👉👌Luke's POV👌👈

"How does he do that?" I said to myself as I watched one of the best mannequin challenges. My face was still in complete aww until the actual mannequin messed up and everyone started complaining because by then I was laughing. "You never cease to impress me Ryan Higa."

My momentary bliss is taken away when I see a message from Layla.

Can I come over?

Layla is one of my best friends and I will always love her, but trying to act cool around her when I know what her boyfriend really did is one of the most challenging things I have ever done in my fifteen years of life. One of the main reasons I have been able to do it for as long as I have is because we are usually with one other person if not two but her asking like this means she wants to talk to me privately and I don't think I can handle that.

Sure I message back.

Twenty minutes later Layla is walking into my room with two bug bags of Popcorners and a small smile on her face.

"Let's talk."

"I was going to say 'hey, what's up' but that works too." I say jokingly.

"I'm serious, Luke." Layla says as she walks over to me and hands me my Costco wholesale sized bag of chips.

"And I'm serious about introductions." I reply.

"Okay okay, can we talk now?" Layla asks.

"Yes, now what brings you into my office?" I ask while patting the spot next to me on my bed and putting on my best therapist voice.

"Well I'm having some relationship problems and out of my four best friends you and Aubrey are the most comfortable and least awkward about it."

I tense when I realize where this conversation is going but continue anyway.

"Meaning we don't act like Sean and Hunter."

"Exactly."

"Why didn't you go to Aubrey then?" I ask.

"Because she's busy right now and you live super close to me."

"Gee, thanks." I mutter.

"You are also the only other person who loves Popcorners as much as I do." 

I smile at that before opening the resealable bag and digging my hand in.

"So what's the problem in paradise?" I ask.

Layla stops for a second, clearly thinking of how to word her answer.

"Rick has been acting....distant lately," she says, never ceasing her chewing.

"Distant how?"

"I don't know, maybe it's the Adiutor in me but I can tell he's hiding something from me, and I don't know what to do about it."

I look at my friend taking in her defeated expression.

I can't keep this from her any longer.

"Layla, I need to tell you something."

"What is it?" She asks, her voice slightly muffled by the chips.

"Sometime last week I was going to one of my classes when....someone pulled me by my arm and dragged me into a random closet. There he-" I take a moment to clear my throat. "Touched me and tried to force . . . himself into my mouth."

Saying Layla looked shocked would've been an understatement, but I knew I had to tell her.

"W-why didn't you tell us?" She asks.

"Because you didn't need to know." I said before continuing. "After that someone found us and beat the guy until he was unconscious."

Her eyes filled with relief and I hated the fact that the next words had to come out of my mouth.

"It was Rick." I whisper.

"What?" Layla asks, clearly not hearing me.

"It was Rick."

She stays silent for a moment.

"Rick saved yo-"

"No, Rick is the guy who tried to rape me." I say, surprised by the strength in my voice.

"You're lying." She says weakly while slowly standing up. “It can’t be true.”

"Layla-"

She storms out of the room leaving me there.

What have I done?

—————

The Next Day...

🔥Conner's POV🔥

"People these days." I muttered as I looked at a small compilation of people doing the one finger challenge.

I had been waiting outside of the school for a couple minutes now because Luke called me the day before asking if we could do the marking in the morning.

He didn't really give me a reason but I decided that he probably just wanted to be able to go through the day with no worry.

"Hey Conner, sorry for making you wait." I heard Luke say.

I looked up to see him standing less than an arms length away from me panting with slightly flushed cheeks.

My body slowly started to heat up when the mixture of our scents that Luke has been wearing for the past two days drifted up to my nose.

Damn, that smells amazing.

I had heard rumors from other Auxilio and my dad about how amazing it is when your smell mixes with your spouses and all you can think about is taking them somewhere and having your way with them.

I never had the chance to smell it since whenever Luke was close enough it was because we had to do the marking again and by that time the smell had mostly faded.

"It's fine, are you ready?" I asked him as I stuffed my phone into my pocket.

I look at Luke to find him with his mouth open, taking in small breaths.

"Luke?"

He doesn't answer.

I am about to open my mouth again when in the blink of an eye he closes the distance between us. He touches my cheek, standing on his toes to whisper in my ear.

"I've always been ready."

I stare at him with wide shocked eyes, ignoring the throbbing in my pants.

Even more surprisingly, he returns the look before stuttering out.

"S-sorry, I didn't m-mean t-to say that-t out l-loud."

I look at him again then sigh, trying to rein in my reactions.

"It's fine, I honestly don't mind."

But this is odd. I try to think of some reasons why he would be acting like this.

An idea pops into my head but I quickly ignore it.

I then pull Luke towards me and re-apply the marking, blissfully ignoring the fact that we kissed way longer than we needed to and that for some reason a hard "object" was pressing into my thigh anytime Luke pressed against.

They were right when they said ignorance is bliss.