DOLLHOUSE • 5sos

2

"When you turn you back, she pulls out her flask, and forgets his infidelity."

L U K E

Luke worked in a bakery. 

The boys' neighbourhood was in a relatively small Australian country town where drama or crimes were mostly unheard of. There weren't many parties or anything very exciting and the nearest nightclub was two hours away, so that left very little room for excitement, adrenaline and risk-taking. 

Luke pulled on his apron, waving a small hi to the girl who was already working behind the counter. She sighed when saw Luke, noticing the bags under his eyes. "You're late."

"I know. I overslept," he lied. He'd really been drinking himself silly the night before, trying to forget everything. Luke sometimes felt like he was the only one who was really fully there in the household and it stressed him out. Before all of them had moved in together, they'd all gotten along extremely well and been healthy and happy. It all came crashing down pretty fast and Luke thought it was his fault a lot, which resulted in the drinking.

"Okay, just make sure it doesn't happen again." Luke nodded at the blonde girl and put on his gloves, standing beside her at the counter. Customers soon came flooding in for lunch and Luke's hands were full with work. He was glad he brought that whiskey in his backpack now. He'd need it.

He sighed, leaning against the door in the staff room, flask in hand. He chugged a few mouthfuls, wincing and then hung his arm by his side, laying his head on the door behind him. He kept on thinking about what was going to happen when he got home. He always did. Ever since the day that he fucked everything up, he was so worried about everything he did. He should probably go to therapy.

He took another mouthful and thought of Ashton. It all started with Ashton. For as long as Luke could remember, he'd had feelings for Ashton. Ashton however, was as straight as you could get, which caused a lot of problems. One night, about three months after they'd all moved in together, Luke and Ashton were watching a movie together, when Luke's hand somehow ended up on Ashton's thigh. Ashton wasn't fazed. 

Luke's hand kept sliding up and Ashton was just starting to notice. He fidgeted a little, but other than that, he was okay with it. When the scene changed to some straight people kissing, Luke turned to Ashton and then moved a leg over him so that he was now straddling him. "Luke, what's going on?"

"I wanna try something."

They got further than just kissing that night.

After that night, Ashton became bitter and spoke to none of them, only leaving his room for food, bathroom breaks and work. One day, Ashton had enough and he went out to the club two hours away. He stayed in that part of the city for two months with no calls or messages to any of the other boys. They thought he was dead.

When he came home, he had a girl with him, who happened to be pregnant - by him. He walked right into the house, girl in tow, and made his way straight to Luke's room. He pushed open the door without knocking, which nearly gave Luke a heart attack, but Luke nearly had another heart attack when he saw it was Ashton. "She's pregnant. It's mine. I'm straight." He said bluntly.

It'd been about a year since then. She'd had a miscarriage and none of them had ever heard from her again (was her name Jessica? Luke couldn't even remember). Ashton hadn't been the same. he brought home sluts and prostitutes at least five times a week and it hurt Luke every single time. 

But Ashton wasn't the only thing that Luke was having trouble coping with. Michael and Calum were just as bad. Michael was constantly spending his only money on drugs and cigarettes, sitting up in his room and wasting his life away. He'd finished school the previous year, but that didn't seem to faze him at all. He was becoming extremely severely depressed, especially during the time that Ashton had disappeared - which was when they'd come home to find him lying in the bathtub, his wrist dripping blood continuously. 

Calum had gotten home just a little later than usual because he'd joined the soccer team, but when he received no reply from anyone, he figured everyone had gone out. However, when he heard a small groan from upstairs, he knew something was wrong. He walked in to find a murder scene, basically. There was blood everywhere.

Michael only just managed to stay alive. If Calum had been seconds later, he would have been dead.

Luke took another gulp, reliving the memories. It was a long few months in and out of hospital for Michael to be better again. Everyday Luke was stressed all day, just wondering if he'd even be alive when he got home, if Ashton would even come home... and Calum. Luke had no idea what to do anymore.

Calum had a mild case of schizophrenia. The boys found out when he woke up screaming, claiming someone was whispering in his ear and telling him to jump out of his window. They had to barricade the window with wooden beams. Calum tended to forget that he had those problems. His brain just wouldn't recognise it and remember it, so Luke would slip his pills into his normal food without him realising to keep him sane.

Calum's most frequent hallucination was a girl that he spoke about all the time. None of the other boys had the heart to tell him that she wasn't real because he spoke about about her as if he were in love. Her long brown hair and brown eyes. Apparently she always wore red and she always seemed to be on a bike with roses handy. Calum liked her a lot and it killed Luke knowing that she wasn't even real. Luke just had no idea how to deal with so much responsibility - Calum was still in high school! - so he resorted to alcohol. 

Luke sighed heavily, swirling the liquid in his flask. "Are you done in there, Luke? I think I'm gonna lock up now!" His fellow employee shouted from outside the staff room. He shook his head to clear his mind and shoved the flask into his back pocket, slightly tipsy from the amount of liquor he'd consumed. 

"Uh yeah, I'll come with you." He opened the door and saw the blonde girl, Lilac, standing there with keys in her hand. She smiled when she saw Luke and Luke forced himself to smile back, although he was really miserable.

Luke took the train home while Lilac drove her own car. The subway was particularly empty today and Luke was extremely glad for that, although it was about seven o'clock at night. Sometimes Luke felt like people thought he was drug dealer or something. He did kind of look like it at the moment.

He got to his stop, slinging his backpack onto his shoulder and tipping the flask to his mouth, beginning to walk down the street. His house was pretty close to the train station luckily. He paused in front of the house, admiring the way it looked. Calum did a good job of keeping them undercover, he'd give him that. The rose bushes were pruned to perfection, grass as green as ever and their driveway was as clean and white as it could get. He was a little confused though, when he spotted a perfectly cut red rose laying on their driveway. He picked it up and sniffed it, shrugging before tossing it into the garden and heading inside.

"I'M HOME!" He shouted. 

"I'm in the kitchen!" He heard Calum shout. He sighed and dropped his backpack in the middle of the living room, leaving the flask on the coffee table. He turned the corner to the kitchen and saw Calum in a pink apron, stirring something on the stove. "You like?" he asked, gesturing to his apron and wiggling his eyebrows.

Luke chuckled, but stopped when it made him see double of everything. "Yeah, it's funny. What are you making?" 

"Um, just soup. I dunno, you got home a little later than usual and I wanted to do something nice." Calum shrugged.

Luke was touched, but he really didn't need Calum to do that. How was he meant to slip him his pills now? "Oh that's nice of you. I'll butter some bread for it." He internally fist pumped at his idea and Calum nodded, fine with him doing that. 

At least everyone was alive... he hoped.