the buddy system / lrh 🍒

25:city lights

Luke wasn't really sure how he got here, to be honest.

And by here, he meant here, sitting across from his dad and a woman he, quite frankly, had no idea even existed, smack in the middle of a fancily lighted restaurant filled with quite snobbish and probably rich people in tuxes and fucking dresses made out of swarvoski crystals.

It was an understatement to even think that they were maybe just a little bit underdressed as he, his friends, and quite possibly future girlfriend, sat there in jeans and faded t-shirts right across them.

Luke couldn't even possibly put into words how impeccably done he was. He'd probably explode into pieces trying.

"You weren't supposed to find out like this," Mr. Hemmings insisted, tugging at the collar of his shirt nervously, not daring to look at his son's enraged eyes across the table, practically burning holes into his every being with the blood curdling anger he was feeling at that very moment.

The blonde haired boy raised an eyebrow, a look of mock interest flashing across his face for a split second.

"Really, huh? When were you planning to tell me then?" he responded calmly, almost too calmly, as if there was a hurricane hiding beneath the cloud of serenity, just waiting to blow up in everyone's faces and destroy everything in it's path.

"Because it seems like everyone in this family knows but me."

Luke scanned everyone else's expression, shooting glares at his own brothers, his fucking partners in crime throughout everything, even through their mum's death, for not even telling him, for purposely leaving him out of the loop as if he wasn't part of the family as well.

Jack let out a cough, rubbing at the back of his neck with just as much nervousness as their father. Luke's tongue was as sharp as a fucking knife when he was angry. It was sort of fucking horrifying, even if he was his baby brother.

"We were waiting for the right time," he admitted truthfully, calmly as if he was walking on eggshells that could explode with the force of a fucking bomb at any second. "We thought today would be a good time."

The blue eyed boy let out a scoff, shaking his head.

"Bullshit," he stated simply through gritted teeth, seeming more hurt than angry, as if the utter anguish and emotional pain he was feeling had absorbed all the anger like a soppy washcloth, dripping onto the fancy, intricately decorated tiled floors of the restaurant.

"Today's the day mum died for God's sake! And you just bring some random lady into our lives and expect me to be okay with it?" he questioned, his voice cracking halfway through his sentences, making him wince at the pathetic sound of his utter remorse.

He probably sounded like such a fucking kid.

"Well, obviously i didn't! None of us did for God's sake, Luke! But sometimes you need to move on because you know damn well that mum's not coming back, alright?" Jack shot back, running a hand through his blonde hair, the exact same shade of blonde that Luke so beautifully possessed in such a way that Katherine swore sometimes she couldn't possibly tell them apart.

"She's dead, Luke! And you can't change that!" he added, his words like razors that threatened to cut at Luke's throat, tearing his whole world apart.

"Jack! What the fuck? Stop!" Michael piped up, his eyes wide at the older Hemmings' sudden outbreak. He was never the type to ever yell at anyone, especially Luke considering that, no matter how many times Jack got annoyed at the younger boy, he loved him to hell and back. "You've said fucking enough! Just let it go, you douche!"

Jack let out a scoff, shaking his head. "Me? Why? Maybe he should let it go, it's been fucking years! He just needs to grow the fuck up," he stated, rolling his bright blue eyes annoyedly as the tension in the room hung in the air like a knife, threatening to cut at their flesh and draw out their feelings, their anger like blood.

"Boys! You need to stop! That is enough!" Mr. Hemmings' voice boomed, silencing the bickering going on between the boys as Michael pursed his lips, biting at his tongue to prevent himself from having an outburst just to stick up for his friend, who seemed to be falling apart at the seams beside him and Calum. "Where are your manners?"

"Up my fucking ass," Luke mumbled sharply under his breath, his shoulders tense and his hands clenched into fists as Katherine bit her lip, placing her hand on top of his in a horrid attempt of comforting him.

She was never really good with this shit, but hey, at least she was trying.

"Lucas!" Ben exclaimed, his eyes wide as he frowned disapprovingly at his younger brother. "What the fuck is your goddamn problem? You're acting like such a child!" he added, making the blonde haired boy with the lip ring laugh bitterly, practically shaking the world with his melancholy humor.

"My problem? She's my fucking problem! You all are my problem, for God's sake! Do you guys even care about mum anymore?" he questioned, earning a frown from the woman across the table, Elizabeth, from what he could briefly remember, a name his father had called her earlier, although the sheer thought made him want to throw his insides up.

Elizabeth let out a sigh, shooting the blue eyed boy a small, polite smile. "Luke, listen, if that's what you're worried about, i'm not trying to replace your mum, okay? I know i can never be your mum and i'll probably never live up to how much you loved her, but give me a chance, we can all work this out as a family," she suggested, calmly and hopefully as if the word family coming out of her mouth didn't have the power to make Luke want to jump off a cliff and submit into the darkness of the universe.

"Over my dead body," he mumbled before getting up and running out the door, ignoring all of the screams of anger and worry disappearing behind him as he ran out of the hellhole he allowed himself to be dragged into, hopping into his car and driving into the night frantically as tears pooled down his cheeks.

It was absolutely horrifying, the fact that he couldn't fucking feel a thing as he sped towards the highway, the city lights that usually illuminated the darkness of the world, of himself, just blurs in his eyes as he drove, hiccuping from the lack of air in his lungs as he struggled to take a breath.

A breath that might has well have been his last as he crashed into the truck in front of him, into complete emptiness, thinking of nothing but the people he left behind and the beautiful redheaded girl he might never be able to see again, as he let himself submit to the darkness that engulfed his body.

And then, at that very moment, he was at peace.

--

:-)))))))))))))))

Hi! I'm alive!

And i'm so sorry i haven't updated in like a month D-: i had the crappiest writers block and i was like super busy, and i still sadly am because school sucks.

But i promise i'll try to update more since i got my new laptop and its so convenient and nice and i have no school tomorrow so i'll hopefully write more if i finish my homework early even though i doubt it like so much.

Idk we'll see

also p.s. please don't hate me because of this chapter.

peace out girl scouts!