Distant - || [LRH]

.6

The next day at school, I wandered around looking for Luke before class started. When I spotted his tall blonde hair, I smiled and walked up to him.

"Hey Luke," I say without looking at him.

He turns around suddenly, and I see bruises that he was trying to cover with his hand. "What is that?" I ask.

His eyes widen and he shrugs, brushing it off.

"Luke, what is that? Who hurt you?" I ask.

He looks down, and grabs my hand. He looks into my eyes before he pulls me away to an empty hallway.

I give him a look of anticipation, and he breathes a deep sigh before opening his lips to speak. I could tell he was struggling, and I felt a pang of guilt for making him talk about it.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," I say.

He shakes his head, and grabs my hand again. He's looking into my eyes, and his lips are quivering. I guess he's trying to figure out what he was going to say. He bites his bottom lip before saying, "my mom."

I dropped his hand, and cupped my lips in horror. How could she do something so terrible to someone so kind? She seemed like such an angel when I met her yesterday. No. I must have heard him wrong.

"Your mom?" I ask for clarification, and I'm hoping he will correct me. But it never comes, he just nods.

"Why? Did you do something wrong?" I ask.

He nods before whispering, "I was born."

My heart shatters into pieces, and I can't believe someone could hurt this boy. I pulled him into a hug, and I can now feel his shaky breath on my neck. I rub his back soothingly, and I can now feel wet spots begin to fall onto my shirt.

I pull away and wipe his tears. It hurt me to see that his eyes were now red, his skin was splotchy, and his lips were now puffy.

"Do you want to cut class with me?" I ask.

Nod.

I call my mom and ask her to call me in sick for the office, and that I would explain when I got home. She said okay, and hung up. I take Luke's hand in mine, and walked out of the building. I interlock our fingers, and made a promise to myself that I would never intentionally hurt this boy if I could help it.

I lead him back to my car and he gets in slowly. I don't turn on the radio, instead I just console him, making him feel okay again. I unhook our hands and start the car. I ponder of where we should go, because I wouldn't get input from him.

I think about where we should go, and the idea hits me. I turn on the car and make a right out of the school gates. We drive in comfortable silence for awhile until I turn on the radio and hum to Shape of You by Ed Sheeran. When we're nearing our destination, I tell him where we were headed. I would want to know if I were him.

"So, Lucas, we're going to the one and only Julie's. Now. I know you've never heard of it before because I'm basically the only person who keeps that restaurant running."

He nods at me in understanding, and I nod back.

We pull up in front of Julies, and I walk around to the other side of the car to open his door because he actually looked to weak to open it at the moment.

"They're a desert place. The best thing they sell is their macaroons, but they sell pretty much any desert you could ever want."

He interlaced our fingers silently as we walked in Julie's.

"Julie!" I smiled happily as I saw her, but she didn't look so happy to see me.

"Lydia. I know you're supposed to be in school right now. Why are you here?" She frowns at me.

"My friend here needed a break from school," I looked up to Luke.

She nodded understandingly and asked for our orders.

"We're just gonna take a look around, let Luke figure out what he wants. Okay?" I asked and she smiled.

I led him over to the pastry display and pointed out my favorites, and the ones I thought for sure he would like. He decided against the macaroons, and instead pulled me to the ice cream section.

"How many scoops can you get on a cone?" He asked softly.

"I believe the maximum is 12."

He smiled and nodded as if he knew what he was gonna get. "Ready."

I nodded and walked over to the counter to where Julie was standing patiently.

"Hello, what can I get for you kids?"

"I'm gonna get a cookies and cream macaroon and a red velvet one please," I say with a smile.

"And you?" She looks to Luke.

I could feel his palms start to get sweaty against mine as he choked out sounds.

"Come here Julie," I say as I lead her to the ice cream.

I turn to Luke and allow him to point to the ones he wants, as I translate for him.

"He's gonna get the waffle cone with sprinkles on top, mint ice cream on the bottom, butter pecan on top of that, vanilla, cookies and cream, thin mint, pistachio, and then.. cookie dough on top," I say with a smile because I'm proud of myself.

"That will be twenty-nine dollars and thirty-two cents."

I pull a fifty from my purse and give it to her.

"You know you always keep the change," I say as she tries to hand me back the remainder of the money.

"And you know I don't like keeping money from you."

"Too bad, I insist," I smile.

She smiles back, and Luke and I turn our attention away from the counter and over to the endless supply of unfilled chairs. I turn towards him and chuckle. He looks confused, but I think he is the most beautiful creature I had ever seen.

Ice cream littered his face, and a dot of cookie dough was stuck to the tip of his nose. I shrugged my shoulders and smiled at him.

"You're the most beautiful person when you smile like that," I hear him whisper lowly.