Self-explanatory -- L.H.

Chapter 1 - An introduction

On a cold Saturday evening in early January, four friends sat in a diner. With lots of busy chatter surrounding him, one boy continued to stare out the window, with his eyes fixed on the light snow falling down. To an outsider, this young man could have come across as unhappy. No, Luke Hemmings wasn't necessarily unhappy, but maybe he was a little bit lost.

"Luke," Michael pushed back his bleached white hair back from his forehead. "Did you go home the entire two weeks of the holidays? I haven't seen you around at all."

"Mmhm," Luke hummed as confirmation. He stopped looking outside and focused on his friends. "Why, didn't you?"

"I came back here January 1st. Was it okay down there?" Michael looked at Luke with sympathy, probably because Luke didn't very much like his home situation.

"It was fine. A lot of relatives were in the house when I stayed with my mum. So, ehm, I guess that kept me from being annoyed," Luke chuckled. He felt uncomfortable talking about this. He'd been in a really good mood since he'd arrived back at college, and this didn't make him a lot happier.

Michael laughed understandingly. "And your dad?"

"What about him?" Luke avoided answering for a bit.

"How was it when you stayed with him?"

"Fine, the usual. He's busy and a bit distant," Luke said, suddenly sounding abrupt. He didn't want to talk about this anymore. It was kind of Michael to inform, but they really weren't even that close. Luke was more up for stupid, useless banter right now, than for deep conversations in the middle of a crowded diner.

"Okay . . ." Jonah, Luke's better friend spoke up, cutting off Michael's interrogation. Quickly, Elise started one of the pointless conversations Luke wanted to have.

/\/\/

"We're not going to stay for a long time, right?" Elise whined from the backseat.

"What, no! Why are you guys never up for a party?" Jonah stared back at Elise and Michael.

Jonah kept looking back at the two and that made Luke anxious. "Jonah, keep your eyes on the road," he sternly told his best friend.

"It's not that," Elise said, as Jonah tried to focus on the road again. After they ate at the diner, Jonah had smoothly convinced the other three to go check out a frat party. "But I really don't want to be tired when classes start again, just when I've finally caught up with my sleep deprivation, you know?"

Luke nodded along. He didn't really feel much for a party, either. But if Jonah wanted to, he was okay with checking it out for a little while. That's just how things were between Jonah and him. That's how they had been for quite a long time now, and Luke often really wished it would never change. Luke and Jonah, no matter how lame their ideas were, would always have a backing from each other. As long as it wasn't dangerous or hurtful, Jonah and Luke saw no harm in doing what the other wanted to do. Back in high school, there had even been periods of time where they were inseparable.

For example, Luke would be at home, trying to study, and Jonah would ring him up and tell him he would be picking Luke up in five minutes. After a stuttering from Luke's side, the call would end and Luke would grab a jacket and sneak out onto the front porch to wait for Jonah.

Usually Jonah would have heard something about a fight or a cool party from someone, and they would drive over there in his beat-up Volvo. Even more often, the rumors turned out to be far from true, and they would drive back home disappointed and bickering. Jonah was just in a continuous crave for adventure in their tiny hometown, to where he'd been forced to move in the summer before senior year. And Luke was okay with that. He understood that Jonah wanted to get some adventure. Jonah was as unsatisfied with his life as Luke was with his own, so Luke understood.

And even though Luke and Jonah weren't as inseparable as they had once been, the support was still there. "Come on," Luke finally said, as he pushed open his car door, looking back at Elise. "We'll just check it out for a little while." With a sigh, Elise got out of the car, being the last of the four of them.

/\/\/

"Maybe we can set something up for you tonight, Lukey? What do you think of the red haired slutty one over there?" Michael bumped his shoulder into Luke's, looking at him from the side. The friends were standing around the kitchen island of the huge frat house. Luke took a sip out of the cup filled with strong alcohol, that Jonah had just slid across the dark countertop.

"Would you leave him alone?" Elise scolded Michael, and Jonah laughed loudly at her outburst. She gave the two boys a strict look. "He's not getting a rebound with some random girl!"

"Yeah, guys, knock it off," Luke joined in, happy that Elise was defending him.

But Elise went on: "He'll find a nice, cute girl to have his rebound with, and he will fall for her, very decently."

"Hey!" Luke yelled. "I'm doing neither of those things! I don't want a rebound, okay?"

Jonah, Michael and even Elise laughed at Luke. "Oh, yeah you do buddy," Jonah chuckled, covering up his grin with his own cup. Luke sure as hell hoped that wasn't alcohol as well, since Jonah was driving. Luke's friends continued laughing about Luke's apparent naivety for a while, and Luke was annoyed.

When they still couldn't behave after minutes, Luke decided to go on his own stroll through the party. He didn't need them to join him. He would probably have more fun without them.

And Luke certainly had fun, alright. Jonah found him an hour later, bottle in hand, in a crowded room. It wasn't entirely clear if Luke was hitting on a girl, or swinging his arm around her only to tart her strong, aggressive looking, tattooed-all-over fuckbuddy, but Jonah just made sure to get Luke out of there.

The next morning, Sunday, Luke obviously couldn't remember which of the two things he had been doing, but it didn't really matter. All that mattered to him then was how quickly his headache would blow over.