It was another late night that consisted of studying, sugary snacks and heavy eyes. Lux sighed and started to feel bored all of the sudden. She reached for her phone to see it was as dry as the damn deserts she was studying the ecosystems of. Shorter hadn't reached out to her since she mentioned a police officer coming to her house a whole week ago. This strange boy was always just disappearing and showing back up at the most random moments like no time had passed at all.

Lux would sometimes worry when he wouldn't answer her texts or calls. Even more so when Sing would say he didn't know of his boss's whereabouts either.

Knock! Knock!

The heavy knocks on glass made Lux jump. There was only one person who'd scale up her balcony this late at night. She took a moment to look in the mirror and make sure there weren't any crumbs on her face before opening the door.

"You could have told me you were coming." Lux said, stepping to the side to let Shorter in.

"I like to be spontaneous."

"Clearly." Lux chuckled, cleaning up the opened books and trash that were scattered over her desk. She made the executive decision to put her studies on hold and give Shorter her full attention since he hadn't talked to her in what felt like forever. Lux sat criss cross in bed while Shorter lounged in the gamer chair across from her.

She caught him up on how she got the captain position on the team for the academic decathlon that she was rambling about. He seemed excited for her but Lux couldn't help but notice that Shorter wasn't acting like himself. He was usually extra cheery around her but tonight he just seemed more reserved and quiet.

"So..." Lux tucked strands of hair behind her ear and looked to the side, the words in her mind hesitating to come out. "There a reason why we haven't talked for a week?" Her cheeks burned at the neediness of the question.

"Just been busy." Shorter answered quickly, trying to move on from the topic. He interlaced his fingers behind his neck and spun around in the chair. He caught sight of a new prize on the floor in front of Lux's award shelf and got curious. "What's that?" He got up and grabbed a rolled up scroll that was tied up with a blue ribbon that had golden #1's all over it.

"Oh. Just a dumb art project from a few weeks ago. My teacher entered it in a competition recently and it won first place." Shorter slid the ribbon off and unrolled the scroll. The piece was of buildings in an alley, painted in an abstract watercolor style. Shorter studied the scene and noticed that it looked oddly familiar to the location he took Lux to see the mural. The buildings were painted in black and grey with thick black lines scribbled strategically through them to emulate what was supposed to be a simplistic taking on graffiti. And where the mural was meant to be, Lux used the brightest pastels, blending them into each other to make the piece come to life.

"This is actually really good." Shorter lifted up his sunglasses to get a better look at the art. He couldn't believe Lux just had this laying on the floor. "Reminds me of-"

"Yeah it is." Lux cut him off before he could finish. "It was my inspiration." She admitted shyly. "My teacher said to give my art piece a name."

"What'd you pick?"

"Lost Gem." Shorter turned and tilted his head. Lux immediately buried her face in her hands and shook her head. "I didn't put much thought into it okay!"

"No no I like it."

"It just represents something so beautiful stuck in somewhere ruinous where nobody wants to go, so it remains undiscovered. I wanted the colors for the mural part to stand out and draw you in to where you don't even notice the darkness surrounding it." She explained as Shorter sat down next to her, still looking at the painting in awe. Lux couldn't help but smile. "You can keep it if you want."

"No. I couldn't do that." He shook his head. Rolling the art back up and carefully sliding the ribbon back on. "You worked hard on it."

"It's really no big deal."

Shorter looked down and smiled. "Thank you. At least you know with me it won't be laying somewhere on the floor." He joked. Lux smiled back. Her features were so soft and angelic in her own way. Her face was round, dark eyes shimmery, and she always had subtly flushed cheeks when Shorter was around. She seemed so perfect in his eyes. "You really are good at everything. Aren't you, Lux?"

"Well not everything."

"Mm yeah. Your diet is pretty horrendous." Lux playfully nudged Shorter away. "I'm just saying, I've never seen someone eat a whole bag of spicy Doritos and down an iced coffee immediately after."

"My stomachs a tank. Indestructible!" She held up a clenched fist and flexed her thin arm.

"Oh yeah look at the muscle on that." Shorter squeezed the girls non existent bicep.

They both laughed softly to not wake Lux's parents.

