Chapter 8: Settling In
I walk to parking lot A and look for
Luke. He is nowhere to be seen, so I count ten spaces and find a small silver Volvo. At least it wasn’t as showy as Hayden’s car. On the back window there is a cross-country sticker. I stand and wait for him in front of his car. Two minutes later, I see Luke walking towards me in a white t-shirt with a backpack slung over his shoulder.
He smiles, “
Hey, sorry were you waiting long?”
“No, it’s fine,” I laugh.
He unlocks the car and I debate getting in the passenger seat or the back seat. I decide shotgun, so I open the door and get in. It isn’t until he gets in next to me that the reality of what is happening sinks in. I’m going to be living with Luke Parker for a week.
The car ride is silent and it would be awkward but
Luke blasts music. We ride for ten minutes before he starts driving into my neighborhood.
“Do you live here?” I ask.
“Yeah.”
“Oh, that’s weird, me too.”
He looks over at me, “Oh that’s funny. Well you won’t be too far from home then,” he smiles.
Oh my God that smile is gorgeous. I think I might have just melted in my seat.
“What street do you live on?” he questions.
I point
straight ahead and up the road, “The last one way up at the top.” He turns into the next street. “Wow, we live really close to each other.”
I smile to myself. Lucky me.
We pull into the driveway of a small house towards the middle of the street. It’s a one story house that is all white with a brown roof. There was a porch in front of it with three steps leading up to the front door. I grab my things and get out of the car, feeling butterflies in my stomach.
“Welcome home,”
Luke laughs.
I follow him up the porch and he unlocks the front door. I walk in and get a cozy feeling from the house. Right when you walk in there is a little family room with a couch and television. To the left
is a kitchen and dining room. To the right a long hallway with what I assume are bedrooms.
“Both my parents are at work right now so it’s just us until seven.
Both my sisters don’t live here anymore, so you can stay in one of their rooms,” he starts to smile again, “Or if you are afraid of the dark, you can sleep on the floor in my room.”
“I think I can handle
it by myself.”
“Good, I don’t think the carpet in my room is very comfy. Come on.”
I follow him down the hall to the second door on the right, “This is my sister Ruth’s room. Is this alright?” he asks.
“It’s perfect, thanks,” I answer. The room was medium sized and plain looking. The walls were white and bare, the drawers were empty, and the desk wasn’t cluttered like my room. The closet was a sliding door with a mirror and the only other door in the room led to the
bathroom.
“My room is right next door. Our bathroom is adjoined so I hope you don’t mind sharing it with me.”
“Well are you a major slob?” I ask. He looks at his feet and I can’t help but laugh, “I’m just messing with you. I don’t mind. I’m actually really messy, so I apologize in advance.”
He laughs too, “Okay good because I am pretty messy too.”
“Perfect we can ruin the bathroom together,” I smile. I set my bag on the bed and look around the room, not knowing what to do next.
“So, what do you want to do?” his eyebrows rise.
“You bought me, remember? I think you do what you want to do and I just follow you around,” I laugh.
He sits on the bed next to me, “Oh, right. I hate the Slave Auction,” he rolls his eyes.
“Same here.”
He looks at me strangely, “Then why did you do it?”
“I didn’t have a choice,” he looks at me weird again, “My best friend really wanted to do it with me so she signed me up without me knowing and then Courtney wouldn’t let me dropout.”
“
I hate Courtney too,” I giggle and he continues, “Yeah that sounds like it sucks, I always thought the whole thing was stupid and sexist and just not really appropriate,”
I feel my heart pound in my chest and those butterflies in my stomach must have been doing back flips, “That’s exactly what I have been saying this whole time!”
He laughs and it goes quiet again. Then he asks, “That day at Lance’s when the five of us were talking about the auction, did you hear the whole conversation?”
“I heard a lot more than I wanted too.”
He sighs, “I’m sorry about that. Hayden can be such a creep sometimes but once you get to know him he is a great guy.”
“Sounds like it,” I say sarcastically, “I could tell by the way he was yelling at you for bidding on me after the auction today,” I stop myself. “At
Lance’s you said you weren’t going to bid on anyone. So why did you bid so much for me?”
He doesn’t answer for a long time, “To save you from
Hayden.”
