teeth → l.h

chapter eleven;

Helena hates Christmas, solely because Christmas means going home and being forced to spend time with a family that doesn't care about her. Ashton's the golden child, has been since the beginning, and Helena can't do anything right in the eyes of her family- especially her mother.

"Are you and Ashton going to Sydney this year?" Luke asks.

"Yeah." Helena huffs as she falls back onto her bed. "Ashton didn't give me a choice."

"I'm sorry." Luke smiles sadly. "I'm giving you a sad, pathetic smile right now, by the way."

Helena laughs softly. "Thanks. Are you going back?" She's internally begging for Luke to say yes because if he doesn't, Helena will have nowhere to escape to down there when her mother is mean to her.

"Yeah, I don't have a choice either." Luke replies. "I told my mom I've got a bunch of shit to do but she really wants to see me, so I guess law school can wait."

"Obviously." Helena scoffs. "Is Sierra going?"

"I don't know, I mean-" Luke glances at the front door, remembering that he was supposed to unlock it for Sierra. "We haven't been together very long and I don't know if she'd be down for meeting my family yet."

"Have you met hers?" Helena asks as she jumps back up, making her way downstairs and to the kitchen. "And I mean, your family's cool. They'd probably love to meet her. They liked me and I was just your obnoxious best friend."

Luke smiles.

Helena meeting Luke's family was drastically different than Sierra meeting them would be, despite what Helena says. Luke and Helena both would've preferred for her to meet them on a normal day before they'd run up to Luke's room to study, but they learned a while ago that absolutely nothing would ever go as planned if they wanted it to.

"Luke?" Helena speaks quietly, and Luke almost can't hear her over the noise in the background on the phone. "I've- I fucked up." 'fucked up' is definitely an understatement in this situation as Helena's grip tightens on the phone connected to a dock on a police officer's desk.

"What happened?" Luke asks as he jumps out of bed. "Are you okay?"

"I got arrested." Helena mutters as she bites as her fingernails.

"How the hell did you get arrested?" Luke gasps, before pulling his clothes on even quicker than he had been. "Is it bad?"

"N- no, I-" Helena chokes back a sob. "I didn't have any money and I'm on my period and my mom wouldn't give me any money so I- and I- I got arrested for shoplifting."

"Damn." Luke draws in a breath. "Did you call her?"

Helena shakes her head softly. "She told me to stay in jail."

"We're coming to get you." Luke comments as he jogs towards his parents bedroom.

"Your- your parents?" Helena asks. "No, no, it's okay, I'll just st- I'm okay, I promise. they'll probably ground you from h- hanging out with me if-"

"Not if I explain what happened." Luke replies. "Hang tight, okay? we'll be there soon."

The cell Helena sits in is cold, smelly, and filled with a bunch of other kids that look about as scared as she does. She leans against the wall while she waits for Luke, nearly falling asleep before her name is called.

She quickly grabs her jacket, following the cop out of the cell and down multiple hallways before she comes to a desk, where all of her stuff is returned to her. She decides meeting Luke's parents while they bail her out of jail is the worst part of the night.

Luke gives Helena a small smile as they walk up to each other, and Luke pulls Helena into a tight hug. "Are you okay?"

"I wanna go home." Helena mumbles into Luke's shoulder.

"Will your mom let you in?" Helena looks over to Luke's mom. "Luke said she wouldn't come pick you up."

Helena shakes her head. "No, probably not."

Andy nods. "Alright, you can stay with us tonight. We don't want you sleeping in a cell."

"Thank you." Helena smiles. "For everything. I'm sorry you guys had to come down here in the middle of the night for someone you don't even know."

"Luke cares about you so as far as we're concerned, you're family. Let's get you home."

"I still don't get why they didn't hate me." Helena chuckles. "I wasn't a very good influence."

"You got arrested stealing something that you needed, not fucking makeup or something." Luke retorts. "Also, you were five-foot-three with freckles and a baby voice, it was impossible for anyone to hate you."

"Except my mom." Helena mumbles. "She hated me. Still does. Mustard or Mayonnaise? Both?"

"Are you making a sandwich?" Luke furrows his brows. "Both. Now I want a sandwich."

Helena smiles. "Maybe I am a good influence after all."

"When are you leaving?"

"Friday." Helena sighs before taking a bite of her sandwich. "I feel like I'm going through the five stages of grief just thinking about it."

Luke laughs. "You'll have Ashton there for moral support- is Cal going too?"

"Yeah, he'll mainly be at his family's place though, so..." Helena trails off. No matter how hard she tries, she cannot stop an overwhelming amount of dread from taking over every time she thinks about having to see her mother. She wishes Luke would be there with her, but she stopped expecting wishes to come true a while ago.

"Maybe I could fly out with y'all." Luke comments. "I need to talk to Sierra and see if she wants to come with me though."

"Okay, just check with her and let me know." Helena replies. "I'm gonna take a nap."

"You've been taking a lot of naps recently."

"I'm tired." Helena scoffs.

Also, talking to you about your girlfriend meeting your family is breaking my heart and I can't do it, Helena refrains from adding. "Are you sure you're okay?" A smile creeps across Helena's face when Luke asks this.

"Yeah, I'm okay." Helena says softly. "Thank you. I seriously am okay, I'm not lying this time."

"At least you're willing to admit you were lying." Luke replies. "Did you get your period yet? Because if you didn't we probably still need to worry."

Helena goes to reply, but stops. She hasn't gotten her period yet, but she decides it best to hold off on worrying Luke further, at least until after Christmas. "Yeah, a couple days ago. We're in the clear."

"Okay." Luke laughs. "Go take a nap, I'll talk to you later."

"Okay." Helena hangs up the phone and tosses her phone onto the counter. She's worried, and worrying alone really isn't fun, but there's no point in dragging Luke into it until she's really sure he needs to be.