When In Doubt - Freshman Year

Epilogue

Luke

There were plenty of things he'd not been able to do over the course of his first year at UW-Stout, and that was fine. For Luke, it'd been about moving down a narrow path, bettering himself both academically and mentally in order to not prove his dad right, after everything that had happened back home. Sure, he was pissed at how the final weekend at school was the one time he'd screwed it all up, but he'd tried to remind himself about all the good he'd done over the course of those ten months; he'd made it onto the Dean's List, he'd repaired his relationship with Brett, he'd met the girl of his dreams, he'd secured a spot in the Packaging Committee.

Luke tried to remember all of his accomplishments, not his one major failure, as he'd continued to walk through the neighborhood of Menomonie with Heather and Matt.

"So, how pissed do you think your dad will be?" Heather had asked him. It was like she'd read his mind, how he'd just been thinking about his father.

Luke chuckled with absolutely no humor. "Probably worse than a volcanic eruption. I don't have a whole lot of cash after helping Brett with that noise complaint from his place, so I can't hide this ticket from him." He'd looked away and scratched the back of his head. "Thanks again, you guys, for helping chip in for that."

"It was absolutely no problem, but is that why you're going to live here with Brett over the summer?" Matt asked. "Your father?"

"Oh yeah, I have a feeling I'm going to need the distance between here and Milwaukee from him."

Matt's frown deepened. "Why is he that way with you? Like, what did you do?"

Luke sighed from deep from his chest; one that he'd been holding in for years. He'd felt both Heather and Matt's eyes burn holes into the back of his head. Luke hadn't told anyone yet; the final straw that had put the dark cloud over him and his whole family dynamic. It'd terrified him to have people view him differently if they'd learned about it.

But fuck it, Luke told himself, Matt and Heather had been the only two people he could've trusted enough to know what he was about to tell them.

Luke stopped walking and turned around to face his two companions. "So, like I'm sure I've said before, but growing up with my two brothers, expectations rose pretty high. My dad drove me insane with the pressure he'd put on my, and nothing was ever up to his standard."

"Yeah, so you lashed out at some point?" Matt guessed.

Luke slowly nodded as he'd shifted his weight. "That, and I'd started to run with a bad crowd for a bit."

"Yeah, because of the pressure he'd put on you with your brothers, that's justifiable," Heather said.

"Well, whenever we got bored, we'd break into cars, hotwire them, or vandalize places for shits and giggles." Luke shook his head, angry with himself for the memories of his past that'd flashed through his mind. "We were fucking assholes, but it'd turned out they'd only befriended me because they knew my dad's the VP of his company, and they just wanted money."

Heather and Matt both nodded along while they'd all stood in the shadows of a pine tree on the edge of a quiet property. Someone shouting could be heard off in the distance, and there'd been the typical nighttime hum from insects and frogs in the air in the dark, but quiet neighborhood. The only light had come from the nearby streetlights and the full moon.

"One night, they'd broken into my home, and had guns. Big guns, like, semi-assault weapons." Luke tried not to squirm at the collective gasps of shock he'd heard from both Matt and Heather. "They'd held us hostage in the living room and demanded any info to score more money. Routing numbers, credit cards, bank account logins, you name it. They'd also taken whatever they could find that was valuable and could stuff in their pockets: jewelry, watches, silver, wallets...whatever. I'll never forget the look in my mom's eyes as one of them put the end of their gun against her skull."