Fangirl

When I wake up, I'm being cuddled by Luke, who is of course, still sleeping. I grin, and try my best to get up without bothering him. Honestly, it's times like these I wish I was a gymnast, because I am not flexible enough to worm my way out of his hand. I walk down stairs, just to see if Max is up yet. I'd love to hear how awful spending a whole night with Amy was.

I look into the kitchen, but instead of Max, I see Liz, making coffee. I raise my eyebrows and try to escape up the stairs. I don't really want to embarrass myself again, especially alone with no one to save me from humiliation.

"Riley, wait," I hear. God damn it. I slowly back up down the stairs, and look over at her. "Come, sit down." Liz smiles, patting the counter. I shuffle nervously over to a stool, and sit down. She just smiles at me, and I can already feel the anxiety starting to rumble in my stomach. Or that's just because I'm hungry. Probably both. "That's Luke's stool." She smiles more.

"Oh- Uh, sorry," I say, getting up.

"No no, it's okay, sit down." She turns back to the coffee pot, and I look around the room. The walls are super soft yellow, the floor is white and tiled. Behind me are three large tall windows, with white curtains. It's so pretty in here. "Luke seems to really like you." She brings up. My face turns a bright shade of pink, while I do my best to conjure up some words besides 'oh', 'uh', and 'sorry'. She turns back to me with a cup of coffee, and laughs. "Oh sweetie don't look so nervous! I didn't mean to embarrass you." She chuckles. She sits down with another cup of coffee and slides it over to me. "Here, drink that." I nod. "You know I like you too." She smiles, and I smile back, unsure of what to say. Whatever I say is just going to be stutters anyway. "I mean you're shy, but you'll get there."

"Get where?" I ask. Wow. Didn't stutter. That's beautiful.

"To where I am, of course." She laughs, posing. "Don't think I got the title of queen by just sitting in my room." She leans over the counter, and the anxiety sparks again. "You have to know what you want, okay?" I nod. "And then you go after it until you get it." She grins. "How do you think I got Luke's father?" She laughs. I smile. She sits back down, "I never really liked Amy that much anyway." She says, with a disgusted face, and then laughs.

"Are you saying you think I-"

"Mum, please." Luke says. We look over at the door frame, where he's standing.

Liz sighs. "Don't tell me what." She gets up at walks out, winking at Luke and looking back at me, which earns an eye roll from him.

"Sorry about my mum." He laughs, "She scares people."

I laugh, "No, it's fine. She's nice."

"Heeeyyy losers." Michael walks in.

"You're in a good mood." Luke points out.

"Well I-"

"Was there a lot of Malum happening last night?" I ask, and wink. His face turns pink and I swear he almost slapped me.

"No, Riley." He laughs. "Malum isn't real." He swings an arm around Luke's shoulder and grin, "Muke is real."

"Pfft." Luke rolls his eyes.

"Oooh, a love triangle. Luke, please tell me Cake is real too." I laugh.

"It is." He grins, sipping his tea.

"Are you cheating on me babe?" Michael frowns, looking at Luke sadly.

He just turns to Michael, "Yes."

Michael gasps, and puts a hand over his chest. "I can't believe you!" He then pretends to die and lies on the floor. I nearly cry of laughter.

"Why are you people so lou-" Max walks in, and Michael jumps up, which causes her to jump and almost fall over. "MICHAEL!" She yells. He just starts laughing. "Don't do that! Why were you on the floor anyway?!"

"He was demonstrating that Malum isn't real, Muke is real, but then he found out Cake is real and demonstrated-"

"I don't need to know how he demonstrated if it ended with him on the floor." She laughs.

"Why," He puts an arm around her, "Cause you looovve me?"

"No, because it was probably something awkward and sexual." She smiles.

"I just died." He shrugs.

"Oh please, do it again?" He laughs and shakes his head.

"Don't be mean Max."

"I'm just encouraging you to be an actor." She shrugs, and sits next to me. Luke pulls Michael aside and talks to him, so I turn to Max.

"How was Amy?"

"Fucking. Hell." She sighs. "I got like three hours of sleep. She just kept whining and whining about Liz, and how you and Luke shouldn't be in the same room. How did that go, by the way?"

I shrug. "Good. Like it normally does-"

"What do you mean like it normally does?"

I look at her with confusion. "I thought you knew? Luke and I share a bunk a lot?"

Her eyebrows raise. "I was not aware. Are you a thing?"

"No." I shrug.

"But you wanna be." She elbows my ribs, and I bat her hand away, not answering that.

"Aight turtles," Michael turns around, "We're thinking beach."

"Can I take my phone." Max asks.

Michael laughs, "Duh. You think I'm actually going to socialize?" He snorts, and she smiles.

Notes