Just Like Family - 3. Chapter 3: Jealousy

3. Jealousy

Luke woke up on the floor in the loungeroom of his new home. They had moved him in on Thursday. It wasn't done as planned because his parents had kicked him out after they fought over school.

He took the last of his things and left. His parents had called Mr Miller as soon as they found out he left. They had spoken to him and decided that he might as well stay there.

Since last Sunday, not many things had happened. He and Mike had spoken to Brooke and Erin together about the party. They both had gotten their parents to agree. And Mike had even gotten Cole to come along.

Luke sat up and rubbed his eyes. Mike was laying next to him his shaggy brown hair askew and the white singlet that Luke had given him riding up his body slightly.

He lay still for a few minutes watching Mike's chest, rising and falling with each deep breath. He felt that he should reach out and stroke Mike's hair.

His hand tentatively reached out and felt Mike's soft shaggy hair. Mike stirred and Luke's hand jerked backwards.

"Who said you could stop?" He murmured.

Luke couldn't tell if he was awake or not. But he didn't need much motivation. He knew that this probably wasn't a good idea. and he could feel that his common sense had taken leave. Luke turned into Mike and cradled Mike's head on his chest. He ran his hand up and down his back.

He heard Mike sigh gently and Luke closed his eyes.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mike awoke on Thursday morning in one of the least expected situations. He could hear heavy breathing, as if someone was crying. For some strange reason he felt his head rising and falling. With each breathe he heard.

He lifted his head and realized he was lying on Luke; whose face was turned away.

"Luke..?" he murmured.

He heard him sniff and then he turned to face Mike. His cheeks slightly red, and his eyes red and sore.

"Lukey whats the matter?" Mike asked sitting up next to him.

He sniffed again. "Oh it's nothing heh, don't worry about me." He replied.

Mike stared him down, "You expect me to believe that?" Mike asked skeptically.

Luke laughed and wiped his nose on his arm. "It's just my family, I'm gonna miss ‘em." He explained. Mike felt his face soften and he leaned onto Lukes shoulder.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked." Mike apologized. His instincts said there was more to it, but he wasn't willing to press the issue at the particular time.

"Nah don't worry about it." Luke replied. "So are we going to school or not because it is lunchtime after all." He said pointing at the clock sitting on the coffee table.

Mike glanced over at it.

"Holy shit!" He exclaimed scrambling to get up and he bolted to the shower.

They both got ready within twenty minutes and walked to school together. As they arrived they split off in their own directions

"Oh before you go, when you're ready to tell me why your really upset that would be great." Mike ran off shouting behind himself. He stopped at his locker where Brooke stood waiting.

"I figured you guys had slept in, you're never in psychology anymore Mike." she whined.

Mike grimaced. "I know, I don't mean to be, we just never do anything exciting." He replied.

Brooke sighed exasperatedly. "Ok, fine. But just because Luke is living with you doesn't mean you can do it more often." She said.

"I wont, don't worry." He assured her. "Have you spoken to Erin lately?" he asked, trying to change the subject.

"No, I haven't seen him all day. And don't think I haven't noticed the subtle subject change." She said smiling. "Why, should I have spoken to him?" she asked.

Mike flushed and the image of Erin throwing up, forced its way into his head. "No, just wondering where he was." He said quickly.

"Fine." Brooke said, satisfied with that she slipped on her bag and waited while Mike got his out. "Oh where's Luke?" she asked.

"At his locker, ah that reminds me, has Luke been acting strange to you?" he asked her. She took a long sip from her coke and passed it to Mike.

"Nah I haven't noticed anything." She answered quickly. "Actually, now that I think about it, he seems a little more skittish than his oafish self." She continued. "Why do you ask?"

"Just this morning, something happened. I woke up and I was lying on him, and he was crying about something, or he had just finished crying about something." Mike fidgeted with his bag's straps as he spoke

Brooke watched him. "Well that's just weird."

"I know" he replied. "I wonder what's wrong. Can we go find him?" he asked

Brooke shrugged. "I suppose."

They circled around the school finding only Erin who tagged along with them. He had just gotten out of a Math test it seemed. He was carrying three textbooks and his bag was slowly sliding off of his shoulder. Mike sighed; he wanted to talk to Luke about what had happened that morning.

"Where is he?" Mike whispered inaudibly.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"What the hell are you doing?" came a familiar voice. Luke spun around coming face to face with Cole.

"Oh, um. Nothing." He lied. In truth, he was keeping a watch for Mike and his friends. He didn't really want to talk to them just yet.

"Oh come on. Animals lie better than you." Cole said.

"It's nothing okay." Luke shot back angrily.

Cole sighed deeply. "Fine, well if your not doing anything, did you want to help me find someone?" He asked.

