Why is he here?!I can barely feel the noise around me, but my skin burns like it's on fire with the way Luke's eyes stare back at me like I am the only girl in the room.His hair is messy as usual, but his blue eyes are a little bit dim compared to the bright colored lights swirling around in the room. He looks breathtaking in his white t-shirt, and I find myself gulping at the thought of all the hot tattoos and muscled sexiness the fabric is hiding.I look back up at his face, and I swallow again when I find him still staring at me. Shame begins to churn the contents of my stomach, but as I try to look away from him, someone else catches my attention.A girl, almost the same height as me, appears by his side, wrapping her hand around his arm. She tugs at him. Luke breaks eye contact with me and turns to her. The uneasiness in the pit of my stomach is replaced with thick nausea when she lifts up her feet and mutters something to Luke's ear, making him laugh.My heart is starting to b
Before I leave through the door to join Camilla outside, I pause for a while and turn back, my eyes scanning around the noisy house for Luke. Pain stops my heart for a moment when I don't see him. My belly burns with the thought of him being alone with that girl in some fucking room upstairs, allowing her mess around with him and having her rub her hands all over him and maybe even allowing her to fuck him—"Alicia." Reece calls, making me turn around. I walk towards her and when I reach her, she grabs my hand and gives it a squeeze."Why the hell did you agree to play truth or dare?" She whispers. "You and I are well aware of the fact that you haven't played truth or dare before in your life.""I will be fine Reece." I whisper back, my words coming out with a bit slur. "Don't worry about me."I pat the back of her hand wrapped around my hand. I lift it up and give it a little peck.What the hell is wrong with me?Well, whatever.Reece sighs and snuggles close to Michael with her hand
I suck in a breath and stand. My legs feel wobbly, but I manage to reach the table without staggering. Before tonight, I had never drank Sex on the Beach. I had never played truth or dare.I guess tonight is the night of 'A Lot of Firsts' for me.On reaching the table, I dip my hand into the bucket and bring out a folded paper. As usual, Josh collects it from me and shows it to everyone before he reads out what is written on it."I dare you to kiss the person you find most attractive here for three minutes."What?!My heart does a mad flip. Camilla chuckles a bit.Why kissing of all freaking dares?!"I doubt if she has ever kissed anyone before." Hasley taunts with a giggle.I ignore her and take a breath before looking around. I can't believe that I am considering doing this dare, but after I am done, maybe I can blame it on the alcohol raging in my body system.Daniel is quite attractive, but he is a manwhore, and for some weird reason, I detest the ring piercing on his bottom lip. L
If a burning gaze has the power to kill, then it is certain that I should be six feet deep in the ground right now. Dead. Grilled to death by the hot coals blazing from Luke's glistening red eyes.Seconds that feel like insane torture pass by as Luke's flaming eyes burn into mine. He is not saying anything, but I don't want him to. Not yet.Not now that I am sure that his words will shatter me to pieces if he speaks them."Go to hell Alicia."And they do shatter me. To tiny, irredeemable pieces. He spits them out with so much venom that actually takes me to hell and back. My vision blurs, and I allow the tears to pour.My palm is itching with pain from the slap. What have I done? How. . . . . .how could I have been so stupid?"Luke I—"He turns away from me and walks over to the driver's door of the car. I watch him helplessly as he opens the door.He is about to enter, but stops."Uhm, about the project, I am almost done with the paintings. You can drop by whenever you like if you ca
I toss around on my bed when I hear a couple of knocks on my door. My eyes flutter open. When I hear the chirping of birds outside my window, I dart my eyes to the clock.It is already 7:00am in the morning.The knock on my door comes again, followed with a voice I can recognize even in my dreams."Alicia?" Sarah's voice calls."Alicia?" She calls again. "I am coming." I manage to croak out.I sit up on my bed. Immediately I do, a banging headache spikes in my brain. I wince and clutch my head at once. It feels like a disco concert is going live in my head. The pain stings my eyes with tears, and I move down my hands to wipe them away.I gather some strength and climb out from my bed. When I stand, it feels like I am carrying a full heavy bucket of water on my head. I slump back on my bed and manage to turn to look at myself in the mirror.A terrible looking girl with scattered hair and puffy red eyes with big swollen cheeks stare back at me. I gasp at my reflection, moving my hands
I sink myself into the warm water of the bathtub, allowing the water to wet my messy hair. I pop up from the water and lay back my hair from my face before relaxing my back to the porcelain wall of the bathtub.My eyes close, and Sarah's words come rushing back into my head.I know I have never had a boyfriend before, and that I have been pinning the blame on my busy academic lifestyle for years.But Sarah's words are shifting the blame to something else. They are shifting the blame to something really hurtful that I am now realizing is undoubtedly the real reason why I have never even bothered to date someone, or even considered the thought of having a boyfriend.Before my parents' marriage crashed, they were the most lovely couple I had ever seen in my life. My dad loved my mum so much that he even tattooed her name on his right arm. The day he got that tattoo, he didn't allow any of us to have peace. He was brandishing it everywhere. He even wore sleeveless shirts for almost a mont
To my Dearest Readers, Thank you all so much for coming this far with me on this story. Your support and perseverance with this book gives me enough strength to continue this story, and for that, I am really thankful. Sadly, it is with great pain and helplessness that I write to you all today to inform you guys that I won't be able to update this story for some period of time. My school exams are choking me right now, and in order to keep giving you guys the best of this story, I have to clear my papers first so that my brain will be relieved and stable enough to keep on giving you guys the best. I am so sorry for whatever inconvenience this may cause any of you, but I promise to bounce back and smother you all with lots of delicious chapters. I love you all, and I also value your feedbacks, ratings and endless support. I am really glad to be on this ride with you all. You guys are the real MVPs. With so much love, Lora Ashley.
