Consequences Be Damned

19 ⇻ a damned avoidance

The weekend following the trip had been heavy. A heavy that I had been hoping to avoid by coming here. And, I failed.

Shouldn't have been surprised.

The leader of Hell will always have more issues going on than anyone in the world, right?

Luke never came back after he'd disappeared at Target. Wherever he'd gone, wherever he'd been called to, it was too important for him to even have time to explain. Not that anyone expected him to.

According to the stormy expressions the brothers held for the rest of the night and throughout dinner, it had been a common occurrence. No one spoke through dinner and it didn't seem like the right time to bug John about whatever it is he'd found out.

When Sunday night came, I had nearly forgotten about everything happening back at the apartment and was sort of determined to get to Luke. Having the boys in such a dark mood wasn't something I liked. Especially when it had to do with the ever taboo surrounded Luke, so as nosy as I was about to be, I was determined to figure out some way for him and his father to get along.

I obviously couldn't keep meddling, but if this were to go on, I was worried how badly this would tear them all up.

"Thanks for giving me a ride back," I muttered as I'd tossed my duffel in the backseat of John's car.

"Don't worry about it."

I smiled as I slid into the passenger seat, slamming the door shut as I buckled myself in. "Are you guys gonna be okay without me?"

"Why?" he glanced at me with a confused frown, turning the engine on. "Oh, that whole thing from Target? Yeah, we'll all be fine."

That didn't sound convincing.

"I'll talk to Luke."

He gave me a smile, but it was flat. Even he doubted my ability to fix things between the two. And since I had no idea what else to say to convince him, I stayed quiet and the only sounds that filled the car were the radio.

Neither of us were actually listening to it, though.

When we pulled up to the apartment building and I got ready to head in, John called my name. Leaning over the console, he gave me a soft smile. "Don't worry about what I was going to tell you on Friday. You'll figure out soon enough."

That wasn't comforting, but whatever it was didn't seem too urgent at the moment so I nodded, slamming the door shut and watching him pull back into traffic and disappear around the corner.

Back at the apartment, everything seemed to be about the same. Bellamy was camped out on the couch, a pillow over his face and one leg dangling off the side. Dom sat the table with headphones on and his laptop open to Netflix.

Quietly, I made my way to the stairs, hiking my duffel up higher on my shoulder and nearly bumping into Jason on his way down.

Automatically, a smile curled on my lips as his lips reflected my reaction, his arms widening in invitation.

"Hey, welcome back."

"Hey."

"You missed out on a great party."

The smile I had on my face dimmed slightly and I tugged my shirt down as I cleared my throat. "Yeah, I saw. It looked super fun."

"It was. You should definitely try to stay home next weekend and we'll throw another one."

"Yeah, definitely."

An awkward moment passed where we tried to get passed each other on the narrow set of stairs, leading to us nearly sliding against each other so we could both fit. Why I didn't just step back and let him pass was a solution that didn't occur to me until later.