Long Time No See

@ BadStreetBoys

Wren frowned as he dismissed her once again, hating how much he'd changed. In high school Luke wouldn't push her away like this, he'd always open up about things if she asked and wouldn't mind asking for help occasionally. It was like a slap in the face for him to keep pushing her away now, especially when he continued to stress how much the friendship meant to him and how much he loved her. She didn't really think he did anymore, as much as she wanted to believe him when he said that he loved her. She figured it was more like he loved the idea of her, of them being together, but didn't care about her anymore.

She cleared her throat a bit as he said he was going to go get dressed, shaking her head a bit. "I'll just head home now. We should take separate cars anyway, so you don't have to drop me off after." She murmured, forcing a small smile as she waved before heading toward the door. "See you in a bit, Luke."

@ katahdin
Luke frowned slightly, "Why don't you want to drive with me?" He asked and raised an eyebrow. "I don't mind dropping you off later." He countered. Luke didn't understand why Wren seemed to hate him now, or so far away. He sighed softly and shook his head. "Fine, whatever, I'll meet you there at seven." He said, waving his hand dismissively. Luke turned and decided to shower and get ready.

Luke sighed after Wren had left. He knew he was different, but he had grown up. He had to grow up young. If she had to deal with the things he did, done what he had to to survive, she would be distrusting too. Luke stepped into the shower and ran a hand down his face as the water hit him. He quickly washed himself before stepping out and going into his room and changing. He wore his best jeans, dark in color with no holes. He put on a nice white shirt and then grabbed his leather jacket. He moved back to the bathroom, staring into the mirror as he worked hair gel in. He knew this night would probably end bad. But he just needed to feel something again after having been numb for a few weeks now.

Around 6:30 he decided to drive to the hall where the reunion was being held. He sat and waited until he saw Wren's car before getting out. He waltzed over to her car and tugged at his collar as he waited for Wren to step out. "You look good."

@ BadStreetBoys

Wren frowned as she noticed bus frown, shaking her head. "It's not that I don't want to drive with you. I already drove here, and I had promised my parents that I'd pick some stuff up on the way home, and I didn't want to force you to go along on stupid errands." She attempted to explain, but only frowned more as he waved his hand dismissively, seeming to shrink into herself a bit as she looked down. "I'm sorry.. see you there." Once in her car and headed home she let herself cry, sitting in her driveway for a good ten minutes as she wept into her hands. She hated that their friendship was being ruined, and she blamed herself, all of the dread and misery she'd felt in high school coming back to haunt her.

Once she'd had her cry she headed inside to shower and get dressed, pulling her hair into a simple bun and putting on her dress, making sure to do her best to hide the fact that she'd been crying before heading out, although it was still a bit obviously if you looked close enough. Once there she got out of her car and was pulling out her phone to let Luke know that she was there when he walked up to her, blushing faintly as he said she looked good. "Thank you. You look nice too.. You fit the part you're trying to play." She complimented, fiddling anxiously with the scarf at her wrist. "Should we go in?"

@ katahdin
Luke smiled gently when Wren reacted to his comment, he reached out and grabbed her hand, then kissed her knuckles. “I may look the part, but when it comes to you I’m soft like butter.” He murmured, as if he didn’t want anyone to hear. Luke nodded, “Yea, I guess we should.” He paused and took a deep breath. He took Wren’s hand again, interlacing their fingers. He thought maybe, just maybe, he could pretend like this was a real date. He could forget everything they had gone through recently and just pretend to be what he always wanted them to be.

Luke led Wren to the door of the venue, pulling them open and allowing her to walk inside. He slid in quickly after her, his hand instinctively taking hers again. He held onto her hand like a child holding onto his mothers hand when they went shopping. Luke didn’t want to lose wren. He was nervous about what would happen if he let go. Music was loud in the venue, but not so loud it drowned out all voices. You could still easily talk to those around you. Once inside Luke stood tall, straight, and confident. His eyes moving slowly across the room as he scanned everything and everyone. When his eyes connected with the table of refreshments he gently rugged Wren in that direction. He poured himself a rum and coke into a red solo cup, sipping it as he began to scan the room again. Luke looked down at Wren and just smiled. “There’s a lot of women here but none are as beautiful as you, Wren.”

