Learn How to Love (Boy x Boy)

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟑

I leaned against my air mattress, staring blankly out the circle window. It was almost midnight, and Luke still wasn't back yet. I was getting worried. What if Melanie found out about his secret and called the police or something? For all I knew he was on a truck headed across the country to some underground laboratory. Maybe I was overreacting,  but it wasn't unlikely for kids to get kidnapped- cat ears or not. 

I  had done everything I could to keep my mind off of him. Cook, clean, read, do homework, but nothing was good enough at distracting me. Sadie was spending time with her grandmother a couple hours away so I couldn't even bother her. I couldn't talk to her about this either- she wouldn't get why I was worried about Luke, or why the hell I knew he was out late in the first place. 

I didn't realize I had been biting my nails until a sharp pain erupted in my fingertip. I pulled my hand away from my mouth, hissing in a mixture of pain and frustration. Where could he be? He wouldn't answer my texts, or my calls. I might assume he and Melanie were doing more than just eat dinner, but then he would've had to take off the beanie or the hoodie and than his secret would be out. Which could also mean he was headed towards an underground laboratory in the middle of nowhere. The worm of panic in my belly was growing bigger by the minute.

Creeak. 

The trap door flipped open, and Luke scrambled up into the treehouse. The moment he was on his feet and had shut the door I grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him furiously. "Where have you been?! You've been gone for hours! Why didn't you answer my calls, or my texts, or anything?! I-"

Luke looked up at me, and I saw that his big blue eyes were brimming with tears. I reached up my hands and cupped his face. "Are you alright? What happened? Did someone see your ears or someth-"

"I kissed her!" Luke wailed, and burst into tears. He practically swan-dived into my arms, wrapping his arms around me and shoving his face into my chest. 

"Oh- woah, I- okay, slow down," I said, struggling to keep both of us from toppling over. Luke was limp in my arms. 

Luke sobbed into my shoulder, his body trembling as he tried to speak between his sniffling. Each word was followed by a loud, ragged gasp as he tried to breath through his weeping. He could barely form a proper sentence, and I was completely helpless trying to figure out what was wrong with him. So many possibilities circled my head of things that could've happened to him. I didn't know Melanie that well... would she have forced him to do anything?

"Shh, please stop crying," I whispered, awkwardly trying to position my hands on his back. I held his shoulders and pushed him off of me. "You need to tell me what's wrong, or I can't help you."

Luke looked at me, sniffling uncontrollably. His pale cheeks were streaked with tears and his blue eyes glimmer with water. I grimaced. What was I supposed to do? Hug him? That wasn't exactly my strong point, and I didn't know Luke that well. Sure we'd gotten closer over this weird "curse" excursion but that didn't mean that we were connected on some sort of spiritual level. I can't read his mind, I don't know what's wrong unless he speaks to me. 

I moved my hands down his shoulder and grabbed his hands. I brought his palms up to my face and let him wrap his fingers around my head. I did the same to his face, cupping his cheeks in the curve of my hands. We stood like that, a few inches apart, for a solid three minutes. I could feel his body quake beneath his hands as his tears trickled down his face and wet my fingers. 

I took his beanie off and tossed it off to the side so that his ears could stick up freely, than went back to holding his face because it seemed to be the only thing that could actually comfort him. Luke was trying to take deep breaths, his chest rising and falling unnaturally as he gasped for every mouthful of air he took. I didn't what to do. I never reacted to problems like this, neither did Sadie, or my parents, or my grandma- I had no experience in this type of field. How did you comfort people?

I gently let go of Luke's face and moved him over to my air mattress. I carefully lowered him onto the squishy surface, and let him curl up into a protective ball as he started sobbing once more. This time, into my pillow. I let him stay there and moved across the floor to grab my phone off of the bookshelf. I opened up Google and typed into the search bar:

How do you comfort people that are sad? and impatiently waited for the results to pop up, anxiously gnawing on my fingernails again as my crappy internet took ages for the page to actually load.

Ways To Comfort a Sad Friend:

-Speak to them in a low, reassuring voice. Refrain from yelling

-Depending on the person, physical contact can either be a great comfort or a great stressor. Be sure to ask before touching or moving them

-Many people have guilty pleasures such as certain books, foods, or stuffed animals that can help them in their time of need. Ask them what they need and retrieve it for them

My eyes scanned the box for a few moments, re-reading each sentence carefully. I didn't have any of Luke's belongings here with me, and it would take probably twenty or thirty minutes to cook him a plate of pasta. I could get him a snack from the fridge, but I didn't want to leave him up here for too long. So I had speak in a soft tone and physical touch to work with here. Unfortunately I wasn't very good with either of them.

I looked up from my phone over to the air mattress where Luke was still laying down. There was a huge wet patch on my pillow from where his tears had soaked through. What if I just let him cry himself out? Ugh, no, I couldn't do that. I wasn't a monster. Plus, I guess I did kind of care about Luke. I walked across the treehouse and knelt down on the wood next to his face. Luke's eyes fluttered open, still dripping with fresh tears. 

"Hey..." I murmured. I reached out a hand and brushed Luke's bangs away from his face. "Are you alright with me sitting on the bed with you?"

Luke nodded wordlessly. 

I rose to my feet and sat down on the edge of the bed, leaning against the wall so that I wasn't too close to him. Luke didn't seem to like that too much, though. He sat up and squirmed across the mattress so that he was tucked beneath my arm and his head was on my chest. I let him adjust himself however he wanted, and then patiently waited as his sobs started to quiet down.