Inferno

~103~ I've Failed You

Ellie's POV

Today has been slow. It's been real slow. All I want to do is go talk to Luke, but I don't. Heaven forbid I see my son without supervision. That's sick.

Lance comes in my office around lunchtime. "Can I walk you to lunch?" He asks with a small smile.

"No. I'm going to go out for lunch" I say. I just decided that.

"Please come sit with us today, Ellie. Mason, Nick, and I all feel awful. We didn't handle this morning well at all. Please?" He asks me.

I sigh and nod as I follow him out of the office.

"Taylor is starting to like Mouse" I say, trying to break the awkward tension.

He chuckles "I can't believe you named her that" he says, amused.

"Taylor came up with it" I smile.

We get to the table and Missy starts right in. "That bruise makes you look like a badass" she says with a smile.

I smile back.

Conversations start and I sit there quietly, eating. Suddenly I see Luke. I just sit and watch him. He's inhaling his food. His friends are talking to him and he's snapping at all of them.

Lance sees me watching him and he silently does too. Neither of us saying a word.

"Something is wrong with my kid, Lance. Taylor's too worried about keeping him away from us. That's the last thing he needs" I whisper.

Lance doesn't want to draw attention to us, so he just nods subtly.

I haven't seen Luke in several days. When he's home he's in his room. Alex picked him up from school the day that Taylor was on shift. I'm missing him awful. I'm trying to give him space, but it's getting hard. I just want to fix this.

I ran into him in the hall today. As soon as he sees me he immediately stops and stares at the ground.

"Hey bud" I say, giving him a smile.

"Hi" he says, looking at me.

"Your face looks better" he says simply.

"Yeah" I say.

"I've gotta get to class" he says after a second.

I nod "K"

That was the first time I've talked to him since he hit me. I go into my office and cry. How did it get like this?

When I get home I start some laundry. I've been working on laundry for about an hour when Luke walks in the laundry room.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't know you were in here" he says, backing out.

"Why are you leaving?" I ask.

"Dad or Liam aren't here" he says simply.

"I couldn't care less. What do you need?" I ask him.

"I wanted to see if I left some money in my jeans" he says.

"I haven't washed them yet. They're still in the pile over there" I say, smiling.

He just nods as he goes over to look.

Suddenly Taylor walks in.

"What are you doing?" He snaps at Luke.

"I told him it was fine" I say, getting defensive.

"And I overruled you. Get out" he says darkly.

Luke says nothing as he leaves.

"What is wrong with you? You're treating him like a criminal. Lay off of him" I say darkly.