I Hate You But I Love You.

I Hate You But I Love You. Chapter 11

**Lukas’ P.O.V.**

“Shit, man, that looks really bad,” Mark said, coming over to me after Scarlet left. I shrugged and tilted my head to the ground. All of my friends basically knew what was going on.

“So, that girl was pretty cool. What was her name, Scarlet?” my friend Justin asked, thankfully changing the subject.

I nodded, “She can piss me off sometimes, but she’s not bad.”

Mark chuckled, “She just pisses you off because you can’t take a joke.”

“Nah man, he just likes her,” Dakota said, winking at me.

I rolled my eyes, “Whatever guys. I’m going home.” The wind blew some more as I walked down the street away from them. Maybe I did like Scarlet? I did always feel this kind of connection, but I tried to ignore it as best as I could. Groaning in annoyance I turned the street corner and was surprised by a crowd of people; most were from school.

They were standing in a circle on the side walk looking at something on the ground. There were murmurs of “what happened?” and “is he going to be alright?”. I pushed through the crowd and felt my blood run cold.

“Jona?!”

The little boy looked up slowly from his spot on the ground, blood on his face and bruises here and there. He opened his mouth to say something, but stopped. I whipped my head to the people in the crowd.

“What the hell happened?” I snarled viciously. Everyone just looked at me with blank expressions. I heard a whisper of “that’s Lukas’ brother”, but everyone was still silent. I growled but knelt down next to my little brother.

He reached his hand out to me slowly and I scooped him up in my arms as gently as I could. His head lolled against my shoulder and I could feel some blood stick to my neck. I glared at the kids who were watching with wide eyes. Yeah, yeah. Lukas Deeves has compassion for his brother, get over it.

“Well? Is anyone going to tell me what happened?” I snapped. Jona whimpered a little and I rubbed his arm. I scanned the crowd and was surprised when I noticed Scarlet was standing amongst them. She had her ear buds hanging out and was staring with shocked eyes. I held eye contact with her as everyone started to disperse; but my shaking little brother had me turning around and heading home.

“Don’t worry Jona, everything’s going to be alright,” I whispered. Lies.

There was a sudden tap on my shoulder and I turned around to find Scarlet staring up at me. She glanced at Jona and bit her lip, but shook her head slightly and focused her attention back to me. “I-I saw what happened.”

“Well why didn’t you say that earlier?!”

“I. I was… never mind about it,” she shook her head and looked anywhere but me, obviously hiding her thoughts. “I was walking when I saw a car come to a sudden stop and he was pushed out rather violently.”

My grip on Jona tightened. “What did the car look like?”

“A beat up red truck.”

“Dammit.” I never wanted this to happen. I’m so sorry Jona; all I tried to do was protect you.

Scarlet tilted her head at me and then started rummaging through her bag and pulled out a tissue and took a step closer to me and started wiping the blood from Jona’s head. I was relieved to find out he only had a small cut. “I didn’t know you had a brother.”

“A lot of people don’t know that,” I mumbled.

“Should we take him to a hospital?” she asked, pulling away from Jona and looking up at me with her incredible green eyes. But that brought me back to that one night. I still wonder if she remembers or not…

I sighed and tried to examine Jona as best I could with him in my arms. He was a small boy for eight; he also acted younger than he was sometimes, too. “Jona, can you hear me?”

He stirred a little in my arms, “It hurts…” he mumbled.

“What hurts?”

He tried to huddle closer in my arms, “Head… Lukas, why would he-“

“Shh,” I cut him off. There was no need for Scarlet to hear what he was about to say. “Open your eyes, Jo.”

He opened his eyes slowly, squinting at the light, but he managed to focus on my face. He looked fine; he’d just be bruised for the next few days. I sighed, “You’ll be okay Jona, it’s just a little bump. Will ice cream make you feel better?” I asked, trying to get his mind off of what just happened.

Jona smiled his adorable little boy smile and nodded. He motioned for me to put him down and I did, but he grabbed my hand as soon as he was standing. He looked up at Scarlet and titled his head, “Who’re you?”

She smiled at him, “I’m Scarlet.”

“You’re pretty,” he stated and then looked up at me, “Ice cream?”

I nodded. Who knows why he wanted ice cream, it was pretty cold outside, but at least it was distracting him. “Do you want to come with us?” I asked Scarlet.

Something passed through her eyes but she slowly shook her head, “Sorry, I need to get home. I’ll see you at school tomorrow. Bye Jona,” she said with a smile and walked away.

Jona and I started walking to the candy shop that was down the street, him still holding on to my hand. He looked up at me, “Is that lady your friend?”

I shrugged, “Kind of.”

We walked the rest of the way in silence. Eventually we came to the candy store and I bought both of us a small cone of ice cream and we sat down at one of the tables. Thankfully the place was empty and Jona and I ate in silence.

When he was finished he wiped his face with a napkin but stopped when he noticed a bruise on his wrist. He looked up at me, his eyes watering. “Lukas…”

I quickly picked him up and sat him on my lap, “Shh, Jona. How ‘bout you sleep in my room tonight and we’ll have a little camp out. Okay?” I put on a fake smile. All I ever wanted to do was protect him.

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A/N- There must be something wrong with my mind.... But I still find it interesting :'D