Take What You Need {L.H.}

The Rejection

Luke hated rejection. 

He completely despised the feeling in the pit of his stomach when he realized that someone thought he wasn't good enough. It completely sucked, no matter how many times the people around him said things like 'All you have to do is get back on the horse.' and 'It's not that bad.' Not to mention 'Look on the bright side! It could be so much worse!' 

So sitting at the park, listening to his ipod after a major rejection was not how he planned to spend his sunday.  

For the past year, he had been planning the details of how he was going to spend his life after he got into a study abroad program he had been dreaming of since he was a kid. It was an opportunity to get out of this country and meet new people. See new things. Experience the side of life that wasn't anything like what he had to live with here. 

And now it was gone because, the exact quote from his rejection letter, "The board of directors feels the emotional status of the applicant has yet to be developed and is therefore unprepared for the specific level of intensity of this program." Could they be any more harsh? 

Luke was in the midst of thinking about throwing an official pity party, complete with hats and cake, when his phone started ringing. Ever since the egging incident, he changed her ringtone and didn't talk about it with anyone. No one knew what happened, and they didn't ask. 

"Hello?" He reluctantly said. He wasn't planning on answering his phone but did it on accident in the midst of switching songs. 

"I'm sorry." She said, still not bothering with a proper greeting. "Until 2 weeks ago, I didn't realize how unfair I've been up to this point." 

"What?" He asked, readjusting himself on the park bench. 

"I mean all we've talked about is me. And that's unfair to you. And it's all I've been able to think about since we did the thing." She said, nearly whispering the last sentence. 

"Oh, okay." He said, not really in the mood to talk. He was totally prepared to put the phone on mute while she talked about her life. 

"So tell me about something that's happened to you." She said. He could hear water running in the background. 

"I got rejected by this important school." He said, sighing. It felt better to tell someone about what happened. He didn't feel completely better, especially since he still had to tell his parents. They were going to be just as disappointed as he was. Knowing that made him feel even worse. 

"Well I'm sorry. Did they say why?" She asked. 

"Emotionally immature, basically." Luke said, taking the folded letter out of his back pocket. He didn't want to crumple it and throw it away because he knew he'd get more pleasure out of letting his dog rip it up after  his parents read it. 

"I bet you told them one of your award winning jokes in your application, didn't you?" She said, chuckling slightly. 

"They're not that bad." He found himself slightly laughing at her statement before he could think about whether or not he was actually offended. 

"Right. Your jokes are as funny as a duck riding a motorcycle." She said inbetween her own laughter. 

"Have you seen the Aflack duck? That lil' dude is hardcore." He said, rereading the letter for the 3rd time. 

"Hey. Where does the Aflack duck go when he gets hurt?" Luke could hear how eager she was to get this one out.  

"Where?" He said, standing up. It was getting dark so he might at well get going home. 

"The Ducktor."