@ BadStreetBoys

Wren's blush only brightened as he kissed her knuckles, giving his hand a little squeeze. She wanted to believe it, that he did have a soft spot for her, but the way he'd been acting and treating her recently had made her start to think otherwise. She wanted to love him, wanted him to love her, but she worried that they were just too different from how they'd been in high school, and the time for their relationship had passed. She nodded a bit as he he led her inside, giving his hand a reassuring squeeze as they did, able to tell that he was nervous, even if he wouldn't admit it.

She looked around a bit anxiously once inside, not overly fond of the loud music, but at least everyone that was already there wasn't paying much attention to them if any at all, so they could easily enter without being hounded with questions. She followed along Luke as he pulled her toward a refreshment table where he poured himself a drink, a small frown on her lips. "Don't have too much, or you won't be able to drive home." She warned, taking a bottle of water for herself. She blushed at his compliment, offering him a faint smile as she looked up at him and took a sip of her water. "Typical tough guy though, noticing all of the women in the room first."

@ katahdin
Luke could tell just how nervous Wren was, it was if he could feel it radiating off her body. He ran his hand up and down her sides trying to calm her. As Luke sipped at his drink he just nodded. "I won't drive home drunk." He told her reassuringly. "If I end up tipsy I'll just call a cab, or make you drive me home." He said teasingly, sipping the drink again. Luke wouldn't admit it, but he may have had a bit of an alcohol problem. He used it to drown things out and used it to deal with problems. He didn't drink just to drink. He drank to forget and ignore. Luke smirked at Wren's comment. "Untypical tough guy making sure his date knows shes the only one he has eyes for though." he countered.

Luke's eyes scanned the room again as he began to notice and recognize people. He recognized some of his old friends, some of the girls he wold hang out with or flirt with. He took a breath as his eyes moved to the people Wren had accused of hurting her, tensing up. He knew he had to stay calm and out of trouble though, which meant just staying away from them or ignoring them.

@ BadStreetBoys

Wren was doing her best to ignore the fact that the handful of guys who had hurt her in high school, as well as the countless others who had bullied her were here, nervously sipping her water. She could feel her anxiety getting worse the more she thought about it, and she hoped that the night would be over quickly, or that something would happen to help distract her. She'd hate to ditch Luke, especially when he seemed to need her here to keep himself grounded, bu she also knew it could be unhealthy for her to be here, and that if she needed to leave she would.

"Wren Morrison?" a familiar voice asked, and as Wren turned away from Luke to look up at the man who'd approached them, the man wearing a simple light blue button down and slacks, a wide smile appearing on her face which mirrored his as she recognized him, stepping forward to give him a big hug. "Matthew! I can't believe I almost didn't recognize you." She smiled up at him, pressing a kiss to his cheek before she turned back toward Luke. "Luke, you remember Matthew Cook, right?" Matthew had become her best friend after Luke left, being the only one to show her any sort of kindness in the two years of high school they had left, and had even been the one to take her to senior prom.

Matthew smiled down at Wren, laughing a bit as she said that she almost didn't recognize him. "That's fair, without the braces and bad haircut I am pretty hard to recognize. You're hard to miss, though." He teased, looking at Luke with a warm smile, extending his hand to shake. "Luke Galloway, right? I think we were in Algebra or Chemistry sophomore year before you moved. It's nice that you came back for reunion, though, I remember you having loads of friends and everyone being devastated that you moved."

@ katahdin
Luke was glad he had Wren here, he knew if she hadn't come with him things would probably end poorly. When he heard a voice calling Wren, Luke turned to face the direction from which it came. He raised an eyebrow as he saw the man come forward and Wren hug him. Luke suddenly felt a twinge of jealousy. Luke wanted to grab Wren's hand and pull her back to him, but knew he couldn't. His eyes narrowed at the man before he shoot that feeling away before the pair looked back at him. He just kept any emotion from his face, wanting to keep up the persona of a hard ass.

Luke glanced down at Wren, shrugging when she asked if he remembered the man in front of them. To be honest he didn't. The only people he really remembered were the few close guy friends he had, a couple girls, and Wren. Luke shook his hand, giving a curt nod in response. Luke swallowed slightly as he began to look around as Matthew spoke to him. "Yea." He said and glanced at the pair in front of him before he sipped his drink again, finishing it off he poured himself another.

