The Story You Were Never Told

6 - Numb

-----A week later:-----

The house feels empty now. Everything has changed. There are no chaotic school mornings or weekends away with his father and brother. Both of them had been taken away from Oakley in the space of a week. Just like that, he was now alone. No one there to make him smile, no one to help him on hard days. He only had himself. 

After his father's death, Oakley had been handed down all of his dad's possessions, including the house and the car since he was old enough to legally own those two items in his name. However, one thing he couldn't keep was his brother since he wasn't old enough to legally care for a minor. Jonah had been taken into care a couple days after their father's passing and since then, Oakley had been living alone in his house. 

Adela came by everyday for a couple hours to check in on Oakley but other than that, he had no one else apart from what he called 'the lousy, half-assed condolences' he received from classmates he barely if not, never spoke to. He hated them because the only reason why people would speak to him now was because he was going through a loss. He felt like he was only being spoken to out of pity and despised that feeling.

Oakley hadn't left his house since he got back from the hospital. He was given time off school for grievance so he didn't need to leave the house. Adela often brought him his favourite snacks and drinks but Oakley barely touched any of them. He didn't have the appetite to eat anything in all seriousness. He was to heartbroken and distraught to have anything else but his father's death on his mind.

Most of the time, Oakley just slept (he got a lot of that due to his narcolepsy but he was still tired) or stayed on the couch watching tv. He was mentally exhausted from all of the emotions he had felt that week. It got to a point were Oakley couldn't even cry anymore. He just felt numb, like he couldn't feel any simple emotion anymore and it was killing him.

Oakley was laying on the couch and watching tv like he had been doing for the past week now when he heard a knock on the door. He  assumed it was Adela and looked down at the time on his phone. Thought it was a weird time for Adela to knock at this time since he did it earlier on in the day on Saturdays. It was now 4pm so he was a little confused. Either way, Oakley stood up from his couch from couch and walked to the front the door to open it and see who was there. 

Once he got to the front door, he opened it and saw a different person who had come to see him. It was Luke, the boy Oakley had ran into at the end of drama class that one day. He was holding onto a bag full of things like treats and stuff like that. Oakley was shocked seeing him stood there in front of him at his house. He had barely spoken to the boy, never mind giving him his address. 

To Luke, he didn't even need to ask if Oakley was doing alright. He could tell by the way he looked. His hair was messed up and looked like it hadn't been combed properly for days, his face looked super white and flushed and the bottom off his eyes were dark from the eyebags since he hadn't been sleeping properly.

"Hey Oakley, I thought I'd check up on you. Adela told me about what happened and gave me your address. I'm so sorry for your loss." Luke told him, putting the bag on the floor so he could wrap his arms around Oakley.

Oakley felt the hug from Luke and froze a little. Despite feeling emotionless, he still had feelings for Luke, so a hug from him made Oakley's day a little bit better, he didn't smile however. He eventually returned the hug and buried his head into Luke's shoulder, feeling a strangely large amount of comfort from a person who he had barely spoken to.

Luke smiled at Oakley burying his head into his shoulder. He knew he needed comfort and was willing to provide him with as much as he needed. Luke also secretly liked Oakley but wouldn't tell him since he was scared about what he would think. Plus, now was a pretty bad time to confess to him, so he just kept his liking for Oakley on the downlow.

Oakley picked his head up from Luke's shoulder and let go of him, Luke doing the same when he felt Oakley's arms be removed from around him. "Thank you Luke. I really do appreciate it." This was the first condolence Oakley thought was genuine. Luke showed so much care and actually seemed like he was sorry for him. 

"No problem. If you don't mind, can I come in? I just want to check in with you for a little bit." Luke asked Oakley, making sure he was comfortable with Luke staying with him for a few hours since he hadn't reached out to anyone for a while.

Oakley nodded and opened the door wider so Luke could enter his house. Luke picked up the bag again and entered, looking around at the interior and Oakley shut the door behind him. He hadn't been inside Oakley's house yet so he wanted to take a good look around. Luke eventually turned his attention to the living room where he was being led, seeing how it was a mess. There were empty water bottles and unfinished snack packets on the coffee table in front of the couch. "Sorry for the mess, I haven't gotten around to cleaning it." Oakley told Luke as he moved some of the rubbish to the side so Luke could put his things on the table.

"No no, it's okay. I can help you clean up if you want. I'll have an empty plastic bag you can use to put the trash in." Luke insisted. He didn't even wait for a response from Oakley before he emptied the bag, putting the fresh snacks and drinks on the table and put the empty trash in the plastic bag. 

Oakley watched Luke put the trash in the bag and tried to help him but Luke just sat him back down. "You didn't have to do that you know. I could have helped you." Oakley let Luke know as he sat back down on the couch.

Luke shook his head and looked back at him when he was finished putting the trash in the bag. "It's fine Oakley. I think you need some rest. Proper rest. I'll out a movie on we can watch and you can wind down and watch that." Luke replied. He went to the kitchen to put the plastic bag in the kitchen.

While Luke was in the kitchen sorting out the trash, Oakley got comfortable under the blanket since it was pretty cold outside. Well to him anyway. He didn't know if it was to Luke since he was only in jeans and a sweater. He switched the tv on, ready for Luke to put a movie on since he assumed he had good taste in movies. Or at least better taste than him. While he was waiting, he started drifting off into space as he got deep into thought.

Luke came back after a few minutes and saw Oakley zoned out underneath the blanket he had over him. He carefully sat next to Oakley, trying not to startle him and tapped his shoulder to take him out of the trance he was in. Oakley looked at Luke when he felt a sensation on his shoulder and hummed in confusion. "You were really zoned out then. You sure you're okay?"

Oakley nodded and handed Luke the remote, swiftly moving away from the topic. "I assume you have better taste in movies. Plus, I want to watch something new. I've rewatched the same things over and over again." Oakley told him quietly.

Luke nodded and put one of his favourite movies on. "You alright with Dirty Dancing?" He asked Oakley just to make sure. He didn't know if he was cool with watching that movie since they hadn't really spoken a whole lot.

Oakley nodded again before getting a little more comfortable as the movie began. He put his head back against the couch a little bit in a way that he could still see the tv. He was excited to see what this movie was like since he hadn't seen it before.

-----An hour later:-----

Since Luke had most of his attention on the movie, he didn't notice Oakley had fallen asleep. He only noticed when he felt Oakley's head fall onto his shoulder. Luke looked down at Oakley and smiled. He fixed the blanket so Oakley was covered more but didn't do anything else. He didn't know what else he should do since he didn't know if Oakley liked him back or not. Instead, he just propped his own head up with his free arm and rested his eyes while he waited for Oakley to wake up. He didn't know when that would be, but no matter how long it took, he would stay with Oakley until he was ready for Luke to leave. 

(1571 words - im tired so im sorry if it seems rushed but maybe two chapters tomorrow?)