8:55 pm
(Purposeful time skip)

Later in the night, it was Luke's turn to pick a movie, but Dani was going to stop him from having his turn. It was only for the sake of her musical loving heart, and she couldn't go on with her Christmas Eve without watching this movie. "Look, you're probably gonna kill me, but I have to pick the next movie."

"But it's my turn." Luke pouted at her. He already has his choice of movie in mind, and he even thought that Dani would like it as well.

"I know, but this is required." Dani whined. She didn't want to be whining about this, but she just had to watch this movie.

"What is this "required" movie?" He asked. Did he really want to let her pick? No, but it was kind of hard to not let her.

"Rent." She replied, and Luke raised an eyebrow at her. "Excuse me?"

"The musical Rent!" Dani exclaimed. "Also known as one of the greatest musicals of all time, duh. Can't forget that it's one of my favorites."

"Nope." Luke shook his head. "No way."

"Come on," She begged. "it's Christmas Eve AND it's almost 9 pm. Rent fans like me are practically shaking in their boots right now."

"I'm still saying no." He said, but Dani could care less. She grabbed the laptop, typed in her beloved movie, and put it on anyway. "Too bad, I'm putting it on."

"But-"

"Don't. Even. Try." Dani pointed a finger at him, and it kind of had Luke feeling some sort of way. Wow that was kinda sexy- wait a minute. Nope. Strictly friendship. This is NOT, I repeat, NOT a date. Even if it was one, this would be considered an extremely weird first date.

Luke pushed away his thoughts and snapped back to reality when he heard the beginning notes of the classic song Seasons of Love. "This song gives me flashbacks to middle school."

"As it should." Dani smirked. Even though she loved this song and musical, she couldn't help but talk to Luke. The two had great conversations, and she couldn't get enough of it. "I actually auditioned for the school musical when they did Rent, but it was like one of those dumb high school editions where all the good stuff gets cut out."

"And what happened?" Luke asked her.

"I didn't make the cut." She laughed. Back then she was pretty upset about it, but now she looks back and laughs at how she handled it all. Dani literally cried the entire weekend after she saw the cast list.

"Bullshit." He said. Luke found it very hard to believe that she wouldn't have gotten any part, or at least have something to do with wardrobe, but Dani shook her head, telling him that it was actually true.

"It was mainly because I didn't know what to do with my body cause I was so tall compared to the other kids. I was like slender man." Dani shrugged. Luke burst into laughter, and she gave him a look of confusion. "What?"

"Slender man. Hilarious." Luke chuckled. Dani only rolled her eyes at him and lightly pushed him. If she had the strength she would've pushed him off of the bed, but there was no way she was doing that. "Shut up."

"Make me." He whispered, looking at her right in the eyes. Immediately after, Dani felt her cheeks burning hotter than ever before, and it was extremely embarrassing. After a few moments of silence, Luke laughed to make the moment not so serious, but Dani couldn't handle it, serious or not.

"I'm just gonna go to the bathroom-" She announces and quickly climbed over Luke, also taking off his extremely warm jacket and throwing it over her desk chair. Her ass may or may not have been in his face for a moment, which surprised him. "Alright- oh-"

"Pause the movie please!" Dani yells out and shuts the door, then runs to the bathroom.

Was her ass just in my face? Yeah, her ass was just in my face. Oh god. Luke thought to himself, ashamed that he was even thinking about it. Here we go again. I kinda wanna be more than friends- Jesus, am I really quoting Neon Trees right now?

When Luke pictured this whole "Christmas and Chill" thing, he definitely did not imagine it happening this way. He thought it would be full of awkward silence and that it would just end with the two never seeing each other again, but it was no where near like that.

He found himself blushing, hoping he wouldn't get caught. Luke also found himself in conversations that he never wanted to get out of. It wasn't easy finding friends that weren't Michael, Calum, and Ashton, but was Dani really a friend? Time could only tell.

As Dani was in the bathroom, she felt like she was in the middle of a crisis. She could feel herself trying to hard to resist Luke, but he was just... so kind and funny in his own weird way that just made her want to scream her head off.

"Stupid. Stupid. Stupid." Dani repeated to herself, lightly slapping herself in the face in a moment of crisis. "Stop blushing, dumbass! You said this was strictly friendship, and now you're going against it? You are a clown, Dani, a clown!"

She looked in the mirror, noticing that her once rosy red cheeks had mostly faded, but she knew that they would gain its color again soon. "I am not going to survive this."

Dani took a deep breath, ran some water to wet her untamable hair, and walked back to her dorm room. When she walked in, she found Luke looking at the pictures hung up in her room, and he immediately turned around the moment he heard the door.

"What are you doing?" Dani asked as she slowly shut the door. Luke ran a hand through his hair, feeling a bit embarrassed, and Dani's cheeks had gained it's redness once more.

"Just, uh," Luke paused, trying to think of something that didn't make him seem weird. "looking at the wall."

She let out a giggle, and Luke looked at her in confusion. "What?"

"You're so stupid." Dani laughed. She walked over to him, and pointed at a Polaroid picture of her and her best friend. "That's me and my best friend, Kendall, at graduation. At that point she had been doing hormone therapy and saving up money for bottom surgery, which she got last summer with the help of her parents."

