" - And then she ran right into the locker!" Michael finished his story, his words fading away as he was overcome with laughter.

"Michael, stop!" I whined, kicking him under the table. He had taken this lunch outing as an opportunity to tell as many embarrassing stories about me as possible, even though we had made a previous engagement not to do that.

"Aw Stella, that's kind of cute!" Calum laughed. We had invited him to come along for Michael, so he wasn't a third wheel. Plus Calum and Luke never saw each other anymore since Luke quit his job at the theater. And as much as Luke hated to admit it, he missed Calum.

"It's not cute, it's embarrassing!" I groaned, putting my head in my hands. Luke wrapped an arm around my body and pulled me into him, leaving a short kiss on my cheek.

"It was hilarious!" Michael yelled, laughing harder.

"That does sound pretty funny." Luke laughed.

"Okay, okay, but can we talk about last weekend? I invited Stella over to watch some movies and an hour later I call her and Luke answers!" Michael exclaimed.

"I think I know what happened." Calum wiggled his eyebrows.

"Luke came over and we talked things out. I already told you, Michael." I rolled my eyes at him.

"Oh I'm sure you talked things out." Michael chuckled, rolling his own eyes. He turned to Calum and whispered, "They got it on. I could hear it above me."

"Nice!" Calum yelled, reaching over the table to high five Luke.

"So Luke, how did Stella's boobs look?" Michael leaned in closer, wanting all the details. I don't know if he had forgotten I was there or what, but he definitely didn't have any boundaries.

"I'd prefer not to discuss my girlfriend's boobs in the middle of a restaurant, thanks." Luke let out a nervous chuckle, squeezing me closer to him.

"Whoa, girlfriend?" Calum questioned. "So you guys are, like, serious now?"

"Well...yeah." I shrugged.

"I thought you've only been on a couple dates?" Calum asked.

"We've been through a lot more than a couple dates." Luke laughed, turning to me. He smiled, giving me a look as if to say what are you gonna do?

"Yeah, a lot." I nodded. Luke leaned in and stole a quick kiss from me.

"Luke's in loooove." Michael teased.

"Hell yeah I am!" Luke shouted, standing up from the table.

"Luke," I sighed, "Sit down."

"No, Stel, I'm in love!" Luke shook his head. He hopped up on his chair, grabbing the attention of a few other people in the restaurant.

"Attention everyone, I'm in love with this girl right here!" Luke shouted. He pointed down to me with one hand and gave Michael and Calum a thumbs up with the other. "I'm in love!"

"Get down!" I groaned, grabbing Luke's hand and pulling him off of the chair. He sat back down, looked proud of himself as some guy from across the restaurant clapped for him.

"So, you seem to be feeling better." Calum faced Luke.

"Yeah, I'm a lot better than how I was about a month ago." Luke nodded.

"What happened, anyway? You kind of disappeared." Michael asked, and I felt Luke stiffen. We both knew someone was eventually going to ask where he had been, we just didn't know how to explain it. It's not easy for Luke to tell his situation to anybody.

"You did! When everyone at work told me you quit I freaked out, it was so out of no where!" Calum threw his hands up in the air in confusion.

"I took a little bit of a break, I guess." Luke explained. I knew that he didn't want to give Michael and Calum all the details, it really wasn't any of their business. "I'm getting better, though. I'm okay."

"That's good, man, I'm proud of you." Calum smiled.

"And Stel's helping too." Luke said, his lips breaking into a huge smile.

"Aw, you guys are so cute. I need a girlfriend." Michael pouted.

Calum agreed. "Same."

"You guys should date each other." I joked. Calum and Michael eyes each other, looking one another up and down for a moment. They both nodded both Michael broke up their little moment.

"Whoa Stella, slow down. We've just barely met!" He laughed.

"You should," Luke agreed. "We can double date."

"Not gonna happen, sorry Michael." Calum held his hands up in surrender.

"It's totally fine, I love boobs too much to be gay." Michael smiled, patting Calum on the back.

"But not Stel's boobs, right?" Luke asked. "Because those are mine."

"Actually they're mine." I chuckled.

Luke rolled his eyes at me. "Sure babe, keep telling yourself that."

-

"I don't know if my mom is home, but if she is we can go hide in my treehouse for a while." Luke said, unlocking his front door.

I knew what he meant by "hide in the treehouse", he was in the mood to make out. I didn't mind, actually, because this meant Luke was in a good mood. I think our visit with Michael and Calum made him feel better about a lot of things. He was getting better about most things lately, now that the two of us were back to normal.

"Luke, is that you?" A voice called from further in the house, and before we were even half way up the stairs his mom came out of the hallway to greet us.

"Hi, mom." Luke said, giving her a wave."

"Who's this?" She asked. She didn't seem upset, like I would have expected her to be. Maybe Luke was right, maybe she was better.

"This is my girlfriend," Luke giggled a little at his use of the word, "Stella."

"Hi, Stella. It's nice to finally meet you properly. I'm Liz." She said, reaching over the railing of the stairs to shake my hand.

"Hello." I said quietly.

