Page 26 of Coastal Runaway

I needed to get myself out of that situation before I found myself climbing Luke Cavan like a tree and hate-fucking him into tomorrow. I could hear his laugh through my closed door as I ran to take a cold shower and calm my nerves. This man had a control over my body that I didn’t want to understand.

And I just wanted it to stop… I think.

My cozy night in was supposed to be revitalizing, but instead Luke and I’s interaction left me even more tense than before.

On Sunday evening, we were gathered at my dad's house for family dinner. The tension in the room was so thick that it could have been cut with a knife. None of us discussed, or even mentioned what happened on Friday night, although the school gossip pages were ablaze this morning with rumors of a love triangle that came to blows at the football party.

Dinner was silent, if not a little awkward. My dad didn’t seem to notice and kept the conversation flowing. After we finished and cleared the table, I was assigned dish duty. While there was hired staff around to help with the majority of daily chores, my dad would always insist that we clean up after ourselves.

He maintained, “money is not an excuse for people to trail behind you, cleaning up your messes.” I used to always complain, but as I got older I realized that he taught us an important lesson in staying grounded. Now, every Sunday that we had dinner, the siblings would rotate on who got assigned to do the dishes.

I was elbow deep in soapy water when Luke appeared next to me. He leaned back against the counter with his arms crossed over his chest.

He wasn’t looking at me when he said in a low tone, “look. I’m sorry about what happened the other night… and the night after. I was just trying to help and I apologize for overstepping.” He looked down at the ground.

A feeling of guilt washed over me. I definitely blew up at Luke on Friday night; I let my past feelings take over. He dutifully saved me from a potentially dangerous situation and I never even thanked him. As for Saturday, Luke was trying to get a rise out of me just like he did when we were kids. Always negging and flirting with no real meaning behind it.

“You don’t have to apologize.” I sighed, prompting him to look at me, “thank you for defending me. Sinclair always seemed harmless until he suddenly wasn’t.”

“I am sorry that you went through that. But I am not sorry for making him fold like the weak excuse for a man that he is,” he said, “and I will always defend you. Even if you hate me.”

“Brute.” I scoffed.

“Brat.” He smiled.

I laughed at the fact that even though Luke and I were at odds right now, he was still the protective boy that I grew up with. Leaning up and raising my hands from the water, I extended one very soapy, rubber glove to him.

When he didn’t take it right away, I explained, “look, we live together and this is going to be a hard year if we are constantly at each other’s throats. How about a truce of sorts? We can live side by side and leave each other alone, right?”

He looked down at my hand with a slightly pained expression before shaking it, “I can do that.”

In a quick move, I shoved my other hand in the water and flicked it at him, soaking his shirt with dirty dish water.

“You did not just do that, Tig,” he laughed, wiping the water off of his face.

“What are you gonna do about it, if I did?” I asked.

He lunged forward so fast that I had no time to react. He wrapped his arms around my waist from behind and lifted me, my feet kicking, before he grabbed the spray nozzle and aimed it right at my chest.

I was left gasping for air from laughing so hard between screams. This was the fun Luke that I missed, the one that made my heart race.

“Would you look at that? Mom and dad made up.” Aiden noted, standing in the doorway to the kitchen, “so glad we can sleep tonight knowing World War III isn’t going to come to blows at any moment.”

Luke put me back on my feet but didn’t remove his hands right away. My heart was hammering in my chest as he looked down at me. After a beat, he moved his hands and started walking backwards in the direction of the living room where the rest of the family was deep in conversation. Before he left the room he threw me a wink and I could feel the blush creeping onto my cheeks.

I turned and continued doing the dishes but my thoughts were stuck on what just happened. Luke and I may have come to a temporary truce, but I still needed to keep my distance. There was a very real chance that if we continued to be around each other that I would cave and let him take my body, leaving my heart vulnerable.

There wasn’t a world where my heart would survive being torn apart a second time by the hands of Luke Cavan.

twelve

Keegan

School was never my strong suit, I’ve always been more of a creative. I didn’t thrive writing essays and doing busy work. That wasn’t how the real world would be. Creating social media feeds that were captivating and sold products?

I could do that in my sleep, most of the cheerleading team had me curate their entire Instagram aesthetic.

“This class is not going to be fun,” Maggie mumbled next to me as she doodled on her notebook.