Khadijah ✔️

• 16 •

• Yay! The first trimester is over and I finished my exams so I am celebrating. And my school is having the MUN event next month so I am super excited! Anxious to know my forum and country but I'm alright •

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There were always those life lessons that you were taught at a young age. From a teacher, a friend, a certain situation, a family member, or maybe even a thought.

One of them, was that family always came first.

But the life lesson that Luke had to shake to remember was that sometimes, the agony, the guilt, and grief we might feel, is because we were taught to always put family first.

His family were always referred to as the perfect family. A man and woman who had the most romantic love story ever heard of, at least the one that was told to the people. Luke was very aware of how in love his parents are.

Romantic trips every other anniversary, date nights, valentine's day outings. And not to mention the birthdays of either of them. But the sad truth was, romance didn't always pay the bills.

The day has come, and Luke's dad has come back home from the neighboring town. Louisa opened the door to him and gave him a hug. Her petite shape was sucked into the securing, warm embrace of her father.

Louisa pulled away from her dad, of course not before earning a kiss on her forehead. She smiled at him and stepped back. The man looked away from his daughter who stood by her brother to his loving wife who waited patiently for her embrace.

He looked at her with so much love before pulling her into a hug. Luke always witnessed his parents hug after his dad came home. But this time, it wasn't like the other times. It was as if seeing each other was the kiss of life to save one another.

Luke felt pressure on his shoulder, he looked over and Louisa was leaning on his. He smiled and kissed her hair. But even with the emotional meeting that was going on ahead of him, it was not enough to ease the wildfire starting inside him.

There was a weird, foreign feeling of anger, anguish, and utter confusion. Blaming his parents of his sudden anger and seemingly ongoing confusing.

Why? Why would you put your son, the only male you gave birth to, through this sea of emotions all at once?

And then he blamed his father. For not talking some sense into his mother, who gave up everything for her love to him; in hope of it being enough. But do beliefs and conceptions even matter if they are given up for the sake of hope?

Especially religion. Where you are being watched with every inch you move, every syllable that comes out, and every action that is based on what you feel.

He felt a pinch and he turned to Louisa. "What?" He looked and he saw his dad looking at him with his arms wide open. He forced a smile on and hugged him.

Luke was going for a short welcoming hug, before running up the stairs to his room. But, when his father hugged him ever-so tightly, the tears that were hidden behind all that anger started welling up.

And the harder he tried to hold the tears from falling, the tighter the hug became. It made it impossible for him to stop them from falling. Luke finally broke as it started off with soft sobbing and into full out crying.

It was like his dad knew this was going to happen. Luke's body started to shake rapidly and in exchange, his dad's hands ran on his back up and down. Soon, the shaking came to a stop.

Luke pulled away and wiped away and looked up at his dad. He then turned to his mom and back at his dad.

"You want to tell me what happened, son?"

Luke nodded. "I need to talk to you." He turned to his mom. "The both of you."