Never Too Late

Chapter Thirty

"How are you feeling Luke?" Ericka asked as he lay on the couch at home next to her.

"Fine," he sighed as he raised his arm a little, which was lying across him in a sling, before hissing his teeth and putting it back.

"You're lucky it was only sprained. What were you thinking!?" Ericka questioned concerned.

"I was thinking I could make it, but it was a bad dive," Luke admitted as he rubbed his arm and hissed again.

After taking him to the hospital, they found out he had sprained his arm trying to catch a ball during baseball practice, and Johan, along with Ericka, hadn't left his side.

"You weren't supposed to be out there!" Ericka chided. "Noel told me it wasn't your turn yet!"

"I know, I know. I got carried away." Luke said lightheartedly, but Johan was stoic as he watched his brother, who was almost lying in Ericka's arms.

"You should've been more careful," Johan said as he ignored the growing pain in his heart. "Dad and Mom had to leave work to get you to the hospital."

"I didn't sprain my arm on purpose!" Luke argued, but Johan shrugged, which irritated him. "Where were you anyway!?"

"Heading home," Johan revealed.

"Seriously!?" Luke frowned and was about to argue but Ericka cut in.

"I forgot to tell you, something weird happened when we were leaving school; Johan's arm started hurting him really badly around the time you got hurt. Isn't that strange!?" Ericka told Luke but he brushed it off.

"No way, he was probably pretending," Luke suggested but Ericka disagreed.

"How would he be pretending if he hadn't known you were hurt?" She reasoned and both brothers sat in silence.

"It was probably all in my mind," Johan said not wanting to dwell too much on it.

"Oh, okay," Ericka said, letting it rest.

"Wait, why were you with Johan?" Luke questioned but his brother spoke up first.

"We were walking out together, nothing more." He said nonchalantly.

"Yeah," Ericka mumbled and looked over at Johan.

"We, I'm glad you didn't leave yet, and thanks for coming over," Luke beamed while looking over at Ericka again.

"Of course, and no need to thank me," she said smiling warmly.

They both looked like the perfect couple to Johan, and their feelings for each other were so obvious that it became too much for him to bear, so he got up and went to his room. Once there, he sat quietly and lamented his behavior and hoped they hadn't noticed. Just then, he heard a knock at the door, and his dad came in.

"Hey, why are you up here by yourself. Your brother and friend are downstairs." His father scolded but Johan sat still on his bed.

"I'm tired, I spent the whole night studying," Johan said quietly.

"Okay," His father said before sitting beside him. "You know I was a bit shocked when you called about Luke. Who would have thought baseball would be that dangerous?"

"It is, have you ever played it?" Johan asked curiously but his father shook his head.

"Nope, I played football." He smiled proudly. "You might know it as rugby."

"Oh," Johan said admittedly surprised. Football was a rough game, and although he thought it looked really cool, he also knew how dangerous it could be.