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Luke would do anything a friend asked him to, he was just that type of guy. If his friend got into a fight and needed him to have his back, then he'd have his back. They'd probably both end up with fat lips and black eyes, but he would have given his best to support his friend. And if his friend needed him to lie for them, no matter the lie, he would.

So, when Alex reminded his friends that he'd been told he had to be home for 4pm, no later, or he'd be grounded, Luke took it upon himself to make sure his cousin got home.

It worked out in his favor, though, because he lived a few streets over from Georgie's. Sundays were family dinner night at the Patterson household and his mom had told him that his grandparents would be over this Sunday. She'd made him promise that he'd be there.

He and his mom argued all the time, but he was trying to put his best foot forward this summer. They held a party every year for the Fourth of July and he really wanted his parents to allow him to have friends over afterward. They'd recently had a pool put in and a firepit built. He would have loved for them to have built a little studio for him, but he didn't get a say.

He'd get to enjoy the pool, either way, and have a bunch of jam sessions around the firepit…but only if he kept on his parents' good side. And that entailed family dinners, doing whatever his parents asked of him, and just generally, being a well behaved kid.

"You have to hold on or you're going to fall," Luke called back to Georgie, who was barely holding onto his shirt. If he had to slam on the brakes, she'd fly off the back. He couldn't imagine Alex would be okay with him further injuring her. The skateboard that she'd told them was her brother's was on the back of the bike, tied on with a shoelace that Luke had in his backpack. He didn't mention why it was there, it just was. "I'm not ticklish, if you're afraid I am," he tried to make it a little less awkward.

She probably didn't want to wrap her arms around his waist, she'd just met him a few hours ago. But he would rather her feel awkward and have a good grip than be awkward and not have a good grip.

"Your shirt is kinda…" She placed her hands on his sides, the skin of her palms touching his ribs and immediately, he knew what she meant. His shirt was stretched very low at his sides, his ribs exposed. He hadn't thought of that. He wasn't ticklish, but he did get goosebumps really easily from cold hands on his skin. He jerked slightly and glanced back to see her smiling awkwardly. "Sorry, my hands are always cold…"

"It's okay, just…hold on tight," he said and tried to shake the bubbly, fizzy feeling that was forming in his stomach.

He didn't know quite what to say to her, whether to ask about what home was like for her or ask how she was enjoying California. Honestly, from the little they all knew, he didn't know if her move was just for the summer or she'd be going to school with them in the fall. Luke imagined it wasn't really something she'd want to talk about. So, he resorted to asking her about the one thing he knew couldn't disappoint.

"What kind of music do you like?" he asked, glancing back at her and seeing Georgie tilt her head a little. "You sang Whitney and Springsteen, and you're wearing a Metallica shirt, I'm just curious," he told her, his eyes back on the road ahead.

"I listen to a little of everything," she answered, and for some reason, that made Luke smile. "Lex got me into rock, and Max is really into grunge and alt stuff, so I started listening to a lot more of that. My momma listens to the radio a lot, so…"

"Ah, you're well versed, that's cool!" he insisted, but he was a little too focused on this Max person. A boyfriend from back home? If he was someone who influenced something as important as her taste in music, then he must have been important, as well. Luke didn't want to feel so gutted at the idea of her dating someone, but he did. Max was a lucky guy. "We try to listen to as much as we can, I think it'd be cool to mix genres, you know? That way our sound will be different from everything else out there, make us and our songs unique."

"Smart," she commented, her hands slipping a little further around his waist. Luke sucked in a breath and held it. "Alex never sent me your records. I'm a little pissed he didn't."

"Yeah, we don't have one yet, but we're working on it," Luke told her, having to stop suddenly. Georgie slid forward, the front of her cap hitting Luke's back, her arms now inside of his shirt. "Well, thankfully, your hands aren't cold anymore."