I climb out of the bathtub and wipe my wet body quickly with my towel. When I dash into my room, I glance at the clock.It is just 8:45am.Sarah must be very tired and probably asleep right now, so I will just drop her a note.I quickly go through my skincare routine of applying my body lotion and my facial cream and serum. Next, I throw on a black tank top and blue jeans shorts. The sun is surprisingly hot this early in the morning, and the last thing I need now is to feel sweaty in big clothes.I brush my hair and pull it up into a messy bun. After applying some powder and lip gloss with some perfume, I pick up a pen and tear out a sheet of paper from my rough book to scribble down a note to Sarah, to inform her that I will be leaving to go see Luke. Done, I grab my sling bag lying lazily on my bed and tuck in the note, my phone, my spare library key, and some cash from my drawer into the bag.I glance at the clock again. 9:02am.I look back at myself in the mirror and gulp in a bre
What?!" I gasp.The breeze whips through Luke's hair, blowing it across his face. His hand pushes it back."Yeah. There is this lady called Sienna that I started seeing quite often with my dad since like three months ago. She is pretty, jovial, and I thought she was just one of my dad's friends. But this week Monday, my dad came out to me about his true relationship with her. I was paralyzed with shock to the point that I couldn't do anything that day." "You said you found out this week Monday?" I interrupt, my mind going through a puzzle."Yeah."The dots connect. Shit. "So that was why you weren't in school that day?" I blurt out, my realization hitting me with a bang.He nods. "The news fucked up my head so bad that I couldn't bring myself to come to school that day. I spent most of that day at Tyler's studio. I wasn't expecting to see you there later that day. I also wasn't in my right frame of mind." He sighs deeply. "I still feel a bit pissed at myself that I reacted so bad towa
This is cruel. This is so cruel. So cruel that I feel like dragging my fingers through my hair. So cruel that it reminds me of my own pain. So when Luke was grappling with his mum's death, I and Sarah were being whisked around from court to court to listen to my parents yell and throw curses at each other and to listen from judge to judge asking Sarah and I which parent we would want to stay with. Why do we have to suffer for the shitty things our parents did? We didn't force any of them to bring us into this world. The least they could have done for us was to try to be better for us."I passed the night at my uncle's place. I stayed in his house a couple more days, and then on the third day, in the morning, my dad showed up at my uncle's house, looking normal. He begged me to come back home with him. My uncle, who was his elder brother, beat him up so badly and had the police arrest him for trespassing his property. It was a tough, ugly scenerio to watch. During my mom's burial, my da
He goes super still and silent at my question for a while, but just when I begin to think that he may not answer me or do anything, his hands on my back and face leave my body. He steps back a bit from me and lifts his t-shirt up over his head, exposing his naked torso to me. My eyes go directly to the tattooed date on the left side of his abdomen.15. 05. 2012.I am not given enough time to ogle at it because Luke turns around in silence, his inked back facing me as he walks to a space on the clearing a little bit far from the motorcycle. I watch his hard muscles flex with each movement. They flex harder when he settles down on the mowed grass. He drops his t-shirt to his bosom, staring afar at the blue water crashing its waves to the rocks.I wonder what is going through his mind right now, but I know that whatever it is must definitely be related to my question earlier. His silence lures me to join him there, and I do. I walk over to him and settle down beside him on the grass. His
I stare back squarely at him, gulping hard. "Even if you wish you could take it back, the sad news is you can't, Luke, because I love you too."My somersaulting heart gradually stops thumping so hard, and I feel like a huge burden has just been uplifted from my chest. Luke blinks hard at my confession, the action making a single tear drop from his right eye down to his cheek. He wipes it away quickly as his eyes squint back at me, crease lines appearing on the top of his forehead. He takes a step back away from me, shaking his head. A sad chuckle escapes from his lips."You don't have to fucking lie to me that you love me just to make me feel better, Alicia. I do not want your pity. What I want is your complete honesty with me, at least I deserve that."My heart shreds. Why is everything crumbling so fast? I love him. Why can't he see that? I know exactly what I feel for him. It is crazy. Exhilarating, and I know for sure that I did not leave my fucking house just to come all this way
