space boy; muke

iii

By the time Luke got home, his desire to go back to the school and sit with Michael was so strong, he could barely rationalize staying home until 11. He wanted to go back and sit with the purple haired boy, to make sure he knew that he wasn't alone. He wanted to make sure that Michael knew that not everyone hated him, and that he would always be there.

Luke got upstairs into the kitchen to find his mom sitting at the dining room table, talking on the phone.

"Hey, mom." He smiled, giving her a quick wave before diving into the fridge for a snack.

"Don't eat too much, Luke, dinner's at 5:30." She whispered, covering the mouthpiece of the phone with her hand. "I'll talk to you in a bit." Luke kept digging in the fridge for something to eat, and finally settled on some leftover pizza from the night before. He threw a couple slices onto a plate, and took it upstairs with him, to his room. He didn't have any homework tonight, which was a miracle, so he flopped down onto his bed and relaxed while eating his pizza. This was the first night in quite some time that he hadn't had any homework, so he was taking full advantage of the situation.

Luke was nearly asleep after eating his pizza when there was a knock on his bedroom door.

"Luke? Can I come in?" his mom asked. She always asked before entering, it was pretty nice.

"Yeah, mom, what's up?" Luke answered, as she poked her head in, around the door.

"Dinner's ready. Why don't you come down and tell me about your day?" she prompted.

"Alright, I'll be right down." Luke nodded, standing up from his bed. He grabbed the plate from the pizza earlier, and started heading down the stairs. He could smell his dinner already, and he could tell it was his mom's chicken casserole, his favourite food.

When Luke got down to the table, his dad was sitting in his regular seat, reading the newspaper, and his mom was finishing the last bit of dinner preparation.

"So how was your day, son?" His father asked, looking up from the paper, to not only talk to Luke, but to also put some food on his plate.

"Pretty good." Luke smiled. "Is it okay if I go to the astronomy club meeting tonight?" Luke didn't think his parents would care, but he thought he should check and see anyways.

"What time would it be at? It is a school night after all." His mom asked, sitting down at the table.

"It's at 11, and it probably won't last too long, it's the first meeting of the year." Luke explained. "Michael's running it, too, so I want to be there."

"That's really late to be out on a school night, don't you think?" his dad asked. "You'll see Michael at school tomorrow anyways, and you see him every day at school, why do you need to go tonight?"

"Dad, it's astronomy club, it's not like there's gonna be alcohol or anything." Luke said. "Please can I go?"

"Your mother and I will talk it over after dinner, how's that sound?" his father said. "Now, let's eat."

Dinner passed without anymore conversation, and it made Luke nervous. He never though his parents would shoot the idea down, they had always been pretty flexible with ideas like that.

"Okay, Luke. Your mother and I have to talk now, why don't you go listen to music for a while." Luke's dad suggested, after dinner was over. Luke sighed, but did as he was told, and stomped up the stairs to his bedroom. If his parents didn't let him go, Michael would be disappointed, and so would Luke. He turned on his radio to blast some music through his head, to try to cheer himself up. Soon, the bass drum was thumping as rhythmically as his heartbeat, and the was singing along to the words that were being shot out of the speakers.

After several more songs, Luke saw his father open the door. He stopped the music, ready to hear the decision.

"Luke, your mother and I made a decision," his father started. Luke took a deep breath, ready to hear the verdict. "And we decided that we're not letting you go."

-an: you guys probably hate me as an author right now, don't you? and I'm reeeeeaaallllyyyy sorry about all that dialogue, it had to happen though.-