Bloodlust | lrh

23. Emotional maturity

Luke wakes up with a splitting headache. As soon as he sits up he's hit with a wave of nausea that sends him running into the bathroom. The best case scenario would be if he didn't remember what happened last night, but he remembers every single word. And it makes him throw up again.

He sits on his bathroom floor for almost an hour until he's sure he won't get sick anymore. He grabs a bottle of pain relievers off his sink and swallows a few dry. The taste in his mouth is already as bad as it can get.

He hops in the shower and brushes his teeth, both things making him feel significantly better. His hair is still dripping wet when he goes downstairs, because he desperately needs something in his stomach. It feels like there's a hollow pit inside of him after throwing up every last thing.

Everyone is already in the living room, and they can hear him rifling around in the kitchen. It's almost noon, breakfast was over for them hours ago. None of them want to make a big deal about last night until they know if he even remembers it. Luke stumbles out of the kitchen and straight into his office with a plate of what ever he could find in the fridge. That's how everyone knows he remembers. He's avoiding. Classic.

"Is he even going to say anything?" Mike asks, specifically eyeing Calum and Ashton who know him the best.

"I don't fucking know man. This is all new territory for me too." Ashton sighs, rubbing his face with hands.

Soka leaves the conversation and looks out the window. It's snowing again, only it's more like a blizzard today. She watches the wind blow the snowflakes around faster than she can keep track of, not realizing that Mike has been calling her name.

"Earth to Soka." He raises his voice, finally pulling the girl out of her trance.

"What?" She turns to him to figure out what he could possibly want. She wishes they would just leave her in silence.

"Are you okay?" He asks, his sudden concern taking her by surprise. Usually he doesn't really give a shit either way, but after witnessing what she went through last night, he feels for her on some level.

"I'm fine." She gives him a convincing smile and turns back to watch the snow. She would rather forget about what happened and never talk about it again.

All the guys exchange looks, knowing damn well she's not fine. None of them want to harass her about it though, so they resort to turning on the TV that's now conveniently in the living room. There are too many options for movies, so they put on one called The Martian just because it looks sort of cool. None of them know anything about any of the DVD's Luke has.

Soka gets sucked into it immediately, which is definitely helpful. None of them even realize it when Luke walks into the living room. He quietly sits in between Mike and Calum on the other couch, Soka only noticing because Ashton turns to look.

He has his eyes glued to the TV. There's not a chance in hell he's letting himself make the mistake of looking at the girl.

She turns back to keep watching instead of making it weird. When the guys see that she isn't bothered, they go back to watching without a word. Soka wraps herself in her blanket again, which is what finally gets Luke to stare.

She's stone cold, her eyes only fixated on the TV because they have to be. The only thing he can pay attention to is the blanket being wrapped around her. He knows he has her feeling negative emotions. He knows what those emotions are, but he chooses not to let himself specify.

The first decent thing he's done in two days is cover the hickeys on his neck. He has a turtle neck on and sweatshirt over it. They're completely out of sight, and he hopes out of mind. That's just wishful thinking though.