“I thought he was a ‘good guy’?”
“He is but, it’s just complicated.”
“What exactly did you save me from?” I question.
“I am not quite sure, but I won’t be able to save you from it for long.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because you are going to be auctioned a second time. And this time, Hayden will win.”
I flinch at the word ‘win’. I hate that word when talking about the Slave Auction.
“I have an idea,” Luke says standing up, “We need to get Hayden to stop liking you. Or we get one of the other boys to like you a lot so they will try harder to keep you from Hayden.”
I nod, “Um, okay, but how?”
“How about every day you hang out with each one of them. Just spend a whole day with them, get them to like you.” Luke explains. I feel awkward talking about this to Luke since A) I had a huge crush on him and B), this is pretty much the first conversation I have had with him.
“But isn’t the point of you spending so much
money on me is so I spend time with you?” I ask.
“No it’s okay I won’t mind.
I like being by myself a lot anyways”
I want to get him to think it is a bad idea so I shoot more things at him, “But
Nolan and Lance have their own girls.”
“They won’t mind.”
“But won’t they be suspicious?”
“No. I will tell
Hayden and Zac it is because I feel bad because I outbid them. And I will tell Nolan and Lance it is because I feel bad for making you be with me 24/7.”
I am quiet.
I didn’t have any more ideas for talking him out of this plan.
“Don’t worry it is just for a day each. You can still sleep here. If you hang out with
Zac tomorrow, Nolan on Thursday, Lance on Friday, and Hayden on Saturday, and then we can hang out Sunday and Monday.” He explains.
“Can I be with
Hayden on Friday? I don’t think I should spend a whole Saturday with him.”
“You need all the time you can have to make him stop liking you,”
Luke sits back down.
“How exactly do I do that?”
“He likes that you are mean to him so, don’t be.”
“You mean I have to be nice to that jerk?”
Luke smiles, “Do you want this to work or not?”
I sigh and nod.
Luke looks at the clock on the bedside table. It was only 3:30.
“Do you like
videogames?”
I look at him, “I love
videogames, why?”
“Let’s kill some time and play.” He leaves the room and I follow him into his bedroom.
His room has light blue paint on the walls and is very cluttered. “I told you I am a slob,” he laughs seeing me look around the room.
“You weren’t kidding,” I laugh too.
There was a mini television in front of his bed. He sits on the edge of the bed and I copy him. He hands me a remote controller and we play for hours, ‘killing time’.
Chapter 9:
Dinner at McDonald’s
At exactly 7:30, Luke’s dad, Geoff, comes home.
“Oh hello,” he says surprised to see me.
“Dad,” Luke starts, “This is Jenna. I bought her today at the Slave Auction.”
“Nice to meet you,” I say.
“Nice to meet you too. But, Luke I thought you said you weren’t going to bid on anyone?”
“I wasn’t, but I changed my mind at the last second,”
Luke shrugs.
“Well
, okay then,” Luke’s dad pauses and looks at him and then walks to the kitchen and we follow. “What do you guys want for dinner?”
“Are you planning on making anything?”
Luke asks, leaning against the white counter.
“No, I actually wasn’t going to eat anything. I have a lot of work to do tonight,” His father answers.
“What about Mom?”
“She has to stay at work late.”
Luke sighs, “Then I guess Jenna and I will go out.”
“Okay, have fun you two,” he says patting
Luke on the back. He grabs an apple from a bowl on the counter and walks away.
Luke
stares off into the distance for a few moments. I clear my throat and it seems to pull him out of his thoughts, “What are you hungry for?”
“I’m not picky,” I reply, “Whatever you want I am fine with.”
“Would you mind if I called Lance and asked if he wanted to join us?”
“Not at all,” I shake my head
, thinking about Daisy and Jessica.
We pull up to the nearest McDonald’s. As soon as we walk in, my mouth starts to water. Luke orders and I grab a table. While Luke and I are waiting for our food, Lance and Jessica walk in. Jessica joins me at the tale.
“Hey girl!” she exclaims, wrapping her arm around my shoulder.
“Hey, how has your day been?” I ask.
“Amazing!” she whispers excitedly, “
Lance kissed me!”
“He what? It’s only been like, 5 hours!”
