No Morals

Chapter 11

        When he comes back, he is slightly limping, but I decide not to question it. He will only argue with me more. 

        "Hey." He says, running his hands through his hair, looking distracted. He's making an effort to hide his dirty clothes from me. He quickly stuffs them down in his hamper, rocking back on his feet.

        "Hi." I say, almost inaudible. I'm going to find out what's going on with him. I swear it.

        "Do you want to go out for breakfast? Then go check on Luke?" He asks me, looking at me with gentle eyes.

        "Yeah, I'll meet you in the car, I have to pee." I lie, starting to head towards the bathroom. He nods, heading the other direction, already holding his keys. I wait just inside the bathroom until I'm sure the coast is clear. I sneak back to his room, walking over to the hamper. What was he trying to hide?

        I dig in, trying to remember what he was wearing the night before. A Green Day shirt, black skinny jeans, and a black hoodie. I dig out the shirt, and look it over. There was nothing wrong with it. Why was he so sketchy? Next I pull out the hoodie, but there isn't anything unusual about that. 

        Then I pull out the skinny jeans and in one of the pant legs, there's wadded up cloth, stuff in. I pull out the item, revealing boxers. I unravel them, and something falls out. I bend down to pick up, as I realize what it is. 

        It's Luke's blades from last night. Calum must have snuck them home, and didn't want me finding them. I put them back and return everything to the way it was.

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        "Okay, lets go." I smile, hopping in the car. We decide to go to Ihop, and bring Luke some pancakes after we are done. Breakfast was great, but the entire time I am wondering why he would want to hide them from me. I'm proud that he took them from Luke, but why didn't he just throw them away?

        "You ready to go?" Cal says, holding the take home box with Luke's pancakes.

        "Yeah." I say, smiling and stepping up to him, kissing him on the cheek.

        "What was that for?" He asks, blushing slightly.

        "It's a thanks, for buying breakfast." I explain, heading outside to the car, Cal trailing behind me.

        "I see." He says, pulling his keys out and unlocking the car.

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        I hop out of the car as soon as Calum has parked in Luke's driveway. I'm still worried about him. Cal takes a deep breath, before knocking on the door. Liz opens the door, crying.

        "What's happened?!" Calum immediately bursts out. All color drains from my face.

        "Luke... He..." Liz begins to explain.

        "He what!" Cal says, shoving passed her. 

        "Luke!" Calum yells up the stairs, taking them two at a time. Liz just shakes her head, starting to sob. 

        "Luke!" Calum yells, running back down the stairs, around the corner, through the kitchen and back to us.

        "What happened? Where is he?" He insists.

        "He woke up early, left a note. Saying he was going to your place for a chat. He never made it to your place. The hospital called, about ten minutes ago. He got in a car crash. Its potentially fatal. The other driver is alive and okay. Luke was drunk. Why was he drinking Calum? He had stopped! He had stopped drinking since we got him that therapist!" Liz wails, throwing herself into Calum's arms. He hugs her, rubbing her back, his face grave, and mourningful. 

        "Why aren't you at the hospital?" He asks her. She gasps, trying to regain her speech.

        "I was about to go to your place and get you. I wanted to go together. I already called his father. He's there with him now." She explains. He leads her out to the car without another word. He helps her into the passenger seat, making sure shes in all the way before slamming the door shut. He doesn't speak, just motions for me to hurry up and get in the back. My feet stumble over each other. Maybe he couldn't fix everything. I slowly climb into the back, closing the door behind me softly. I'm not even buckled yet, before Calum slams on the gas, flying out of there fast than the speed of light. My face slams into the seat in front of me, and I hear something in my nose pop. Tears begin to fill my eyes, and run down my cheeks. I grab for my nose, to make sure it isn't broken. Once I make sure its okay, I finish buckling up. By now we are five minutes away from the hospital. Calum slams down on the gas more, going at least 15 over the speed limit. 

        He only begins to slow down, when we are 10 feet away from the turn in to the hospital. He slams on the breaks, yanking the wheel to the right, turning into the parking lot, and slamming us into the nearest parking space. He doesn't even take the keys out of the ignition before he is out of the car and heading straight for the front door the the building in front of us. I get the keys, and lock up the car, heading inside much slower than Calum had.

        When I get inside Calum is at the front desk, arguing with the secretary.

        "I'm sorry sir, only family is allowed in until noon. It's 11:45 now. You can wait 15 minutes." The woman says, looking fed up with him.

        "Hey," I say, taking gentle hold of Calums arm, "Lets go have a seat, you can see him in 15 minutes. He wouldn't leave without saying goodbye."  I say, hoping to ease his worry.

        "Don't say that. He isn't going to die!" He snaps at me, as I lead him over to two empty seats. When we sit down I see Luke's mother heading down the hall and disappearing into a doorway. My eyes stay focused on that doorway for the next 15 minutes.

        "Sir? Ma'am? You may go see him now." The nurse says from behind the counter. I look up from my spacing off to see Calum already halfway across the room. I hurry to catch up, not wanting to be left behind, near the man smacking his head on the wall two chairs down from me, mumbling about something to do with cats and attacking the world. 

        I step into the room behind Calum and almost run straight into the back of him. Why did he stop? Does Luke look bad? Do I want to see? I decide yes, and step around Calum. What I see, brings me up short, while my mind is screaming no, go back. You don't want to see this.

        I let out a small sob, as Calum wraps his arms around me from behind. This wasn't the Luke I knew. The Luke I knew was full of life, ambition, happiness. He was handsome, well built, strong. This Luke... This Luke was different. He looked dead already, sad, broken. They shaved his head to stitch up a gash along the side of his head, and a cut was stiched up along his cheek too. His chest was wrapped up, and so was his entire left arm. He looked so weak, so broken.

        I sink down, suddenly on my hands and knees, gagging, not comprehinding what I just saw. He looked like a mangled corpse of a man. I couldn't breathe and I started to burn up. I collapse on the ground, feeling the cool tile beneath my cheek before everything goes dark.