Never Truly Lost |L.H.|

9: "You did the right thing."

"Boys, are you ready to eat?" My mom calls from downstairs.

Cal, John, and myself glare at each other. Then in a flash we're running out of my room and down the stairs pushing each other away to try to beat one another to the dining table. We live for food; especially my mom's food.

When we get down to the table, John blurts out the recent highlights of my day.

"Luke has a crush!!!" he exclaims.

My head falls into my hands in embarrassment. I didn't want mom to find out yet. I shouldn't have told John. He's the person that I always go to for this kind of stuff. Even though this is about the third time in my whole life that I was in this situation, this was a little more of a crush than the others.

"Oh, you do, Luke? What happened to Nicole?" mom asks.

"I'm finished with Nicole. She was horrible." I start. I glance at Calum and I see him look down at his plate, obviously still shaken by the happenings of earlier.

"Ah, yes. I saw that in her eyes. You did the right thing. Who's the new crush?" mom questions.

"A girl." I reply.

"Well, I assume so. I meant is she one of your friends?" mom corrects.

"Not really...she...I knocked her over after school yesterday...that was it...pretty much. That's how I met her." I mumbled, looking down at my food.

"Ah. What's her name?" she questions again.

I hesitate, shoveling a spoon of sweet corn into my mouth.

"Her name's Julee, Mrs. H. Luke ended up delivering pizza to her tonight and he ended up staying for a while and they were having a 'Pop Princess Pizza Party'!" John gossips.

I slam my spoon down on the table and stare at John. He shrugs his shoulders and he dips his chicken into the pool of barbecue sauce on his plate. "I had to say it." He giggles.

"That's a nice name." mom comments while laughing lightly, "I had no idea you were a secret 'pop princess' Luke!" She laughs. "You should bring her 'round to the house sometime."

"Maybe." I reply looking down at our small dog under the table. It's a beagle named Fluffles. She's so old. I gave her that name when I was five, and now since I'm 17, she's getting lazy and wrinkly. She's always begging for food. I try giving her veggies - since she's getting overweight - but I always give in to her big brown eyes and end up giving her meat.

"But it can't be on the week of Christmas. We've got our trip." mom jokes. "John, have your parents given you permission to go yet?"

"Yup! They said that you're awesome for getting me out of the house for a while."

"Sounds great." Mom replies with a smile. "Luke, don't you dare give that dog chicken. She's already overweight." She says, her back facing us. She had those 'mom senses' and she always catches me."What about you, Calum? Did you get permission to go?"

He looks up lazily. "Yeah." He says sadly.

My mom pauses what she's doing to look at him. "You sound sad."

"I am."

"Is there any way I can help turn that frown upside down?"

"Not really, but thanks." He says as he finishes his dinner. I finish my dinner as well and I start to get out of my chair.

"Don't you want dessert? It's blueberry pound cake." mom asks.

"No... I'm fine for now. Maybe later."

"I'll take some!" John yells. He loves my mom's blueberry pound cake. Him and Calum get permission to eat it upstairs, and we head up to my room with Cal still upset. As we walk in, I grab my guitar and sit on my bed and play a random tune that pops into my head.