“I know! We were just sitting and hanging out on the couch watching television. We were having so much fun, he is hilarious. And then he leaned over and kissed me! It was amazing!” she says glancing over at him and Luke.
“Wait, I thought you like
Hayden?” I ask confused.
“Not anymore.
Lance is probably ten times funnier and nicer, and not as big of a player.”
“Okay so does this mean you two are a couple?”
“I don’t know, I didn’t ask,” she stares at him in awe.
“Well you should tonight.”
“Okay, I will later.”
“And take things slow,
okay? Don’t jump right in and-”
“I won’t I promise! God
, mother,” she rolls her eyes.
I laugh, “So, why didn’t Daisy come too?”
“Oh yeah, she’s mad at me.”
“Already? What happened?”
“She walked in on me and Lance kissing. Her face turned bright red and she stormed out and locked herself in her bedroom.” Jessica looks at her hands.
“
Jessica!”
“How were we supposed to know she would walk in?” she shrugs.
“You know this was Daisy’s worst nightmare; One of us dating her brother.”
“I know,” Jessica sighs, “But I will make things right. I mean I am living with her for the next week, she has to forgive me soon.”
Luke and Lance walk up to the table with our food. We eat and chat and honestly, it is really fun. It felt like we were all old friends. At one point Lance wrapped his arm around Jessica. I guess that answered our question. It got pretty awkward after he did that, they got closer together and Luke and I just sat there trying to act like our best friends weren’t making out right in front of us. Once they finally stopped, and we all finished our food, Jessica and I go to the bathroom and Luke and Lance wait outside the restaurant for us.
“Did you have to make out right in front of me and
Luke?” I complain.
“Sorry,” she gives me a weak smile, “But I thought it would help push
Luke to make a move on you.”
“Yeah
. That didn’t work very well, did it?” I ask sarcastically.
We leave the bathroom and are about to walk outside when Jessica stops me, “Let’s slowly creep up on them, I want to hear what they are talking about.”
“What? Do you think they are talking about you?” I ask.
“I don’t know, let’s see.”
We slowly walk out and they are standing next to Luke’s car talking. Lance’s back is towards us and Luke’s view of us is blocked by Lance’ head. Jessica pulls me behind the car next to them.
“This is stupid,” I whine.
“Sh!”
“So can she spend the day with you two Friday?”
Luke is asking.
“Well, yeah but, it might be kind of awkward for her since Jessica and I are sort of
a thing now,” Lance replies.
“Oh, are
you actually going to start dating her?” Luke asks surprised.
“Well of course. I really like her, and I’m not
Hayden who just makes out with someone and doesn’t want to actually talk to the girl.” They both laugh. Jessica hits me excitedly on the arm.
“Okay well then if things get awkward she can hang out with Daisy,”
Luke says.
“Okay,”
Lance nods, “But I get her hanging out with Nolan, Zac and Hayden, but why me? I am going out with Jessica, I’m not going to bid on Jenna.”
“I told you already.”
“Oh, yeah. You need some time so you can see your g-”
Luke
cuts him off quickly, “Hello?” he looks at us.
Jessica gives me a panicked look like she didn’t know what to do.
I stand up and pull my ear, “Hey sorry, can you hold on a second, I dropped the back of my earring and we need to find it.”
I bend back down with Jessica and she nods at me.
“Do you want us to help?” Luke asks.
“Oh I found it!” Jessica yells and we both stand back up. I fiddle with my earring and we walk over to them.
“That would have been bad,” I mumble under my breath, “Thanks, Jess.”
“Okay well, we should be going,”
Lance says, “Bye-bye you two,” he winks.
“Bye,” Jessica says and hurries to catch up with him.
I turn to Luke, “You ready?”
“Yeah, but I don’t want to go home.”
“Why?”
“It’s so boring at my house. Want to get some ice cream?”
I nod and we get in the car. My mind races all the way there. What were they talking about when Jessica and I were listening? He needs to visit who? Was Lance about to say girlfriend? Does Luke have a secret girlfriend and that’s why he wants to get me out of the house? I feel destroyed. He really did just buy me because he was a nice guy. He wasn’t attracted to me at all. I should get over him. Maybe it is a good thing I am hanging out with the others this week; maybe I will really like one of them. Maybe Hayden won’t be such a bad guy after all.