Paper Thin (muke)

01: safety

Luke

Calum huffed as he dropped the cardboard box in the middle of the living room. "Man, do I need a beer." The tanned boy threw himself down on the worn couch, wiping away the small bit of sweat along his hairline.

"You moved like four boxes." Luke rolled his eyes as he maneuvered his way through the door, arms full of moving boxes. He sighed, shaking out his poor hands that had been weighed down all afternoon.

"Yeah, but I moved the biggest boxes! Your books are heavy as hell, I should be getting extra best friend points for lugging those up four flights of stairs! Plus I was the one who moved the furniture up yesterday and did all the assembly!" Calum argued as Luke sat down beside him. Calum fell into the taller boy's side. Luke sighed as he threw his arm around his friend and scanned the boxes that littered the floor.

Calum wasn't wrong. Luke's book collection was immense, and out of the fifteen or so boxes that spanned his living room, at least six of them were books. His foster mom had asked him multiple times if he was sure he wanted to bring them all, but Luke was adamant; it wouldn't be home without them.

"What happened to 'I can bench 220'?" Luke dropped his voice into his best impression of his best friend, and the Maori boy shoved him in the side.

"Oh, shut up." Calum grumbled into Luke's shoulder as the blonde laughed, pulling away so that he could tie up his hair. Luke ran his fingers through sweat tangled curls before pulling it all up in a bun. Of course, move in day was the hottest of the month and his apartment only had an old beat-up air conditioner in the living room window.

Luke found it hard to complain though, now that he was sitting on his own couch in his own apartment, he felt relief he hadn't in months. It wasn't anything fancy, a simple studio apartment on the far south side of Chicago, but it was his. All 645 square feet of it. Sure, the apartment building wasn't in the best part of town, and yeah, maybe there wasn't an elevator or hot water after 11 pm, but it was perfect for Luke.

Just as quickly as the peaceful smile appeared on Luke's face, it vanished when his phone buzzed in his pocket.

"It's Liam, isn't it?" Calum peered over Luke's shoulder as the blonde glanced at the cracked screen. His heart sank.

Calum's question was answered by the words Unknown Number.

"fucking dick." Calum mumbled as Luke stuffed his phone back in his pocket. "Dude, get a new number. How often does he call?"

Luke bit at his thumbnail.

"Luke," Calum grabbed Luke's chin and turned the younger boy so that he was looking into the large brown eyes of his best friend. "I can't help you if you're not honest with me." Luke stood up and walked over towards the window. He didn't want Calum to see the panic written on his face. His heart was pounding after the call and he could feel the adrenaline seeping into his skin.

"Almost every day." Luke mumbled, but Calum still heard it.

"Every day? Shit, Luke..."

Luke turned to see his best friend with his head held in his hands.

"It's okay, Cal."

"No Luke, it's not fucking ok!"

He cowered back at the biting tone and Calum sighed.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to raise my voice," Calum reached out towards Luke and hesitantly grabbed both of his wrists, pulling the boy back to sit next to him. "you know I can't help it when it comes to that asshole."