I flicked on Luke's light to his bedroom, instantly waking him up. I threw a hand up to shield my eyes from the sudden change in exposure. He had done the same then quickly threw his comforter over his head.

"It's time to get up!" My voice rang through the whole house.

For Luke you would think that being pushed into adulthood and living without parental guidance would make him do the simple things like his own laundry or setting an alarm for himself to wake up, especially on the first day of school. He wasn't very responsible person in the first place, but it didn't bother me since he wasn't off and ruining himself.

He groaned over-dramatically, a habit he's always had in the morning. His mornings were always filled with moping, groaning, and complaining.

"You're the one who chose the 8am class." I informed him, walking towards his bed and sitting on the edge of it. He rolled over and turned his back to me, letting one of his feet bump into my back. Even with a queen bed he was still a bit tall for it. "Watch it, Hemmings." I said with a hint of annoyance.

After a few seconds he sat up from his bed, looking around rather confused. I've seen him do this for years, it made him look exactly like it a little kid. No matter how much I taunted him about it I've always thought it made him look cute. He looked at me with furrowed eyebrows and a subtle frown, which matched his attitude very well.

I took notice in his messy hair that was standing in every direction and the seemingly unnoticeable bags under his eyes. To any normal person they wouldn't even notice but I had grown to be so used to what he looked like that I could point out any change on him.

"You look so confused." I giggled as he kept glaring at me.

"I'm not." He spoke. His voice was deeper in the morning, as if that was anymore possible and today it was more harsh. "I'm just tired." He mumbled as he slouched over a little more.

"I can see that." I joked. He blinked a few times, finally letting his body wake up. "Big day." I sighed, coming to the realization that I also had my first classes today. "I'll make us some breakfast, sound good?" I usually only offered to make him something when I myself was hungry just so I knew I wouldn't put myself in such a hassle. He nodded head a few times as I stood up yet he kept his attention on me. I watched him as he rubbed his balled fists over his eyes.

"God." He breathed out, looking down then back up again quickly. "We're getting old." He slightly smiled, raising his eyebrows. I leaned against his door frame with my arms crossed.

"Don't remind me." I stated, letting out a soft laugh. I glanced from him to the ground as silence filled his room.

"Are we still going to live together then?" He questioned, now having a smile tugging at his lips. I looked up at him with the same grin on my face.

"Probably." I assured. With the last letter that rolled off my tongue, I spun around and headed towards the kitchen to start making breakfast for the both of us.

"Wait!" Luke called after me. I stopped in my tracks and trailed back to his room, but he stuck his head out of the door before I could get to it. "Extra shot of espresso in my coffee." He gave me a forced smile, one that he purposely made look awkward. I opened my mouth to reply, but he had already guessed what I was going to say. "Please." His smile grew a little bigger, making it impossible to say no. Not that I was going to anyways.

"Fine." I spoke rather quickly and walked towards the kitchen once more. "Just hurry up." I called behind me. "You don't want to miss your first class, you know your mom would kill you." I yelled out, not knowing if he could hear me since he had ran off to the bathroom.

"Mom's not here." His voice cooed from the other side of the house. "I can make my own decisions." He said a bit louder, turning on his sink. This was very normal for us, we were always shouting at each other from complete opposite sides of the house. We were probably the most annoying neighbors in our building.

"Do you not know that I just had to wake you up?" I retorted.

"Oh, I know." He called out. I looked over my shoulder to see him dragging himself into the room still in his clothes he slept in, then returned my focus back to stirring our coffees. I felt his arms drape over my shoulders from behind, pulling me into somewhat of a hug. "And you did a lovely job of it." He leaned down, giving me a surprise kiss to my temple. He let go of me right after and sat right on the counter in front of me, I'm not too sure if he even knew what a chair was. I glanced up at him, catching his eye.

"Someone's a little friendly this morning." I said in a nearly monotone tone, adding a spoonful of sugar to each of our cups.

"Can I not be friendly to my friend?" I added his request of extra caffeine which he had been needing for around the past 2 weeks and slid his cup over to him, careful not to knock it over. "Especially one that makes perfect coffee?" He took a sip, letting his pale eyes peak over the brim of the cup. I pursed my lips to hide my growing smile, I admired his accent and I enjoyed him saying the word 'coffee' more than the actual drink itself.

"I'm pretty sure you aren't like that with your other friends." I drank from my own mug, letting the hot drink soothe my cold body. Even with heating New York still managed to make everyone's homes cold.

"Of course I am, we're all butt buddies." He replied. I choked on my drink from his racy comment, not expecting it at all.