The wind whips through my hair roughly, wheezing past me in sharp gusts as Luke races down the road with a speed that steals every of my exhaling breaths away. I love the cool sharp feeling of the wind blasting my face, but what I love more is how the blowing wind carries Luke's scent to me.Gosh I love this. I love him. I still hate myself for having to deny the truth to myself for this long.We race past various cars and road signs, and I feel my eyes nearly popping out of their sockets when I catch the view of a set of hills outside town.The truth is that they are not just some ordinary set of hills that I have never seen before. They are the same set of hills that Luke and I visited the day he showed me his art studio for the first time. The blue water waves are splashing at the thick rocks beneath the tall cliffs, their crashing beauty reminding me of the awe I felt when I saw them for the very first time that day.I know Luke is taking us there. I can feel it deep in my guts.I
"Mr Douglas?" I croak out, still finding it very hard to believe my eyes.What the hell am I seeing right now?! What the freaking hell is going on here?!"Alicia what are you. . . . .what are you doing here?" He stutters back at me, his blue eyes bulging so wide that I can clearly see the shock and discomfort shimmering in them.Wait a minute.I turn my eyes away from Mr Douglas and place them right back at Luke, who is now staring at me like I just caught him gorging on a forbidden box of sweet milk candies. That is when I see it. Notice it. For the very, first, time.The resemblance is there. Fuck! It has always been there. In their identical deep blue eyes and perfectly sculpted jawlines. The rest of Luke's facial features look softer, feminine.And I figure out instantly that he may be sharing those softer features with his mom, who I am just finding out today, is dead.God. Why the fuck does no one in school know about them? Just how much don't I know about Luke Evans?The tensi
"Hey Alicia, how are you?"Tyler's voice is the first thing that greets me immediately I step out of the cab that drops me in front of his studio, which was of course the first place that popped into my mind to go search for Luke.I just hope he is here."I am cool." I reply, looking around the premises. My doubt begins to poke my insides when I don't see any sign of Luke's motorcycle parked around. "Have you seen Luke? Is he here?" I hurriedly rush out the questions.Tyler shakes his head. "No. He is not here." He corks his eyebrows at me, looking me over, two thin lines creasing at the top of his forehead. "What is going on Alicia? You look. . . . . .tensed."Tensed is an understatement. He should see how torn apart and messy I look inside."It is just. . . . ." I take in a short breath. "I have been searching and calling Luke, but he has not picked any of my calls.""Yo, what happened between you two?"I scratch the back of my neck in impatience. "It is a long story Tyler. Please, d
I climb out of the bathtub and wipe my wet body quickly with my towel. When I dash into my room, I glance at the clock.It is just 8:45am.Sarah must be very tired and probably asleep right now, so I will just drop her a note.I quickly go through my skincare routine of applying my body lotion and my facial cream and serum. Next, I throw on a black tank top and blue jeans shorts. The sun is surprisingly hot this early in the morning, and the last thing I need now is to feel sweaty in big clothes.I brush my hair and pull it up into a messy bun. After applying some powder and lip gloss with some perfume, I pick up a pen and tear out a sheet of paper from my rough book to scribble down a note to Sarah, to inform her that I will be leaving to go see Luke. Done, I grab my sling bag lying lazily on my bed and tuck in the note, my phone, my spare library key, and some cash from my drawer into the bag.I glance at the clock again. 9:02am.I look back at myself in the mirror and gulp in a bre
To my Dearest Readers, Thank you all so much for coming this far with me on this story. Your support and perseverance with this book gives me enough strength to continue this story, and for that, I am really thankful. Sadly, it is with great pain and helplessness that I write to you all today to inform you guys that I won't be able to update this story for some period of time. My school exams are choking me right now, and in order to keep giving you guys the best of this story, I have to clear my papers first so that my brain will be relieved and stable enough to keep on giving you guys the best. I am so sorry for whatever inconvenience this may cause any of you, but I promise to bounce back and smother you all with lots of delicious chapters. I love you all, and I also value your feedbacks, ratings and endless support. I am really glad to be on this ride with you all. You guys are the real MVPs. With so much love, Lora Ashley.