‹ Prequel: LEPRECHAUN
Status: OHMYGOSH the sequel is finally here! Please, please, PLEASE comment on To Break Her Heart as well! Updates as regular as I can make them!

Picking Up the Pieces

What the...?

Why was Lucas being so nice when I was so horrible? All I wanted was to scare him away from me so he would leave me alone. It appears that it did the opposite. He actually WASN'T a jerk…maybe he was growing up?

I don’t even know why I hugged him. Spur of the moment, perhaps? Aw, who am I kidding? I still probably…sorta, kinda, MAYBE have a TEENSY amount of feelings for him. MAYBE.

I absent-mindedly fingered the sport where my lip ring used to be. He was so gentle when he took it off…was he that gentle to other girls?

I mentally slapped myself.

“Jordan, if you needed a slap, you could’ve just asked me to do it for you!” Well, maybe not mentally. Lucas grinned, something much nicer to look at than his trademark smirk. Honestly, whenever he put that look on his face, I wanted to tackle him and write the little ‘TM’ sign in permanent marker.

I placed one hand on the remaining, and smallest, suitcase and one on my rapidly beating heart. The others were so huge…how the hell did he manage to pick them up without breaking his god damn back? What the…

And where were all those emotions suddenly coming from? Jealousy, anger, nervousness…emotions I hadn’t experienced for a long time. Trust Lucas to start melting me on the very first day.

Why did he have that effect on me? Dear God, why? Haven’t I suffered enough? Wait…that sounded selfish. Maybe it’s my punishment for being such a bad person…but what wrong did I do?

“Are you coming or not?” Lucas asked amiably.

I glowered at him, pulling the suitcase over. His jovial tone just made me feel more guilty for being mean to him, and feeling guilty towards Lucas Travel was not something I enjoyed, nor ever wanted to experience. Ever again.

“Turn that frown upside down, miss, and give me one of your gorgeous smiles!”

I couldn’t help it: my mouth turned up just a little at the edges and my cheeks went pink. After being immune to most things happy, smiling was slightly awkward.

We pulled the suitcases up two flights of stairs without saying anything. At the third, Lucas hadn’t even broken a sweat on his perfect man body, but I was getting tired. My slim arms definitely weren’t made for too heavy weights for a long period of time. Plus, my shoulders were starting to hurt, which was a definite bad sign. My physical therapist back in New York told me to stop whatever I was doing whenever my shoulders started hurting like they were now. It was the only way to avoid paralysis.

I stopped at the bottom of the third flight and rolled my shoulders clockwise, then anti-clockwise five or six times, like Mrs. O’Donall said to.

“Aw, what’s wrong?” Lucas teased. “Your small girl arms no match for that big, bad bag?” I glared as he laughed to himself. “Though I suppose I should give you SOME credit. That bag is almost as big as you!”

I slapped his arm. “One more wisecrack about my size and I’m going to stuff my first down your throat!”

Lucas cocked his head to the side. “Considering how small you are…it probably will fit.”

“Argh!” I screamed, slapping him again. “You’re so annoying!”

Lucas patted my head gently. “That’s such a lot of anger for such a tiny body.” He grinned.

I rolled my shoulders a couple more times for safety and gritted my teeth. “Let’s go, dipwad,” I snapped.

“You should let some of that anger out,” he suggested.

“What?”

“Well…you’re really angry or you’re nothing at all, so you should just tip the glass that’s full of all that anger and nothingness so there’s room for other stuff!” He said it so cheerfully, thoughtfully, his blonde head tilted and his green eyes alight with amusement, like he really believed it.

“God, you’re so annoying!”

Lucas gasped. “Take that back! God is NOT annoying!”

I couldn’t help it – I smiled bigger. Not just a small smile, a normal one. WTF. I haven’t smiled like that for so long. As soon as Lucas saw my smile, he dropped my bags and hugged me like a long-lost sister.

“Amazing!” he fake-sobbed. “The beautiful she-demon smiles! She actually looks HUMAN!”

I lightly spanked his shoulder and wiped the smile off my face. I was able to control my emotions and not blush. Thank God. We started up the third flight of stairs. I stopped again because the pain in my shoulders was too much.

Lucas looked over his shoulder. “I know that you have two x-chromosomes which therefore proves your feminism, but could you stop being a weak female long enough to carry that one suitcase upstairs without taking a break every two seconds.

I glared at him and discreetly tried to massage my shoulders. I didn’t want him sympathizing over me, thinking I couldn’t do things. “Keep going, Hulk, I’ll be up in a minute,” I snapped.

“What’s wrong?” he demanded.

“Nothing!” I insisted. “I’m fine!”

“Then why do you keep doing that to your shoulders?” I froze, and so did he. “Shoulders,” he repeated, in a daze.

“It’s nothing!” I repeated. “I’m fine!”

“Oh. My. God.” His eyes grew wide.

“Only girls say that,” I mocked, trying to divert himself from the subject of my shoulders by making him mad.

It didn’t work.

“I’m such a friggen moron!” he yelled at the walls.

Well…it did make him mad…but in the wrong direction.

“How could I forget? I’m so sorry Jordan! Let me help you with that. You go and rest. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I’m not a cripple.,” I said, deathly quiet.

“What?”

“I’m not a FREAKING CRIPPLE!” I screamed, punching him as hard as I could in the stomach. Did you know that abs are like a circle of protection for someone with them? My knuckles freaking cracked! “I don’t need your pity,” I continued, quieter. “I get enough pity from everyone else! I don’t need pity from you! I need other things from you!”

