Below the Sky

Chapter 11: Luke

Chapter 11: Luke

Three weeks earlier

Sweat poured down my face, but I brushed that aside. My body yearned to collapse, just lay down and rest, but I refused its wanting. My calves ached, and my feet were sore from the constant thump against the dirt, but that was ignored too. I ran down the road, thinking and thinking.
It had been over a month now since I'd last seen Lila, and a lot had changed. For one the only college that was willing to accept me was Upstate Community College, the school only fifteen minutes from where I currently lived. So next fall I wouldn't even be leaving home for school, just living with my parents still and making the small commute every morning to my classes.
This wasn't exactly the worst possible outcome for my future, but still it would have been nice to move somewhere else, to see the world. Instead for the next four years I'll be stuck with same scenery I'd been seeing every day for my entire life.

"How was your run sweetie?" Mami asked me when I walked in the door. I grabbed a drink of water before replying, "It was good." I then noticed Papi sitting at the kitchen table, a serious look on his face. "What is it?" I asked.
"Have a seat son, your mother and I have something we want to talk to you about."

I felt my heart rate speeding up a bit, and my stomach churn. What could Mami and Papi possibly have to tell me that would make them act like this?I took a seat at the table, and listened to what Papi had to say.
"We actually have some good news, I'm sure you'll be excited about it when you hear it."
"Okay, what is it?" I asked, still nervous.
"You know how you are attending Upstate Community this fall right."
"Ya, of course I know."
"Well, you've been chosen to be a Student Helper for the summer."
"What's that?" I'd never heard of being a Student Helper before, and was very curious about what it meant.
"Basically you're going to help a new student around. Show them where to go, and just be there if they need it."
"Okay but why would they choose me, I'm going to be a freshman so I don't know anything really about Upstate either."
"Ya, but you've lived here for your entire life, so you know where to go. You know the campus pretty well since you grew up so close to it, and you know the town too."
"I feel like there would be an upperclassman who would be much more qualified to do this instead of me though," I said, still confused.
"Well Upstate's having one of the fullest freshmen rosters in history next year, so they were so short on Student Helpers they just had to start picking people who were good enough, like you," Papi told me.
"Okay, this starts in the fall, right?"
Papi placed a hand on my arm, "Nope. It starts next week."
"What!" I exclaimed. I still had a month and a half left in the summer, and I didn't want to spend it showing some random person where to go.
"I know, I know it is rather sudden, but I think that you'll have a very enjoyable rest of your summer with our newest guest..."
"Guest?!" Not only would I have to basically babysit this person, but also live with them!
"They'll be living with us for the remainder of the summer, just until they can move into their dorm on campus. Don't worry, I'm sure you'll love this person..." I stood up, cutting Papi out mid sentence. I stormed up to my room, and collapsed onto my bed.
How could Mami and Papi be doing this to me. Who knows what this person is going to be like. They could be weird, or annoying. Maybe they're into completely different things than me, or maybe they come from an entirely different country and won't even speak the same language as me. Either way, I was not looking forward to be a Student Helper.

The next morning, I stormed downstairs, practically shaking the house and upsetting Mami as she was making breakfast.
"Good morning sweetie," Mami called out to me, "would you like some breakfast?"
"I'm not hungry," I yelled back very aggressively. I stomped to the front door, and laced up my shoes, before hurrying out the door. "I'm going for a run," I called out to Mami, before pulling on the handle. The door swung open, and I slammed it shut.
The fresh air felt very good after being in a stuffy house for such a long time. It was a crisp morning, the temperature not too cold, but not stifling hot either. The weather was perfect, great for running and enjoying the day.
I started off at a slow pace, but eventually worked it up to a much faster. My breaths came fast after that, and I began to wear out after consistently basically sprinting for so long. I ran through the pain though. It soothed me though, calming my stress about being a Student Helper.
As I ran, I worked through why I was so mad about this. The summer had been generally quite lonely so far, and it would be nice to have another person my age to hang out with. Ever since everything went down with Lila, my life had been boring, just me and my parents. Maybe now I would have a real friend, not a supposed girlfriend who cut me off and acted like I was the bad guy. Maybe being a Student Helper would be a good thing, an escape from my current reality, or a way to another one. Possibly now I would feel like my life was really worth living.
All of these thoughts came to a halt though when I ran into someone on my run. She wasn't who I would have expected to run into on this road, but she was who I saw. Riana was walking toward me, Dash tethered to a leash she was holding. She noticed me, and immediately went to turn around and walk back to her house.
"Wait Riana!" I called out after her, and sprinted towards her. I caught up to her, forcing her to stop walking away.
"What do you want?" Riana turned to me, a look of absolute disgust on her face.
"I just want to talk, I haven't seen you in so long," I said.
Riana scoffed, "There's a reason you haven't seen me or Lila is so long. After what you did to her, I'm surprised I'm even talking to you right now." Riana turned away from me, and continued to walk away with Dash.
"Wait, wait. I just...what exactly did I do to Lila that was so wrong?" Ever since that one day with her, its been like I murdered someone the way Lila and Riana had been treating me.
"Do you wanna know what you did? You touched her, and when she begged you to stop, you yelled at her, making her feel scared like you were going to hurt her even more than you already had.
"Okay, okay. I just wanted Lila to want me the way that I wanted her. I thought that if I was persistent enough, she would eventually come around," I said.
The disgust on Riana's face turned into absolute rage. "You are such a monster!" She screamed. "If a woman doesn't love you, or want you like you want them, you don't force it on them. You don't make them feel like their body is your possession, and you can do whatever you want with it. What you did to Lila on that day was extremely traumatizing, and you think that you're the victim in this situation!" Riana grabbed my sweaty shirt, pulling me in so our eyes were inches apart. "If you continue to treat women like that, you'll never find love. No one will ever want to spend the rest of their life with you, and the rest of yours will be empty and meaningless. You hear me? Meaningless!" Riana released me, then motioned to Dash to follow her. "Goodbye Luke," she said, poison still in her voice.
Riana left me there completely dumbstruck. I must have stood there for hours, playing over the words she said to me in my head. She called me a monster, she said that if I continued to treat women the way I had treated Lila, I would never find love. What did Riana know about me? Maybe it was a little wrong to be so forceful with Lila, but I just wanted her to know that I loved her so much. Riana barely knew who I was, and she thought she had the right to say these things to me.
I turned around from where Riana had left me, and began to run home. This time, I ran at basically a full out sprint, trying to escape what had just happened to me. Maybe if I ran fast enough, I would be able to leave the words said to me behind.

When I got home, Mami called out to me, asking if I was hungry. I completely ignored her questions though, instead storming up to my room to sulk. I was just so angry. Angry at Riana, for saying those horrible things to me, when all I'd asked for were answers. Mainly angry at Lila though. If she had craved me the way I'd craved her, maybe we could have avoided this entire situation. Maybe right now I'd be nestled in her arms laying on my bed, where I was supposed to be, instead of by myself. We could be thriving, a glorious couple that everyone strived to be like. Our love would be so strong, it would be contagious. These thoughts were just that though, thoughts. Lila didn't love me the way I loved her, and she never had. She didn't want to be with me so badly it made her feel like her heart was being wrenched out of her chest, like I did. It was about time I'd finally let go of her, and move on from this chapter in my life.
So for the remainder of that morning I laid on my bed, tears trickling down my cheeks. It hurt to let go of Lila, but I knew that was what had to happen. We clearly weren't meant to be, and it was high time I realized that.