Chapter Thirteen

Caliegh's POV

"She's where?!" Yes, I already knew fully well that she and Mathias had gone out to a restaurant for a date night. But I wasn't aware that they never made it to the restaurant. I was getting concerned when I didn't see her at any of our meals that day. At breakfast I figured that she'd just come down late. But she never did. At lunch, I worried a bit. I thought that maybe she was with Mathias at our other table, but Mathias sat with us during lunch. And then…dinner. I was freaking out. She didn't even show up at all. Even Mathias was looking a little worried. I knew I was probably fidgety and annoying Lukas, but he didn't seem to mind for the most part.

Goodness, why do you think I loved him so much.

Anyway, Lukas and I were in the library doing homework when Lukas got a text from Mathias, saying that he was taking Gabby to the hospital wing. Okay, what?! What'd he do to her?! Then I remembered: Gabby hadn't eaten literally all day. Then I remembered another detail about my sister. It was the fact that she thought she was fat when she completely wasn't; perhaps she had tried to make herself look thinner by not eating all day? I hoped with everything I had that that wasn't what had happened.

Unfortunately, a few minutes later Lukas got another text. "It says that she starved herself. She fell down the stairs because she got dizzy, and now her wrist's sprained." I froze while writing out an algebraic equation, furrowing my eyebrows in worry.

"Well…is she okay?" I said, my voice hardly above a whisper. Lukas nodded, tapping on the screen of his phone.

"She has to wear a cast for a bit, and her head is bruised, but other than that she's fine." I crossed my legs and twirled my hair between my pointer and middle finger, frowning.

"I knew this would happen eventually…She's tried it once, but the lunch lady made her eat food. I told her to never do it again, but…" I swallowed. Was I really this protective of my younger sibling? Even after five and a half years of not seeing her, I was still the sa-

My thoughts were interrupted as Lukas's arm found its way around my shoulders, hugging me close. Even though we'd been dating for—what, two weeks?—a while, the small coupley motions like this still make my heart race and my face flush a deep shade of red.

"Caliegh, you're cute when you're worried," He muttered, putting his lips close to my ear. Oh my gosh. What was he even doing? I must say, this did concern me the slightest bit, because he was leaning closer to me. It seemed a little out of character for him, if you asked me.

And then I made the mistake of looking into his eyes. Those gorgeous, violet eyes…

We got so close so that our noses were touching, but he did not let our lips touch. His eyes closed, and he murmured, "Jeg elsker dig," I closed my eyes as well and let him kiss me, as he had done many times before.

…Wait. Did he say "dig"? I thought Norwegian was "deg"…Instead of thinking about that too hard I let it slide from my mind. I mean, I spoke English! And Spanish, but that didn't matter. I could've easily just gotten Danish and Norwegian confused. So maybe I shouldn't have thought about that one too hard. Because come on. "Jeg elsker dig" and "Jeg elsker deg" was really similar and could easily be mistaken for one another. Right?

...Right?

O~O~O~O~O~O

Okay, I lied. I couldn't let Lukas's little slip of the tongue go. After our little study date in the library, his words didn't stop pulsing through my brain. "Dig"…Why couldn't I just have the magical power to speak every language out there?! It really bothered me that I didn't know which was which.

I didn't even think Gabby would be let out of the hospital wing so early, but she was sitting on her bed by the time I got back to the dorm. Indeed, she did have a wrist cast on her left hand. She did look pretty out of it, so I decided to let the scolding past. Instead I floated right past her, fell face-first on my bed, and buried my face in a pillow (which wasn't that comfortable with my glasses digging into the bridge of my nose, by the way). I felt Gabby's stare, so I turned to face her. "What." I said. She held her hands up in surrender, wincing as if it hurt her to do so.

"Nothing, nothing. What's wrong with you?" I glared slightly.

"Lukas, is what's wrong." Her eyes widened.

"Wait…Lukas. Your Lukas. Lukas Bondevik. Lukie. Your Lukie Pie. Your Cuddle Muffin Teddy be-"

"Please, stop talking. Yes, him." She did indeed stop talking, but that's not what I wanted. I wanted her to ask what it was about, like usual. I wanted to tell her, but I didn't want to tell her on my own. So instead of sitting in silence, I sat up quickly and hugged a pillow to my chest to try and make her say something by showing I was clearly upset. That's right. The thought process of a three year old.

After a few minutes of silence, I frowned slightly. "Fine, then. You know what he said to me? Do you know what he said to me?" Gabby raised her eyebrows without looking away from her iPod as if to say, "What."

"He said, 'Jeg elsker dig', Gabby!"

"Doesn't that mean 'I love you'?" An exasperated sigh left my lips.

"Yeah. In Danish." I said forcefully. This caused Gabby to freeze, slowly looking up at me.

"Wait…"

"Yeah, that's right! I have a feeling he doesn't love me all that much." I said, leaning against the headboard of the bed, hugging the pillow tightly. "Because…Because what if he actually loves Mat-" I paused midsentence. I couldn't bring myself to say it. Especially since Mathias was Gabby's boyfriend, and they were so in love…

"Loves Maaaaaa…?" She stretched the unspoken word. I didn't look at her, but I said, "Mathias," A horrible silence settled around us.

And that's when I realized that what I had just said might actually be true. Lukas…could be in love with Mathias. That my boyfriend could quite possibly be gay for my own sister's boyfriend. I've always supported the whole love-hate relationships. And I never thought much of gay relationships being any different than normal ones; most of my middle school years were spent reading yaoi manga. I know, lame.

Okay, I was overthinking this. Like that would actually happen…

O~O~O~O~O~O

The next morning, I was almost worried to see Lukas. Sure, I loved him, but at the moment I was kind of questioning his sexuality.

I hesitantly sat next to him on the bench during breakfast, kissing his cheek quickly and muttering, "Good morning." Mathias, Gabby, and Tino hadn't woken up yet, but the Emil, Berwald, and Lukas were. Good. At least I could have a little peace.

Then I realized just how awkward these people were to be around without the cheerful, beamish ones here. It was like they were an infection with their happiness…Secretly, I enjoyed the fact that Mathias hadn't gotten here yet. That meant that Lukas couldn't drool over him in his mind, but on the outside being all cutesy with me.

…I need to stop thinking, because at that moment another horrid realization flooded over me. What if Lukas was only dating me to make Mathias jealous?! Oh, I prayed that wasn't the case. I'd probably lose my sanity if I learned that I was being used like that.

My terrifying little fantasies ended when Mathias slid onto the bench, Gabby hanging off his arm. This was normal, because they were clearly in love with each other. My heart sank when I realized that Lukas and I probably weren't like that. That his attraction for Mathias was probably growing with every breath Mathias took. I watched as Mathias kissed Gabby good morning, grinning down at her. She smiled in return.

"Hey, guess what." Mathias said, smirking.

"What?"

"Jeg elsker dig, my little cherry Danish." I froze. Wait…What? I must've heard him wrong. I must've. He could not have just said what I thought he said. He kissed Gabby again, the two smiling. I gazed at Lukas, who was staring down at his bowl of Cheerios intently. I opened my mouth to say something, but closed it again, losing what I was going to say. Instead I looked down at the table, blinking back confusion.

I sure hoped I wasn't right about any of this.