@ BadStreetBoys

Wren could tell Luke didn't really remember Matthew, but she wished he'd be a bit more polite about it, instead of acting so rudely. "After you left Matthew became my friend Junior year when we were paired together in labs for Physics," she explained, offering Matthew a smile. "I'll always appreciate everything he did for me those few years, and I'll always be sorry that we fell out of touch. Senior year we went to all the dances together, and he really made that year bearable."

Matthew rubbed the back of his neck at her praises, offering them both a sheepish smile. "I was just glad to have a friend, is all. And you seemed like you needed one, too. If I'd known you were in town and I still had your number I would have invited you myself, but I expected you to be off doing big things in big places."

"I've moved back here temporarily while some things get sorted out. But we should definitely catch up sometime, if you're in the area." Wren smiled, and after taking a moment to exchange numbers Matthew wished them a pleasant evening and said he might bump into them again later on. Wren turned back to Luke with a little smile, giving him a bit of a look. "You could have at least smiled a little bit, instead of looking angry. He was being perfectly polite."

@ katahdin
Luke just watched and listened as Wren spoke. When she said they went to all the dances together senior year his jaw tensed. He didn't want to think about that, that was supposed to be him. He was supposed to be the one who was taking her to dances and proms, going on dates, talking about the future during their senior year. Luke just shook it off and tried to refocus on Wren. He didn't want his emotions to show. He had been out of the life for two weeks now but old habits die hard. In gang life emotions got you killed, emotions made you weak. He didn't want anyone here to doubt his weakness.

Luke bent down a he noticed his pant leg roll up, gently rolling it down again and running his hand along the blade he hid inside. He couldn't tell Wren about this, she would be disappointed. But he always had it on him. He felt safer knowing he could defend himself. He had a handgun at home beneath his pillow, but that was a lot harder to hide and much more dangerous to fight with.

Luke tensed his jaw again when they exchanged numbers, but again said nothing, just sipping his drink. When Matthew left, Luke looked down at Wren. He couldn;t help but smiled when she did. "I'm supposed to be the big scary gang banger, Wren, my kind doesn't smile." He told her, finishing his second drink. Luke poured himself another before he began to walk. "Come on lets explore." He said as he made his way around the sea of people.

@ BadStreetBoys

"Yeah, but he was trying to be nice and get to know you. I would have thought that you'd want to at least be polite and make some small talk, given that you and he were both my friends during high school." Wren pointed out with a little frown, but let him drag her away from the refreshment table toward the crowd of people despite her better judgement. She wasn't terribly fond of crowds, especially when that crowd was made up of every kid that had bullied her in high school, so she had no idea why Luke would drag her in here, especially when he didn't really want to talk to anyone.

@ katahdin
Luke just shook his head. “I don’t care about the guy you replaced me with.” He muttered under his breath. As they moved through the crowd, occasionally sipping his drink. Luke felt on edge, he knew Wren probably felt the same, he was worrying that this was a mistake. Slowly Luke began to feel the effects of His drink, But he didn’t care, he needed more.

@ BadStreetBoys

"Excuse me?" Wren asked, staring up at him in disbelief as she calmed to a halt, not letting him pull her any further. "I didn't replace you, Luke. You were still my best friend.. But you never called, you left me to fend for myself, and what was I supposed to do? Just.. Just stand around and take the bullying? Not talk to anyone else until you showed up again?" She was furious with him for acting this way, but kept her voice down so she wouldn't draw any attention to them. "You know what happened to me.. I told you how miserable I was, and you're standing here really saying that you'd rather I had been alone through all that? If not for Matthew, I'd be gone, Luke. And I can't believe you're saying that you'd rather me have taken my own life than made another friend after you left."

She was starting to cry now, but she was managing to keep her tears under control, quickly wiping them away. "I don't even know why you asked me to go if you were just going to act like this.. I'm not just going to let you drag me around like some piece of arm candy to fulfill whatever fantasy you have in your head. It's painfully obvious you don't care about me anymore, and only care about whatever picture you have of what your life is supposed to look like, and I don't want to be a part of it if you're just going to treat me like this.." she was clearly upset by what she was saying, but she meant it. If he only wanted or thought of her as some trophy wife, she'd rather not see him at all.

@ katahdin
Luke turned to Wren as she spoke, biting his lips as he listened to her. He quickly downed the drink and put the empty cup on a nearby table. He didn’t know what to say. Of course he didn’t want Wren to have died, but it hurt thinking he was replaced. He listened quietly, letting wren vent her frustrations. “No.” He murmured. Luke looked down at Wren and cupped her face in his hands, gently caressing it with his thumb. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking of you and I was being selfish.” He told her honestly.