With how quick she pulled her arms out of his shirt, Luke could have swore that her hands were in fact on fire. He laughed it off, but she didn't. She got off of the bike while they were at the stop sign, clasping her hands together. Georgie looked so uncomfortable, he felt really bad.

"I can just walk now," she nodded. It would take a little longer to just walk, especially with her knee being hurt, but Luke agreed. It'd be easier to talk to her, anyway. He was going to slip into more conversation about their upcoming album that he was desperate to record, but he didn't have to keep the conversation going. "How long have you known Alex?" she asked him, which was a topic he hadn't even thought of. Alex, of course. They had a friendship with him in common.

"Um, quite a while," he answered, nodding his head and chuckling a little, remembering how they'd first met. "We went to the same elementary school, and on the first day of the fourth grade, he ran right into me, knocked me over and sent both of us to the nurse's office with matching scraped elbows. We've been best friends since."

"Ah, so you have a habit of injuring people," Georgie said with a giggle that sounded like sweet music to Luke's ears.

"Hey, he knocked me over first," he said, feigning seriousness. "You were my payback. Took me a little time but I finally got it." The pair laughed. "You being his cousin, you've probably known him all your life, right?"

"No, actually, I didn't even know I had a cousin until I was like six," she told him, adjusting her cap and trying not to make her limp too obvious. "That was when I found out I had a younger sister, as well. I stayed with my dad for a few weeks over the summer and met his side of the family, Alex included."

"Wait, you didn't even know you have a little sister?" Luke was very confused by her family's situation. It wasn't his place to judge them for not making her feel more welcome, but he knew Alex's mom. She was everyone's mom, always wanting to feed you and always telling you that you had a home with her if you ever needed one. She was very religious, always saying that God would want her to show love to those who needed it… It was kind of ironic that Luke knew she'd turn her back on her son, strip him of all that love and warmth, if she was ever to find out he was gay.

"My dad wasn't the most talkative about his family," she tried to explain, stopping for a second to try stretching her knee. "My momma didn't know enough to tell me, either. I don't mind as much now, but back then, it got to me."

Luke could only imagine how upsetting it was that her own father wouldn't have shared something as huge as her becoming an older sister with her, but also to not tell her she had cousins, that was just cruel. She and Alex seemed to really get along, they were almost like two peas in a pod. They were robbed of six years of that because no one thought to tell them that the other existed.

"Well, you were a little girl, I can see how it would be." He caught her arm midswing and stopped her. "Lean on the bike," he told her, "or you're getting on the back again." Georgie raised her eyebrows, the ultimatum surprising her. He couldn't help but laugh at her face. "You're only going to hurt it more if you don't rest it, so come on."

Georgie took the bike's handlebars in hand, reluctantly. "Happy?"

"I could only be happier if you weren't hurt," he said with a grin on his face, that made her smile back, trying not to laugh at him. "Hey, next Saturday, we're going to be heading to the pictures. We're planning on seeing that new 3 Ninjas movie, if you want to come with us?"

He knew that Alex would probably invite her, if he hadn't already, but Luke wanted confirmation that she would go before waiting for his friend to tell him. He'd already let it sit in his mind that she had a boyfriend, but that boyfriend was in another state, in another time zone entirely, and so…he could shoot his shot with her. Right?

"That sounds like fun," Georgie nodded, "yeah, I'd love to come. The guys won't mind that you invited me?"

"Lex would no doubt want to bring you along, so I'm just getting ahead of the game. And he mentioned that you liked movies." One of the only things that he had actually told them about her. He'd mentioned it when they were making the plans to go see the movie in the first place. Before long, they were talking about movies and their soundtracks, passing the time quicker than he'd have liked. "What's your favorite movie you've seen this year?" he asked, thinking about what else was currently showing and if he could ask her to go see another one with just him another time.

