Coming Up For Air

2.7

"Speak slowly, I can't hear you
My mind keeps spinning closer and closer
To the rain on the roof
And the rain in my head"
-She & Him, 'Black Hole'

⚑ Luke ⚐
Luke wasn't breathing he wasn't thinking he wasn't functioning he wasn't anything except cold and hard and unmoving as she stared at him with this look on her face full of the most disgusting kind of hopefulness and all of a sudden he thought he was going to vomit.

"Lucas. Luke. I'm back."

Her blue eyes were just like his and Luke contemplated ripping his mirroring pair out.

"Liz--Mrs. Hemmings--," Calum started from by the door, but she cut him off.

"Calum, I think you better leave. I need to speak with my son. Privately."

Luke looked down at his hands, which were involuntarily flexing into fists. He had her hands--long fingers, square tips. He hated them.

"I don't know if that's such a good idea."

"Just go."

Things were slamming in Luke's head, echos that lasted hours after Calum quietly shut the door.

So anticlimactic.

Shouldn't somebody be storming?

Shouldn't Luke be boiling?

Shouldn't the room be exploding?

Shouldn't

Shouldn't

Shouldn't there be something other than

numbness?

Yes?

Yes.

Yes. There--there--there, it was coming, drawing closer, rolling over Luke and choking choking choking him until he was was molten lava he was a volcano and he was feeling red and chaotic and

"Don't you dare tell my family to leave my house. You have no fucking right." Angry, sharp, gritted--Luke's voice was all knives and edges.

She winced.

"Luke, I know you're angry, but I'm still your mother. I'm still your family. I belong here--I want to belong here. With you."

Luke could hardly bear to look at her details without feeling ice carve out his ribcage, so instead he stared at the cabinets behind her.

"You're my mother. Not my family. Leave." Luke told her, not even bothering to say it coldly because she wasn't worth the effort.

"Luke--,"

"Leave!" He yelled, slamming his fist on the counter and hearing thickness and rage creeping into his voice like poison. "You don't belong here and never will and you haven't since the day you decided to abandon our entire fucking family for whatever the hell you decided was worth more than us!"

"Luke, I can--,"

"Explain?" He said, his voice the crack of a whip on the second syllable. "No, allow me. Allow me to explain how you ripped our family to shreds. Allow me to explain how Ben can't even live in this goddamn city anymore and how Jack vacated the premises because it hurts them both too much to look and know that this, us, we weren't good enough for you to stick around for."