"Oh my God." I muttered. "I think it's time that you go get ready." I reached over and ruffled his hair, earning an expected grumble from him. He hopped of the counter and grabbed each sides of my shoulders, shaking me lightly.

"First day." He beamed before turning around and practically skipping towards his room. I shook my head to myself, thinking about how he had changed moods so quickly.

For the past 2 weeks, Luke's been a little off. At first I had thought it was just the stress of school beginning, but I'm starting to think it's a little more than that. He's always up, as in when I'll wake up at 4am to get a glass of water I'll see him sitting on his computer in his room with his headphones in, wide awake. Then when I get up at 8am I'll hear him up and moving. Then throughout the whole day he'll be awake. I'm not his mother and he's an adult so I technically can't give him a 'bedtime', but it still worries me a bit.

It's basically been since the day that we first started our movie nights again. He told me that day that he hadn't been sleeping well, but I hadn't known for how long. He hadn't clarified. Either way, today was both of our first days and there wasn't anything stopping that. We'd actually worked our schedules around so we would have about an hour for lunch if we wanted to spend it together and we agreed that we would probably be seeing each other for lunch everyday.

I had just finished putting our plates on the table and right on cue Luke had walked in. He was dressed rather casual, his normal pair of black jeans and a loose t-shirt. His hair was pushed up and out of his face and surprisingly not hidden under a beanie.

"Looking sharp." I said sarcastically, watching him as he walked towards me. He stopped right before he sat down, looking down at me with a sly smile. His tall frame hovered over me and I had to tilt my head back just to get a good look at him.

"It's college, Autumn." He pulled his chair out and finally sat down. He was now eye level with me and could notice how much brighter his face looked from when I first woke him up. "I can wear pajamas or a tux, let's be glad I'm wearing neither." He snickered, picking up his fork and pointing it at me. "Now when's your first class?"

"We've gone through this." I moaned as I let my head fall into my hands. I picked it back up after a short second and reexplained it to him. "You've got an 8am class and mine starts at 9." He watched me intently, occasionally watching my moving hands as I talked. "We've got 11:30-12:30 for whatever we want to do, then we're both done at 3:30." I stated as I bit into my bagel.

He nodded his head slowly, acting as if he still understood. It wasn't too difficult to get, but then again Luke was more book smart than street smart if you know what I mean. Luke was an odd one, to be quite honest. I did really like that about him though. I was happy he wasn't bland and boring and very serious at all. Even though he didn't have the best manners or felt the need to add on to any comment ever said, it's what made our friendship golden.

-

It's been a week since Ellis and I broke up, or at least since he cheated on me. I haven't spoken one word to him and I didn't plan on it either. You would think that since he lived so close that we'd bump into each other at least once, but Manhattan is quite a big city. There's room for many things, just not bumping into your ex.

Things have gotten better, but there will be times where I can't stop thinking about it and how I feel like I broke a promise to myself. I'm happy with the way I handled the situation to be honest. I didn't want him to think that's he'd be able to walk right in with flowers and some apology speech and sew up my sorrows and then win me back. It wasn't a mistake he made, it was a decision. He knew what he was doing and it pushed me to the point of losing about every bit of respect I had for him.

Obviously I couldn't act like nothing had ever happened between us because he had been such a huge part of my life for some of the most important years of my life. But what I find the strangest part of it all is that he never really left an impact. He didn't pull me out of a fire, or jump in front of a bullet for me. I didn't lose my virginity to him or have a really romantic and cheesy kiss in the rain with him, so the more I think about it the more I realize that he probably wasn't the one anyways. Not that any of those things would define anyone as 'the one.'

I laid in my bed, blankly staring at my beige ceiling. I've been wanting to paint this place for ages since we'd gotten permission from the owners to do so. It was around 11 o'clock at night and I was settled in bed after my first day that was just about as hectic as I suspected it to be. Luckily, I'd familiarized myself with the campus so I wasn't one of those freshmen who looked like they were just completely lost.

My phone unexpectedly rang on the small table next to me, brightening my room. I rolled over and picked it up to see that my mom was calling me.

"Hi Mom." I quietly said, letting a smile fall on my face. I've missed her if I was going to be honest. There's nothing like having that support around.

"Hi." She replied back, laughing just a little. "How was your first day?" Her voice was very calm and soothing, quite a contrast to how loud my home usually was when I still lived there. We had a mad house that was always up and going, but in the good way.

"Better than I expected." I admitted, sitting up out of my bed.

"Teachers nice?"

"I hope so, so far so good." I sighed. It then occurred to me that school was now my number one priority and I was having to balance it around so many things.

