Wind Beneath My Wings (Janoskians Fanfiction)

Chapter thirteen.

Lukes POV

The question just jumped out of my mouth and I immediately felt bad after saying it. I didn't want to push the answer from her or sound like I was nosing into her life, but I wanted to get to know her as much as I possibly could. I could tell that she had things bothering her, and I wasn't sure if she had anyone to talk to about them. Maybe I could be that person.

Lyndsey didn't say anything, and I was worried that I had gone too far with the question. Maybe I should have started off with simple questions like 'what's your favourite colour?' 'what TV shows do you watch?' 'Do you like animals?' like any other person would have done.

When she still didn't reply, I spoke. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't be asking that. You don't have to..." I trailed off when I moved my eyes from the sky to Lyndsey. My eyebrows raised and I frowned in concern. Propping myself onto my elbows I watched as a single tear appeared at the corner of Lyndsey's eye and rolled down the side of her face, falling onto the blanket.

"I'm so sorry. You don't have to tell me. Please don't cry."

She shook her head and wiped the tears from her eyes, "It's not because you asked, Luke. It's just... it's hard for me to talk about it."

Despite her attempts to get rid of them, more tears spilled over and streamed down her face. She closed her eyes and slowly turned onto her side, facing away from me. My eyebrows furrowed and my chest tightened at seeing Lyndsey in this state. It made my heart drop to see her crying.

I wasn't sure what to do. I desperatley wanted to comfort her, but I didn't want to make her feel awkward. Nervously, I bit my lip and reached out to touch her shoulder then thought better of it and pulled back.

Slowly, I lay back down on the blanket and stared up at the passing clouds. I decided that, maybe, the best way to get Lyndsey to open up about her life would be for me to talk first. I closed my eyes tightly and found myself biting my lip again. I hadn't told this story since telling Sarah and that had blown up in my face. I really hoped this didn't come back to bite me.

 "I haven't always been in with the popular kids." I began, not taking my eyes from the blue and white sky. "My life was pretty normal. I had friends and went to school and all that. My grades were always high and mum was proud of me for it. She always pushed me to do my best, but knew when to give me space. She's great like that."

"My dad was a whole other story, though. He wasn't the kind of dad that would bring me to a football match or go outside to throw a ball. Alchohol was his favourite thing in the world. He would go out, get drunk and come home late at night. I remember lying in bed and waking up when he crashed through the front door. He would throw things at  the walls and knock over the cabinets. My mum would try and calm him down, but it never worked and she would become the target of his drunken rage. There was nothing I could do as I listened to her screams."

“He wasn’t always like that, though. I remember him being kind and gentle, always laughing. Those memories of him only lasted until I was about seven. I don’t know what had changed him so much. I think part of it was that he had lost his job and both of his parents had died that year, but I still don’t understand why that made him want to beat my mum.

    “He never really did anything to me. A few times he’d hit me if I talked back to him or when I brought home a bad grade. When I got older, I tried to stop him from hurting my mom, and then he’d beat me and push me aside to get to her. I don’t know why we didn’t just go to the police. I think my mum didn’t want to because she thought that her husband was still there.

“One night, when I was fifteen, my dad came home around one in the morning, drunk, of course. He dragged my mum out of bed and was beating her. I threw on some clothes and barged into their room. I got my dad away from my mum and I brought her out to her car. We got in and drove off. I was so angry and had had enough of everything. I just needed to get my mum away from that house and away from him. I didn’t know where I was going; I was just driving.”