Chance Encounters

As I had hoped, Mary had been sort of okay with Luke. If it was my grandpa I know that wouldn’t have been the case. If she had known about the bathroom I don’t think the situation would have gone as well as it did. As soon as she asked how long he would be with us I knew I was in the clear! I just hoped this wasn’t something Mary felt the need to inform my dad about… It would not be pretty.

“Where is he right now?” Mary said wiping the lint from the dryer off on her pants and standing up. I pointed down the hallway toward my room and Mary and I walked to my door. She let me open the door which I don’t know, felt kind of like an act of respect. Luke who I had left eating an apple had abandoned the poor forgotten fruit on my desk with a small bite taken out of it. Did this boy ever eat? Luke peered up at us from where he was sitting and I think he looked a little nervous still, “Luke, I’m sorry for being so tough on Elllie. I had no Idea what was going on.” Luke opened his mouth to apologize I guess but Mary held up a hand and shook her head. He closed his mouth

“Luke,” She began, “I just wanted to say, welcome to the family.” She grabbed him quickly and hugged him. I very much wanted so tackle Mary and cover her mouth. Did she know how embarrassing that sounded? It was like we had just announced being engaged to her! My face was aflame and I just knew that I was blushing… A LOT I was kind of caught up in my own little embarrassed world and was vaguely aware that they were still talking. I only checked back into reality before Mary said we needed to go get Lukes things from his house.

Mary was going to let him stay long term! She wouldn’t have even mentioned his stuff otherwise. I wasn’t positive why but at that moment I felt so happy that I laughed. I turned towards Luke and hugged him. He could stay! As long as he needed to! As long as he WANTED to. I leaned my head against his chest while I hugged him. I could hear his heart beat. It was only when I heard him say thank you and I could feel the word vibrate in his chest that I realized that this was getting dangerously close to boyfriend territory. I pulled back and smiled at him. Trying to ignore the little twinge of panic that jumped at me.

* * *
Luke and I had spent most of the day trying to clear out my dark room. We were almost done with it but not quite. When we were working on it I was completely attached to my camera and was constantly taking snap shots of Luke. Every time He would hear the little click that my camera made then he would get irritated. I didn’t know why but I knew I wasn’t gunna stop. I wasn’t doing it to annoy him but his facial expression and poses while he worked were just… I cant describe it. Perfect?

I kept thinking back to them as we sat in the driveway of his house. HE told me that I should probably park on the street again but I insisted that if we were going to be moving things out of the house that I park in the driveway. I used the word house very lightly. Honestly now that I knew that the owner of the place had kicked out his own flesh and blood the place had taken a darker view. It looked like one of those abandoned shacks that you would see in a horror movie. Of those evil cottages in the middle of the woods that witched who ate little kids lived in.

“No one should be home right now.” Luke aid while climbing out of the car. I followed him to the front door, but the earlier thought that a horror movie villain was going to come in and kill me still hung around in my mind. I entered his home slowly and I was close to just saying I would wait outside when he took my hand. I was so preoccupied with the gesture I barely registered we were walking. We got to his room and I watched as he scrambled around grabbing his clothing and some other things. When he started grabbing underwear I turned away.

Looking around the room, I really didn’t like what I was seeing. The room was so sparse and barely decorated or cared for. My guess was that was more the fathers doing then Luke’s. He was right that I didn’t understand him. That I wouldn’t know what he was going through. But I wanted to understand. I wanted to do everything in my power to help Luke. After he finished packing Luke led me back through the place toward the front room. And the world flipped upside down.

I heard the sound of a door slamming before I saw anything. I even smelt it before I saw anything. The smell Of beer and alcohol. I’ve been to enough parties in my time to recognize it, and there was enough alcohol in the air to supply an entire high school blowout. When his father came through the door I was stuck by the smell once again but not only that, I was astounded by how unlike the two actually looked. Maybe it was the vibe of complete drunken slob that came off of Luke’s dad but I thought they were polar opposites immediately.

“Whose fucking car is in my driveway?” The man said pushing a woman who I suspected was a street walker by the way she dressed. The hooker looked at me, then at Luke then back at me giving me a weird look. I wasn’t sure if it was patronizing or simply mocking. I shot her back a look. “what the fuck are you doing here?” His father muttered “And who is this tramp with you?” At first it didn’t click that he was talking about me, but when I understood my face reddened. EXCUSE ME?! I thought Have you even seen what your girlfriend looks like? I heard a growl come from Luke and my eyes widened.

“Don’t you dare insult her.” He said stepping closer to me. He… he was defending me.. I dunno it just seemed like a huge deal, at my old school I was called words way worse than Tramp and no one stood up to defend me.

He yelled as he grabbed a beer. It was sitting on the coffee table in the living room one of a dozen or so of them. It was half full. He swirled the bottle around while looking into the neck of the bottle examining the liquid inside. I wanted to gag just thinking how long that beer bottle might have been there. Taking a swig he made a face and put the drink back down on the table and walked toward the kitchen. “Why are you in my fucking house? You don’t live here anymore.”

