Love is Strange

Chapter One

"Are we there yet?" Jack complains for the fifth time since the journey began. Ben smacks him on the side of his head effectively shutting him up and letting him know not to ask again.

"Ben don't hit your brother!" Liz scolds from the passenger seat. However, her words have the opposite effect and only serve to create an argument between the two boys.

Luke ignores the commotion unfolding beside him and continues staring out of the window, music blaring though his headphones.

~oOo~

"Luke. Luke. Lukey! We're here." Jack shakes Luke out of his trance and follows Ben out of the car. After a few moments Luke follows suit stepping into the blinding sunlight and chaos of Kellermans.

"Andrew Hemmings!" A booming voice finds its way through the throng of people arriving at the resort. A small fat man waddles towards the Hemmings and shakes Andrew's hand enthusiastically. "I finally got you up on my mountain!"

"Good to see you Max, how's the heart?" Andrew asks switching from his normally fun and carefree demeanour to a suddenly serious one.

Max Kellerman ignores Andrew and looks past him at the rest of the Hemmings family. "I'll have you know that if it were not for this man I'd be standing here dead." Liz smiles at her husband fondly always immensely proud of him and his occupation, the boys roll their eyes but can't hide the admiration they hold for what their father does. "Ashton! Where is that boy? Get the bags!"

A boy with sandy hair in red swim trunks, a red hoodie and flip flops runs forward briefly greets the family and proceeds to get their luggage out of the car. Luke, feeling bad at leaving the boy to get the bags for all five of them, proceeds to help him unload the luggage.

"Hey thanks!" Ashton beams at Luke. "You want a job here?" He laughs. Luke remains as indifferent as ever but Ashton brushes it off and continues with the bags.

"Ashton will take care of the luggage and one of our valets will park your car for you so don't worry about all of that. There's a dance class starting in five minutes down at the gazebo, amazing teacher." Max tells the family.

Liz laughs. "Max this is the first vacation we've had in five years; we're trying to take it slow."

Mr Kellerman waves away her comment. "Oh please three weeks on my mountain, it'll feel like a year!"

~oOo~

"We're going exploring, you wanna come Luke?" Ben asks entering the room all three boys are sharing. Luke shakes his head and continues tuning his guitar. "Come on Luke you can't stay locked in doors the entire time we're here. This is the most you've left your room since school ended. Just come with us, it'll be good for you." Sensing that Ben isn't likely to drop this Luke sighs, puts down his guitar and follows his brother out of the room.

Luke walks a few steps behind his brothers who are laughing and joking with one another the whole way to the main house. They walk around the entire outside of the house without coming into contact with anyone else, just as they're about to leave and go to the beach they hear shouting coming from an opened door.

"How many times do we have to go over this? I go to Harvard and Yale to hire you because you're supposed to be respectful and upstanding men. If we catch another one of you drunk on the grounds I'll fire all of you." Mr Kellerman shouts at a group of around twenty boys all dressed in identical shirts and ties. Without realising the three bothers slowly get closer to the door. "This is a family place which means you keep your fingers out of the water, your hair out of the soup and you don't get drunk around the guests!"

"Yeah, you hear that guys?" A laugh comes from the other side of the room which neither of the Hemmings brothers can see. A group of men and women in varying outfits come into their line of sight.