on whether or not I should go follow Luke or stay here. But before I had a chance to get up and chase down Luke, I felt someone sit down next to me.

"Hey, sorry I'm late I had to meet with one of my teachers." Ashton panted, like he had run down the hall to get here. He put his arm around the back of my chair, slowly bringing it down until it was wrapped around my waist.

"It's fine." I said quietly.

"What's going on? Where is everybody?" Ashton looked around.

"I have no idea where Michael is and Luke just left a couple of minutes ago." I recalled, letting out a sigh. This feeling always came after I got in an argument with Luke, emptiness.

"Huh. Why'd he leave?" Ashton asked.

"We got in a little argument about something. He'll be alright." I explained the best I could without going into any detail.

"Huh." Ashton said again.

"Did you give him those bruises when the two of you fought? The ones on his wrist?" I asked. I figured that I may as well ask Ashton if he did those bruises himself rather than pushing Luke to answer me.

"I didn't touch his wrists." Ashton shook his head.

I had confronted Ashton about getting in the fight with Luke about a week ago, and after both of them explaining what happened we came to the conclusion that they were both a little upset with each other and lost their tempers, exactly what Luke had told me. I decided that it wasn't really something I should be worried about, they were just being boys. And they both promised they wouldn't let it happen again.

"He has one on his back too-"

Ashton interrupted me. "When did you see his back?"

"It's a long story." I looked down at my lap, avoiding the harsh stare I was assuming Ashton was giving me. Ashton just laughed.

"You need to stop worrying about Luke so much. I mean, I know you guys are friends and all but he's old enough to take care of himself." Ashton smiled, rubbing his thumb softly against my back.

"I know." I sighed, finally looking back up at him.

"Anyway, about tomorrow night," Ashton shifted in his chair, turning so he was closer to me.

"Tomorrow night?" I questioned. Then I remembered, Ashton had been planning to take me out tomorrow. Looks like I wouldn't be going to Luke's house anyway.

"I'm so sorry Stella, but something came up again and I have to go to this family party upstate-"

This time I interrupted Ashton, only because I was upset that he was canceling on me again and I couldn't control my mouth. "Oh, that's fine. I had some other things I needed to do. It's fine."

"Are you sure?" Ashton asked. I nodded. "You're the best, I'll make it up to you next weekend, okay?"

"Okay." I gave Ashton a small smile, disappointed that I now had no plans for the weekend.

"So, what are you gonna do without me this weekend?" Ashton laughed, tickling my sides and making me squirm in my seat.

Before I was about to answer, though, Luke was standing in front of us again. He picked up the Coke and bag of chips that he had left on the table and started slowly backing away.

"Sorry if I interrupted anything." Luke bit back a laugh.

"You're fine, man." Ashton said and gave Luke a small nod.

"Oh, and Stel?" Luke said, still backing away from us.

"Yeah?" I looked up at Luke.

"I'll pick you up at 1 tomorrow." He gave me a small wave before turning around completely and exiting the lunchroom again.

"What are you guys doing tomorrow?" Ashton had stopped smiling, probably feeling hurt that I had made plans with Luke when I had already agreed to do something with Ashton.

"Just going to the library to study." I shrugged, trying to make it seem as casual as possible, even though I had no idea what Luke had in mind for tomorrow.

"Aw, look at you," Ashton's lips broke into a smile again as he playfully pinched my cheek. "being such a good student."

"Well, you know me. I just love studying!" I laughed.

Ashton took my hand in his and played with my fingers for a moment before speaking. "You're such a great girlfriend."

-

Luke showed up at my apartment on Saturday ten minutes before he was supposed to, obviously eager to get started with whatever he had planned for today. He took me back to his house, which was empty of course. It was strange being in Luke's house for once, I had become so used to hanging out in his treehouse. Luke insisted on not telling me why he didn't just let me come there on my own, he actually didn't say much at all. Whatever he had planned, I was getting anxious for.

