“It’s half three.”
“Really?” She frowned. “Wow, you’d think I would be more tired.” I shook my head, not knowing what to say to that. Shouldn’t she be worried that we were out all night? Well, she hadn’t been for the last fuck knows how long so why would she now?
“My parents tried to call but I turned my phone on silent after speaking to Dad.”
“Why are you so worried, Luke?” she asked.
“It’s half three and I said I would take care of you. Your mum’s gonna be pissed.” I groaned. This was just great, Alison was never going to trust me with her daughter again.
“You said you would take care of me, which you have, so where’s the problem?”
Really? She wasn’t getting this? “It’s half three, Tegan!”
She laughed. “Say it as many times as you like, it’s not gonna get any earlier.”
“This isn’t funny. Come on, we need to go,” I said as I jumped up.
“I’m tired now,” she moaned, rubbing her eyes as she stood up.
“You can sleep in the car.”
“I don’t want to sleep in the car.”
“Then sleep when we get back to yours.”
“But I’m tired now.”
I couldn’t help laughing. “You’re hard work, you know?”
“Thank you.” She smiled as if I had just given her a compliment and started walking down the hill.
Chapter Eighteen
Lucas
We pulled into her driveway thirty minutes later and I was scared to get out of the car. Her mum had every right to be pissed off and I didn’t want her to not trust me with her daughter.
“So, are we going or do you stay out here? I wasn’t kidding when I said I can’t sleep in cars.”
I couldn’t even crack a smile. “Yeah, I guess.”
“Oh God, you’re scared, aren’t you?”
She beamed with amusement. Glad one of us wasn’t panicking.
“I don’t want to piss your mum off, Tegan, I want to be…” I realised what I was about to say and quickly shut the hell up.
“You want to be what?”
“Nothing? I just don’t want to piss her off. Let’s get inside.” I turned to open my door but she gripped my arm.
“Hold up! That was so a lie. You can’t just say that and not finish. Tell me, Luke.”
It’s not obvious?
“Really, it’s not important.”
“Well, then there’s no reason why you can’t tell me,” she said with a smug grin.
“You don’t want to know.” I took a deep breath. Fuck it, here goes. “I don’t want your mum to be pissed at me because...” I paused and my heart was going wild. This could potentially end badly for me.
Raising her eyebrow, she said, “Because...”
“Because I want be with you, Tegan.” Jesus, how could she not see it? Although, she clearly blocked out a lot right now. When she didn’t respond and her eyes grew mores distant I knew I shouldn’t have said anything. “Please say something.”
“I don’t know what to say,” she whispered. I could tell what she was thinking ‘we’d agreed to be friends and nothing more’.
“Right. We should go in.”
“No, wait. Please, Luke, I don’t want things to be weird between us.”
“It’s fine. It won’t be weird, I promise.” It was a crap situation but I couldn’t blame her for not wanting anything to happen between us. I wasn’t exactly the king of patience, especially during the wait for Dad’s op, but I could appreciate that she needed more time.
I got out of the car after her and followed her up the path. She was as eager to get away from that situation as I was then. The front door flew open and I groaned. This wasn’t going to go well either. I could feel a headache coming on.
“Where have you two been? I’ve been going out of my mind,” Alison snapped.
“We were just out, Mum,” Tegan replied. She sounded bored and I wished I’d told her to let me do the talking.
I knew why she acted like that towards everyone, especially those closest to her, but it really wasn’t helping. Alison did nothing but stare.
“Yes, I know out, Tegan, but it would have been nice to know exactly where my teenage daughter was.”
I stepped in front of Tegan slightly, hoping that she would shut up and diffuse the situation. “I’m sorry, Alison. We went to the beach and completely lost track of time.”
“Thank you for apologising, Lucas.” She looked at Tegan as she said my name. Tegan rolled her eyes. Sometimes she played the bitch too well and I couldn’t tell if she genuinely didn’t care or if it was all an act to protect herself.
“Well, at least you were with Lucas.” That I didn’t expect. Nor did I expect the way it made me feel.
“You mean not with Kai?” Tegan asked.
Where the fuck did that come from?
“It’s not okay for you to be out with him. You barely know him for starters–”
“I’ve known him a while, longer than Luke, I just didn’t ask a whole lot of questions,” she said.