✔ DRUNK words, SOBER thoughts ✖ hemmings au

41: Home is Wherever You Are

LUKE.

I wasn't suppose to come home. I was supposed to go through with the plan; I was supposed to stay missing for the sake of everyone in my life. I was a nuisance in the lives of the people I loved the most and it was killing me inside to know that. I was no longer wanted. The entire city of Percival Shores had dubbed me as a threat to society and it pained me knowing that it was the truth.

No one would miss me. No one would care if I suddenly jumped off the highest bridge or swallowed every pill in the house, washing it down with a bottle of whiskey. My mum's life would be better without me in it. I never should've been born because I was a walking reminder of the asshole my mother married and unfortunately loved at one terrible moment in her life.

Like father, like son.

A handful of shiny pebbles in my numb, cold hand, I started to throw them at the glass window on the second floor. My vision was blurred, my head spinning and I swore the window was moving from its placement directly above the garage. One by one, two by two, I tossed pebbles to grab the attention of the girl who was probably sleeping inside; the girl who I was terribly in love with but terribly needed to let go of.

When the glow of yellow light seeped through the windows and a silhouette emerged from behind the curtains, I felt my heart race. It thumped against my chest like a sucker punch to my rib cage. When the curtains were pushed to the side, and Ari's image materialized before me, my entire body shuddered and I had this insatiable need to jump into her arms. I couldn't see her face, see her reaction to discovering me standing on her driveway. While I couldn't physically see the expression on her face, I could feel it. I could feel something circulating all around me, like a pulsating orb barricading me inside of Ari's spectrum of emotions.

Suddenly, Ari disappeared, leaving only the sway of the curtains as the only evidence of her presence. I stepped forward, my eyes still locked on the window and my heart racing rapidly. She wanted nothing to do with me. I had ruined her heart, smashing it into tiny pieces and now Ari was broken too. I had stupidly hurt the girl I loved with all my heart, and I didn't even get to tell her that.

When I turned around to begin my trek back home in the frosty December air, I caught something in my line of vision. Standing in all her radiance, was Ari. She was beautiful beneath the moonlight; angelic in the way she stared at me, biting her bottom lip with a slight flare to her nostrils. I knew that expression: she was going to cry. I shook my head, hoping my action unaccompanied with vocals would tell her not to cry. I wasn't worth crying over-- but she did it anyway.

Like a surge of electricity igniting our souls and hearts alike, Ari ran forward, catapulting towards me like an astroid towards earth. Her long hair bounced behind her, tears trickling downward, and in one nimble movement, Ari flung her body straight into my outreached arms.

"Baby,"

"Lucas,"

Ari's arms clutched onto my neck, her legs wrapped around my waist as I clung onto her with such tightness that I could feel her own heart pound against my chest. Ari buried her face into my neck, crying softly as she continued to hold onto me.

"I'm sorry babe, I'm sorry," I cooed into her ear, stroking her back gently. Ari leaned back slightly to look at me with bloodshot eyes. I held her with one arm as I took the other to raise it towards her tear-streaked face. I cupped the side of her face, and grazed a thumb over the fresh tears.

"Don't ever leave me again," Ari whimpered. She punched my shoulder before professing, "I love you, you stupid boy."

"I love you more baby girl," I told her, easing my hand from her face to the back of her neck. I pulled her face closer to mine to rest my forehead against hers. "I'm sorry Ari. Seriously sorry. I am so in love with you and I need you so fùcking bad. Could you ever forgive me? Please, baby."