Off One's Rocker - Lashton

Chapter Fifty-four

Chapter Fifty-four

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"So," Liz began as she had her two sons sitting at the table with her, one of them eating their dinner and the other contemplating doing so. Alex was also by her side, eating his own whilst keeping an eye on the blonde boy.

"So," Jack mimicked her, looking up to see what she had to say. He'd been a lot happier over the week as his mother had taken on board what he had said and was paying him a lot of attention and less so to Luke. But the younger boy did not mind so much.

"I have some news," she started, watching them both look up at her ready to hear what she had to say.

"Don't tell me you're pregnant!" the middle son guessed jokingly. His mother reached across the table and gave him a slap.

"Never again!" she laughed alongside him and Alex smiled respecting she would no longer have any children at her age. He did, however, slip a hand into hers for support because he knew she was nervous to see what her son's reactions would be.

Liz had already told Ben earlier over the phone and he was completely fine about it. They may be due to the fact he did not live at home anymore, or because he generally was pretty chill with most things.

"What is it then?" Jack asked wanting to know eagerly.

Liz hesitated for a while because she knew what both of their responses would be is they did not like what they hear. Whilst Jack would rage and yell at her, Luke would remain utterly quiet and isolate himself from her for a while. She was not sure what was worse.

"Alex is going to be moving in with us," she muttered looking down at her half empty plate not wanting to see their reactions.

"Cool," Jack shrugged not seeing it as much of a big deal. "He's always here anyway so what difference does he make. Plus, he's way cooler than dad," he admitted with a slight laugh.

Alex smiled thankfully that Jack accepted him. He tried hard to treat Liz's kids as if they were his own. He then looked over at Luke who just looked confused.

"You haven't even been together a week," he exclaimed thinking the move was a little drastic for so soon in a relationship.

Liz sighed squeezing the grey haired mans hand. "We've been together for a quite a while now. We wanted to keep it quiet in case nothing worked out," he answered for her, hoping the blonde would understand.

Luke just nodded, before looking down at his barely touched food once again. He knew with Alex living with them he would have to eat every meal.

"Are you going to eat?" Jack asked looking over at his brother who was just fiddling with his food, pushing across the plate with his fork.

"I'm going to have to," the younger brother shrugged knowing he would not be able to leave until he at least attempted to clear his plate. He knew his old therapist would introduce old rules back into his routine just to make his recovery quicker and more effective.

Jack sighed watching the blonde struggle. He then began to feel bad for all the abuse he had aimed towards Luke, knowing it must have contributed towards his relapse back into anorexic habits.

"You better start," Alex warned as he watched the boy slowly pick up his fork. Jack watched him too and as he did so Luke's long shirt sleeve rode up his arm a little revealing a few little red marks. He gulped a little worried as to what they could be.

However, not wanting to jump to a conclusion, he decided to keep quiet for now as if he mentioned anything Alex would straight away want to inspect his body. He knew too well his little brother hated that.

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After Luke finally finished most of his dinner, he was allowed to go. When Jack heard his bedroom door close. He decided to let him have a couple minutes to settle in.

Consequently, when those few minutes past the middle son contemplated on knocking on Luke's door or just walking straight in. Then he thought that if Luke was doing something to effect himself he would have time to stop if he knocked.

So Jack walked straight into his room too, fortunately, find the blonde sat on his bed with his nose in his book. He was engrossed with the story, that he did not even hear neither see his brother enter.

"What you reading?" Jack asked causing the small boy to jump, delaying his heart even more. Regaining his breath, Luke looked up at his older brother and read out the title of the book.

"Is it good?" he asked not really caring just wanting to engage in a conversation. He found himself sitting next to Luke.

"Amazing," Luke smiled but did not go on to ramble what the book was on about like usual and that concerned him. "Why are you here?" Luke asked a little confused why his brother was sitting on his bed with him.

"I wanted to see if you wanted some company," he lied.

"I'm fine thanks. I've got my book and all the characters to do that," he smiled thankfully, a little touched that his brother was willing to do that. He'd never done that before.

Jack laughed slightly, "I always forget you hear voices in your head. How are they?"

Luke looked up at the ceiling, a way of looking into his brain. "Not as loud as they used to be. All the bad ones are gone thanks to the medication."

"You're incredibly weird Luke," Jack told him.

"Oh," he frowned instantly thinking it was a negative aspect.

"It's a good thing. It's a weird unique and interesting. It makes you likeable," he told the boy.

"That's what Sid said," Luke added remembering how the man told him he found his personality interesting.

Jack's eyes flickered over to the boys stick thin wrist and remembered why he actually came to see the boy. The two remained in silent and Jack let Luke read again.

After a while, he reached over to the blonde's wrists and gently pulled down his sleeve. The younger boy too engrossed in books.

His breath hitched at the rows of small little cuts littering his pale skin. He dreads to know where else he did this. Self-harm was something that was pushed aside when Luke was at the ward and no other coping mechanism was taught. "Oh, Luke."

The blonde once again stopped reading and noticed what his brother had done. He instantly began to panic. "Please, you can't tell anyone!" he begged.

"You're hurting yourself, Luke, I can't see you like this," Jack insisted watching him break down in tears.

"Please, I need this. I need this!" he fell into his brother's arms sobbing.

"Luke, I'm sorry."

"I'm going to in so much trouble," he sobbed, his breathing fast.

Jack bit his lip feeling incredibly bad. "Okay," he agreed. "I won't tell anyone for now."

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