"Oh, it has to be The Crow with Brandon Lee," she stated, all of a sudden animated. They hadn't seen that one yet, but by the way she'd lit up, he could tell she'd loved it. "If the picture hall is still showing it, you have got to see it. It's amazing, Luke, I swear! And so sad, and the music is amazing, too. It is a going to be a masterpiece, mark my words"

"I was actually going to make plans to see it, I read the comic," he told her. Yes, this was perfect! He didn't have to feign interest in that, because he'd genuinely been looking forward to watching it. "I'm guessing you did, too? If you can make it, you should come with me."

"Deal, when?" she asked, not even taking a second to think about it. He didn't have a when as of yet. He'd have to see when it was showing and then decide. But that was just fine, because it meant he could get her number. "Maybe you could give me your number and we can make plans?" she suggested, stopping at the corner of the street that her house was on. She must have recognized it.

"I was just going to ask for yours," he said with a small chuckle, fishing through his backpack for a pen. He used her forearm to write his number on, doing his best to make sure it was legible. He didn't want her to mistake it for some other person's number, god forbid, somehow call another guy.

"Max is not going to believe me when I tell her there's someone here who liked the comic, as well," she mused, while watching him write.

"Her? Max is a girl?" Luke questioned, smudging the last number on her arm. She didn't have a boyfriend? "Max isn't your…boyfriend?"

"No, Maxine is my best friend, and definitely a girl," she laughed at his excitement that must have been written all over his face. "She said she's going to be visiting and looking for a Cali boyfriend of her own. But uh, I don't…I'm single. No boyfriend for me."

"Perfect…great, I mean─" Luke cut himself off and grinned, before fixing that last digit. "No, that's what I meant. No guy to try and beat me up for taking you to the movies."

Luke would probably kick himself for how much of an idiot he sounded in that moment, but that was for Luke later on. Georgie laughed with him, but her laugh was more a giggle, dare he say a little flirtatious. Maybe she was flirting with him? And if she was, did that mean he was in with a chance of making that an actual date?

"Georgie!" a man's voice called from the other end of the street, scaring her out of her giggle. Luke glanced over her shoulder and saw a tall man with dark hair and a rather angry expression on his face approaching them. "Where the hell have you been? Do you know how worried we were?" he yelled at her.

"Dad, I was just─"

"You told Melinda you were only going out for a walk," he interrupted her. Her dad. And he was pissed at her. "That was over four hours ago, four hours! Where were you?"

"I bumped into Alex and we went to the skatepark," she tried to explain, but it seemed her dad didn't care. He was probably so worried, he had imagined something horrible happening to her.

"Alex? This is not Alex," her dad pointed out, pulling Luke into the conversation. "Who are you?"

"I'm…Luke, I'm a friend of his, nice to meet you─" Luke tried to introduce himself, tried to be polite, but her dad still didn't care. He grabbed her by the arm, the arm he'd just written his number on, and pulled her down the street.

"You should have told Melinda," he yelled at her as he dragged her away, Georgie glancing back at Luke, embarrassment and fear in her eyes. "We had no idea where you were, and anything could have happened."

Luke couldn't hear her response, she was probably mortified that he'd watched the whole thing.

Mr. Baxter turned a corner with Georgie and just like that, she was out of sight. Luke waited a few seconds before he considered heading along to the house, but unfortunately, he didn't know which number they lived at. Alex had only told him the street name and he had assumed that Georgie would remember which house she lived in, and she'd be fine from there. Mr. Baxter had been so quick to get her home that he didn't give her time to get the skateboard from Luke's bike.

Well, that was okay. At the very least, it gave him a reason to see her again…right?

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Georgie's momma had never yelled at her. She'd gotten mad and she'd told her off, she'd been punished, yeah, but she'd never yelled at her. Not to the point that Georgie was afraid of her.

She could understand that her dad was worried about not knowing where she was, but the way he yelled made her think he was going to hit her. Spanking wasn't uncommon among her friends, or the kids she'd babysat. She heard them mention it all the time. But she, herself, had never been spanked. Not by her momma and definitely not by her dad. However, she honestly thought he might change that.

