Border To Heaven - JATP Luke

Part 22

"Stupid boys with their stupid song that they almost sung for my stupid brother."

"Hey, leave Carlos out of this." I say from the couch as Julie grabs her schoolbooks, ranting to herself.

She sits down next to me, laying out her homework. "Whatever."

"What's got up your ass?" I ask her, earning a glare and a half. "Noted..."

"We just got home from school. Why are you doing more school work?"

"Why aren't you?" She throws back.

"Cause I don't want to." I watch as she sets to work on the first page.

It looks boring and pointless. Why the hell do we need to know y = mx + 48 and all this shit? How is that going to be useful? I've never used it, and I'm going just fine!

Wait... nope, never mind. I'm dead. How do I keep forgetting?

I grab the now finished piece of paper and turn around on the couch, so my feet are up in the air and my head is hanging towards the floor. "That's wrong."

"How would you know?" Julie snaps, taking her homework back and putting inside one of her books.

"Damn." I mumble.

"Hey, you, uh... you got a second?" I look up to see an upside-down Alex and an upside-down Reggie standing on the other side of the room. Alex was clearly talking to Julie, but she's being a bitch, so I don't think he's gonna have much luck.

"Oh my god, she can't see us anymore!" Reggie shouts. All three of us look at him, dumbfounded. "Oh, right. Yep."

Alex walks over and sits on the arm of the couch. "Julie, please."

"I already told you that I'm done with the band." She answers.

"Yeah, we know, all right? But before you decide that forever, we just..." He pauses before continuing. "We wanted you to know that Luke isn't as selfish as you think."

"Yeah, you've got him all wrong." Reggie adds.

Julie looks back down at her homework, but I take it off of her before she can actually start on it.

"You remember that song "Emily"?" Alex asks her. "Can we at least show you who that's actually about?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The four of us stand behind the tall plants out the front of Luke's parents' house, watching him sit on the counter top inside.

"So, Emily's his mom?" Julie asks.

"Yeah, Luke comes here a lot." Alex answers, peaking from behind a woven chair.

"He thinks we don't know, but we've been following him." Reggie adds from next to where I'm crouching. "All he does is just hang out like this and watch them. They never really do anything though."

We all watch as they set out a chocolate cake in the centre of the dining table.

"They're having cake. That's something."

"It's a birthday cake. For Luke." I mutter, holding back tears.

I know I'm usually pretty sarcastic and shit, but this hits deep. Luke and I have always been there for each other, no matter what. I was the first person he came to when he ran away from home.

FLASHBACK

"Luke? What are you doing here? It's 2 in the morning!" I say, opening my bedroom window to let him in. It's pouring rain, so he's completely drenched.

"Jesus Christ, you're lucky Alex leaves clothes in here." I mumble, digging through my drawers for one of Alex's band shirts and a pair of his sweatpants.

I hand them over to Luke. "Bathroom should be- or just can just change here."

He starts peeling off his drenched shirt as I turn away and face the wall. "That's fine too I guess."

After a minute, he turns me back around and pulls me into a hug. "Holy shit, you're freezing." I feel him chuckle a bit, but he doesn't say anything.

I pull away from the hug. "What happened?"

He pauses, as if deciding whether or not to tell me. "I ran away."

Did I hear that right? He... "You what?"

"I ran away." He takes a deep breath. "Mom and I started arguing, and then I left." I wrap my arms around his waist, trying to comfort him. "I just left her." His voice breaks, as I feel my shoulder getting damp.

"Hey, it's gonna be okay." I say, bringing a hand up to his hair.

I see how red his eyes have gotten as he moves back to look at me. "How do you know?"

"Cause we got each other."

END OF FLASHBACK

"Ari."

"Huh? What?"

"Julie and Reg already left. You good?" Alex asks, putting a hand on my shoulder.

"Oh, yeah. I'm fine." I say, giving him a small smile.

I look back through the glass windows, as Luke stands up from the dining table and moves back over to where he was seated on the countertop.

They must've blown out the candles.

"Go on. I know you want to."

Sometimes I am so grateful to have a brother like Alex. "Thank you."

I poof through the front door, making sure I can't be seen, and cross the room to stand next to Luke.

"What're you doing here?" He asks, barely moving to look at me.

"I'm here to give you a hug." I answer, taking a seat next to him and leaning my head on his shoulder.

Luke then rests his head on top of mine.

"I love you Riri."

"Love you too Luke."

I just wish he meant it in
the same way I did.....