Luke remembered begging Michael to just tell people that he was gay and they were dating, but Michael couldn't do that. It would cost him his spot on the school football team. Everyone at school would hate him. Mostly because he was gay, but even worse who he was dating.
Luke wasn't popular at all, he could hardly speak in front of his family without having a panic attack.
Michael was the most popular guy in school, captain of the football team.
The two were secretly dating for a long time, over two years, before Luke couldn't stand it anymore and he just wanted to tell people. He needed to tell people. Maybe dating Michael Clifford meant that people would stop picking on him. He would go home with less bruises every day, which sounded amazing to him, but Michael disagreed. Of course he hated seein his precious boyfriend getting beaten up, but he didn't want the entire school to hate him. So he said no.
Luke ended up crying, and Michael ended up feeling like a guilty asshole.
That was two months ago.
That was when Luke could walk around school with short sleeves on and all he needed was a few baracelets. Now short sleeves aren't even an option. He got them out of his closet last month when he realized he would probably never be able to wear them again.
That was when Luke went home every day with a few bruises on his body, now he arrived at his front door with bruises all over, usually accompanied a busted something-or-other and a few scars.
Now he was done with it. He couldnt take it anymore. Everyone hated him. They would probably all be better off without Luke here anyways. All he did was screw things up. Maybe his parents would miss him, and maybe his siblings too. But other than that Luke couldn't count a single person that would miss him if he was gone. When he thought about it all he could think of was Michael, but of course Michael wouldn't care. He never had before, and Luke was pretty sure that at this point, even a suicide attempt from the boy Michael had once clamed to love couldn't bring him back.
But oh was Luke wrong.
