Love is Strange

Chapter Two

"Rise and shine my gorgeous boys!" Liz sings as she enters their room and pulls open the curtains causing sunlight to pour into the room and all three boys to groan in annoyance. "No use lying in your bed all day. It's a beautiful day outside and there's so much to do, so up and at 'em!" As quickly as she entered she leaves again three extremely annoyed boys in her wake.

Slowly Ben and Jack drag themselves out of bed and begin to get ready for the day ahead. Luke however stays put with no intentions of getting up anytime soon. Fed up dealing with his constant state of depression now a days and having already tried everything to get him out of his funk Ben and Jack leave Luke as he is and head out for breakfast.

When Luke finally rises at twelve o'clock he makes a half-assed effort at getting ready and, much to his distaste, heads down to the beach. According to the text he received from his dad that's where they all were.

"He's alive!" Jack exclaims. "Quick check it's actually him." He proceeds to mess up Luke's hair which earns him a kick to the shin. "Yep. Definitely him."

Luke ignores his brother's antics and takes a seat beside his mom. "How're you feeling hunny? I know break ups are hard but you'll get over her eventually." Liz rubs a comforting hand over Luke's back and he visibly relaxes into the touch. "Right now it just seems like the world is ending but in reality it could've been a lot worse." Luke gives his mom an equally puzzled and confused look. "What I mean is that if you had stayed together and she hadn't ended it then you would've been stuck in a long distance relationship and neither of you would've been happy. It's for the best really. Now you can go to Colombia and Madison can go to Florida with no weight on your shoulders, ready for a fresh start."

Luke turns to face his mother, eyes shining with unshed tears. "Mom I appreciate what you're trying to do but this really isn't what I need to hear right now." With that said he stands and storms off towards the sea.

At a more isolated part of the beach Luke sits and angrily wipes away his tears. He hates her for doing this to him but at the same time he still loves her. It's still fresh in his memory as if it only happened yesterday.

It was exactly four weeks ago now, the day of graduation, and Luke was on cloud nine; that was the day he was going to graduate from high school and start a new chapter in his life with the girl he loved by his side. But when Madison showed up at the Hemmings household only hours before graduation was due to begin all of that changed.

Luke's first clue that something was wrong was the fact that Maddie wasn't in her graduation robes. "Mads where're your robes? We graduate in two hours!" He exclaimed pulling her into a hug and placing a kiss on her cheek. "Maddie?"

Madison took a deep breath. "Luke we need to talk." Almost instantly Luke's face fell. Wordlessly he led them both up the stairs to his room and shut the door.

"I've been trying to find the right way to say this for weeks now and I think I've finally found the right words." Luke tried to interrupt but Madison shushed him. "Please just let me say this because its going to be difficult but I'm doing this because it's the right thing for both of us." Luke swallowed audibly and slowly sat down beside Madison on the bed.

She took his hand but refused to look him in the eye. "I think we need to break up. No, I don't think. I know. We need to break up Luke. There's been something off between us for months now and I'm not happy anymore. I don't want to move to another state and still be tied down to a relationship that neither of us are truly happy in... And don't lie to me and tell me that you are because I know you aren't." Knowing that she's correct Luke remains silent. "We've been together for two years and friends since we were ten, I don't want to ruin what we have by forcing something that just isn't working anymore. We keep talking about the new chapter in our lives that we're about to begin and so I think it just makes sense to properly start a-new which means ending us." Without realising both of them had started crying. Luke pulled Madison close. "I love you Luke. I always have and I always will. Just because we aren't together anymore doesn't mean I don't love you. But because I love you I need to let you go."