Luke’s face dropped even more when he saw Wren start to cry, “No no no.” He murmured, leaning down and kissing her forehead. “That’s not what I brought you here, Wren. I brought you here because I like you, you keep me calm. I know things would just go to shit without you.” He countered, Luke ran a hand down his face and sighed. “I brought you here so we could pretend like we were finally going on a date like we should have in high school.”

@ BadStreetBoys

Wren sniffled as he cupped her face in his hands, reaching up to wipe uselessly at her tears as he apologized. At least he was apologizing. She'd expected him to yell or scream or argue, or maybe even hit her if she was being honest, and she was relieved to hear him apologize and admit he was wrong. She hated how upset he seemed, though, especially when he denied the reason she'd accused him of bringing her here.

Before she could really say anything though a pretty blonde emerged from the crowd, beaming at Luke as she pushed Wren to the side to grab his arms. "Luke Galloway, it's been years! You're still as handsome as ever, though." She grinned, smoothing out the mini dress she was wearing. "You remember me, don't you? Trish Hawthorne. Oh you haven't changed a bit! Come on, let's go get a drink." She linked her arm through his as she started to lead him toward the nearest refreshment table, pushing past Wren as if she weren't even there. The poor girl watched Luke get dragged off with a sigh before she managed to find Matthew again, figuring that she could at least talk to him until Luke was done with Trish.

@ katahdin
Luke was enjoying his moment with Wren when it was suddenly stopped. He raised an eyebrow in an almost confused way. He didn’t remember the girl at the moment, was that because she didn’t matter to him or because the alcohol had finally begun to sink into his system. He shook his head trying to focus for a moment. “Oh Trish.” He said and grinned slightly. Luke remembered her, they had nearly hooked up in high school, but mostly just made out. “Yea it has been.” He mumbled, blushing when she said he was handsome. Luke was down to have another drink, but frowned slightly as he was pulled away. He turned around and gave Wren a sort of lost puppy look before he was tugged away again. At the table he grabbed a beer, not wanting the liquor again. “So uhm, what have you been up to?” He asked, doing his best to make sure his words weren’t slurred.

@ BadStreetBoys

Trish helped herself to a drink, smirking up at him as she took a sip, resting her hand on his bicep flirtatiously. "Oh, nothing much. I've been doing a little modeling here and there, trying to move up the ladder. What about you?" She asked, although she really wasn't that curious. "You look like you could be a model yourself, with how handsome and ripped you are." She was practically purring, running a hand down his chest and abs. "Just the other day I was thinking about you and what we used to do in the locker rooms after school, and I was hoping you'd be here so that maybe we could relive that memory?"

@ katahdin
Luke took another drink for himself and began to sip it. He flexed his muscle beneath Trish’ hands, blushing slightly. “Oh I dunno if I could be a model.” He said and blushed again. “Too many scars.” He said and pointed out ones on his arms and motioning to his chest. “Oh just secret work.” He said and laughed nervously. His words slowly starting to slur as he got drunker. Luke grinned as Trish began to touch his chest. “Oh yea I remember that.” He said sheepishly. “Oh I dunno.” He told Trish. “I came here with wren, I don’t know if she would like it.” he said and Rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “Maybe I should get back to her.

@ BadStreetBoys

"Scars are pretty hot though. And everyone loves the secretive bad boy." Trish grinned as he flexed, stepping a bit closer. She couldn't help but roll her eyes at the mention of Wren though, scoffing a bit as she sipped her drink. "Oh, please. She's off with Mattew I'm sure, and when I saw you two you didn't seem to really be enjoying yourself. And everyone knows she's a wet blanket. You deserve better than her, so stop wasting your time, and come to the locker rooms with me."

@ katahdin
Luke blushed again when Trish was calling him hot. “Oh I dunno.” He mumbled, again nervously rubbing the back of his neck. He finished the drink in his hand and hiccuped. “Sorry.” He said and chuckled. Luke frowned when she insulted Wren. “Hey no don’t say that.” He murmured. “She’s very nice and my friend.” He said protectively, glancing down at Trish and biting his lip when she got closer to him. “We were just having a disagreement,” he paused trying to think of an excuse. “She doesn’t like me drinking so much.” He said and shrugged. “Trish I dunno.” He paused again. “I kinda like it out here.” He said cheekily.