Insomnia - luke hemmings

0.7

L U K E

Calum rolled the blunt while I played yet another game of fortnite. The game was fucking dumb but tempting. When I die, I turn the Xbox off and put on some music. "This is some good shit." Calum coughs, handing me the blunt.

"Yeah?" I question then take a hit myself. He was right. I held the smoke in my lungs before softly breathing it out.

We pass it around for a bit, back and forth till I see a haze. My eyes are probably red unlike Calum—his eyes never got red. I look at the time and sigh a dry laugh, falling back onto his bed. "Shit." I briefly say.

Calum laughs. "What?"

"Fucking, I have to go home man. Mum needs her meds."

I see the drop in Calum's smile and I know that he's upset. Out of us all, I'm the only one that came to America with a parent. The rest of them each got a tiny apartment in this big ass complex.

"I know man," fucking hate leaving Calum all alone, but do I have a choice. "I'll text you later."He nods and I grab my hoodie and slip it on, taking one last hit from the blunt before leaving.

Winter bites at my skin but I ignore the feeling and focus on the walk back to my place that's only a neighborhood over. I pass familiar houses that belong to kids that go to school with me. When I pass Summers house it's dark and quiet, and I want to knock at the door and check in on her but I don't think we're close like that yet.

My mom sits in the living room when I walk in. Her wide eyes dance with mixed emotions and I can tell she's been crying. "You okay?" I frown at her.

"Im-mmm, I'm alright Lukey." She trips over her words and stares back at the tv. "How's Calum'm."

"He's okay mom."

"Then why are you home early?" She laughs.

"Meds mom."

"Oh."

I shake off my hoodie and slide off my shoes. The kitchen is a mess but I ignore it and search for the different pills. There's three and they're taken twice a day. Lately she's been avoiding taking her meds so I have to give them too her and make sure they're swallowed.

I fill a glass of water and walk over to her. "Here." I hand her the water and pills.

As I watch her swallow each pill I think about how fucked up this is. That I—the seventeen year old soccer player, youngest of three got stuck with the fifty two year old mentally ill woman. Why couldn't it have been Jack or Ben. "You okay Luke?" Mum stares up at me with wide eyes.

"Yeah mum, watch your shows." She smiles at the thought and turns back to the television.

Bed offers warmth as I jump into it in just my ninja turtles boxers. I look at my phone and see the screen lightened up with a text.

unknown: dont forget abt tmr

unknown: its summer

luke: i wont

luke: are you alright?

summer: wdym

luke: i walked by ur house and it was real quiet and dark

summer: everything is fine ive just been sleeping all day since I didn't get any the night before

luke: i understand that

summer: lol

luke: have you ever thought that it's weird me n u always seem to be up all night every night

summer: idk I'm just stressed

luke: yeah.

summer: I worry abt you luke

summer: like u over work yourself yknow

  I stare at the texts and frown. Why was she suddenly getting like this. Never did I want to have this conversation with someone, and I certainly don't want it to be over text with a girl I used to hate. So I leave it there on read.