Luke lead me up to his room, and I was soon able to figure out what was going on. We entered the room and Luke ran straight into the middle, where he had pushed his bed and all other furniture. He climbed onto the bed and starting bouncing up and down. Placed around the room were a few tarps and brushes and - this is what gave it away - cans of paint.

"Come jump with me." Luke whined, slowing his jump down a little so he could speak.

"You finally decided to paint your room?" I asked, still amazed.

"You told me that you would help if I ever decided on a color. And I decided." Luke said. He held out a hand to me and pulled me onto his bed, starting to jump again.

I stayed still, not exactly wanting to jump. "What color?" I asked.

"Stel, you're supposed to jump." Luke rolled his eyes. He grabbed both of my hands this time, pulling me with him as he bounced up and down on the bed. Finally, I started jumping along with him.

"My room isn't that big, and since it's already white we can just start painting right on it, so we'll probably be done by dinner time, and then we can make popcorn and watch a movie-" Luke rambled on. Suddenly, he stopped jumping to catch his breath and sat down, causing me to fall on the bed as well.

I laid on the bed, spreading my arms and legs out across the covers. Once Luke had caught his breath jumped right back into what he had been saying before.

"I think the wall will only need a couple coats, because it's not a super light color, but it's not super dark either-"

"Luke," I cut him off, laughing at him, "what color?"

"Green." Luke replied simply. He hopped up from off the bed and walked over to the wall, where two cans of paint were waiting for us. He opened one up and showed me the top of it, revealing a very pretty shade of green. It was just like Luke had described it, not super dark, not super light.

"Why did you choose green?" I rolled off the bed, tying my hair back into a neat bun before joining Luke by the wall.

Luke just shrugged. "I don't know."

"Oh come on, you don't paint your room for 17 years because you can't find the right color and then suddenly you want to paint it green?" I groaned.

"I just decided, it just happened." Luke shrugged again. He had begun to bite the inside of his cheek again.

"Alright, let's paint." I stood up from my crouched over position. Luke stayed closer to the floor and began pouring some paint into one of the little trays he had bought too.

After about a half an hour we had a whole wall painted, and were halfway done with the second. Despite the way Luke had been acting a little while ago when he was jumping on his bed, he was very quiet as we painted. I didn't mind, it was a surprisingly comfortable silence.

"So," Luke sighed, bending over to put some more paint on his brush. "It's that time again."

"What time?" I stopped painting and turned to face Luke.

"The one I always ask." The first thing that popped into my mind was what Luke asked right before the very first time we kissed, causing a queasy feeling to make its way into my stomach.

"Are you going to kiss me again?" I blurted out, before I could even think about stopped myself.

"Not unless you want me to." Luke said shortly. He opened his mouth again, the closed it.

"Then what was it?" I blushed, feeling embarrassed for what I'd just asked.

"How's Ashton?" Luke asked, facing the wall again.

"Okay." I answered. I didn't really know what to tell Luke. I felt like things were almost better with Ashton, but at the same time he still acted so odd. As much as I loved the fact that Ashton trusted me, I found it so weird that he seemed not to car at all how much time I spent with Luke. Most guys would go crazy if they found out that their girlfriend and another boy sleep with each other all the time, but Ashton didn't seem to mind at all.

"Just okay?" Luke questioned.

"I don't think it's going to last." I bit down hard on my bottom lip, cursing myself for saying something like that.

"Maybe you should just end things with him. You know, if it doesn't feel right." Luke said, brushing a small piece of hair off of his forehead.

"I don't know." I sighed, contemplating in my head if that's what I really wanted or not. "I guess I just need some time to think about it."

Luke smiled. He set his brush down on the tarp and walked over to me. I thought that he would stop walking at some point, but he didn't until he had me pinned against the wall. I was so confused at the moment, I couldn't speak, I couldn't even yell at Luke for pushing me against a wall with wet paint on it.

Luke leaned down, his lips quickly brushing against the skin on my neck before he came up to my ear and whispered, "You missed a spot."

His fingers lightly passed by mine as he grabbed my brush from my hands. He raised his arm up and began to paint up higher on the wall, where had been harder for me to reach. His body stayed pressed against mine as he painted.