Luke mulled it over for a few seconds before agreeing. "Who are we looking for?" Luke asked.

"My art teacher. She's getting fairly upset that I won't hand in any of my assignments." Cole replied grimacing.

"And why haven't you handed in anything?" Luke queried.

"I'm too lazy, and I get distracted too easily." Cole replied. Luke could tell he had left something out on purpose.

"C'mon this is the art deparment." Cole explained pushing open a glass door. They stopped in a foyer the walls each painted a different colour.

On the wall to Luke's left a mural was on display. Each of the art classes had painted it in parts.

"Did you do any of this?" Luke asked Cole jutting his head towards the mural. Cole glanced behind him and shook his head.

"No I chose not to, I don't do well with murals, I think it has something to do with the fact that you have to follow a guideline." He shrugged indecisevly. "Wait here for a second." He said. While he waited, Luke gazed around at the pictures done by students.

"Luke.." came a voice, he turned around and Mike stood in the doorway. Brooke and Erin stood by his side.

"Hey guys' what are you doing here?" he asked whilst silently cursing himself. He should have known better, the art space was where Mike lived at school.

"I could ask you the same thing." Brooke shot back. "Since when did you hang around the art rooms?" she asked

Cole re-appearnce saved him from answering. Him art teacher Mrs Bowstock was with him and with her was another student. He was tall with short fuzzy black hair and wore skate shoes. They went along with his overall appearance.

"Thanks again Cole, my nephew could use some friends." Mrs Bowstock said. "Adam, I hope you like this school." She said turning to the boy.

"No problem Wendy." Cole smiled. His gaze shifted the group of people standing in the foyer.

"Oh hey Mike." he said spotting Mike standing infront of Luke.

"Hey Cole what are you doing?" he asked.

"Just getting a test score no big deal" he explained. Luke took the opportunity of them talking to slink to the back of the group.

"That reminds me, everyone, this is Adam." He said showing off the lanky boy.

"Hi." Adam muttered shyly.

"Adam this is, Mike, Luke, Erin and Brooke," he said indicating to each of them. Luke felt like slipping out the door but he felt Brookes hand gripping onto his arm.

"Guys, I'm taking Luke with me to get food." She explained giggling. She steered him off towards the canteen. Before they got there, she veered to the left that led to the small portable classrooms. Not many people ever came around there

He shifted his sight one way then the other.

"Why are we around here?" he asked apprehensively.

Brooke planted her hands on her hips. "Why have you been avoiding Mike?" she asked bluntly.

Luke stared back at her incredulously. He had'nt meant it to be obvious. "I wasn't, I was just getting to know Cole."

Brooke sighed and frowned. "C'mon Luke, stop bullshitting me!" she exclaimed stomping her foot.

Luke clamped his hand around her mouth. "If you stop, I'll give you the gist of it ok?" he offered. She slowly nodded in reply.

"Fine" he said, and he moved his hand away he went to say something but she cut him off.

"Mike's worried about you, he told me what happened this morning. And you've been acting strange for a few days-" he covered her mouth again. To silence her but she kept talking her voice muffled.

"Brooke shut up!" he said loudly. She stopped and her eyes glistened and shone wide.

"God, I'm not moving my hand but. I don't know whats wrong with me, I'm feeling... things, and I don't understand it. I'm scared" He finished.

He felt vulnerable like he just bared his soul. He let his hand fall and his head drooped. He felt her move to his side.

"Hey, don't worry. I'm not sure that I understand but things always have a habit of working out." She said smiling

She hugged him tight, staying like that for a few minutes.

"C'mon they're probably wondering where we are." He said laughing slightly. She let go of him and together they went in search of the others. They were sitting together at the usual table.

As Luke sat down he couldn't help but notice that Adam had his hand ontop of Mike's.

He felt a stab of jealousy rip through his body and he only halted it from spewing out of his mouth by clenching his teeth.

Mike pulled back when Luke sat infront of him.

"Oh Luke, I invited Adam here to come tomorrow." He explained.

Luke felt his jaw tighten and he forced a smile. "Cool, so what do you do for fun?" Luke asked, trying to be polite.

"Oh um, I skate when I can." Adam replied. Luke eyed him up and down. He was a punk in his opinion.

His thick black hair was messy, and his eyebrow had been pierced along with his ear on one side his only redeeming features was his well-proportioned body and his vibrant green eyes.

"What?" he asked. Luke shook his head.

"Sorry. I started to daydream" he apologized, scratching the back of his head.

The bell sounded off in the distance and Adam stood up.

"Um, does anyone know where classroom 8 - A." he asked his eyes shifting to each of them.

"It's on the way to my art class I'll take you if you want?" Mike offered to which Adam smiled. They both took off together leaving Cole and Luke alone, as Erin and Brooke left.

