Grease • muke • part of the reality series•

Chapter One : Luke

The air was so thick and humid I felt as if I were choking on the dense, sticky July evening. A struggle not helped by the smell of cigarettes which perforated the air; cigarettes, caramel corn, sweat and grease.

The grease contributed by the Burger King at which I worked, the on my phone displaying that my shift had ended nearly thirty minutes prior.

My head sweating beneath my beanie, I fiddled with the buttons of my work shirt, the sleeves of the gray undershirt I'd worn underneath, guided by the wind, tickling the skin of my forearms.

It was my girlfriend that was supposed to be picking me up, but per usual, she was late.

I wouldn't mind usually, the relatively empty parking lot of the restaurant seemed like a peaceful place, however as of yesterday it was the home of the yearly carnival.

A collection of shitty games with cheap prizes, rides that looked like accidents waiting to happen, and motorhomes filled with Carnies.

My coworkers had all planned to meet up near the cotton candy both, however I declined their halfhearted invitation on the grounds that the place was crawling with germs, a thing people with cancer have to avoid.

But I didn't have cancer anymore. I used to, for years I was the kid with cancer. The bald kid. The kid who got pulled out of school because he was falling behind. The kid every kid in the grade awkwardly signed a card for, wishing them well even though they didn't care.

I was the kid that got a make a wish. The kid that got spoiled, the extra things I got justified to my siblings because "I was sick"

But now it was gone. As of yesterday I was cleared, completely cancer free, and in all honesty I didn't know how to feel.

I mean yeah I was happy. Of course I was, I'm not stupid, but as ignorant as it sounds I was scared to.

For most of my life I'd been that kid that had cancer, and now I was just Luke; the kid with no friends, no hobbies, no plans for college, I was the new guy at a new job, I felt like a fourth grader who had magically jumped to being eighteen.

Every normal teenage and adolescent milestone I'd missed. Now I was seventeen and about to spend the remainder of my summer preparing to be being thrown into the metaphorical deep end that was high school.

My mind racing and my heart quickening to match its pace, I squinted as a familiar pair of headlights blinded me, before a white jeep pulled to a stop in front of me.

Throwing the door open, I hastily climbed into the passenger seat and slammed the door closed behind me, taking a moment to steady my breathing before turning to Ani.

Ani was nineteen, Hawaiian, really pretty and always smelled like coconut shampoo. We'd met in the emergency room during one of my blood pouring out of my face episodes. She was on the other side of a curtain, she'd slit her wrist.

I had no idea why someone like Ani would slit her wrist until she'd confessed to me that she was gay and she was fairly certain her parents were onto her and would most definitely throw her out.

I don't know how the girl in the bed next to me telling me she was gay enlightened me to label the feelings I'd been suppressing most of my life, but she had, and so I admitted to myself that I was in fact also gay, a split second before I'd confided in her.

Two days later we came up with the revolutionary plan to be each other's cover up, and thirteen months later, we were still going strong.

"You good?" Ani asked, turning to look at me.