"We're just going to head upstairs for a while, if that's okay." Luke said, taking my hand in his again.

"That's fine. Here, these came in the mail for you." Liz nodded. She handed Luke a few envelopes from behind her back. He looked at them and groaned.

"Thanks. Did they call again?" Luke asked. I didn't know what he was talking about, so I stayed silent.

"Twice. There's messages on the answering machine." Liz said. "If you guys aren't too busy you should start packing, maybe Stella can help you."

"Right. Thanks mom." Luke said quickly, dragging me the rest of the way up the stairs.

"What was that about?" I asked. Luke shut the door behind me and locked it.

"Nothing." He sighed, throwing the letters down on his bed. I was tempted to reach over and open them, but I decided not to.

"Your mom is better. She's okay?" I asked, sitting down on the edge of Luke's bed. He stood in front of me, in between my legs.

"She's better, yeah. I think me almost killing myself scared her." Luke said, putting his hands on my shoulders.

"I'm sorry." I said, knowing that I was partly the cause of that.

"Don't be, please. It wasn't your fault, I really regret saying that it was." Luke apologized. He leaned down and kissed me quickly on the lips before standing up right again. He turned away from me an paced back and forth for a moment. Luke picked up a duffle bag lying on his messy floor and began practically emptying the contents of his drawers into it.

"What are you packing for?" I asked. Luke hadn't mentioned anything before about him going away, now it seemed like he was getting ready to pick everything up and leave it all behind.

"My mom and I are going to California for a couple days. We're going to look at a couple colleges. We tried to schedule the trip during spring break but we ended up having to go a week earlier." Luke explained quickly.

"Oh, so you're leaving?" I questioned.

"It's just for a couple days, Stel. I'll be back before you even have time to miss me." He smiled. He set the duffle bag down on the floor and opened up a new drawer, which I had come to know as his pill drawer. He pulled out a bottle and shook a few pills out into his hand and swallowed them. He did the same with two more pill bottles before he noticed that I was staring at him.

"Sorry." Luke said, his smile fading

"No, it's fine." I shook my head. I stood up from Luke's bed and walked over to him, wrapping my arms around his waist. He held me close to him, resting his chin on my forehead.

"So are those letters from colleges?" I asked.

"Yeah, they've been sending a lot. There's a possibility that I'll be graduating at the end of this year so they've been going crazy." Luke sighed.

"Oh, so you'll be going to college a year earlier too?" I looked up, pulling away from Luke. I had just gotten Luke back into my life, I didn't want him to leave again.

"That's the plan, but I don't even know if it's happening yet." Luke shrugged.

"But you're thinking about going to California?" I asked.

"I would like to. We'll see, Stel." Luke said, leaning down and leaving a short kiss on my forehead.

"California is kind of far away." I sighed. California was across the whole country. That was a little different than Luke just graduating a year early and staying here, now he wanted to get up and move to the other side of the country.

"I know, Stel." Luke tugged at the ends of his hair in frustration. "Do we have to talk about this right now? I don't feel very good."

"You don't feel good because you just took six pills and didn't eat anything when we were out for lunch." I said. I grabbed Luke's hand and lead him over to the bed. He laid down first and pulled me with him, keeping me on top of his body.

"I wasn't hungry." He pouted.

"You never are." I laughed quietly, running my hands through his hair.

"I don't have much of an appetite anymore." He shrugged. "I think it may be because of one of my medications."

"Luke, you really have to eat sometimes." I sighed.

"I'm fine, Stel. Really, don't worry about me." Luke smiled. His fingers played with the ends of my hair while he spoke.

"What day are you leaving?" I asked, changing the subject. I trusted Luke, and I think he was doing better. He didn't need me babysitting him about this, I didn't need to tell him what to do.

"Tuesday afternoon. I won't be in California for long, I promise." Luke assured me.

"Only a couple days, right?" I asked. I'm sure I could manage being away from Luke for only a few days. I would have Michael to keep me company, and maybe I could make up all the movies I've missed out on watching with him lately.

"Yes, I can't stay away from you for any longer." He laughed, leaving a short kiss on my nose.

"You better not meet some pretty California girl and leave me." I said, pretending to pout again.

"I would never even think of that." Luke laughed. "None of them would be able to drive me crazy the way you do."

"You're so lame." I rolled my eyes. Luke squeezed my sides with his fingers, making me squeal.

"Only for you." Luke's lips formed into a huge smile before he leaned down and kissed me.

"Lame!" I laughed once Luke and I were done kissing.

"Shut up!" Luke tickled me again, sending me rolling off of him and onto the other side of the bed. He crawled over to me and got on top of me, now in a better position to tickle my sides.

"Luke, stop it!" I screamed, not able to control my laughter. I tried to tickle him back, but he was too strong for me. Finally, we both collapsed back onto the bed, breathing heavily. Luke's hand latched onto mine, our fingers intertwining the way they always did. We fit together like a perfect pair, like we were made for each other.

"Jesus," Luke muttered. "I really fucking love you."

stUKE JESUS. I'm not too happy with this chapter, but whatever :) I hope you guys all like it though!!