Tell Your Friends!

November 1994

Lara walked into Luke's room, searching for her binder for History. She had let Luke borrow it the day before, he of course forgot to give it back to her, and now she needs it to help Reggie finish the assignment that was due in a few days. She lifted his piles of clothes with no hope. Lara sighed and opened his closet, hoping it would be in there, but all she found was more clothes and a bright yellow-orange envelope.
"Hmm I shouldn't snoop, but I'm going to," Lara quietly said with a smirk on her face, grabbing the object and opening it, it wasn't sealed so it's not like Luke would know if he didn't catch her. She pulled out a very large stack of printed out photos. She noticed the first one was of her and Reggie taking a nap, so she sat on Luke's bed and started to go through them.

Photo after photo was of her and Reggie, cuddling, napping, laughing, being their goofy selves, and so much more. They were never looking at the camera, always looking at one another or laughing or sleeping. Lara realized that some of the photos were several years old. As she was going through them her eyes started to water, from all the memories and remembering how she felt in those moments, just present and enjoying herself with Reggie. A few of the photos had Alex or Bobby in them, but none had Luke, which made Lara come to the conclusion that Luke had taken every single one of these photos.

"Why does he have all of these? When did he start taking these? Why did he start taking these? How did he even print these out?" so many questions were swirling through Lara's head.

"Lars? Where are you? We have band-oh," Luke stood in the doorway to his room and froze when he realized what Lara was holding, "Uh I can explain. Wait why are you crying?" Luke unfroze and gently walked over to his twin, very confused as to why she seemed upset.

Lara laughed, and wiped away her tears, "Luke what are these?"

"Oh uh, photos?" Lara gave him a look, "Ok, I started taking them because I wanted to prove to you how little you pay attention and it was always because of Reggie, but when you told me you liked him I started to take them because I wanted to prove to you how much he actually liked you. I was going to give them to you for Christmas after we played the Orpheum."

"Why the Orpheum? We've only just now started to try and pull strings to get to play there? We don't even know if we get to yet."

"Uh... I wanted it to be a present for after we had made it, to remind you of when we were starting out. And maybe by then, you two would actually be together."

"Luke, I know you keep telling me he likes me, so does Alex and Bobby, but I never actually believed you..." she sniffled and looked at a few more photos, "After looking at some of these I can kinda see what you mean."

"Kinda?" Luke looked at her in disbelief.

She laughed, "Ya kinda. I won't fully believe you until he looks me in the eyes and tells me himself. I just... thank you for these Luke."

"Ya, well you weren't supposed to find them, we've gone this long without either one of you catching us in the act and now it's been ruined because you found them."

"I have no idea how I didn't notice, but I'm glad I didn't. I also don't think it was ruined. I'm really glad I found them early."

"I actually am too, maybe it'll finally knock some sense into the two of you."

"Does Reggie know about these?"

"Uh no. That boy is so oblivious it drives me insane sometimes."

Lara laughed, "It's so cute."

"Whatever makes you happy sis." Lara set down the photos and threw her arms around Luke, giving him a hug. He returned it, knowing his sister was grateful. "I'm just glad you aren't angry at me. I do not feel like being punched today."
Lara chuckled, "Well the only reason you aren't being punched is that I know it came from a good place." Luke grinned at her.

"I think mushy Lara is my favorite Lara."

"I thought songwriter Lara was your favorite?"

"Ah, it's a tie."

The twins laughed.

"Well, I know mushy Luke is my favorite."

"I thought punching bag Luke was your favorite?"

"Not after these," she looked over to the pile and smiled. "But some of these are way before I told you I liked him, like years before. And you have a ton from like the year or so before I even told you."

Luke sighed, "I think I knew deep down that you liked each other and just didn't want to accept it, and twin instincts made me realize subconsciously that you would want as many of these as possible. So even if I didn't want my sister and best friend dating I knew it would happen eventually, but once I actually accepted it, I realized how happy you two were and that's all that matters."
"Luke," Lara said with tears in her eyes again, giving him another hug.

Luke laughed and wiped a tear that almost fell away. "Ok ok, enough tears, we have band practice to get to."

The two laughed and pulled away, getting their things together.

"Oh, where's my history binder, Reg needs it to finish the homework?"

"I probably left it at the studio."

"Of course you did." Lara shook her head and went to grab her bag and guitar. Luke did the same and they went to leave the house.
"And where do you two think you're going?" their mom stopped them before they reached the door.

Lara sighed, "Mom, we are going to the studio, we have practice."

"No, you two need to focus on school and get that stupid rock dream out of your heads."

"It's not stupid mom. We are good, and we are going to make it. You just don't believe in us," Luke fumed and stormed out of the house. Lara did the same, both getting out before another argument could break out.

Their mother was determined to get both of her children to realize their dreams weren't worth chasing, and as the year was getting closer and closer to the end she thought she needed to work faster before they went out into the real world. Emily wanted what was best for them, and she didn't think lives as rock stars were just that.

Luke and Lara got onto their bikes and rode in silence to the studio, but by the time they got there the rest of the band were there and they jumped straight into making music, and their worries were lost to the music. 

Thoughts? I think I'm going to write a post Unsaid Emily one, or should I include the actual argument in it? Let me know what you guys think. Hope you liked some sibling bonding time.

-A