Luke’s POV
I looked down at my feet, all the moving traffic beneath me, if I jumped now would anybody care? I put my hand over my cheek, over the imprint of Mum’s hand, I deserved that slap, I deserved so much more than that. I stepped down from the wall of the bridge and sat on the old deserted bridge. I couldn’t do this anymore, I couldn’t hurt Jai; it was killing me. Last night when I went round and told Tom what I’d done to Jai he’d been really happy with me. I got up and slowly trudged home, well to Toms, I knew I wasn’t welcome at my house. I walked through the house and walked into the small damp room that was now mine, I collapsed into the tatty mattress with springs sticking out and pulled the itchy ratty blanket over myself.
I thought about what I’d lost. I’d lost my relationship with my brother, I’d lost my mother’s trust and respect and I’d lost a caring loving family. I cried and I cried; I couldn’t do anything to undo this mistake.
I didn’t move from that mattress all night and the whole of the next day. I finally dragged myself up the next evening and checked my texts; I had loads from Mum and missed calls. I knew she’d go mental at me so I ignored them; I should just stay away from my family from now on, I’d done enough to hurt them. I used the toilet and then crawled back into my bed, I stayed in there for another night, I so bored but I didn’t want to go out, just in case I ran into anyone.
The next morning I dragged myself out of bed, I had a shower and changed into some borrowed clothes and then settled on the TV for the day. In the evening I realised I was hungry, really hungry. I opened the fridge not expecting much because Jake always got take-out. Surprisingly I found some bacon in the fridge, it didn’t look to fresh but I guess it wouldn’t hurt. I fried the bacon but I was still hungry, I looked through the cupboards some more and found some ham, I stuffed three slices in my mouth before I realised it was mouldy, ew. Wait that bacon tasted funny too, I thought it was just because I hadn’t cooked it that well, oh my god it was really mouldy.
I went and sat down on the sofa hoping I wouldn’t get sick from it, I lay there for a while, I heard Jake come home with some people but they went into his room, he didn’t sound drunk surprisingly. I started to get a really bad stomach ache and felt like I was going to be sick any minute; I dragged myself to the bathroom and sat by the toilet. I threw up to the point where I was just retching because nothing was coming out. I just sat by the toilet, my vision started to go a bit black.
“LUKE” I heard Jake shout and footsteps coming towards me, I tensed my body up, Jake got violent when he was stoned. The door flung open and he grabbed me by the arm and dragged me to my room, he threw me down on the bed and started kicking me all over.
“YOU USELESS PIECE OF SHIT” He shouted as he carried on kicking me. He finally gave up and left the room. I just lay there; I was so sore and felt so ill.
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*THREE DAYS LATER*
“Ow” I groaned as I held my stomach, Jake had been in here a lot, he knew I was ill and he thought he was going to have to call an ambulance which meant they’d see the drugs in the house and he’d go to jail. He was getting really stressed because of this and kept regularly beating me up.
“Jake he need to go to the hospital, he could die” Someone said from the doorway, I couldn’t look to see who it was; my eyes were to swollen from all the punches.
“No, he’ll be fine” Jake snapped
“What if he does die, the police will be all over us”
“We can’t take him to the hospital, they’ll want details”
“Well you can’t leave him here”
“Get the car” Jake replied.
Someone came into my room and tied my arms and legs up, they then wrapped me in the vomit covered blanket I’d been using. I felt two people tie me up and take me through the house. I was thrown into the back of a van. The van started and drove off, we didn’t go very far before the van stopped and the doors opened, I was picked up again and then thrown onto the cold hard ground, I felt the concrete scrape the skin off the left side of my face. The van then drove off. I opened my eyes a little bit and saw Beau’s car in front of me, they’d taken my home and I was currently lying tied up on my driveway. I lay there for what felt like hours. It had been raining so the ground was all wet; it just made me really cold.
Finally a car drew up; someone got out and swore loudly,
“Luke?” Mum asked
“Mum” I desperately groaned. The front door opened and Mum shouted for Beau to come here. I heard more footsteps and a strong pair of arms lifted me up and carried me into the house.
“Jai move, I need the sofa” Mum said, I heard Jai groan and some shuffling and then I was placed on the sofa.
“Beau get me a knife please” Mum asked him, I tensed my whole body up expecting my punishment for hurting Jai, but instead Mum started to cut the rope binding my hands and ankles.
I started to feel sick and as much as I tried not to do it, I threw up all over myself and the sofa.
“Beau can you take him into the shower please he’s absolutely filthy” Mum said peeling the vomit covered blanket off me.
