Mine - Luke Patterson (PRE JATP)

Chapter 26

(Lukes POV)

I wasn't at home for half an hour before I snuck back out my window after I slammed the door of my bedroom. I really had been getting along with my parents better as of late, today was just not a great example of that.

I walked back to the studio with a bag of clothes and my guitar case on my back. I turned down the 'driveway' to the garage an noticed there was a light still on. I assumed I left it on when I left. I felt my self smile for a fraction of second as I closed the door behind me when I saw Tegan sitting on the couch. That was before I read the room. 

I saw she had dropped her own bag and guitar case halfway between the door and the couch. Her hair hung down in front of her face instead of pulled back from the show and the laces on her shoes weren't even tied. What really scared me is the way she sat on the couch with her head in her hands, I could tell the she was struggling to breath because of the unsteady ways her shoulders would rise and fall, and she didn't even notice me come in.

I dropped my things near hers while I walked very quickly over crouching to the floor next to her so I could see her face.

"Hey, hey, are you okay?" I ask with my hand on her shoulder. "What happened?"

"Luke?" She says in between uneven breaths. "What are you- what are you doing here?"

"Not important, what are you doing here?" I ask again. "Did something happen at home?"

"No really, I just- I'm- I'm sorry I just, I feel like I can barely breathe." She says while I noticed underneath her eyes were wet from crying.

"Okay, okay. Here sit up." I say jumping over to the spot on the couch next to her taking both her hands and raising them to the top of her head. "It makes it easier slow your breathing that way." I just waited a minute or two keeping her hands on top of her head before slowly letting go as she was starting to do much better. "You okay now?"

"Yeah. Thank you." She say's quietly with a slight nod. "What are you doing back here?"

"Uh-uh, no, absolutely not." I shook my head. "We aren't talking about me right now. What happened to you?"

"I um- I'm not sure how, but it doesn't really matter how, but my parents found out I skipped school with you." She begins to explain trying to wipe her eyes. "I came in the back door to the kitchen when I got home just to avoid anyone who was still awake and my parents were in the dining room arguing about it. My mom was arguing it probably wasn't my idea and it wasn't my fault, my dad said it doesn't matter and I should't have ditched, it was a whole thing." 

"Okay, well what made you end up here." I asked, I had a feeling this was going to go much more south than it already had. 

"Well I couldn't get to the stairs to get to my room without them seeing me so I had to just hide behind the door and wait." She continues. I could still hear the tone of her voice as she kept trying to keep herself together. "My dad eventually had enough and, thought I was home so he was going to bust down my door and pull me in the conversation. I thought Jess and Charlotte went home for the night but Jess was upstairs and she was about to come down the stairs as my dad went up. She said something to him, I don't know what it was but, it ended with a shove to the face that sent her falling down the stairs."

"What? Thats terrible, is she okay?" I asked while she tried to continue telling the story only being able to stare at the ground. 

"I hope so. I don't know." She stuttered. "My dad didn't give her a second glance, he continued down the hallway towards my room, while my mom was checking on Jess at the bottom of the stairs. I heard some loud noise, I only assume was him kicking open my door, then him yelling and screaming the whole way back to the top of the stairs when he realized I was gone. That was when he spotted me behind the small window on the kitchen door. Yelled things like 'you see that! Thats your fault! Maybe if you didn't skip school with some delinquent guy this wouldn't have happened!"