"I was only hanging out with Alex," she tried to calm him down, her leg hurting as she tried to keep up with him. Tears stung her eyes from the mortification and anxiety that she felt bubbling in her chest. "I'm sorry, I won't do it again."

"No, you won't, because you're not to go anywhere without telling us first," her dad instructed, dragging her into the house and slamming the house door shut behind him. Melinda joined them in the front entrance and, with two hands on her chest, she let out a heavy sigh of relief.

"I was so worried," she said. Georgie tried to shake her dad's hand off of her arm. "Honey, let her go, you're going to hurt her," Melinda told him, patting his hand before he released his daughter. "Are you okay?" Melinda was much softer in her approach than her dad was and that only upset Georgie.

"You told me to make sure I was home for supper," Georgie reminded her, her voice catching a little in her throat. "I was just hanging out with some new friends. But thanks to him, they'll probably never want to talk to me again," she snapped at her dad, giving him a scathing look before she stormed up the stairs, ignoring him as he called on her to come back down.

She had never been so embarrassed in all of her life, even when the older boys flirted with her momma and she flirted back. The way he had spoken to her, yelled at her, in front of Luke, it was humiliating. She would never recover from it.

And there was no chance of him taking her to the movies now. Her dad wouldn't allow it.

After roughly an hour of calming down, experiencing a myriad of emotions ranging from embarrassment, to anger, and lastly, disappointment, Georgie pulled herself together when there was a light knock at the door. She was ready to shout at the person to go away, but she heard Melinda's soft voice asking to come up.

She guessed it was fine. So she just waited. It was her house, she'd do what she wanted.

Melinda climbed the stairs with a tray of what was probably their supper in hand and smiled gently at the girl. "I wasn't sure if you'd want to eat downstairs," she said, setting the tray on Georgie's desk. "You know, he was just a little scared, that's all."

"He didn't seem scared," Georgie grumbled, looking at her arm and tracing the outline of a forming bruise. Her finger sat on the last digit of Luke's number. "He was furious."

"Your dad sometimes finds it hard regulating his emotions," Melinda told her as she came over to sit at the end of the bed, spotting the writing on Georgie's arm before she had a chance to hide it. "How he reacted wasn't okay, but he wasn't angry at you. He really was just worried. He thought you'd gotten lost or hurt."

"He could have said that instead of yelling at me like I'd murdered someone." Georgie could smell whatever was on that plate of food and her stomach panged from hunger. "One of Alex's friends was walking me home so that I wasn't late for supper. I just didn't know the street."

"Did that friend give you their number?" Melinda asked with a curious smile. Georgie tried to hide it better but Luke had written it rather big. She slowly nodded her head and Melinda's curious smile only got bigger. "A boy, Luke..?" Her dad must have told Melinda about Luke's attempt at introducing himself. She felt kinda bad for him, it must have been jarring to witness. "Write it down before it smudges off, okay? Call him in a little bit, after you've eaten."

"What's the point?" Georgie sniffled. She wouldn't be able to look him in the eye again. Talking to him had been so easy, which was something she'd had a problem with when it came to boys she liked. And she'd been so looking forward to hanging out with him again. After what he'd witnessed, she didn't know if she wanted to see him again.

"Well, he's probably a little worried that you got into a lot of trouble," Melinda suggested, reaching over and stroking the girl's cheek softly. "Don't you want to let him know you're okay? So he doesn't fret about it overnight?"

Georgie hadn't considered that he'd worried about whether or not she was alright. He'd been concerned when she'd hurt herself earlier, so perhaps Melinda was right, that he'd worry that she was in trouble. "Melinda, do you think you could speak to my dad for me?" Her stepmom smiled at her and nodded her head, not saying another word before she got to her feet and started to leave the room.

Maybe, with some kind of miracle or luck, she'd still be able to arrange that movie date with Luke, after all.