Walkman [Lashton AU]

Chapter 5

October, 1991 | Stole My Heart

Halloween is Luke's all-time favorite Holiday. While most prefer Christmas, with good reason, he just loved the spirit of Halloween. It sounded strange considering there's a lot of fear, death and horror going on, but he liked that. He loved the movies, the costumes and candy. Plus, fall was beautiful and his favorite season.

His favorite part had to be the costumes. Dressing up was the best and always got him in the true spirit. He's too old to go trick or treating, and sadly it isn't that popular in Australia, but that didn't stop the costume parties from happening. In his town, there were always parties and that gave him a lot of opportunities to find a new and better costume every year.

Last year was a vampire, which he must admit was pretty cheesy. But now he wanted to upstage that and sadly, Danny Zuko won't be his costume simply because he's afraid to look gay dressing up as another guy.

He didn't understand how that worked, because Danny Zuko isn't gay so how is dressing up like him 'gay'? He wasn't going to question it. Any hint of him being homosexual is not good and he cannot risk it. So he swallowed his pride and brainstormed costume ideas all day in class. He, Michael and Calum are going to the Halloween store after school and going to pick out what they need, which meant he had to make up his mind.

However, while digging around the costume ideas, he was also distracted with the thought of that boy he talked to on the phone. The teen crisis hotline caller had always been in the back of his mind and distracting him recently. It was only two days but he had many questions and concerns regarding him.

Who is he? Why did he hang up so abruptly? Is he okay? These questions led him to thinking he should join the group of dispatchers for the club because he needed to talk to him again. It's a one in a million chance that the guy will call back, but he'll take that chance.

After school, Michael and Calum were waiting for him and assumed he was just meeting up with his girlfriend really quick. Luke went into the room and saw Aleisha writing in a notepad. She looked up and beamed as he walked in, greeting Luke with a chaste kiss that made him awkwardly smile.

"Hi, babe," Aleisha grinned and closed her notebook. "What are you up to?"

"Um, I was actually—I wanted to know if it was possible I could join," Luke asked with a hopeful expression.

Aleisha blinked. "Join what?"

"The crisis hotline," he said slowly, like she was dumb. "You know, answer some calls, help some fellow teens. I know I made fun of it before but I think it's a good idea. I wanna help out."

There was a brief pause and then Aleisha laughed. Luke's smile faded and he sheepishly looked down, feeling stupid for some reason. He hated when people laughed at him. Even if it wasn't actually at him, those this time it did feel like it. She shook her head and gave him a sympathetic look before going back to writing.

"Hun', one does not simply 'join' a crisis hotline," she told him with a sigh. "There is a long process. Everyone working here has been training all summer and we all had to go through it before we were even considered allowed to work the phones. And you need to be dedicated. Non-emotional, almost."

"Okay," Luke was still confused. "I wanna do it still."

She sighed heavily and put her pencil down. "Luke, listen, I like you a lot but you are too emotional. And that's okay. It's not a bad thing. But, it can't work with this kind of program. If you really wanna help, you can work with Bryana and organize the files and papers, put up flyers around town. Does that sound okay?"

He huffed, "Aleisha, I really need this."

"Luke, you're already so busy with being class president, I don't think you have time for this," she told him simply and the phone rang. "I'll talk to you later tonight, love. If you wanna help with the papers, you get the same amount of credits."