Wounded

Chapter 11

I broke earlier, and in front of Luke. He was definitely going to either tell Beau or our Mum. Neither of them needed anymore trouble. I hated to cause them problems, but that was all I ever seemed to do. They both worked hard to make sure Luke and I had everything we ever needed. They didn't deserve to have me screwing up their lives constantly.

I stormed into the school just as the warning bell was ringing. Luke was definitely going to be late, but I couldn't worry about him right now even if the guilt of how I treated him wasn't consuming me. I felt a hand grab my shoulder and turned to see some guy Luke was friends with. I think his name was Corey or something like that.

"Hey, just wanted to know if you-" He started, but I immediately interrupted him. He probably thought I was Luke. It happens so much that I can't help but to get frustrated instead of laughing it off like I used.

"Jai, not Luke!" I spoke sharply. Our friends could tell us apart most of the time, but there were still the odd occasions where they confused us for one another.

"Oh, yeah. I know. I just wanted to ask you if Luke's okay and everything. Since you are his twin, I figured you of all people would know." Corey laughed uneasily, rubbing the back of his head.

"What do you mean?" I asked, genuinely confused. I hadn't noticed anything off about Luke lately. Was he actually not okay? Was I just being too self-absorbed to notice?

"It's probably nothing if you haven't noticed." Corey laughed. "Luke's just seemed really sad and stressed lately. He's been moody and irritable, even for him. I don't know. I'm just really worried that something is bothering him."

"I haven't noticed anything." I admitted. "Are you sure? This is Luke Brooks we're talking about. He does have anger issues if you haven't noticed already."

"But, it's more than that!" Corey raised his voice slightly. "He called me crying last night. I shouldn't tell you this, but he told me about how everything was falling apart and that he didn't know what to do anymore. There is something seriously wrong with him."

"I'll talk to him, but he does edit all of our YouTube videos. Sometimes all of that editing mixed with homework and studying can stress him out."

"Thanks Jai." Corey smiled at me. "Luke's lucky to have a brother like you!"

"No he's not..." I whispered to myself as Corey walked away. "Luke's not lucky at all."

-

"Hey loser! Why don't you join our group?" Dylan insisted in a tone that held no room for argument. We were currently in our first period Biology class, and like all of the lazy teachers that don't want to do work, our teacher gave us packets and had us split into groups of our choosing.

"Umm, I...ok." I agreed knowing from past experiences that if I refused then I would be in more pain than he already had planned. I quickly stood up and went to sit with Dylan and his cronies. I already knew how it would go down. I would do all of the work and they would be left to goof off all period before copying my answers.

"So I ran into Luke this morning after your little spat." Dylan informed me nonchalantly. My head shot up with those words. I narrowed my eyes at him. It was one thing to hurt me and a completely different thing to hurt Luke.

"What did you do to him?" I spat venomously. He raised an eyebrow at me as his friends started to snicker from beside him.

"Relax." Dylan chuckled dangerously. "Sorry, but even I wouldn't want to face the wrath of an angry Luke Brooks. We just had a little talk and I may or may not of told him a few things that you may or may not have actually said."

"What did you say to him?" I whispered.

"I don't think you even want to know, Baby Brooks."

I stood up slowly as I felt dread fill my stomach. Luke and I had already had one fight. We didn't need anyone else making it worse. Ignoring the screams from our teacher, I ran out of the room and stumbled my way to the bathroom.

I locked myself in a stall, before falling to my knees and puking my guts out. I didn't know a lot at this point, but what I did know was that this day started out bad and was about to end up a lot worse. There was no possible way it couldn't end badly for me. I was too much of a wimp to stand up to my bullies. It's funny, Luke and I basically have the same muscles since we always work out together, yet Luke's the intimidating twin. He's the twin who everyone fears. I'm the twin that's expendable. I'm the failure that just happens to be identical to an amazing person.

"Are you alright in there, whoever you are?" I heard James voice ask through the locked stall door. Of course it's James. He's always been such a sweet person, but I just had to be cruel to him. I took a deep breath and unlocked the door. James eyes bulged out when he saw it was me.

"Hey James." I spoke timidly, in almost a whisper. He turned away from me as a thick tension entered the air. Neither of us knew what to say. We had a fight and now we weren't friends anymore. To top it off, we both knew that it was all my fault.

"Jai, I-"

"James, I-"

We both smiled at each other as we both started to simultaneously apologize. James was the friend that I could always count on, even when everything went bad, James always had my back.

"I'm sorry." I spoke up. "I was a huge jerk and I don't know how I could ever make it up to you."

"You don't have to." James smiled grimly at me. "I've been a huge jerk, too. At least you didn't drag Luke into this. He blew up at me and started crying the last time I complained about you, and honestly I hate myself for dragging him into our fight."

"Don't worry about it James. Luke isn't too happy with me right now, and honestly I can't blame him."

"What did you do to him?" James asked curiously.

"Everything."