Undiscovered Melody |COMPLETED|

Chapter 33

As Luka approached his houseboat that evening, he felt like the boat wasn't exactly where it normally was, but he shrugged. When your house is a boat, things are bound to move a bit. He walked up the plank and then wondered where to search for Juleka. Since he was fairly certain his mom shouldn't have any issue with Juleka playing in Jagged's band in Paris, he wanted to talk to Juleka about it first.

The boat was fairly dark by now. He had waited with Marinette for a long time before Cat Noir finally showed up and told them the disappointing news that he couldn't find Calypso. He'd searched all the areas they'd seen her before, but there was no sign of her. He apologized, which they assured him wasn't necessary, and retrieved his guitar before heading home. Luka had left soon after.

So, while it was fairly late, he didn't expect his sister to be asleep yet, but he couldn't find her in the living room (where his mom was so absorbed in her music she didn't even notice him) or in their shared bedroom. He supposed maybe she was at Rose's, but he didn't want to bother his mom to ask. He decided to check each part of the boat once before he would give up. Eventually, he was surprised to find his sister in the pilot house, hunkered down in a corner listening to music in the dark with her eyes closed.

"Juleka?" he asked as he approached her. When she didn't answer, he reached out a hand and gently touched her shoulder. Her body jerked in response and her eyes flew open.

"Oh, Luka. It's you," said Juleka, a frightened expression flitting across her face.

"What are you doing down here in the dark?" said Luka, scooting down next to her.

She shrugged, but didn't say anything.

"What's wrong?" he asked. He waited for her to say something. It wasn't unusual for Juleka to take her time to respond to his questions as she liked to think about things before she answered. But when the time dragged on, he started to worry that something was really wrong. "Juleka? Please talk to me."

"Did you know that mom has been moving the houseboat every morning into the middle of the river to keep the photographers away?" she said quietly. "She then moves it back at night."

"What?! No! Why didn't you tell me? I didn't know that the photographers had been here at all," said Luka, starting to feel guilty and ashamed that he had never even thought about how Juleka had been faring during all of the craziness. He knew how terrified she had been about being hounded by photographers. Why hadn't he checked in with her?

"I'm so sorry. I've been a terrible brother. I've been so focused on trying to help Marinette that I left you by yourself to deal with all of this," Luka said. He put an arm around her shoulders and gently pulled her toward his side.

As soon as Juleka felt his arm around her, she crumpled and started to sob, which broke Luka's heart. He held her while she cried and thought back over the last days, wondering what he had missed, what had happened to his sister.

When Juleka's tears slowed, he asked her again what was wrong.

"I . . . I saw the photos of you and Marinette. All the photographers following you everywhere, surrounding Marinette's house. I've felt this overwhelming fear that this . . . that it would happen to me. . . and to Rose. I felt like I couldn't breathe and I've just been trying to be invisible. I feel so lucky that we are on break from school or I wouldn't have been able to hide here."

Luka sat quietly thinking about what she said. "So, you've been hiding here in the dark by yourself? Did you talk to mom?"

Juleka nodded. "That's why she kept moving the boat. But, you know she doesn't really understand me, though she tries. I was worried she'd do something crazy, like go after the photographers, if she knew how much I was still struggling with this. I just thought it would be better this way. If I could just be invisible for long enough that they would go away. They will go away, right?" she asked in a small voice.