The twenty-first time I saw him, he confessed.

Allie's P.O.V

I was walking around in knee socks and underwear when Luke called me.

"Hello?" I simply answered my phone, not bothering to look at the caller ID, my eyes staying focused on my essay.

"Hey babe," Luke's voice was low.

"Luke?" I asked.

His voice went back to normal. "Does anyone else call you you babe?"

"My side hoe, but you don't need to know about that," I said sarcastically.

Luke heaved a sigh. "Anyway, I was calling because I wanted some phone sex, but now that that's ruined, what's up?"

"Who said its ruined?" I said, cradeling my phone between my shoulder and my ear.

"It isn't?" Luke sounded surprised before he cleared his throat and said seductively, "What are you wearing?"

"Knee socks," I said honestly.

Luke's tone lost it's seductiveness. "Knee socks?"

"Yeah," I said. "I have an essay to write and its giving me hell."

"Well, my boner's dead," Luke sighed heavily.

"To be honest, I could care less, this essay is due tomorrow and I don't even have a thesis," I sighed, rubbing my forehead.

I could literally feel the worry lines appearing.

"Have you tried writing a body paragraph first?" Luke asked.

I frowned. "What?"

"Try writing the body paragraph first," Luke explained. "That's what my English teacher told me to do in high school and it really helped."

"So I do what?" I asked, holding my pen above the paper, poised to take notes.

"You write one of your body paragraphs first, then you try and write your thesis," Luke repeated.

I dropped my pencil in frustration. "I don't get it."

Luke sighed. "Okay, I'm coming over."

"Wait-" I said but he had already hung up. 

...

I just had time to get shorts on when the doorbell rang. I opened it and said, "Wow, you didn't take long."

Luke grinned. "I was at a friend's house. Nice to see you," he bent down and pecked my cheek before walking into my living room.

I shut the door behind him. Luke had gotten a lot more touchy-feely since our deal. He would peck my cheek, call me nicknames, hug me randomly, and sometimes when we were just hanging out his hand would rest in the middle of my thigh.

When I came into the living room, Luke was sitting on the ground looking at my papers, brow crinkled. "What even is your paper on?"

"The drinking age in America," I sighed, sitting down next to him. "The professor wants us to write a paper on whether or not it should be lowered or not, but use evidence about how alcohol affects the brains and other statistics, like the drinking ages in other countries compared to their drinking and driving related deaths."

Luke whistled. "Damn, that sounds like a lot of work. What happened to the, if I can give up my life for my country I should be able to have a beer?"

I shrugged. "My professor said that that reason didn't have any base in fact, just opinion. He wanted us to argue our side using numbers and learning what alcohol does to the brain."

Luke made a face. "That sounds like a lot of work."

I sighed and ran a hand through my tangled curls. "Tell me about it. It's due in two days and I haven't even figured out my thesis."

"Well, what side are you on?" Luke asked.

"I don't know!" I threw my hands up in the air. "I believe that it should be eighteen, because that's when you are an adult, but all the research and data points to it staying where it is."

"Okay," Luke said, gently putting his hands on my shoulders. "Let's take a break."

"I can't!" I exclaimed, my voice breaking and I was so frustrated and tired that I felt like crying. "I have to get this done, you don't understand-"

"I do get it," Luke interrupted. And I know that right now you are tired and frustrated and about to cry, so you aren't thinking clearly, and you need a break to calm down."

I blinked. "Now do you know I felt like crying?"

"Whenever you get frustrated with school, which isn't even that much, because school is easy for you, you cry and can't think straight," Luke said. "So you are going to take a break and chill with me.

I wiped at my eyes and sniffled a little. "What did you have in mind?"

"Well, since you asked, those knee socks are really turning me on," he said in a low voice.

I hit his shoulder. "I am not taking a break to fuck you!"

"Why not?" Luke whined. "It wouldn't take long, just like twenty minutes of a perfectly good thing to relieve stress."

I shook my head. "No! I'm not in the mood."

"Well, I am," Luke gestured to himself. "And this is why I called you in the first place."

"You have a perfectly good hand to relieve yourself. In fact, you have two," I said.

Luke rolled his eyes. "Come on, Allie. You know our deal. We use each other to get off and only each other."

"Friends with benefits," I reminded him. "That's what I agreed to. And a friend doesn't always have to fuck. We can just hang out and have fun without the sex involved."

"You wanna talk? Fine," Luke got up and flopped on the couch. "How's Chris? Talk to him lately?"

I could feel my cheeks begin to burn. "No, I haven't, actually."

"Why's that?" Luke inquired. His tone was polite, but with an undercurrent of sarcasm and something else that I didn't like. "You seemed so close when you were pretending to date to bother me."

Now, I wasn't blushing, but angry. "And? What's your point? Have you talked to him lately?"

Luke's jaw tightened. "We're not talking about me."

"Yeah, we never do. You just like to point out all of my flaws to me!" I said angrily. "Like, I'm too short, my hair is too curly. I'm never in the mood, all I do is schoolwork. Well, I can't help how I look, and some things are more important to me than how much I'm getting laid!"

Luke's eyes widened. "I didn't mean to offend you!"

"Really? Because believe it or not, I have feelings! And you hurt them! You know how many people complain or tell me how short I am? I don't like being told how much I suck to my face!"

Luke looked slightly horrified. "I meant that you being so short meant that I had to bend down really far to kiss you, and your hair is so curly, I like to run my hands through it and twirl a curl around my fingers. All I can think about is you wiggling around underneath me and I think its great that you're so dedicated to your school! You're going to go places, and I think that's wonderful."

"Then why do you complain so much!?" I exclaimed. "You act as if hanging out with me is killing you, like you have a million other places you'd rather be!"

"Well, I thought you hated me soi really didn't want to be around someone who was so sarcastic and rude to me all the time!" Luke retorted.

I threw my hands up in the air. "Its hard to like someone who constantly degrades you and acts like you're their plaything!"

"You're not!" Luke yelled. "Can't you see I'm trying? I'm trying to be nice, but I'm not good at these things! Girls usually don't stick around long enough to get to know me."

"Maybe they would if you didn't kick them out once you're done with them," the words came out of my mouth before in could stop them.

Luke looked like a kicked puppy. "I don't kick them out," he mumbled. "Yeah, I like hooking up with girls, but sometimes I talk to them before they make a move and I actually like them, but then they just leave before I can get to know them. You're one of those girls."

I snorted. "Right. And you're the next Obama."

Luke groaned and put his head in his hands. "Goddammit, Allie, why can't you just see that I like you?!"

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Yes know, this took forever and its short and a cliffhanger but i hope you enjoy 

Love ya!

-T A Y L O R