Burn it Down

~Megan's POV~

Months came and went without incident. People at school were still stupid and I tended to ignore them, although as time went on they found new ways to annoy the shit out of us. New ways to hurt and degrade us.

While I ended up taking it very personally, I was getting scared by Luke and Tyler's tolerance of it. They just laughed it off and it wasn't like them.

Luckily, the school year was over today. Luke had got a job with Tyler in January and while he was only at two full shifts a week, and some after school shifts, he was glad he'd be able to work more and get some money saved up. He told me it was because he was excited to save up for college. He'd not be able to pay his tuition alone, but he could at the very least, he said, get as much of his living expenses as possible.

A month into summer break, I'd been eating dinner with Luke at my house. We'd come in late and missed dinner with the rest of my family, so we were eating alone.

"Would you be interested in doing something tomorrow? Tyler and I have it off and I was just wondering if you'd like to join us. Tiffany will be there in case you don't want to come to a total sausage party." He'd nearly whispered it and I was kind of confused by it.

"You have something in mind?" I asked him, twirling my spaghetti around my fork.

"Yeah. We were gonna go up in the mountains. Tyler just got some...um..." He didn't want to tell me, that much was obvious. Or he was ashamed of what it was. This whole thing was weird.

"Babe spit it out." I teased him, nudging him with my elbow.

"Tyler got some guns and we were gonna go do some target practice."

My face dropped noticeably. "Since when does Tyler have an interest in weapons?" I almost asked how Tyler purchased multiple guns since he was not yet 18, but then I remembered his birthday was 2 weeks ago.

"He already smokes. He wanted to get something else for his birthday, I guess. Either way did you want to come?"

I stayed quiet for a moment and thought about it.

"Yeah, I'll go."

"Great!" Luke's face lit back up for a moment.

"There's a catch. We never tell my parents about it. They'll kill me if they found out I even looked at a gun. You know..."

He nodded. "They'll never know, love."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tyler had a few guns. More than one person needed, and I wondered how he could have afforded all of these himself, I assumed Luke helped pay for them.

Two were very clearly assault rifles, but they weren't the same. I was told one was an AK-103, and the other was an M16, there was a pump action shotgun, and a handgun, a Glock 17C. But I already knew what the rifles were, and the glock. Before my brother's suicide my dad and brother had both been gun nuts, and I had seen the rifles several times, could fire them with decent accuracy. As for the glock, I was not too excited about that one. It reminded me of my brother too much. I kept my mouth shut and watched the two boys, and oddly enough, Tiffany try to fire the weapons.

I wanted to laugh even though I felt so out of place. Something was happening then, and I didn't know it and would not even have an idea of what was to come of these weapons for months.

They struggled, but of course they'd fire on an inhale and flinch, blowing their aim. I would have schooled them, and should have, but it was Tyler's present and I didn't want to one up him.

All three of them took turns aiming at traffic cones on set up on a table, as I leaned against the trees with my arms crossed, watching. Tiffany was on glock detail while the boys were clearly excited for the rifles. None of them had hit a cone yet and it was amusing to watch. But more importantly, I was happy to see this kind of light in Luke's eyes. He rarely had a zeal for anything anymore so to see him beaming over anything was great. He turned back to me and smiled and I smiled back.

Turning around Luke once again fired the weapon, to the surprise of no one, not hitting a damn thing except maybe a squirrel off in the distance. Despite being a terrible shot, I admired the way his hair gleamed reddish tones in the sunlight, or how the light poured through the trees and illuminated him like a spotlight. I got this feeling sometimes that I could never love him enough. That I could give him everything and for some reason I'd still not have enough to give him. I never thought that he wanted more than what I gave, but something in me wanted to rain love on him forever, and I sometimes felt depressed it wasn't really possible.

"Too bad we can't hit anything." Tyler said to him.

"In time." Luke chuckled and fired shots again.

I came up behind Luke and kissed his shoulder to get his attention, before motioning with my fingers to fork the damn gun over so I could show these people how it's done.

"You want to fire it?" Luke asked.

Tiffany and Tyler looked over at me. Everyone seemed perplexed that I might want to shoot the fucking thing.

"Yeah I want to fire it. Hand it over." I said flatly, yet half jokingly.

"You think you can do better?" He teased.

I nearly snorted. "Yeah."

Luke handed it over and I examined it a second. He had the AK-103, while Tyler had the M16. I positioned the large weapon, resting my cheek against the stock. I held it up and took a deep breath in, aimed for one of the traffic cones, then on my exhale I took the shot, knocking the entire thing over. I shot once more rapidly, knocking the next one down, and then once more with the final remaining cone before I brought the gun back down.