Lux exhaled and stared up at Shorter who seemed a little bit more relaxed than he did when he first showed up. "So why'd you really come here?"

"What do you mean?"

"I'm not stupid, Shorter. I know there's something up with you." Lux admitted. "You can tell me. I can help in whatever way I can."

Shorter's heart began to pound. Those are words he never wanted to hear Lux speak. Her offering a hand was pretty much him pulling her into his world. He couldn't have that. He won't have that. "Nah, you've got it all wrong."

"Do I? Because ever since I brought up that cop you stopped talking to me." She admitted. "Did something happen between you two? And Ash? Is that why he came to check in after he saw me out with the both of you?"

Lux was more observant than Shorter gave her credit for. Regardless of the fact, he remained expressionless towards her on the mark questions. "It's nothing crazy like how you probably think. I swear." He lied.

"Can you explain it then? Because I honestly don't know what to think."

Shorter sighed, "You really think the cops are gonna like a group of unsupervised kids running around New York? There's obviously been a few run ins with the police but it wasn't anything bad. Just them assuming that we're up to no good."

Lux had no reason to believe Shorter was lying to her face so she accepted his explanation. But one more thing didn't seem to make sense. "I get that. Still doesn't explain why you've ignored me. And don't say you were busy either. I don't believe that."

He knew he had to create distance with this girl. Especially now that he knows she's the type to ask these uncomfortable questions and expect straight forward answers. There was no way he'd be able to beat around the bush if she asked about something more serious. He just didn't want to scare her off or hurt her feelings in attempt to keep her at arm's length for now. "Lux, it doesn't matter."

"It matters to me." She argued, "I was worried."

"You don't have to worry about me. You know I can take care of myself." He assured softly, taking a tender hold of Lux's hand. When he realized what he did he quickly pulled away, his lips pursed into a flat line and he squeezed his eyes shut. "Do you like me, Lux?"

The girls heart began to race and her cheeks flushed a darker shade of red. "I-uh." She stammered, "Of course. We're friends." Lux turned away to hide her noticeable blush.

"No I mean like... you're into me." Lux stayed quiet, the question caught her by surprise. She didn't know wether to tell the truth or lie. Yeah she thought Shorter was cute and she did care about him, but that didn't mean she had actual feelings for him. Right?

"I don't know. I never thought about it. Why? Do you like me?"

Shorter shrugged, "I like a lot of girls." He regretfully admitted after seeing the tears weld up in Lux's eyes before she quickly turned away from him again. "I know I flirt with you and all. I just didn't want you to get the wrong idea and think that this is anything more than me having a bit of fun with you. Y'know?" Lux swallowed the lump in her throat and nodded. "I just tried creating some distance between us cuz I'd feel bad for leading you on. I like you just... not like that."

"No, I get it." Lux sniffled, "And you didn't lead me on or anything. I wasn't even thinking about you in that way either." She tried so hard to hold in her tears. She wouldn't let Shorter see her cry. "I took you as the kind of guy that fools around with whatever girl gives you attention. You're not really my type."

"Harsh." Shorter tried playing off Lux's confession as a joke. He knew he hurt her feelings and she was clearly trying to convince herself that his words didn't sting. The least he could do was try his best to lighten up the mood and not make his pain obvious either. "Here I was thinking otherwise. Guess I'm just full of myself."

Lux forced herself to smile and pretend she was okay. That she wasn't upset at Shorter admitting to pretty much using her for entertainment like she was just some plaything for when he was bored. She couldn't be mad. After all, he wasn't her type anyways... "I should start heading to bed."

It was obvious she wanted him gone now. "Yeah, sorry for keeping you up." Shorter made his way to the door as Lux followed behind him. "I'm sorry."

"There's nothing to be sorry for."

Shorter dropped his head, "Right... I'll see you later."

"Sure." Lux mumbled, and closed the balcony door without even as much as a good bye.

Shorter climbed down and looked up at the window where the lamp still shined through the curtains. Lux wasn't asleep. He had hurt her and caused this sweet girl to cry. "Shorter Wong... you are the worst." He repeated Lux's signature words knowing she was thinking them right about now. And rightfully so.