"That was odd." Muttered Cole.

Luke glanced over at him. "You got that too?" he asked.

"Yeah, I assume you're referring to Adam and Mike?" Cole replied. Luke nodded.

"Yeah I was. I mean c'mon can't they be a little less obvious, it was nauseating." Luke growled. He looked up to see Cole watching him apprehensively.

"Okay, I was going to say, it was odd how they acted so timid towards each-other." Cole explained.

"Oh." Luke whispered. He felt Cole's eyes boreing into his neck.

"Look, if you need someone to talk to..." Cole trailed off.

"Thanks I'll know who to talk to." Luke grunted in response. "I gotta get to class." He said sighing.

He left Cole and proceeded to his locker on his way he passed the art room. He saw Mike talking with Adam. And he felt angry. He stopped and watched them together.

He hadn't seen Mike behave the way he was; nor had he seen such a typically straight guy flirt with his best friend. he watched Adam look down coyly and smile at Mike, who in turn flashed him one of his beautiful smiles.

They stopped after a few minutes. Before Adam left, he handed Mike something.

"You know, you should leave the spying to ninja's." the comment came from behind him. He turned around and a small lithe girl with jagged dark purple hair stood smiling at him.

"And you are?" Luke asked curiously, sizing the girl up.

"An observer of sorts." She giggled. But cleared her throat when she saw the dis-interested look that Luke had given her.

"My name's Quinn" she grinned and pushed past him. "It's sad, isn't it. The new guy is already interested in someone else. Oh well I guess Quinn's got to try harder." She said.

Luke rubbed his eyes to make sure that she was for real.

"Did you just refer to yourself in the third person?" he asked slightly puzzled.

She looked back at him shocked. "Oh you're a real person. I thought I had imagined you. Huh." She muttered the last word to herself and stalked off.

Luke stood stunned for several minutes, when he came back to his senses he realized that he was over fifteen minutes late to his class. He sped past his locker and prayed that he had atleast something to write with and in, in his bag.

He burst through his classroom door and stumbled blindly along the vinyl floor.

"Well Mr. Fraser. I'm glad you finally arrived sadly our new student is in the same boat as you." His chemistry teacher Mr Beaumont stood at his desk with the textbook open.

"Please take a seat at the front," he said indicating to the front row. He hadn't even noticed that Adam sat next to the only other available seat.

Begrudingly he sat his bag down then slid easily into the seat.

Adam turned to him, "Hey, its Luke right?" he asked smiling friendly.

Luke bit back his bitterness and smiled back "Yeah it is." He bent down and ruslted through his bag pulling out a small notebook and a ballpoint pen that he slipped in there for occasions like this.

"I wanted to ask you something." He heard Adam say under his breath. Luke emerged and watched the teacher pretending to listen.

"What?" Luke asked.

He felt Adam stiffen up. "Mike said how close you two are, and I felt like I should ask you. Can I ask out Mike?"

Luke's hand spasmed and his pen hit the ground softly. Most of the class had begun taking notes and hadn't noticed.

His first instinct was to immediately say no. but he held back, he knew that Adam was wrong for Mike, but he couldn't do that to his best friend. so he answered.

"That's fine. Just don't hurt him." Luke warned. He saw Adam grin out of the corner of his eye and he sighed inwardly.

"You don't have to worry." Adam assured him.

He made small talk with Adam until the end of the class. Adam was so easy to get along with that it dulled his jealousy

As soon as the bell rang Luke grabbed his bag and hurried out to catch the bus home. He stood there waiting with the usual passengers until Mike appeared.

"What are you doing here?" Luke asked

Mike laughed. "You mean what are you here, you don't take the bus anymore." Mike corrected.

"Oh yeah." Luke said smiling. "Hey whats that?" he asked pointing at a leather strap around Mike's wrist. It was about as thick as his wrist and was stained a reddish brown colour.

"You like it?" he asked lifting it up to give Luke a better view. "Adam gave it to me," he said excitedly.

Luke growled again. As quick as it had left his rage flowed again.

Mike didn't stop talking about Adam the whole walk home that by the time they reached the front door and had it opened Luke made the excuse that he was tired and left to his room.

He heard a knock at the door what felt like minutes later.

"Yeah?" he grumbled.

Murray stuck his head around the corner of the door.

"Dinners ready big guy." He said, he left and Luke sat up. He glanced over at the alarm clock and cursed himself. He had slept for over four hours.

He ambled out into the dining room where he could smell garlic and onion, his stomach grumbled.

"Mm smells good." He said softly.

"I knew the smell of garlic and onion would get you up." Mike said from behind the stove. "I remember its two of your favourite foods" he continued.

Luke sat down and Mike set a plate of steaming chicken with garlic and chilli infront of him. He devoured it quickly and sat while the other two ate.