Everyone sat in stunned silence.

"This fucking thing is automatic, if you really want to hit something, just fucking spray. I mean be fucking careful, but hold the trigger and wave it at whatever you're trying to hit. Odds are you'll hit what you want eventually. Among things you may not want. But." I shrugged, handing the weapon back to Luke who took it quietly, still stunned.

"You can shoot?" Tyler asked.

"Yeah." I didn't move my head, simply looked at him from the corners of my eyes with my eyebrows raised. "Don't act so surprised."

I ended up kicking myself for showing them I could shoot. Tiffany, Tyler, and Luke didn't really have any ability, and their aim was subpar, but hey. I didn't spend the money on these things and didn't care. I'd always be a better shot than them, but I didn't think it would ever have to matter.

Boy, I would be so wrong.

They tried to glean as much information from me as they could. We literally had stayed out here all day, and we arrived as the sun came up and didn't leave until the sun was going down. We didn't shoot the entire time, I just gave them tips on improving stance and technique so they at least had something to work with other than hopelessly wasting bullets on nothing.

On the way home Luke reached over and grabbed my hand as he drove.

"Why didn't you tell me you could shoot?" He asked.

"It never came up?" I said, adrift in my own thoughts, which were mostly of pastries and different desserts.

"Well..." he drifted off. "Thank you for teaching us something today. I guess it makes sense to know how to use something you buy." He laughed, smiling at me.

I barely responded. An earlier thought came back to me.

"Yeah, speaking of which. How did Tyler afford all of those guns on a job that gives him no more than 20 hours a week? I know his parents make him pay his car payment now, insurance, gas, and his cell phone bill. As well as asking for rent. Seems like he'd be broke."

Luke withdrew his hand from me and put it on the steering wheel and immediately avoided looking at me at all.

"He..." Luke hesitated. "He got them for a deal. His dad knows the guy at the gun shop. Gave him a good price."

I crossed my legs and ran my fingers across my lips while looking out the window. I had never known Luke to lie to me, and here he was. Being bad at it.

"I thought you were saving for college, Luke. To pay for your living expenses. But you're helping Tyler buy shit, expensive shit, that he doesn't need. If not buying it for him outright."

"Megan, I fucking told you he got a deal on them. I didn't help him buy anything." Luke said, feigning sincerity in his lie. He knew he was busted and now came anger at being called out, which in turn made me angry.

"You've never fucking lied to me, Luke. Never! Don't even bullshit me. I know you helped him pay for those god damn guns, and as a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure Tyler bought them for you!" I said, looking over at him with wide eyes and my voice louder than it needed to be.

Luke took a deep breath. "Megan, he didn't buy them for me. They're not mine. Why would I have him buy them for me? My birthday is coming up in like 2 weeks."

"Fine." I conceded. "Did you help pay for them? Don't fucking lie to me. You said we should always be truthful with each other!"

"Yes! Okay? Yes! I helped pay for them!" Luke sighed. "It was my birthday present to him."

"Then...why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't want you to think we were just stockpiling weapons. Together. Tyler wants to be a collector, so I gave him a bit of money to help get him started." Luke looked over at me. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you, okay? I'm really sorry I pissed you off."

I sat there for a minute before looking back up at Luke, whose face was darkened with some sort of emotion. I assumed sadness. "I'm sorry I yelled at you."

"It's okay." He said, smiling. He took my hand and this time I squeezed it a little and went back to my pastry day dream. I was starving and hadn't eaten all day.

"You hungry?" Luke asked. He was unnaturally good at picking up on things like this.

"How do you do that?!" I asked.

Luke laughed. "Your stomach growled, sweetheart. That one was a little obvious."

"Oh. That makes sense." I said, kind of shocked I had tuned out so much I didn't even notice my own stomach rumbling.

"Where would my girl like to go?"

"I want like 17 whoppers right now so Burger King, and floor it." I joked.

"If we were in your car, I'd floor it. Sometimes I'm scared if I floor it in mine, we'll have to Flintstone our asses home."

I cackled loudly which made Luke laugh at me. He always laughed at my cackle.

I was glad our little argument was over. I hadn't argued with him before and I didn't like it.

But while I thought he was being truthful with me, because things made such perfect sense, this was where the deceit all started. I wish those guns had never came into existence. They'd tear my life apart.