Worthington Manor - 6. Chapter 6

Luke was outside leaning on a light pole when Noah walked out.

“Hey man.” said Noah
“Not you too”
“Jessica wanted me to talk to you.”
“There’s nothing to talk about.”
“Jessica seems to think there is.”
“Just leave me alone.”
“You’re my best friend Luke, I can tell when something is bothering you and I’m not about to leave you when you’re like this.”
“I told you I’m not like anything.”
“I’m your friend Luke, I’m here to help. There’s nothing you can’t tell me.”
“I just know that Hunter is a big player. He’s been through every gay boy in school and I know that he’s going to hurt Justin. He’s a nice guy. I don’t want to see that happen to him.”
“I think he’s a nice guy too, but don’t you think that he’s allowed to make his own decisions.”
“What if he doesn’t know about Hunter’s reputation?”
“Well, it’s not really your place to tell him now is it?”
“No not really”
“Now, come back inside and apologize to your girl.”
“I don’t know if I can go back in.” said Luke
“Why not”
“I treated her like shit. I can’t face her.”
“Well when you’re ready, I think that she would really appreciate an apology.”
“Can you just tell her that I’m really sorry and that I went home?”
“Sure”
“Thanks Noah”

Luke walked to the bus stop and waited for the bus. As he was waiting, Justin and Hunter drove by.

“Hey Luke, do you want a ride. I don’t think the bus will be here for a while?” asked Hunter
“No thanks Hunter, I think I’ll wait.”
“Suit yourself.”

Luke gave them the evil eye as he watched Hunter’s car go by. He got on the bus and the bus driver tried to spark a conversation, but he had too much on his mind to converse. He murmured a thank you to the driver as he got of the bus and looked up at his house. He saw his cousin Trey’s car in the driveway. He walked through the front door, sulking. He hung his coat on the coat rack next to the door. He looked into the living room and saw his cousin sitting with his parents.

“Hey Cousin!” yelled Trey as he got up to embrace his relative.

When Luke didn’t return the welcome, he knew that something was up.

“What’s up little cousin?” asked Trey
“What are you doing here?” asked Luke
“Well I decided to go to school here and I was just asking your mother if I could live here.”
“You can go to college wherever in the US that you want and you chose here?”
“Well you’re my only cousin and I don’t have any siblings so I thought that it would be nice to be near you for once and to spend some time together.”
“Well, that’s nice. What did she say?” asked Luke
“She said yes.”

Luke now seemed excited, but Trey could still tell that something was bothering him. They went upstairs to Luke’s room to talk. Luke laid on his bed and Trey stayed standing.

“So what’s up little cousin?”
“I don’t know Trey. I can’t really explain how I feel right now.”
“Why don’t you tell me what happened?”

Luke sat up.

“Well, there’s this kid my age whose family just moved into town. I met him yesterday on the way to the diner. Anyway, I kind of took him under my wing.”
“Okay”
“Oh and I didn’t mention that he’s gay.”
“Really”
“Yeah, this girl from school ended up asking him out and he told me why he couldn’t go out with her. Anyway, he showed up to the diner again earlier but this time on a date with this other gay kid from school and when I saw them, there was this anger that sort of built up inside of me. I told myself it was because I know that the guy he was with was a real player and I didn’t want the poor kid to get hurt.”
“But that’s not what it was.”
“I don’t think so” said Luke
“Well, I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what the anger is about.”
“That’s just the thing, I don’t know. I’ve never felt this type of anger. I even acted out on my girlfriend. I really hurt her feelings. I couldn’t even bring myself to go back into the diner after I stormed out.”
“You stormed out?”
“Yeah, Jessica, my girlfriend, was grilling me on what was wrong. I kept telling her it was nothing, but she kept on pushing the subject and I kind of yelled in her face and stormed out of the diner.”
“This is really bad cuz.”
“You’re telling me?”
“Well, since you don’t know what’s going on yourself, there’s nothing much that I can do. But if you ever figure it out; you can talk to me about it. I’m here for you.”
“Thanks cuz.” said Luke

Trey left the room and Luke laid back down on his bed. He was thinking of everything that happened and trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together, but he just couldn’t do it.