Selcouth (l.h.) (bwwm)

12

Luke woke up the next morning uneasy. He had hoped that the events of yesterday were a nightmare, but that wasn't the case. If his mind had created such a disturbing dream, it would have been alarming, but he would have been fine with questioning his mental status, if that meant the atrocity Gabriana went through wouldn't have happened in real life.

The Aussie couldn't believe that this happened to the girl he had grown to love so much. It was clear that she had experienced a lot of darkness in her young life, but he never imagined anything of the sort. He couldn't think of anything more horrible.

Luke felt awful for his girlfriend, but he knew she wouldn't want to hear that. Gabriana didn't take well to sympathy. He understood why she felt this way. From what he could gather, her mother made her feel weak and helpless. However, he wished she wasn't so stubborn. As soon as he heard the news, all he wanted to do was hold her in his arms and comfort her, protecting her from everything that caused her pain. That's all he ever wanted to do, but Gabriana's pride denied her from ever confiding in or accepting any consolation.

Luke was looking forward to seeing Gabriana that day. The multitude of text responses saying that she was 'fine' didn't do much to reassure him. After the stunt her mother pulled, he didn't see any way that the girl wasn't at least a little bit shaken. He figured it might be easier to know if she was telling the truth if he saw her in person, though she did put on a very good brave face. Even if she did lie about her feelings again, he just wanted to hug her and at least make an attempt at making her feel better.

The boy pulled back the curtain of his bunk and made his way out of it's confines. After placing his feet on the cold ground, the aroma of eggs and bacon filled his nose, drawing him to the kitchen. Reaching his destination, he saw Liz at the stove. He walked closer to her, wrapping his arms around her from the side and kissing her cheek.

"Morning, darling. Are you alright?"

Luke nodded into her shoulder. "I love you, mum."

Liz turned away from the stove and hugged her son back. "I love you too. What's all this about?"

"Nothing, just...thank you for being you."

Liz smiled and rubbed his back. "Are you sure you're okay?" Luke was always respectful and showed that he loved her, but the show of such affection out of seemingly no where was a bit surprising.

Luke nodded. He was fine. It was times like this that he was especially grateful for his mother. After seeing the horrible way that Gloria hurt and betrayed Gabriana, he couldn't help but think of how different his life would have turned out if he didn't have Liz, let alone if he had a mother like Gloria. The thought of that made him shudder. Though she was sometimes strict, quite protective, and clearly judgmental about the girls that he dated, Liz was always a good mother. He only pulled away when he heard 'aweing' from behind him, and turned around to see Ashton and Michael.

"Isn't that sweet." Michael mocked.

Ashton giggled as Luke gave them both the finger, while Liz wasn't looking of course. Not a minute later, Calum joined them and they sat down and waited for breakfast.

"Did you guys see that thing...you know, about Gab?" Michael questioned, referring to Gabriana's incident that was all over the internet at that point.

Luke's breathing hitched and the other two boys nodded solemnly.

Ashton responded first, "Fucking awful. I can't believe her mum was the one to reveal it."

"Yeah it's terrible." Calum agreed, "Luke, did you...know?"

The boy shook his head. "Not before last night."

"Have you talked to her?"

Luke shrugged. "Kind of."

"How do you 'kind of' talk to someone?"

"You know Gab, she doesn't like to talk about...well, anything."

"What are you lot talking about?" Liz asked while putting a plate in front of each boy. This caused everyone to look at the youngest of the four. None of them thought it was their place to reveal the already well-known secret to one more person.

Grimacing, Luke spoke up, "I'll, uh, tell you later."

After a mostly silent breakfast, the group arrived at the hotel that they'd be staying in before the show the following night. Luke knew that he Divine Soul girls were already there and what room they were staying in, thanks to Tinashe, Cymphonique, and Yasmin, who he was getting information from since his girlfriend wasn't the most transparent. All Luke wanted to do was run inside and find Gabriana. Waiting to see her almost felt physically painful, he didn't know what he expected to happen when they did see each other, or if that would even make anything better, but he couldn't take the reoccurring thought of her being sad and alone.

As soon as the bus stopped, Luke went to exit the vehicle and rush inside the building, but the disapproving look from Liz stopped him.

"Young man, were you expecting to rush off without helping unload any of the luggage? Some of which being yours."

"Well-I-no I just wanted to..."

Before he could finish, Liz pointed him to the direction of his bandmates and some crew members unloading the bus, causing him to sigh and force himself to walk over and help them. After about twenty minutes, everything they needed was off the bus and on the luggage carts the hotel provided. Luke figured this was his time to escape, but just like his previous attempt, his mother stopped him again.

"Luke, where are you going? We haven't even checked in yet."

"I, uh, just wanted to get a look at where we're staying."

"More like you wanted to get a look at Gabriana." Michael butted in smirking. There were many instances that Luke wanted to punch his friends, but this was possibly the closest he had ever come to actually doing it.

Liz rolled her eyes, "honestly, Luke, I don't like this. Does this girl have you this wrapped around her finger that you can't be away from her for one day?"

The rest of the group moved away from the two of them, noticing how much more serious the conversation had become.

"It's not like that, mum."

"Then what is it?"

Luke ran his hand through his hair and sighed. "Something happened."

"What? Are you alright?"

"Not to me...to Gabriana."

Liz furrowed her eyebrows, clearly confused.

Luke sighed again, not knowing how to approach the subject. "She was-she was...raped."

"What?" Liz asked frantically, "last night?"

"No, as a kid."

"Oh my God. By whom?"

"She...hasn't really said anything about it. But she was in foster care for a while so I'm guessing it was there."

"Foster care? Does she not have parents?"

"Her dad's out of the picture and her mum's insane. She's the one who leaked that this happened, otherwise I wouldn't have known."

Liz put her hand on her chest. "Christ..." She looked down before quickly lifting her gaze back up, as if in realization. "Go. Go to her, I'll let you into the room when you come back."

Luke quickly thanked her before running in to find his girlfriend.

********
so...I'm alive. sorry it took so long and that this chapter is kind of uneventful, I've been having such bad writer's block, but it'll pick up I swear🥺