Rochdale | LGBTQ+

.Twelve.

As soon as Maddie had stopped crying and I was convinced she could walk on her own and make it home safely, I took off sprinting down the sidewalks. I needed to find Lucas. That fucker! He couldn't just pretend I didn't matter, could he? Then marry someone else? I thought... I knew we'd been arguing lately, and I know I'd said some harsh things, but that didn't mean I didn't care! I was just so stressed out about caring for the girls and providing for my family I didn't have the energy to deal with Lucas's bullshit.

I knew he cared about me. He always got upset when he found out I was hurt, right? That meant something. And I was his sister's best friend. That also meant something. I paused in an abandoned parking lot, doubling over to wheeze. I'd just sprinted at least a mile, so absorbed in my thoughts I hadn't even realized how fast I was running nor how hard.

Where was I?

I looked around. This was that abandoned parking garage downtown. I was only a couple blocks away from my work. I let out a wheezing cough, and when I was finished hacking I heard the sound of a bottle breaking somewhere within the parking garage.

I didn't know what compelled me to go into that garage. The bottle could've been from some sort of animal knocking over an empty booze glass, or it could've been some gangster hiding out with a pistol ready to shoot anything that moves. But I had to take the risk, part of me knew that, so I raced up those ramps until I reached the floor where the sound had come from.

And there he was. 

He chucked another bottle at the wall. It shattered into a thousand shards of tiny glass. Lucas reached down for another, but froze. His head whipped around, and when he saw it was me, his whole face changed into a look of regret.

"Go away Cory," Lucas said, turning his back to me.

I jogged over to him, my chest still burning from my sprint. I stopped a few feet away. I was desperate to grab him, to touch him, to make him look at me. "Lucas, please-"

"Don't try that bullshit with me," he snapped. He turned his head slightly, the bottle in his hand trembling uncontrollably. He finally looked up at me, our eyes locking. His eyes traveled from my gaze to my lips, and I could see the desperation on his face. "Go away." He chucked the bottle. 

"I won't. Lucas, you can't just marry someone because you're scared of people knowing you're gay-"

"Shut the fuck up!" Lucas yelled. "That's not it! Okay? Do you hear me? I'm not fucking scared. I'm not scared of anything!" He grabbed the final bottle and hurled it at the wall. The terrific crash echoed around the garage. He was panting. 

"Why the hell would you tell them that she's your fiance? Tell them that she loves kids, huh? I know damn well she saw Libby!"

"You turned around," snapped Lucas. "That's what Samantha told me. You turned around and she didn't see her."

"And you're going to believe the bitch that attacks people with rocks?!"

Lucas threw up his hands. "Go! Okay?! Just go! You can't stop me, Cory, I don't know why you're going to stand here trying." I didn't budge. Lucas looked at me. He was trying so hard to glare at me, but the guilt and the remorse was breaking through. His whole body shook. "I don't have a choice."

"Of course you do!"

"I don't you- you- you fucking faggot!" I never expected the punch. He swung at me, his knuckles colliding with my jaw, right where the bruise from Jacob had recently healed. I clutched my jaw, staring up at him in disbelief. "It's a piece of fucking paper," he growled. "It-It doesn't mean anything!"