The Comedown | Luke Hemmings

Sixteen

Trigger Warning: Violence
Luke's Point of View

I headed into the garage right off of the kitchen to grab Anna and me beers from the fridge. Upon heading out, the door shut behind me and the automatic lights flickered on, exposing the fairly empty room in front of me.

I walked over to the fridge, swinging the door open and peering in at the options that sat on the shelf in front of me. It was loaded with alcohol.

I wasn't entirely sure what beer Anna liked so I decided to just go with bottles of Miller Lite that sat unopened in the six-pack towards the back of the shelf. Reaching in, I moved around a case of White Claw to get to the beer, being careful not to drop anything from within it.

It was a struggle to maneuver my hand to the back where the beer was so in the end I decided to just take the pack of White Claw out, setting it carefully on the floor before pulling out the entire six-pack.

I hummed to myself as I ripped open the box, pulling two bottles out and setting them on top of the fridge before taking my time to put everything else back in its place.

While closing the door, I sighed when I realized it wasn't closing all of the way and I knew I had to reopen it to maneuver everything once again since I clearly couldn't manage to do it right the first time.

All I wanted was to have a calm, fun night with this girl after the shit show the night before was. I had no intentions of fucking up this time. She had me in a chokehold and I was willing to do whatever I needed to do to make sure she was happy and comfortable with me.

I couldn't scare her away and she didn't need to know about all the fucked up aspects of me yet. I was desperately working on myself for my own sake, my friend's sake, and now her sake. It was too soon to risk her finding out about everything else which is why I felt a little uneasy knowing that Trevor would be coming tonight.

I had a gut feeling that he was pissed at me after I ignored all of his texts the night before about deliveries he needed me to do. I didn't have time to deal with all of that, Anna was my only concern and I was already feeling shitty enough about the entire situation.

Now that I knew she was sure about seeing where things go between us it was very clear to me that I needed to end my part in this business altogether— something he wouldn't be pleased about.

It wasn't good for me anymore, not like it ever was, but it was impacting everyone around me now.

Ashton had warned me that relapsing is common, and although he said it not to scare me, but to instead explain how I shouldn't feel bad if it were to happen, I refuse to fall back down that path.

I'm not doing that shit ever again and if Trevor is out of my life because of it, so be it.

This isn't who I want to be anymore.

After finally getting the fridge door to close, I grabbed both bottles from the top, casually popping the caps off one by one using the magnetic bottle opener that was stuck to the side of it.

I smiled, pleased with myself as I turned to make my way back inside.

As I approached the door I paused for a moment, hearing muffled yelling coming from the other side.