He smiled this creepy smile in the creepy way that it was nice, but I was pretty sure he was going to backfire on me. He grabbed my wrists, and stared at me until I calmed down. “You know what I love about you?” I froze. “You seem to think that hitting me actually will do damage!” He chuckled. “So cute. Like a little doll.”

I ground my teeth together. “Cute?” I snorted. “That’s all you have to say?”

“No,” he said. “Let it out, just like I said. Feel better?”

“Yeah,” I replied grudgingly.

He beamed. “I was right! Woohoo!” He pumped a fist in the air and kissed my forehead. “I’m pretty awesome, right?”

I rolled my eyes and shoulders at the same time. “Whatever helps you sleep at night.”

His face got that sly look that it did whenever he was about to say something I wouldn’t like. “I’m pretty sure if YOU were lying next to me, I’d be able to sleep quite well.”

I growled quietly. As much as he still knew how to make me happy, he still knew how to piss me off.

“Why don’t you go open the attic door and set up the ladder while I get the suitcases? If you can reach, that is,” he added cockily, but in a nice way to make me not exert my shoulders.

He wasn’t pitying me, but at the same time, he was helping and not making me feel worthless. Just between you and me, I’d probably be much less of a help if I was paralyzed. Getting paralyzed is not on my top 10 things to do list.

“Sure,” I said, walking towards the end of the hall.

Matt appeared from one of the open doors; probably his room. “I already put your other stuff and Luke’s stuff up there,” he told me, with his usual easygoing grin. It’s a wonder he got into college.

“Thanks,” I said, “but I could’ve done that.”

He waved his hand around. “It’s nothing, my dear,” he said in a fake British accent.

Lucas pulled the three bags on their wheels over to us. “Thanks, bro,” he said, puffing a little. Of course I spotted it.

“Hulk not so tough now, huh?” I teased, shocked at how much I’d changed since coming to his house. I was now openly joking with my sworn enemy.

Was it me, or did Matt wink at Lucas? I could’ve sworn he did…but why? Whatever, it’s not my business. But humans are naturally nosy, so of course I checked Lucas’s face to see if he would tell me why.

He smiled in a strained sort of way. “Can you open the door, please?” he asked me. I shrugged and pulled the rod that was on the ceiling that opened up the entrance. I COULD reach, so there! I stuck my tongue out at him and he smiled in amusement. I grabbed the wooden ladder and propped it against the side of the door.

I eyed my humongous suitcases. “How are you supposed to get those up there?”

“Need not worry, fair maiden. My trusty steed and I will gladly protect you from any fallen debris!” Matt exclaimed, puffing out his chest.

Lucas rolled his eyes. “So I’m a horse now?”

“Yes. Yes you are,” Matt stated.

“Why?”

I answered him. “You both like to have affairs with a lot from the opposite gender without telling the others.”

Matt snorted with laughter and Lucas glared. “I am holding your stuff,” he told me. “I could drop it at any minute.”

“Oh woe is me,” I said sarcastically.

Matt laughed again as they finished putting the last suitcase up there. “I’ll leave you two to it then,” he said, leaving me alone with the only person who managed to know when I was pissed off.

I climbed up the ladder and took the chance to look around the room. It was relatively small, but snug with another bunk bed. Thank God. The walls and floors where all wood and there was only one window, which was on the ceiling. There was a double door closet and a trunk.

“You need to loosen up,” Lucas said suddenly.

“What?”

“You’re always too tense. Relax. I won’t bite you, I promise.” He paused, then smirked a very dirty smirk. “Unless you want me to, of course.”

I scowled at the wrongness of the idea. “Pervert,” I muttered.

He smirked wider. “I am what I am honey, accept it and move on.”

“Then accept me for who I am and move on,” I challenged.

“No way. YOU need some special attention.”

“What are you smoking?!”

“Nothing, thank you very much. I do value my lungs, you know. Losing one would be very devastating.”

“For you and your whores,” I said quietly. “Not for anybody else.”

“You need to stop looking like stone.”

“Why do you care?”

“Because I don’t like it!” he snapped.

“So what?”

“I’m your husband!”

“Not yet.”

“Well, I will be!”

“What if I cancel?”

“You can’t do that.”

“How do you know?”

He grabbed my wrists and pulled me closer. “Because you know you want me.”

I snorted. “That’s hardly a liable reason.”

“And YOU just don’t want to admit it.”

“And YOU are so irritating.”

“And YOU love it.”

“And YOU love ME,” I improvised, trying to catch him by surprise.

“And I know it.” He pulled me even closer and suddenly smashed his lips onto mine, henceforth stripping me of my title as twenty-year-old kiss virgin, but thankfully not the other type.

I froze.

What the…?
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I was too lazy to put the italics bbcode thing, so I just made the italics into capitals. Hope you don't mind.

I'm super sorry it's been so long!! But I've had a lot of work to do, but don't worry, the next chapter is already written out!! The time to publish it is what I'm afraid of...

Anyway, what do you think of the new development? I honestly didn't know where I was going with this, but it happened so there. You guys have probably been waiting since TBHH for them to kiss!! Wow, I'm pathetic >.< Actually, just not comfortable with kiss scenes. Cue shudder.

Haha, anyway, sign up for the story contest!! How many times have I given the link! Only two people have actually given me the link to their story. Grrr.

Have some cake :)

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Believe it or not, that IS a cake. Not a cookie. :) Happy reading!! comment and subscribe!!