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Her phone buzzing on her nightstand is what pulls Julie from the best dream ever, one where she’s a year older and she’s already graduated high school and when she reaches out across her bed there’ll be a warm, familiar body there with a broad chest to lay her head on and strong arms to wrap around her instead of her pillow that feels too soft and the blankets tangled around her legs. She’s never actually woken up that way, slowly with the morning light straining through the curtains and Luke’s warm mouth pressing kisses into her skin, but Julie's always had a vivid imagination and it’s not hard to picture, to envision that future together.
The only time she did wake up in his arms, it was to find her dad standing over them, his mouth pressed into a firm line, a wrinkle pinching between his eyes, not angry, because her dad is awesome, just resigned to creating a rule for them where there hadn’t been one before. And as annoying as it was and as much as she missed Luke staying over, she’d been half-relieved because things had been going fast, really fast, maybe almost too fast, after they got together. Now though? Relief had given way to pure frustration.
Blindly, she shoots an arm out from under the covers and feels around for her phone, pulling it under the duvet with her, she squints at the screen trying to blind her. There’s a notification from Alex, who would never be texting her this early on a weekend unless it was important.
Luke didn’t come home last night and he’s not answering. Is he with you?
That wakes her up completely. The wording is careful and she can picture Alex, sitting up in his twin bed across from the bunk beds Luke and Reggie share in their tiny one bedroom apartment in Koreatown that they just barely manage to afford combining Reggie’s dog-walking business, Alex’s barista job and Luke’s bar back (and sometime bouncer) gig at Unfinished Business, a dive bar in Hollywood. Their schedules are a mess, especially with her still in high school and they carve out whatever time they can to rehearse.
Despite her dream, Luke isn’t just inches from her on the other side of her bed. She left him down in the studio late last night to respect her dad’s rule (okay, mostly Tia’s rule) about studio sleepovers with her boyfriend. He swore he was going to finish up and head home soon, Reggie and Alex were long gone by then after their rehearsal had veered into an intense writing session. She’d nearly fallen asleep midway through finalizing the second verse of a new song and his soft, “Jules, go to bed,” combined with a slow, lingering kiss that she knew would probably spill over into her dreams, talked her into heading into the house.
That was hours ago though and Luke should have been at home, tucked into the bottom bunk ignoring Alex as he got up for his shift.
Sliding out of bed and into the massive leopard slippers on the floor beside it, she pulls her smiley face sweatshirt on, almost completely engulfing her pajama shorts and Luke’s old Rush t-shirt, the armholes so frayed that even he won’t wear it in public anymore. Peaking through the curtains and the leaves of the tree near her window, she can see Luke’s beat up Charger still parked on the driveway.
He never left.
After sending a reassuring text to Alex, so he can head to his shift anxiety free, she pads quietly down the stairs, careful not to wake up her dad or Carlos this early on a Sunday morning. She brews some coffee, black for her, light and sweet for him and then makes her way down to the studio, sliding in through the door that she left ajar the night before, she grins at the sight ahead of her. Luke sleeps like he lives, all over the place. He’s sprawled out on the couch, one leg bent at a weird angle against the back, an arm hanging down off the side, his songbook on the floor, his pencil, somehow, still dangling between his fingers.
Setting down the steaming mugs of coffee on the piano, she bends and gently tugs the pencil free, but as soon as her fingers brush against his, his hand twitches and then something, instinct maybe, has him entwining their fingers together. Julie almost laughs, sure that he’s actually awake, but his eyes are still closed and his breath is deep and even, rustling the errant curl on his forehead. With her free hand, she brushes it away and lets her fingertips trace down a slightly rougher cheek than she’s used to, over the sharp cut of his jawline. A giddy bubble of incredulous joy burst in her chest. She loves Luke for a lot of reasons and most of them have nothing to do with how he looks, but also…her boyfriend is just really, unfairly hot.
Without really thinking about it, she kicks off her slippers and slides into the empty space beside him, tucking herself against his shoulder and entwining her legs around his, bringing their joined hands up to rest against his chest. He shifts in his sleep, immediately curling himself around her, pulling her in close, like he does whenever they can scramble together a couple of hours of privacy. She knows what everyone thinks, that they can’t keep their hands off each other and haven’t been able to control themselves since that day on the beach last July and in some ways that’s true, but Julie wants this too, just a quiet morning without having to worry about prying eyes or interruptions, to just be able to wake up with her person. And yeah, that other stuff that everyone thinks they’re always doing too. Soon. Just a few more months until she graduates and they haven’t talked about it yet, but if the band takes off, maybe they can put the bunk beds on Craigslist and snag a two bedroom where at least they’d have a locking door between them and the rest of the world.
Her eyes slip closed, but only for a second when Luke’s arms tighten around her again and his breathing catches as he startles awake, then he relaxes almost immediately, probably realizing where he is and who he’s with.
“You’re not Reggie,” he mumbles, ducking his head closer and presses a soft kiss against her temple, his fingers sliding into the cut out holes on the elbows of her sweatshirt, sending goosebumps over her skin with each gentle brush of his fingertips.
“Was that a possibility?” she giggles into his neck.
Luke hums a yes. “He likes to cuddle in the mornings,” he rasps, his voice still thick with sleep.
Julie looks up to see if he’s kidding and her eyes meet his. The gray-green irises are pale in the morning light coming in through the green house glass behind the piano and are sparkling with mischief.
“I was dreaming about you,” he whispers, leaning in to brush his lips down over her cheek.
“I dreamed about you too,” she confesses softly.
“You did?” he asks and that seems to wake him up a little more. “What about?
“Waking up, like this, every day. You?”
“Same thing,” he says, quickly. Too quickly.
“Really?” she asks, arching an eyebrow though she isn’t sure if he can see it from this close up. She knows he can hear it though.
He chuckles, giving himself away. “Not that part exactly , but we were for sure waking up like this every day though,” he insists, burying his head against her neck, this time more deliberately, his teeth grazing against her pulse point, making her shiver against him.
The sun is up now, almost completely and they can’t stay like this forever. Carlos is up early on Sundays and her dad will want to have a family breakfast before the two of them disappear to the baseball field for the rest of the day.
She shifts against him, starting to pull away but Luke doesn’t let go, just shifts around so he’s hovering just above her, one hand sliding up to stroke against her cheek, the other settling at the curve of her hip. “Not yet,” he protests. “Haven’t said good morning yet.”
Then before she can say the words, he traces his nose down the length of hers before catching her lips against his. It’s a deep, lazy kiss as he makes sure he finds just the right angle to lavish attention on her bottom lip and then her top before his tongue teases against hers, tempting her to chase his back.
When they break apart, gasping lightly he smiles down at her, the sun peeking over his shoulder, making his skin glow and his eyes shine. She matches his smile with one of her own and that only seems to make his even brighter.
“Good morning.”