“I was getting my clothes.” The woman bumped into me and I turned to her. The hooker gave me another grin and turned to walk down the hallway. I really didn’t like this place. I felt a chill run down my spine and felt the urge to grab Luke and run to my car.

“Those are mine.” His father said. He sneered at Luke. Run Ellie. Run.

“Actually they’re mine. Mom bought them for me a couple of months before she….passed,” Luke said his voice barely rising above a whisper. He was backing down… this wasn’t good.

“They were in my house, so those shirts and pants you have are mine,” He chugged some of his beer and sighed loudly. Cringing I stepped forward.

“Mr. Jeysen with all due respect,” Which was absolutely none. “Luke has no other clothes, other than these.” I pointed to Luke’s shirt and pants that we had taken out of the dryer a few hours ago. Luke’s Father growled and stomped a few steps closer to me. My eyes widened and I took a step back as Luke stepped in front of me. His father wasn’t having that, before Luke could really do much his father pushed him onto the ground. I felt my heart racing. I wanted to go home.

“You aren’t in this conversation, you smart ass,”

“Sir please. Just Listen.” I pleaded trying to keep calm.

“No, YOU listen!” he roared “This is my fucking house. You are trespassing. You have no fucking right to be in my house!” Stop yelling stop stop stop!

“This isn’t even a house!” I growled. I knew I was going too far as soon as the words started coming out of my mouth but I couldn’t stop them. I stepped closer I held close to the wall. I was mad. I hated being yelled at. I hated being treated like crap when I didn’t deserve it. “This,” I gestured around me. “Is a couple of pieces of wood held together by some nails! It’s ALMOST in as bad a shape as you are!” Luke’s father’s face turned bright red and I closed my mouth quickly. I had gone waaay tooo far.

“You BITCH!” He growled at me and grabbed a beer bottle throwing it towards me. Everything was moving incredibly fast and really slow at the same time. I couldn’t move my body I tried but I just couldn’t. I saw Luke jump at me. I assume he was trying to get me out of the way but it didn’t wark. The bottle didn’t hit me directly in the face just within a centimeter of it. The bottle hit the wall. If it hadn’t it wouldn’t have shattered so spectacularly. I was quick enough at least to cover my eyes. Not that that really required any though at all to do, but my reflexes knew I needed to protect my eyes. The glass bounced off the walls and flew into my face and I cried out. Dear god it hurt. I really can’t think of any way to describe the pain I felt.

Luke grabbed me and I tried to stand up. He pulled me toward the front door and got me into the passenger seat of my car. I saw his father screaming from his front door as Luke hurried to the driver seat and drove us away.

“Ellie,” Luke said as I was looking at the glass imbedded in my arm, trying not to move it too much so it wouldn’t cut me even more. I was shaking. I could feel every muscle and nerve in my body working on hyper drive. “you’re going to be okay. I promise.” I started pulling a few shards out of my arms. I wasn’t going to mess with my face just yet. I winced at every shard that I pulled out. I probably should have waited but every time I twitched a finger I could feel them digging deeper and deeper and I just couldn’t handle it. Luke throughout the ride home kept shooting me concerned glances. I looked at him and glared.

“I’m fine,” I muttered. The car pulled into the driveway and Luke got me out of the car and wrapped his arm around my waist. I wasn’t helpless but I kind of appreciated it.

“MARY!” Luke called out through the house.

“She’s not here. She… she went to work.” I was stuttering. This wasn’t good. My adrenaline was wearing off and I could feel my knees about to give out. Luke must have noticed because he walked me to the kitchen and sat me down.

“This may sting, but I promise it’ll be over within a couple of minutes.” He tried to reassure me but I didn’t really feel all that much better. If Mary was here I would have asked her to take me to the hospital. At least there they could knock me out. Luke removed the glass and he was very gentle. It still hurt but I could tell he was being really careful. Every shard felt more painful than the last and by the end of it my face was stinging and sore and I was cutting holes into Luke’s hand with my nails.

He washed my face off with hot water and disinfected and cared for the cuts and by the end of it all I was just hoping that the blood on the surface of my cheeks was covering the blood that was rushing to my cheeks already. I looked at Luke. He was taking care of me... protecting me and I really didn’t understand why. He confused me but at the same time I knew exactly what I felt about him.

“Thank you.” I said hugging him. I wrapped my arms around his neck because I couldn’t lean my head against his chest and I ended up looking him right in the eyes. We stared at each other for a few seconds and I don’t know I guess I thought something would happen. He pulled me closely and we were pressed up against each other. Maybe it was the glass that had just cut into my face that had kept anything from really happening. Which quiet frankly kind of sucked… I hoped the cuts would heal quickly.