Pill By Pill {Muke}

20 - Downhill Slope

It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop. ~Confucius

Michael's POV

"Luke," I said, reaching out to poke his cheek. He let out a sigh and swatted my hand down. "Come on, Luke." We were standing in front of our lockers at school. He was looking through his papers and let out a groan.

"Dammit all to hell.." He sighed.

"What?" I replied.

"I forgot to do my math homework." Luke said. "And evidently it was due today."

"Why didn't you do it?" I asked, hoping not to receive the answer that I so feared.

"Oh that's right, you left." Luke chuckled. "So when you left I went over to Skarlet's and then there was a ton of people there, I maybe knew ten people and there was a couple of people who were absolutely insane! And I - "

"Yeah I know all about Skarlet's wonderful party." I rolled my eyes. "You smell like you've been smoking pot for three hours and that you bathed in beer."

"Do I really smell that bad?" Luke asked, his eyes growing wide. At least he could admit that it was not a pleasant smell.

"Yes, you do. You smell awful." I sighed.

"Hm..Awful enough to have teachers stop me so I should skip school?" Luke smiled, it was almost as if he was hoping I would say yes.

"I'm sure you would be fine if you just didn't get near any teachers." I spoke as I grabbed a book from my locker. "I'm sure you don't need to - " And I stopped when I noticed that Luke had disappeared. " - skip school.."

I had to sigh, Luke was a good kid, honestly he was. But I was beginning to wonder if those good grades would go bad, and he would lose everything after a short amount of time. I was beginning to wonder if everything would fall down on him eventually. After all, it was only a downhill slope from here.

"What's the matter Michael?" Ashton asked as him and Calum approached me, I looked to the two. Life must of been much easier for those two, after all, they never were concerned with monitoring a drugged up fool. "You look quite upset."

"It's not a big deal, but what do you do about someone who had a drug issue?" I asked and the two chuckled slightly. "I think I'm serious."

"Why? What's the problem?" Ashton asked.

"Luke's ditching because he didn't do his homework and he smells awfully of alcohol." I said. "I don't know, I'm just thinking that it's becoming more and more of a problem."

"Well I mean, there's not really a whole lot you can do Michael." Calum shrugged. "You can't expect to be some godly figure to change his views on everything."

"Plus if you say anything, he'll just claim that you don't understand and in a lot of ways you don't." Ashton added. "You might as well just give up." Ashton patted my shoulder and walked off with Calum. I let out a sigh.

Was there really any point in giving up? Would that even be a good choice to make? I had no idea, I really wanted to help Luke but those two made a point. There might not be any point in trying, because I don't feel like there is anything I can do.

The day went on, and I found it just as boring as any other day until I was standing at my locker after school and was approached by Barbie and Karla.

"Hey Michael," Barbie greeted me, I looked to see some people giving us weird looks. Was it wrong to talk to these people?

"Hey.." I said, trying to ignore whatever glance I had just gotten.

"Do you happen to have any idea where Luke might be? Or even Riley, I haven't seen either of them all day." Barbie smiled, there was a nervous look on her face. As if something was wrong.

"I think Luke skipped school but I don't know where Riley is." I shrugged. "I would guess if Riley wasn't in class he skipped with Luke."

"Oh no.." Karla sighed.

"Why? What's the matter with that? Riley and Luke are friends, right?" I asked. The two nodded their heads. "So what's the problem if the two are together?"

"Well..I like Riley and everything, and Riley and Luke get along really well despite Riley's harsh behaviors. But..Well.." Barbie bit down on her lip.

"Riley is kind of like Kody in a few ways." Karla smiled nervously. "You see, Riley is kind of..A big influence on Luke. Riley just so happens to be into a few harsher things that we wouldn't want Luke to be doing."

"What do you mean, harsher things?" I asked.

"I mean, Luke smokes and drinks but that's all we ever let him do. We don't really let him into a lot of rougher drugs." Barbie said. "But that's more of Skarlet's rule, and we totally agree with it. But Riley..Is a little indifferent about it. So we don't really let them spend a lot of time alone."

"So you're telling me that is what they're doing right now..?" I asked.

"I don't know, maybe." Karla replied. "Luke's a really good kid and we really like him. He's definitely not one of us, and we want to keep it that way. But we're not about to cut him off either."

"He's like everyone's baby brother." Barbie smiled. "So we only let him partake in the little things. Riley is kind of like the rough older brother and is wanting him to man up. Riley is a little messed up sometimes, you know?"

"Not really.." I shook my head slowly. "You both are really frantic about this."

"Well..We don't think Luke can physically or mentally handle the things that can kill him in an instant." Karla said. "That's why Kody always regulated what Luke had."

"You are all so screwed up. Why do you let him do those kinds of things anyways if you're so worried about hurting him?" I asked.

"When Luke first became our friend we didn't treat him like we did now because we didn't know enough about him to treat him this way." Barbie said. "After only a few months of Luke hanging out with us he ended up in a hospital - I had to pretend to be his mother to get them to let him leave. After that we never really let him do anything besides smoke and drink. We wouldn't just let him have nothing - that wouldn't help him and since it's second nature to all of us, he would never want to hang around because we would never let him do it. So Skarlet set certain rules."

"You guys treat him like he's five." I ran a hand down my face. I was not exactly upset to hear that they kept a careful eye on him, but I did not exactly understand it either.

"Well Luke and Riley aren't answering their phones so we were going to go look for them, if you wanted to come since I know you really care about Luke." Karla smiled.

"Yeah but he hates me." I sighed in response.

"Oh that's not true." Barbie rolled her eyes. "Stop being dramatic."

I sighed, rolled my eyes and grabbed my bag. "Fine, let's go."

AUTHOR'S NOTIFICATION; Ariana

So I think this will be the next book I finish..But I'm not sure, I kinda am loving it a lot more now since I started it. I also think twenty chapters is the longest I've gone without getting them together lol. I hope you guys like it too and are excited for the ending I already have written xD

No spoilers, only foreshadows.

Hugs, Kisses, Cuddles and Serenades xX