Apartment 17B ◈

Seventeen

LUKE

I woke up with Emma's body leeched to mine and I sighed sadly about what happened the night before. I examined her face as she slept deeply next to me. The scratches on her cheek, the fingerprints busied onto her neck, her swollen and busted lip, and her black and blue eye. All from Michael. Stupid fucking Michael. If I ever see him again I will kill him. I started to feel physically ill the more I looked at her. It killed me that this happened to her. I don't understand why or how anyone could ever do this to her.

My phone buzzed on my bedside table and I reached over to answer it, seeing it was my mother. Their flight from Australia to New York is supposed to leave tomorrow night since Christmas is in a week.

"Hello?" I whispered into the phone. I didn't want to wake Emma up yet.

"Hi Luke," my mom sounded disappointed. "So look, your father can't take work off to come down to visit, so our trip isn't going to happen this year."

My heart sank. I was looking forward to seeing my family and Ashton for the holidays. "Oh, uh, okay. Well that's alright, I guess."

"But we were thinking that we will buy you a plane ticket for you to come and visit us! I know you go back to school the tenth of January so that would be plenty of time for you to stay and see everyone."

"Yeah that sounds great, actually, it would be nice to come and see everybody."

My mum told me she'll buy me a plane ticket for a flight in a week and a half since thats the only flight available, so that's plenty of time for me to pack and get all of my stuff together. Christmas is in two weeks. My mom and I hung up and she said she would text me the details.

"Hey," Emma's raspy sleepy voice knocked me out of my thoughts. "Who was that?"

"My mum," I smiled. "She called to tell me that my dad can't get out of work so they cancelled the trip they had planned."

"That sucks, I'm sorry."

"It's fine because she told me she's going to buy me a ticket to fly to Australia so I can spend the week there and see my family and friends. So it wasn't all bad news. I'm really excited actually, it should be a lot of fun."

"Oh," her face fell. "Well that's fun for you. I should probably get going."

Emma got up from my bed but I grabbed her wrist to stop her. She was acting weird all of the sudden. "Wait," she turned to look at me with a sad expression on her face which made me sad. And her black eye wasn't helping. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing,"

"Emma," I warned her. "I know when something is wrong and you're acting weird. Tell me."

"It's stupid," her shook her head and reverted her eyes from mine.

"Em, c'mon," I urged her.

"It's just..." Emma sighed and sat back down on my bed, picking at her already chipped nail polish. "I was kind of hoping to hang out with you during the holidays since you're kind of the only person I hang out with and I don't speak to my family. But it's totally fine. Go and see your family."

"Emma..." I sighed sadly and pulled her body into mine. "No one should spend Christmas alone."

She shrugged. "It is what it is, Luke."

"You should come to Australia with me!" I exclaimed.

"I don't know..."

"Please? It would be so much fun and you wouldn't be alone and we could hang out all week. Tickets aren't even that expensive. Maybe like one thousand dollars at most, but my parents are loaded, so it's fine. I mean the flight is like twenty hours which is-"

"Luke!" Emma cut me off with a laugh. "I haven't even agreed to this yet."

I frowned. "Well it would be really cool if you did."

"Ask your parents if it would be okay. I mean they'll be the one paying for the flight and it's their house that we would be staying in, so make sure that it's okay with them. Okay? And if they say yes then I will go." Emma grabbed my hand in hers and smiled.

"Okay," I nodded my head and picked up my phone and dialed my mother's phone number. She didn't answer so I left her a message telling her to call me back as soon as she got the message. I hoped she didn't already buy my plane ticket.

"So until we hear back from your mom what should we do today?"

"We could go get lunch or something," I shrugged. "Just let me shower and then I'll meet you at your place so we can go."

"Okay," Emma hopped up happily and left my apartment and walked the two seconds to hers.

-

EMMA

After I left Luke's I took a quick shower and did my makeup, trying to cover up my bruises and scratches as best as I could. It hurt to put pressure on my face but I wasn't about to go out in public looking like I got the shit beat out of me. Which is exactly what did happen to me.

There was a knock on my door shortly after I got ready. "Coming!"

I swung the door open, thinking it was Luke, but to my surprise it wasn't Luke. It was the last person I ever wanted to see. Jen.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

Jen shouldered past me and sniffled. She looked like shit and she never looked like shit. Ever. It looked as if she had been crying. And I instantly thought of my mother. "It's mom. She died two nights ago. I was in town and dad told me to find you and tell you."

My heart sank. I hadn't seen or spoken to my mother in years but my heart still broke hearing the news. Jen was going through this alone. Without her sister and I felt awful. I know she betrayed me and my parents basically disowned me but they needed me there. My sister, for once, needed me.

I hesitantly made my way to Jen and hugged her. It took her a second to reciprocate the hug but when she did a weight was lifted off of my shoulders. My sister and I never got along, but I love her and I always will. She's family.

"I'm so sorry," I apologized. I knew how close my mom and Jen were so she must be having a really hard time dealing with this.

I felt tears prick my eyes. I hadn't cried over my mother since the day she kicked me out.

"Hey Emma are you-" Luke stopped speaking when he saw us. I pulled away from the hug and wiped the tears off of my face while Luke stood there looking confused. I don't blame him. Last time I told him about my sister and I's interaction it seemed like I hated her. Which I did. "What's going on?"

"Uh, my mom died a few nights ago," It was hard getting the words out because it made it real. And it broke my heart that I never visited her when she was in the hospital. Or ever. I never even called her once. Since I was nineteen years old. Almost three years have gone by and I haven't spoken to my mother once.

"Oh wow," Luke sighed. "I'm so sorry for your loss. Both of you."

"Thank you." Jen said sadly. "The funeral is on Thursday in Connecticut. It's at the place where Grandpa's funeral was. I really hope you come."

Jen hugged me once more before saying goodbye and leaving my apartment. I stood there in shock. In shock that my sister and I were actually having a conversation with each other that didn't end in a screaming match. In shock that my mother, who was once my best friend, had died of cancer and I didn't even call to say goodbye or tell her I love her.

I was shocked that I was that selfish.