Disparaging future

Chapter 28

Luke pulls me over, "I actually have something to show you."

"Are you going to make me wait an eternity for it?" I say sarcastically.

"Maybe. Come on," He leads the way. 

He goes into his room and comes back with a large white box. "Here," He has me the box.

I eye him suspiciously, hoping he's not the type of person to pull off a prank. I open it. Through all the tissue paper, I find a yellow dress. I quickly look at him. 

"You told me your favorite color was yellow. You're always wearing dark colors, so thought you might like this," He smiles sheepishly. 

The reason why I only wear dark colors is that that was the only type of clothes the whites would let me wear. I never thought I would ever owe a lovely yellow dress. 

"Thanks," I say softly. 

He leans against the wall, "So? What's the plan?"

"Plan?"

"Yeah, you won the court case, got the company to stay in your name, what's next?"

I smirk, "To come back with recruited."

"Dreaming big, I like that. And after that, what comes next?" He presses on. 

"I don't know," as I think about it. I never really thought about that far in my life, I guess I never really thought I would be able to go to college. "What about you? What are you aiming for?"

"I'm thinking about going to my mom's college. I haven't been the best son and I want to be able to relate to her. I think she would like that."

"What would you do there?"

"I don't know. Study law maybe," He ponders. " I'll find something along the way."

I hope I can find something along the way too. Maybe something where I can help people and be myself. Maybe I could go with Luke. 

"How are you feeling about the case's conclusion?" Luke changes the subject.

"A bit unsettled," I admit. "While Mrs. White is behind bars, Mr. White has gone missing and that really doesn't make me feel very assured."

What terrifies me the most is Mr. White coming to haunt me. 

"Yeah, I wouldn't either. But now you will be living on your own, becoming independent, living for yourself. That means something."

"I guess it does," I say feeling encouraged. 

Luke glance out a nearby window. "You know what's crazy?" He waits for my response.

"What is?"

He grabs my arm, pulling me out the window and into the roof. 

"When we first met each other, we didn't like each other. It's funny how life has its way of bringing people into your life for the better."

"I guess, that tells you not to judge a book by its cover"

"You know, I used always climb the roof of my dad's house and later my mom's to avoid everything. I would come here to get away from reality, but then I learned how to smile and not mean it. I never thought that I would meet someone using the roof as an escape from reality."

"You know, I really hated you, for one solid reason."

"Yeah?"

"I hated you, simply because you were Taylor's friend."

"He's not a bad guy."

"Yeah, I know. I know better than anyone. I really did like him, we had fun times at the park. But I was different back then before the accident with my parents. My life was literally perfect till that happened. I had the grades, I was the point guard, I had so many friends because I was popular. I had everything and everything was just fine until my life took a huge downfall when my parents were gone."

"I have to tell you something, not as Taylor's best friend but as yours," I look at him attentively. "I know you said that you overheard Taylor's conversation with me, but there's one thing you don't know. Blake has like you since middle school. I was over for the summer visiting them both when He told us about you at the start of our freshman year in high school. Taylor thought it would be funny to mess with Blake since he is a nice guy and so he asked you out. I didn't know it was you until Blake told me and then Taylor confirmed. it. Taylor asked you to mess around with Blake, but later on, he did start to like you. I want you to know that Blake really cares for you. When he had to move away he told me to take care of you for him. At first, I really didn't want to, but I soon realized that I am was judging you unfairly."

Blake, if I were a better person, I would have loved to be with him. If I wasn't so broken and had a stable life, I think I would be able to be with Blake. That day when Blake concluded that Luke was the first person I search for in the crowd, I knew I couldn't answer. If I had answered, I knew I would be realizing it myself. Blake is special to me, he has always been and I don't want to ever hurt him. 

"Thank you for telling me all this. I am not happy to know that Taylor did this to Blake, but right now, I am not going to be bitter at life anymore. I'm going to be myself. I am going to travel and go to college. I'm not sure where but I will go." I try to reason with myself. 

Luke laughs falling to his side, "That's the spirit, even though you sound so unsure."

He has been there for me since day one, even when he was hurting himself, he didn't let that get in his way. I want to be like him. I want to have hope and live one day at a time. 

I look at his face; Those blue eyes, bold smile, and those same blond highlights I always search for in a crowd.

"What?" Luke catches me staring, he wipes some of his laughing tears.

I made up my mind. I have to tell him. I'm going to tell him.