"You jerk!" I laughed, grabbing onto Luke's shoulders and turning around, slamming Luke against the wall. "That was just an excuse to get me all covered in paint!"

"You missed a spot!" Luke defended himself. I snatched the brush from his hands.

"So did you!" I yelled, painting right down the front of Luke's shirt.

"Hey, I liked that shirt!" Luke pouted. That only made me laugh harder, because the shirt was just plain white and I knew that Luke had a million others just like it.

I painted another stripe down the front of him. "You missed another spot."

"Stop that, stop that right now!" Luke laughed. He grabbed onto my wrists, restricting my movements.

"It's okay, I can stay here all day. Your paint may dry a little unevenly though." I said, glancing around the room.

"That was not fair, Stella Anne. You had an advantage." Luke whispered as he rested his forehead against mine.

"And what was that, Lucas Robert?" I asked, looking up into his eyes.

"A paint brush. You had a paint brush." Luke grinned. He was obviously enjoying this little war we had started too much.

"You made the first move, you pushed me against the wall first." I said, taking my bottom lip in between my teeth.

"Stop biting your lip, that's another advantage." Luke whispered.

"Oh, shut up." I scoffed.

Then Luke started leaning in, and even though my mind was screaming at me not to I leaned in too. But before our lips couch touch we were interrupted.

"Luke, get down here right now!" A voice yelled from downstairs.

"Shit." Luke whispered, "Shit, shit, shit."

"Is that your mom?" I whispered too, even though I knew Luke's mom wasn't able to hear us.

"Yeah. I didn't think she would be home until later tonight." Luke let go of me and placed the paint brush back in my hands. "I'll be right back, I promise, just stay here."

Luke ran out of the room, leaving me by myself. Overwhelmed by all my feelings, I sat down, letting myself lean against the wall because my back was already covered in paint.

Things between Luke and I weren't right, the things we do aren't things friends are supposed to do, especially when one had a boyfriend. There were feelings between Luke and I that I just couldn't decided were good or not, they were just there. I just couldn't help myself, there was something drawing me to Luke. Whether it was his bright blue eyes or his tall muscular frame or the way he could talk about math like nobody's business, I loved it, I needed it.

A loud crash and some shouting from downstairs quickly snapped me out of my thoughts. I wanted so badly to go down there, to make sure that everything was okay, but what Ashton had told me earlier stopped me. I shouldn't worry about Luke all the time. He could handle these things on his own.

Moments later, Luke entered the room again. He was holding onto his upper arm, rubbing it slightly like he had just gotten punched there. That's when things started to become clear to me.

"What was that crash?" I asked, watching Luke pick up his paint brush. He began painting again, right where he had left off before he decided to get paint all over me.

"I bumped into a chair and knocked it over." Luke said quietly.

"What happened to your arm?" I took a step closer to Luke.

"I hit it on the chair. I can be so clumsy, Stel." Luke said, laughing nervously.

"Please, Luke. Tell me what's going on." I begged, finally reached out and touching Luke's arm. He winced.

"I can handle it on my own." Luke said. He glared down at me, making me feel even smaller next to him than I usually was. I took a step back, returning to where I was painting.

"You should tell someone." I said, after a long moment of silence.

"I don't need anymore attention." Luke sighed.

"But-"

"Can we please stop talking about it?" Luke snapped, cutting me off.

"Okay, whatever." I rolled my eyes. I didn't understand why Luke was acting so rude about this when clearly all I wanted to do was help him. We finished painting that wall in complete silence.

I was beginning to get tired, and was thinking about just calling it a day when a pair of arms wrapped around me from behind, lifting me up and spinning me around. Luke's head popped out from behind me, revealing his smiling face. It felt so good to see him smile again, even though it hadn't been long since he had last done it.

"You missed a spot." Luke laughed as he gently kissed my cheek.

THAT LAST LITTLE PARAGRAPH THOUGH IM LITERALLY LAYING ON THE FLOOR CLUTCHING MY HEART OH MY GOD WHAT HAVE I CREATED.

((And okay you were all right his mom hits him sometimes))