"How's Luke?" She asked after a single pause. Her voice was more chipper, she always loved Luke and was practically his second mother. And she was also hoping to be his mother-in-law which she had told him many times and that I still found odd to this day.

"He's still Luke." I breathed out, letting a laugh follow afterwards.

"And Ellis?" She questioned right after. It was a constant cycle of Ellis being asked about after Luke and it occurred to me that I actually hadn't told anyone about Ellis and I breaking up-well, him cheating on me- except Luke.

"Um, we actually broke up." I stammered.

"Really? When?" Her voice was surprised, obviously. We'd always looked like the happy go lucky couple you see on the front of magazines, but the details were a little different.

"A week or two ago. It was a mutual thing." Technically I was telling the truth. We did break up a week or two ago and it was mutual that we obviously didn't have feelings for each other anymore. I know I didn't and knowing that someone else was in his bed confirmed it for me for his point of view.

"I'm sorry to hear that honey." She sounded very sympathetic yet at the same time she sounded kind of relieved. Which I wouldn't be surprised, Ellis' family and my family didn't crash too well and if we ever did get married our Christmas dinners would be very awkward as we'd be sitting in our pajamas while Ellis' family sat in their Sunday best.

"It's okay, really. We just lost feelings." Which was also the truth.

"Does that mean you and Luke will be a pair soon?" She gasped lightly, being the over dramatic mother that she is. She's had the same hope that Luke and I would fulfill her fairy tale dreams of two friends falling in love, but sadly I was crushing her reality.

"Mom." I whined, feeling embarrassed even after all of these years. I wasn't too big on letting her in on my love life or on her implying it.

"Sorry, sorry." She chuckled. "I'll let you go to bed. See you for Thanksgiving, I love you."

"See you then, I love you too, goodnight." I hung up the phone and immediately felt my body shake off my tiredness that I just had. I sighed and got out of my bed, trailing down the hallway to get to the kitchen.

I passed Luke's bedroom, doing a double take through his door, that he left wide open at night which is so weird to me, and saw him tossing and turning underneath his covers. I stopped in my tracks and walked towards him door frame, leaning my hip on it while I crossed my arms from being cold.

"You alright?" I asked, not being too loud since it was half an hour until midnight.

"I can't sleep." He mumbled as he turned his body to me.

"I can see that." I joked, nodded my head to him. "Is there anything I can do?" I was never the best at giving advice or offering help, but Luke knew that and probably wouldn't ask for anything.

"No, I'll be alright." He huffed, turning over once again. I backed out of his room and made my way back into the kitchen, grabbing a bottle of water and turning back around to head off to my room. I stayed quiet, not wanting to disturb Luke, but he had other plans.

"Autumn?" He called out just as I thought I successfully passed his room without bothering him. I backed up so I was in his view in his doorway, waiting for what he wanted.

"Can you come sleep with me?" He stretched his arms out, letting his bare chest peak through the covers he had wrapped over him. It was a talent of his that he could sleep without a shirt even when it felt below freezing in this house. I rolled my eyes at his request, yet still walked right into his room.

"How old are you again?" I asked, motioning him to move over. He scooted over at my request and patted the empty space next to him.

"Seven." He replied. Although it was nearly pitch black, my eyes had adjusted by now and the tiniest amount of light was peeping through his blinds from the city outside. I could see his same half smile he wore throughout the day.

"I'm a little bit old for you." I joked as I pulled his covers over my chilly body. He let me nuzzle into his shoulder, hovering his arms above me to wait until I got comfortable.

"I'm seven and a half then." He chuckled, finally squeezing his arms around me.

I was curled into a ball while we faced each other. My hands were clamped into a ball from clinging to the blanket as a poor attempt to get my hands warm. It felt like we were up for hours from all of the small conversations and whispers we passed to each other. Since I was with Luke, he still managed to make me laugh at time yet he wore me out at the same time.

It took me a while to realize that over the course of our conversation, we were tracing the outlines of each others hands under the covers. It was simple yet practically euphoric. It's not that I haven't touched his hands before, it was just that I hadn't in this way. The grazing feeling of his fingers tips over the crevice of every line and fold on my hand was mesmerizing when I finally took notice in it.

I felt like such a little thing was causing such a big thought in my head. It wasn't weird to be affectionate towards each other, it's just that it was new and something I felt I had been missing out on. Then I started thinking about how distracted I was from Ellis and that maybe that was the reason that I didn't love him. And maybe that distraction was Luke.

-

A/N:

this was more of a filler chapter, sorry if it was boring!

thank you if you're reading, i appreciate all of the votes and comments :----)