I was carried into the bathtub and Beau took all my filthy clothes off until I was just in my undies.
“Fuck, who did this to you Luke?” He asked, meaning the bruises, I didn’t say anything. Beau used the showerhead to wash all the dirt and sick off me.
He helped me out of the bath and I sat on the floor with a warm fluffy towel wrapped around me. Beau walked over to the door and locked it. He came and sat down next to me.
“Luke I need to ask you something and you need to be honest with me” Beau said firmly, I just sat there leaning against the wall. I had the towel under my nose and was sat breathing in the familiar scent of washing powder, it made me relax and feel better.
“Is Jake making you hurt Jai?” He asked me, this shocked me, what did he know.
“Luke I know if he is you can’t tell anyone, just tell me and I won’t tell” I sat there in silence.
“Please Luke, you’re my brother, I love you and care about you. I don’t want to see you or Jai get hurt.”
I ignored him so he just sighed and threw me some clean underwear; he turned around as I put it on. I started to feel sick again, there was no toilet in our bathroom so I shakily stood up and vomited in the sink,
“Luke sit down” Beau told me once he noticed I was starting to get dizzy, I ignored him as black spots covered my vision, I fell down hitting my head on the sink as I fell.
*******************
I slowly opened my eyes expecting to be at Jakes, but I was laying on something soft, someone was gently wiping my face and I could smell my home. My eyes focused on what was happening, Mum was using a flannel to wipe blood off my face,
“Mum, I’m sorry for what I did to Jai” She didn’t even react, she just put the flannel in the bowl of warm water she had, picked it up and left the room, closing the door behind her. I tried to get up off the sofa but my body was too stiff and sore. I was only in my undies on the sofa so I could see all the bruises covering my body.
I stood up but immediately fell to the floor clutching my stomach.
“Mum” I cried out, tears were forming in my eyes because the pain was so bad
The door opened and Mum rushed in kneeling down beside me
“Where does it hurt?” She asked, I just clutched my stomach, she stayed with me holding my hand until the pain had gone, she then helped me back onto the sofa and shoved a thermometer in my mouth. She then took it out and looked at it.
“It’s down” She said probably thinking out loud. She turned the fan off and put a thin sheet over me and then left again.
The rest of the day Mum kept coming in to check my temperature, in the evening it got really high and I could tell she was really worried.
“Luke why are you like this, why are you so ill?” She asked with a hint of panic in her voice.
“I don’t know” I croaked wiping sweat off my forehead
There was a stabbing pain in my chest making it harder and harder to breathe.
Mum left the room and came back with a cold ice pack; she wrapped it in a wet flannel and put on my forehead. She was doing everything she could to keep my temperature down, she had all the windows in the house open and there were all the fans in the house on me.
“Beau stay with him, I’m calling a doctor” Mum said leaving the room.
Beau’s POV
Mum left the room and I was left just staring at Luke, I was really worried about him, he looked like he was going to die. I watched his chest rise up and down, he was taking long laboured breaths; he didn’t look like he could do this much longer. I sat on the edge of the sofa holding the ice pack on his head, he looked really scared,
“Beau, can you tell Jai I’m sorry, it is Jake making me do it” He wheezed
“Tell him yourself Luke, you’re going to be fine” I smiled at him not believing a word.
“Please don’t tell anyone about Jake, not until I’m dead” Luke chocked out
“Luke you’re not going to die, you’re going to get better and then we’ll tell Jake where to stick it and you can tell Mum and Jai and I know they’ll forgive you”
Luke’s breathing started to get really bad
“MUM CALL AN AMBULANCE” I screamed, I looked over at Luke, his eyes were closed and he was really pale, he was taking really little breaths really far apart, they were getting slower and slower.
Mum ran in,
“I called it, what’s wr-” She stopped talking when she saw Luke had stopped breathing all together.
She dropped the phone and ran over to him; she started to do CPR on him,
“WAIT OUTSIDE FOR THE AMBULANCE” She shouted, tears were falling from her eyes and her breathing was really fast
“Come on Luke” I heard her sob before I went outside.
The ambulance finally came, I ran over to the two men had said he wasn’t breathing, they grabbed some equipment from the back of the ambulance and then ran into the house, when I got there they were trying to shock Luke back to life, it was really scary. I slowly walked away from the scene, it was horrible. I slipped into Luke and Jai’s room, Jai was asleep in his bed. I sat on the end of the bed listening to what was going on; actually I didn’t want to hear. The door opened and Mum burst in, tears were streaming down her face,
“Come on we’re going to the hospital with him” Mum said
“Is he breathing?” I asked nervously, Mum nodded. I followed Mum into the ambulance, one of the paramedics was driving and the other was pumping air down a tube in Luke’s throat.
