29. Gigi
CHAPTER 29
Gigi
Stretching out my arms, I let out a yawn. Finals week is coming up and me, Luke, Zoey, and Kai have all been isolating ourselves in Luke and Kai’s apartment, pulling all-night study sessions. It’s nine o’clock at night and I’m barely holding on. My eyes are droopy, and I feel tingles on my legs from sitting cross-legged next to the coffee table for too long.
“I’m going to take a power nap,” I announce.
Without missing a beat, Luke moves his feet and starts walking into his room. Trailing behind him, I find my boyfriend pulling a clean pair of sweatpants from his drawer. “So you’re comfy,” he says before kissing my head and walking back into the living room to return to his laptop.
My heart warms at how thoughtful he is. Luke is a great boyfriend, a wonderful one, even. He isn’t overly affectionate. He doesn’t encourage me to do crazy things and he’s completely okay with being on the sidelines, letting me have the attention when we are with other people. Not that he has to, because how he is has actually been growing on me, but he makes up for all of those things with acts of kindness, his gentleness that I’m finally getting a taste of, and zero mind games.
Feeling my eyelids getting heavy, I fall asleep with the realization that I might be in love with Lucas Palmer.
I wake up to find a sitting Luke scrolling through his phone, leaning against the headboard. When he notices me stir, his mouth forms a lazy smile.
“Your power nap turned into a two hour long one,” he tells me. “Kai and Zoey are in his room.”
“Why didn’t you wake me?” I ask, not meaning a single word.
“Seems like you needed it, Gi.” Pulling me closer to him, he gives me a kiss on the forehead before showing me the screen of his phone. “Are you still going to New York for summer break?”
“Dad offered to pay for my tickets this time, but I don’t know yet. Mom has been begging me to come to Kinsdale Springs.”
A crease forms on his forehead as he looks at me. “Didn’t you say last-minute tickets were expensive?”
“That’s why he offered to pay.” I shoot Luke a guilty smile. This will be my first summer since everything happened. I’ve been losing sleep, mulling over what I should do. Although my trip back to Kinsdale Springs is probably long overdue, I don’t know if I’m ready yet. But visiting my dad again would piss Mom off and make her feel second best. I guess with all the thinking I forgot that the end of the semester is just around the corner. “You’re going back home, right? You promised Becca last week that you would.”
Then there’s also that. Being a couple at school is one thing, but if I visit Mom, how on Earth are we going to navigate that? As if Luke read my mind, he shoves his phone closer to me so I can read what’s on it properly. Luke and I have never even spent our vacations together, with me usually in New York. Andrew used to call those months his Luke and Andrew bonding time.
“Old family friends of mine are getting married in July. I thought we could go together.”
“Like a?—”
“Yeah,” he answers, nervousness dancing in his eyes. “Like a plus-one kind of situation.”
Well, holy shit. “Will Andrew’s parents be there?” I ask hesitantly.
Luke gives me a casual shrug. “Probably.”
“Don’t you think it’s weird?”
“What’s weird?” he asks as he wraps an arm around my stomach and kisses my shoulder. “We started sleeping together in March, Gi. It’s time, don’t you think? It’ll be worse if we drag it on for long. They’ll think we’re sneaking around.”
It is time. I know this. Especially because what Luke and I share, it feels real. A little fucked up, maybe. But it’s raw, and simple, and real.
“What’s the plan? To just show up and hold hands, hoping they’ll get the hint?”
Luke chuckles as he nuzzles my neck, the vibration traveling down my spine. “Hear me out. What if we both go back to Kinsdale Springs after finals? We can ease everyone into it and break the news to the family before the wedding. Your mom and my dad first, and then I don’t know…we’ll drive over to Uncle Mike and Aunt Judith and tell them the news. Over lunch or something.”
“Just so you know, your aunt doesn’t like me,” I sigh, already dreading the conversation.
“That’s a load of crap. Everyone likes you.”
“Except for her.”
Luke gives me a look, trying to communicate be serious with his eyes. “Well, she never said anything to me about it.”
“Because she thinks we’re not close,” I say, causing him to laugh. “It’s not bullshit, Luke. Andrew was partying nonstop his senior year. She told him I was corrupting him. He told me himself.”
Luke snorts in response. “Andrew started drinking when he was fifteen. He probably just stopped caring about hiding it.”
“Yeah, but she doesn’t know that. She thinks I corrupted her precious altar boy.”
“Altar boys are only for Catholics, Gi. We don’t have them.”
“Says the guy with a tattoo of a saint.” I roll my eyes. “You also don’t have those.”
“He was a disciple first, smartass.”
We both laugh and my heart tingles, realizing that conversations about Andrew don't make the both of us flinch anymore. He will always be a part of us, good and bad. That’s the thing about losing someone, isn’t it? At some point, you have no choice but to move forward.
“She’ll learn to love you. I’m pretty sure.”
“How can you be sure?” I still remember the side-eye she used to give me.
Luke pauses for a moment. I’m trying to figure out how he’s going to defend that lie of his, but then he surprises me with his answer. “Because she’ll see that I’m happy when I’m with you.”
“Then I’ll come,” I say, planting my smiling lips on his chest. This is important for him. Besides, how can I say no to that adorable face of his? Filled with hope. “Let’s go back to Kinsdale Springs for the summer.” I’m happy, too, probably the happiest I’ve ever been in a long time.