Pictures of You [Completed]

Twenty-one. God Complex

"Do you have to do that here?"

Madison's high pitch voice grated against Luke's nerves. He didn't dare close his compact though, just  kept sniffing up the lines on the bottom mirror with a tightly rolled pink dirham. "Yeah. I have to get prepared," Luke cooed wiping his nose in the reflection.

He offered the leftovers on the mirror to his table-mates around him but none of them took him up on the offer. Luke shrugged and sniffed the rest up, thinking they were all fake anyway.

"You shouldn't do that in public." Cam pointed out.

"What does it matter?" Luke hummed. "It keeps me thin and pretty so why not?"

Michael looked at him as if to say "stop." But Luke had woken up this morning and decided that today he was gonna make himself everyone else's problem, so there was no stopping him now.

"That all really anyone wants right?" Luke continued loudly. "To be thin and pretty so your pictures look better. Here go ahead snap a couple of me. Actually I've got a couple I took in the mirror last night that are pretty indicative. I'm a little proud cause I've been working on this for a minute." He gestured to his body.

Luke leaned back in his chair, with his arms spread out revealing his torso in his white tank top tucked into his jeans. He had a light button down over the tank top but it was currently splayed out to the sides of his chair, revealing the skin tight fabric beneath.

Normally Luke would feel self-conscious, but he was feeling testy. He was jittery. He'd ordered some espresso with his meal, and he was already beginning to feel the effects. That plus the immediate high the Coke gave him, he was livid. He was boiling over.

He felt his heart beating entirely too slowly for how fast he felt he was moving. But maybe that was just his mind playing tricks on him. It had a tendency to do that, pesky brain. Pesky heart.

The waiter came by and gave them all their appetizers. Luke had gotten oysters and caviar. He paired it with a thousand dollar bottle of champagne, but who was going to tell him not to? And what he didn't finish, he was gonna take with him. He could think of a couple uses a good brut and his boyfriend could have for him.

Luke didn't even want to eat that much. Nor did he really want all the carbs in the champagne. This was only a power move. And he was daring Madison to say something about it. She was paying after all.

"Anyone want some?" He offered to his table mates. Which again, no one took him up on the offer. Luke clinked his champagne flute against Grace's water glass where it rested on the table, and tipped it back like he'd just given a toast.

The bitter effervescent liquid wasn't good. He didn't have a taste for champagne. And no amount of trying was gonna change that.

But he'd never let them know that. He smiled like the taste in the back of his throat didn't make him want to convulse. "Just what I needed..."

"Luke, what the hell are you doing?" Michael asked. "You're acting insane."

Luke shrugged. "So what?"

Michael didn't seem to have an answer for that. None of them really did.

That only egged Luke on. "Huh? So what? I'm doing my part. We can't go clubbing, this is the next best thing. I'm not stingy. You can have some of the oysters and caviar. Honestly the thought makes me want to vomit...but there can't be too many calories in oysters."

Cam made a face like she'd puke and Luke smiled. That gave Luke enough spite to lift the grey shell to his mouth and slide it in. It tasted salty, and it felt weird in his mouth, but other than that it was pretty harmless. The little caviar balls rolled over his tastebuds like some weird jelly didn't recognize. And when he bit on them they exploded into salty water. He swallowed without chewing at all wanting to avoid tasting that again forever.