"That's great." He smiled, and Dani looked up at him, making his heart skip a beat. "For her. You know, it's great for her with transitioning-"

"Yeah, it really is. I'm so proud of her." She smiled as well, looking back at the picture of her and Kendall. The two have gone through so much as best friends, but she wouldn't have traded any of it for the world. "The other day she told me she might be walking for the next New York Fashion Week. Which is, like, huge."

"Well maybe I should get her to meet the boys if she's in New York." Luke said, and Dani let out a gasp. "What about me?"

"You'll meet them eventually, Miss. fashion designer." He poked at her, making her giggle. Man, that giggle. He sure did love it.

"Can't wait for that." Dani replied.

"I wouldn't recommend being excited. They're not exactly as cool as me." Luke joked. Right now he was trying to act like he was some macho cool guy, but he was failing miserably, and Dani immediately noticed it. "Well considering that I sit next to Ashton in class, I'm gonna call that bullshit."

"Yeah, I can't really compare to him." He sighed, kind of accepting defeat. "He's Australia's sweetheart."

"Now that is a fact." She said.

Luke went on the quickly change the subject, mostly wanting to act like him attempting to be cool wasn't a fail. "Come on, let's watch your movie."

"I see you trying to avoid actually admitting that Ashton is cooler than you." Dani laughed and plopped onto the bed.

"Maybe." Luke smirked.

"You're such a dork."

"Yeah, I know."

•••

10:19 pm

"I should tell you I'm disaster, I forget how to begin it." The song that was currently being sung was Dani's favorite of all, and she was itching to sing along to it. She had annoyed Luke with her voice enough, at least that's what she thought.

"This is, uh, my favorite song out of the whole musical." Dani said out loud. Luke turned his face just for their eyes to meet, then he looks back at the laptop screen, then back at her. The song was a romantic one, so he wasn't expecting that from her. "Really?"

"Yeah, I've always wanted someone to look at me like that." She frowned. But what if that person was right in front of her?

Luke took the opportunity to hear Dani's voice one more time, offering to sing the song with her as it played. They made a pretty good duet, so why not? "Then let's sing along."

"Okay." Dani replied, falling into Luke's ocean eyes. There was something about Luke that made her swoon so easily, and she fell for it every time without realizing it.

"I'd forgotten how to smile until your candle burned my skin." Luke sang, starting off at where the song was.

"I should tell you." She sang back, still looking into his eyes, as if she were mesmerized by him.

"I should tell you." He smiled at her, and she smiled back at him. With every word they fell for each other even more, but they weren't aware of it yet.

"I should tell-" They sang at the same time, and right now it felt like they could kiss at any given moment. The urge between the both of them felt borderline unbearable, and it was becoming increasingly harder to hold back. "Well, here we go, now we..."

"Oh no..." Dani inched back, feeling herself connect with the song. Was she actually prepared for this? She wasn't exactly prepared for Luke to show up at her door, so she wasn't prepared for anything, really.

As the song continued, they could feel that they were both feeling the same feeling, but they both were doing everything they could to fight it. "Trusting desire, starting to learn. Walking through fire without a burn..."

"Clinging a shoulder a leap begins. Stinging and older, asleep on pins." They sang together, slowly inching back towards each other. "So here we go..."

"Now we-" They leaned closer, as if they were preparing for a kiss, but they both snapped into reality and quickly moved away from each other, acting as if it didn't happen at all.

"Oh no." He whispered, which was ironically the line being sang on the screen.

"I know." Dani said as the movie did, referring to this feeling that they were both feeling, but Luke played dumb, which somewhat hurt her a little. "Know what?"

"I don't know," She somewhat lied. "I thought we were just singing along."

"Oh, yeah, right." Luke forced a smile. He was attracted to Dani, he was, but he really didn't want to have another repeat of toxicity and pain. Of course Dani wasn't the toxic type, but the fear and trauma of the past was too overpowering.

"I'm just gonna, uh, get a drink-" Dani slowly climbs over Luke and heads over to the mini fridge, grabbing herself a bottle of water. "Do you want something?"

"A water, thanks." He says. Dani hands him the water bottle, their hands touching for a moment, and then she gets back on the bed. This time they're sitting not as close, making things extremely awkward.

"Can I ask you something?" Dani asks abruptly. Luke turns to her, a little confused, but he nods. "What's gonna happen after this?"

"What do you mean?" Luke questioned.

"Like, are we just gonna be strangers again once this is over?" She asked. "Cause if I'm being honest I don't want to be."

Dani and Luke both wanted the same thing. They knew that they got along well and that this could be something great, but they hadn't ever admitted it out loud to each other, and now they finally have. "I don't want to be strangers either."

"Good. That's, uh, more than good." Dani stuttered. She then took a deep breath, and took a leap of faith. "I'm just gonna say this right now incase I forget or fall asleep, but thank you, ya know, for this. My Christmas Eve would suck right now if you hadn't showed up at my door."

"Well my Christmas Eve would suck too if I hadn't heard your singing." Luke smiled at her.

"That's great." She smiled back.

"More than great?"

"Yeah, more than great."

•••

1 ! More ! Chapter !

My heart isn't prepared