divulgence // luke hemmings au

19

When Luke got off shift he picked up Eloise from school who was gushing over the fact that her thirteenth birthday was coming up and that she was finally getting her very own service dog to help her with her POTS.

Luke seeing his youngest not be so little anymore made him feel old but at the same time he seemed to enjoy seeing all three kids be in their teenage phase. So many exciting things have been happening and he was looking forward to whatever else.

As soon as Elliot clocked out of work he was off with Stephanie taking her out for an early dinner. Sabrina was at work working over time because she had to take on extra clients because her real estate partner went on maternity leave. Sabrina was stressed, some days not coming home till after 10pm at night going to bed as soon as possible.

After Luke brought home Eloise, she went upstairs to work on homework, Luke went to the kitchen to get started on dinner — trying out a new recipe he saw online.

He was preoccupied by that for a long time till he looked up at the clock and saw that the time was 4:11pm and that Elsie has yet to come home.

He checked his phone, no texts from her.

He texted her at 4:12PM:

"Where are you? Do you need a ride home?"

The message was delivered but not read.

At 4:16pm he texted her again; "are you staying after school for something? Or did you go to a friends house and not tell me?"

The message was delivered but not read.

He texted her again at 4:19pm: "you're making me a little worried. I haven't heard from you all day. Is something wrong?"

The message was delivered but not read.

At 4:21pm he locked his phone and put it in his pocket and grabbed his keys off the counter, he walked to the stairwell "Eloise your sister is not answering her phone and she's yet to come home I'm going to go to her school and see if she's there. I have food in the oven can you make sure it doesn't burn."

He awaited a few more seconds for a reply, "yeah I heard you. I'll come down and watch the oven"

"Thank you sweetheart if you hear from your sister while I'm gone let me know"

Luke left getting into his car driving down to the high school where he parked in the pull up area and he dialed Elsie's number where it rang a bunch of time before going to voicemail.

He looked around and saw a couple of teachers and students leaving but he didn't see Elsie. He awaited an additional few minutes before getting out of the car he walked around the parking lot and didn't see her, then he headed toward the track and field. The football team was practicing so he tried not to interfere.

As he was walking on the track it hit him and he headed toward the bleachers walking behind in order to see. His instincts were right and sitting on the floor hugging her knees was Elsie.

Luke paused for a moment before going up to her, "Hey. I knew I would find you here." He said walking up behind her, it appeared she had been crying.

"Elsie, are you okay? How come you're not home?"

She started wiping her face with the back of one of her hands. "I just want to be alone dad."

"Did I do something wrong?"

"No not really but I really would like to be alone."

"If this is about me being distant the past couple of weeks, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make it seem like I pushed everyone a way. I need to learn to juggle everything a little better."