Newbie

21: Breakfast

"Good morning, you two."

I rubbed my eyes, trying to adjust to the sudden light. Mom always woke me up like this. It was never a light shake. She turned the light on and yanked the covers off leaving me vulnerable to the cool morning air.

I was confused about why she was saying "you two". I sat up in bed and put my arms out in front of me, sighing at the popping sound. I turned around to pop my back but was quickly startled at the man laying beside me.

"Luca!"I yelled

I must have fallen asleep while talking to him. I placed my hand on his shoulder, lightly shaking him. My mom, who was still leaning against the door frame, had a small smirk on her lips.

Luca slowly sat up, blinking his eyes, clearly still half asleep. He had a confused gaze as he scanned the room. His blue eyes turned as he was trying to figure out why he wasn't in his room. When his eyes landed on me, his infamous smirk quickly formed.

With his eyes meeting mine, a smirk started to creep up on his pink lips, clearly remembering that he came inside last night.

"Good Morning Rowan"

I shivered at his morning voice. It was the sexiest thing I had ever heard in my life. It was deep and husky, obviously laced with tiredness as he spoke.

"Morning Reid" I mumbled.

"Luca, would you like breakfast?" My mom interrupted.

I jumped at her voice, already forgetting that she was watching us.

"That would be lovely" Luca smiled at her, showing off his pearly white teeth.

"Great," Mom exclaimed, excited that she'd be able to cook breakfast "biscuits and gravy ok?"

"That's perfect" Luca nodded.

I giggled as Mom walked out of the room with a skip in her step. She loves to cook, breakfast especially, but Dad and I are not big breakfast eaters so she doesn't get to do it very often.

"So..." I started but I couldn't find the words to finish my thoughts.

Luca chuckled behind me at my awkwardness.

"Is this your first time waking up to a guy, Rowan?" He smirked

I restrained myself from rolling my eyes at his innuendo. I thought about lying and saying I had to see his reaction but decided against it in case my parents were listening.

"Based on that question, I'm guessing this isn't your first time waking up next to a girl," I asked, raising an eyebrow.

Luca just chuckled, mumbling something under his breath. He slowly got out of the bed with a small yawn escaping his lips.

"Where is the bathroom?" He asked

"Down the hall to your left"

He gave me a nod and I watched him walk out of the room. I could see his back muscles tense with every step he took. He must have been sore from the game last night. I know I would. It seemed like even after the play was over, some guy from the opposing team managed to tackle him.

I got up myself and went to my bathroom and almost screamed when I looked in my mirror.

I looked rough.

My hair looked like Hermione Granger and I had forgotten to take off my makeup last night and had mascara smeared all over my face. I quickly threw my hair into a bun, washed my face, and changed into a t-shirt and leggings, and headed to meet Luca in the kitchen.

Luca's POV

"This smells amazing, Mrs. Rowan."

Skylar's mom whipped her head around, giving me a warm smile. She placed the four glasses of orange juice in front of plates with two biscuits with white gravy and sausage drowning them.

"Thank you Luca, but like I said last night, please call me Jade," she smiled.

I pulled out one of the white wooden chairs that sat in the corner of the room. The kitchen was small and airy, which was the exact opposite of my house. The main difference was that this kitchen felt like a part of a home where a family sat around the table and talked about their day. The Reid family is lucky if we even see each other in the morning.

I watched Jade fix three cups of coffee, one which was more of a cup of milk, and set them on the counter. She looked up and saw me watching her and immediately had a guilty look.

"Oh Luca," she cried, "would you like some coffee? I was just doing my usual routine and forgot to ask. How rude of me "

"It's perfectly fine. I don't drink it anyway." I assured her.

She nodded her head but still had a sad expression on her face. Her gloomy face disappeared when a tall man with a t-shirt and pajama pants came walking in slowly. He kissed Jade on the cheek before grabbing his black coffee.

"Michael, this is Luca." Jade introduced.

I quickly got put in my seat to go shake his hand. When I reached out, I got no response. I slowly pulled my hand back, embarrassed.

"You're the boy who broke my daughter's ankle," he said in a very stern voice. "What are you doing in my house?"

I gulped. I was not sure what to say. I searched my mind for the right thing to say, but the only thing that came out was "Ummm".

Skylar's mom was very nice to me at the hospital. I think she assumed that I was some pitiful teenage boy who was messing around and hurting her daughter in the process. I tried my best to fake remorse when speaking to them and I thought they had bought it at the time, but I guess her dad was a lot smarter than he let on. I think he could see that I was a jerk who hurt his daughter and was too selfish to give them and Skylar a real apology. At the time, he was absolutely correct. I was irritated that I was missing practice because some random girl broke her ankle. I regret that I treated Skylar like that, but it didn't take me long to realize it was truly my fault with her, Marlee, and mom constantly nagging me about it.

"Dad!" Skylar scolded as she walked into the kitchen, "Don't be rude to him."

Wow. Skylar is sticking up for me. That's new.

"I'm not being rude to him. I'm simply asking a question, but he seems to not have an answer, " he said.

"Suuure," Skylar said, rolling her eyes. She grabbed her milk with coffee and sat down next to where I had been sitting.

"I think he took one too many hits last night and his brain is not functioning properly," he said, turning to Skylar to defend himself.

"Luca brought Sky home last night, Michael. It was raining, so I invited him to spend the night. It wasn't safe for him to drive home in those conditions. "

He nodded his head, knowing not to argue with his wife, but didn't meet eye contact with me again. I shot Skylar a look for help, but she was already digging into her biscuits, oblivious to the tension between me and her dad.

I decided it would be best to join her and took a big bite of my own food. They couldn't expect me to speak if my mouth was full.

"Well, how is it you two?" Jade asked

Skylar held up a thumbs-up and I nodded in agreement with her. Jade laughed at us and dug into her food as well.