tourniquet, luke hughes

prologue

AGE 14

"Ads! Where are you?" Luke screamed, while he entered my home. "I'm upstairs," I replied quickly.

I could hear his footsteps working quickly across my wooden floor.

He barged into my room without warning, "Can we go swim in the lake?"

"How did you know that's literally what I was thinking? I just put my swimsuit on!" The coincidence honestly shocked me.

"Well isn't that what best friends are for? Let's go down now!"

We both ran out of my bedroom, and quickly made our way to my back door. Once we made it outside, we sprinted down to the dock both our houses shared.

Luke looked at me with a gleam in his eyes, "Last one in the water has to smell one of Quinn's dirty socks!"

AGE 16

"You have to promise me nothing will change, okay?" Luke looked at me, while we laid outside in the grass of his backyard.

"Luke, nothing will change. I'm only moving 15 minutes away!" My mom and dad were divorcing. Both me and Luke knew this had been coming, it was just a matter of when.

I knew deep down my dad loved both me and my mom, but he had always had a weird way of showing it. He was never really around, but when he was I thought he would do his best to show he was there for me.

"Luke! Addie! Come inside, dinner's ready," I could hear Luke's mom, Ellen, yell from inside their house.

Throughout the time I had been friends with the Hughes', Ellen had become like a second mom to me. When a boy would tease me at school, or when one of her boys would tease me, she was always there to give the best hugs.

Me and Luke got up and made our way up, while holding hands.

When we walked in Jack instantly locked eyes on our hands joined together, "Lukey and Addie sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G."

Ellen instantly hit him on the arm, "Jack cut that out, go set the table."

"Ow, fine, I didn't even do anything"

Luke looked at me, and I could tell a light blush covered his face. I never thought much of it.

AGE 18

"Lukey, you know I'm so proud of you right?" I stared Luke in the eyes as we sat on the floor of his almost empty room.

After all the years we had been "friends" nothing romantic had happened between us. Luke had gone through his far share of girlfriends, and I had supported him through all of them.

Even if they didn't like me, I understood it completely and would keep my distance when she would be around.

I never really had boys show interest in me, although being told my whole life I was a pretty girl. I had always been pretty awkward, and didn't hate being by myself in school, so I always kept to myself.

Luke had always been more popular in school so I let him do his thing, but he would always try to include me.

When I moved away 2 years ago and started at a new school, I met a couple girls who were cool and didn't just use me to get closer to Luke and his brothers.

"Yeah, of course I know that Ads? Why would you think I didn't?" He questioned, while moving a flyaway hair out of my face.

"I know I've been kind of different lately, but I'm just sad you're leaving already . I hope you know big of an accomplishment this is for you and how much I'm going to support you while you're in college," I rambled as I could feel tears about to come out of my eyes.

He was leaving at the very beginning of Summer to start with the hockey team in Ann Arbor, and the training ended up not letting him come home anytime until after I leave for college.

Luke moved across the floor to pick me and give me a hug.

"I love you Ads. So much, things aren't going to change between when I leave. Okay?" He reassured me while holding onto me tightly.

"I know. I know. I'm just gonna miss you so much." I hugged back tightly.

TWO MONTHS LATER

Ads
goodluck tonight <3
love you!

Luke
Thanks
love you too

Since Luke had left, I had been getting ready for my own trip to move to college. I wasn't bringing much since we had to take my stuff all the way to New York, where I was studying at NYU.

It wasn't that Luke was acting "different" but he had stopped texting me first, to ask about my day or just to make conversation.

About a week and half after Luke left for college, I met a boy at the beach while hanging out with one of my school friends.

He had come up to me and asked for my number, and ever since we've been hanging out a lot.

I had almost felt hesitant to tell Luke because he'd know I had never really talked to guys in that way before. When I did tell him on FaceTime, he started to act funny and ask a bunch of questions about him.

That was the beginning of him acting weird.

Almost every weekend I would drive over to the Hughes house to have dinner with their family, but before me and Ellen would just sit on the couch and talk about things going on in our lives.

When I had told her about what was going on with Luke, she said that "Even though that's my son," it was weird and to never stop my life for "just a boy".

Ellen and my own mom were the only ones that I had confessed my feelings to Luke to. I always had trouble opening up to people, but they had always been those people for me.

SOME TIME LATER

7/13/2021

Ads
hey lukey, how
have you been?
i miss you!

7/17/2021

Ads
your mom invited me
to go watch one of your games
soon!

7/28/2021

Ads
hi

8/06/2021

Ads
hope you're doing
alright, call me if you're
ever free
read

5 MONTHS LATER

It had been a couple months since I'd last heard from or texted Luke. I had talked to his mom over the phone atleast once a week to catch up, since I'd been at college.

When he started to not talk to me, I cried a lot.

My mom didn't know what was happening, and I was extremely hesitant to tell Ellen about it until she connected the dots herself.

I understood that I wasn't her really daughter, and Luke was her real son so she had to be there for him first.

It hurt a lot to think about what he did to me, after we had been close for so long.