Broken Homes {Lashton & Malum}

XI

Luke should have known that there would have been consequences. He should have known that he'd be spotted almost immediately as soon as he arrived back at the home, he wouldn't have been able to get in without walking past the office and someone would have noticed the door open. He would have been the only other person there other than Nathan and Haley, anyways. He should have known one of them would spot him immediately.

However, Luke didn't think of these things, and instead made his way in as quietly as he could, closing the front door silently behind himself. He didn't think he'd be so easily spotted, and that was why he was almost scared half to death when, once he'd barely reached the second step of the stairs, he heard a demanding cough from behind him.

Knowing he was busted, Luke stopped and sighed, turning around to face the direction the cough had come from. He was faced with a not-really-angry-but-more-confused looking Haley, and Luke was kind of glad that it hadn't been Nathan because he would've already started shouting or giving Luke some rant about how "It's Bad To Leave School Before The End Of The Day".

But Luke knew that, as Nathan was Head Care Worker, Haley was going to tell him, and he was going to be in so much trouble. Which was why he just sighed in annoyance when Haley ushered him over, and he glumly trudged over.

Despite Haley being the friendlier Care Worker, she still seemed very angry that Luke had bunked off a majority of the day, and she showed that in the way she opened the office door and said,"Nathan, look who's decided to join us."

Nathan looked up from where he was working, his face showing confusion when he noticed Luke standing there. He moved his papers to the side of his desk before standing up and walking over, his height intimidating Luke and he braced himself for being yelled at."Luke? What happened?"

There followed a silence, and Luke was shocked that he hadn't yet been shouted at. Wasn't Nathan angry? He certainly didn't seem like it. However, Luke didn't even know what to say. So the silence continued, until Nathan finally realised that he wasn't going to get a reply just yet.

"Haley, phone the school, would you? See what happened with Dr Erikson and Luke. We're going to talk in the Interview Room to talk about some things."

Haley nodded, and she stepped past Nathan and into the office, and Nathan motioned for Luke to follow him. Luke did so, but he was still slightly scared about what Nathan wanted to talk about. He couldn't get out of this without some form of punishment, and he just wanted to get it over with and to stop with this suffering.

Luke had never been into the Interview Room before, but he couldn't deny it looked friendly. It was all brightly coloured, with a small table in the middle and two couches either side, and Luke kind of liked it.

Nathan sat down on one of the couches, waiting for Luke to sit down on the other. Luke just stared at the cushioned sofa and then back at Nathan, a bored expression on his face. He ultimately knew this was going to end in him getting some sort of punishment, and he'd rather not pretend like that wasn't going to happen and just sit around waiting for Nathan to dish it out.

"Look, can you just tell me what I have to do and get it over with?" he sneered. "What is it? Am I grounded? Do I have to mow the lawn in the backyard? What?"

Nathan just sighed, and just as he went to open his mouth, Haley came into the room with a notepad in her hand. She glanced over at Luke and flashed him a small smile before leaning down and whispering into Nathan's ear, handing him the notepad. His eyes skimmed over the lined paper before he nodded, thanking Haley as she left.

"Take a seat, Luke."

With an exasperated sigh, Luke flopped down onto the other couch rather ungracefully, sprawling himself over the seat. Why couldn't Nathan just tell him what he had to do as punishment and then this could all be done with? Him and Haley were definitely dragging this out to take longer than it needed to. Maybe that was his punishment, not having one until they sprung it on him at some unfortunate moment. Great.