**********************
“Gina Brooks?” A doctor asked stepping out of a room and into the waiting area where we were.
“He’s stable now, he stopped breathing because his ribs were broken and out of place, they were gradually poking into his lungs and they eventually punctured, he’s got a bit of a temperature and has been vomiting, do you know the cause of it?” He asked
“Well he wasn’t been home for a few days and earlier I found him lying on the driveway, I don’t have a clue how he got there but he was really ill and all beaten up” Mum said
“Right, we’ll do a blood test to find out what it is, you can see him now” The doctor said.
We got up and I followed Mum into the room Luke was in, I tried not to react too much to what I saw so Luke wouldn’t get worried. He was lying back on a big stack of pillows, he was really pale and had an oxygen mask on; I could see under it his lips had a bluish tinge. Luke was taking really deep breaths; each deep heavy breath he took shook his whole body.
Mum sat down in a seat next to his bed and held his hand,
“Mum” Luke said in-between deep breaths
“Yes babe”
“I didn’t mean to hurt Jai” He said having to pause to get his breath back
“If you didn’t mean it why did you do it?” Mum asked him, Luke looked like he was going to blurt everything out, if he did Mum would go to the police and Jakes mates would try and kill Luke.
“Mum can I speak to Luke alone?” I asked quickly, stopping Luke from saying anything.
“Okay, I need to go back and make sure Jai’s okay, I’ll be here in the morning, and then you can come home the day after” Mum said hugging Luke, she kissed his forehead and left the room. Luke wiped away his tears,
“I don’t want to do it anymore, Mum hates me, she’s only being nice because I’m in hospital” He breathed, he had to stop to get his breath back three times.
“Luke she doesn’t hate you, she’s just a bit pissed because you broke Jai’s ankle but she’ll forgive you, especially when this is all over and you can tell her why” I reassured him
“It’s not going to be all over, I have to do this, and then I’ll have to do more, Jake won’t let me leave” He said blinking away the tears that threatened to fall.
“Luke he will if you want it enough, he let me go” I told him
“What?” He asked shocked
I took a deep breath and told Luke everything, I told him how I was in that gang, how I did drugs and felt on top of the world, I told him about how much getting into the gang meant to me and then how I tried everything to leave. I told him about all the jobs Jake had me do and told him how I got away.
When I had finished I looked at Luke. He was looking at me differently, it was respect.
Luke’s POV
Wow, just wow. I never knew Beau was that interesting.
“Can you help me leave too?” I asked
“Of course I can, I don’t want to see my little brother in trouble. Anyway, tell me about you and the gang”
“Well you know I met them at a party, thought drugs were the best and wanted to be in the gang so I earnt his respect, he put me in a room with this other guy and we both had knives, and well you know, that’s how I ended up in hospital the first time with all those stab wounds. I got a key so I went to his a lot, I ran up a tab from all the drugs I took so I started stealing money from Mum, I feel really bad I know how hard she works to feed us but he started saying stuff like bring me a 100 or I’ll break your nose or something so I had too. Two weeks ago he said he saw Jai and his ex-girlfriend on a date so I have to do everything to keep them apart, that’s why I broke his nose and ankle, I didn’t mean it; I just panicked because he wouldn’t stay away. I have a month to get Georgia back with Jake, if I do Jake’s going to pay off all my debt but if I fail he’s going to kill me” I told him, I felt so much better after telling someone
“Don’t worry Luke, I know what to do” Beau said, it made me relax for the first time in ages because I knew he was looking out for me and cared. “We’ll sort it out in the morning, just get some sleep” Beau said standing up and getting his jacket.
“Beau?” I called out not liking how little and pathetic I sounded
“Yeah?” He asked and turned round
“Can you stay with me tonight please?” I asked, I was getting really paranoid that maybe somehow Jake had heard me telling Beau
“Of course” He said sitting back down.
I tried to give Beau one of my pillows but I didn’t have the energy
“No Luke I don’t need one” He said taking a blanket out from under the bed
I got comfy in my bed and I heard Beau sorting chairs out to sleep on. This oxygen mask was so uncomfortable and I felt so short of breath, this was horrible. I finally sorted myself out.
“Luke It’s going to be okay you know” Beau said reassuring me
“Thanks Beau, you’re the best brother” I mumbled before falling into a dreamless sleep.