"So how was school?" Murray asked the boys.

"Shit" muttered Luke.

"It was great." Mike chimed in.

Murray frowned at Luke. "What happened to you?" he asked

Luke shrugged in response. "It's school it's never good." He lied. Murray smiled.

"Ok, so what happened to you then Mike?" he asked

Mike grinned with a mouthful of food, swallowed quickly and gasped for breath.

"Ease up." Luke said.

Mike ignored him and spoke. "We have a new guy at school, his name is Adam. He's really nice, and sweet, and he gave me this." He said lifting his wrist up again.

Murray gave it a once over. "That's very nice." He looked over at Luke who played with his leftover food. "What is this guy like?" He asked Luke.

Luke looked up startled. "Oh, he's nice I suppose." He said inadvertedly.

"Nice?" Mike exclaimed "Hello didn't you hear what I had to say?" he continued. Murray sighed.

"Yes I heard you, but you're biased," he explained.

"Well all I know is that he wants to ask you out." Punctured Luke. Mike dropped his fork, and Murray actually looked up from what he was eating.

"He wants to what!?" Mike yelped, his bright eyes widening.

Wait, why did I even mention that. Luke thought to himself. "Uhm, he wants to ask you out, he wanted my permission." Luke explained.

Mike's eyes narrowed threateningly. "And what did you say?" he asked quietly.

"Yes, what did you say?" Murray asked cautiously.

"I said that it was fine." Luke explained. He could see Mike's posture relax.

"Oh my god," Mike whispered. "I'm gonna have a boyfriend." He said gasping.

"Wait, your going to say yes?" Luke said, he felt his throat close up.

"Yeah why wouldn't I?" Mike asked still smiling. "He's cute, sweet and funny and I like him." he continued.

"But you only met him today!" Luke exclaimed.

Mike shrugged. "I'll tell him that we'll have to hang out as friends first. But I'll ask him again if I feel its right."

Luke felt his patience ebbing, he didn't want to say anything that would hurt Mike.

"Well I suppose you'll find out tomorrow." He grumbled.

Once they had finished their dinner and sat down to watch a rented movie when the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it" Luke said jumping up off the couch. He pulled the door open and groaned in his head.

Adam stood outside smiling. "Adam.. what are you doing here?" Luke asked with suppressed venom. Before Adam could answer Mike appeared.

"Adam!" he yelped excitedly. "What are you doing here?" he asked in disbelief.

"I couldn't wait until tomorrow to see you." He explained. Luke would have gagged at the sentimentality. Instead, he walked away into the living room.

"Who is it?" asked Murray.

"Adam." Luke replied bitterely.

Mike and Adam slowly came into view. "Dad, this is Adam. The guy I was telling you about." Mike said grinning.

Murray stuck out his hand; Adam took it and shook vigourously. "It's good to meet you sir." Adam said politely. "Ah, Mike can I talk to you for a second." He asked.

"Sure." Mike replied. They started for Mike's room, before adam had gone from view he looked back at Luke and winked.

Luke felt his gut twist. "I'm going to sleep." He said quietly.

"But it's barely nine o'clock." Murray whined.

"Sorry pops I'm dead tired." Luke lied. He left the room and entered his room shutting the door lightly. He knelt on his bed and placed an ear on the wall separating his room from Mike's.

"Mike, you're one of the nicest sweetest guys I've met. You're cute and I'm sorry if its so fast and I'm being blunt. But I want to ask you, would you let me take you out." He heard Adam say.

There was silence and Luke smiled, he knew Mike was a smart guy.

He heard someone say something and cursed himself for not paying attention.

"Wow, that's what its like to kiss a guy." He heard Mike say.

Luke lost balance and began to topple. "Shit" he cried out and next he could feel the pang in his knee, and the carpet on his neck.

"Luke!" Mike burst through the door with Adam behind him.

"Are you okay?" Mike asked nervously.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Luke grunted as he stood. He rubbed his neck slightly and noticed that Adam and Mike were holding hands. He quickly lifted his gaze.

"Hey Mike, I gotta get home." Adam whispered. "Good to see you Luke." he said over his shoulder as Mike walked him out. Luke heard him say goodbye to Murray and once the front door clicked Mike whooped.

He rushed back into Luke's room.

"Oh my god, Luke I kissed him!" he exclaimed happily. "Oh it was so good."

Luke forced a smile and pulled Mike into a bear hug. "I'm happy for you bud." He lied.

"Thanks, I'm going to tell dad" Mike said smiling and he left the room.

Damn it Luke, snap out of this. The truth is Adam is a great guy and he'll treat Mike better than you. you know the truth, You're jealous! He felt his mind yelling at him.

He shut his mind out and lay down pulling his pillow out and smothering his head with it, trying to find sleep.