Photograph | l.h.

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

Luke

It had been a couple of days since she told him that she was leaving. They'd exchange glances in school, but no words were said. There was no more tutoring, Mrs. Conley had called it off since her family would soon be leaving. The thought of Lillian actually leaving made Luke sick to his stomach.

He moped around his house and school - everybody was noticing his mood swings, but he didn't care. All he cared about was Lillian.

Band practices had been meeting on the daily, simply because the boys had nothing else to do after school. Calum and Luke were working on a song called Amnesia, which somewhat described Luke's current situation.

"I remember the day you told me you were leaving, I remember the makeup running down your face." He sang quietly to himself as he tried to think of more lyrics.

"And the dreams you left behind you didn't need them, like every single wish we ever made," Calum sang, grinning. "Write it down. This song is coming together great."

Luke wrote down the lyrics, deciding that he had enough writing for the day. He had been writing with Calum for the past hour - the two of them definitely needed a break.

"Luke?" Calum asked after a minute of silence.

Luke looked at him curiosly, wondering what he could possibly want. He wasn't in the best mood, and it was obvious that Cal could see that.

"Are you okay?" He asked the question that Luke saw coming, with a small frown across his face. He looked worried. Luke just shrugged.

"I guess,"

"Come on dude, we can all see that you're depressed. We're all here for you." Calum explained, even though Luke already knew these things.

Michael and Ashton joined the two back in the room, holding four bags of McDonald's food. The two went on a food run because they all were starving, but Luke knew he wouldn't be eating. All he ever felt anymore was sadness - he was so upset that he could barely do anything anymore. For days on end he had barely slept or ate. Food would just make him sick to his stomach.

"I'm not hungry." Luke sighed.

"Eat," Ashton demanded. "You haven't ate in what? Two days? That isn't healthy."

Without saying anything, Luke knew that his friend was right. He was hungry, but his stomach wasn't able to hold down food. But, Luke knew he wasn't going to get away with this. Ashton simply wouldn't let him. So, he grabbed a burger and a fry from one of the bags, and began to chow down.

To his surprise, eating actually made him feel a little bit better. He still felt like shit, but he didn't feel as horrible as before.

"There you go," Michael said. "You feeling any better?"

Shrugging again, Luke didn't really feel like talking. He knew he did have to talk about this eventually, though.

"I mean, I guess. Eating doesn't excuse the fact that Lillian is leaving."

"We know, Luke," Calum sighed. "We just want you to feel better. It's not good seeing you like this."

"I know."

"Do you wanna talk about it?" Michael asked.

"Not really."

"Okay, we understand. You'll open up when you're ready." Ashton said, patting Luke on his shoulder.

"Yeah, I will. I just need some time."

"And we understand that." Michael said, shoving his friend playfully.