electric touch // luke patterson

making the bed - olivia rodrigo

GRACIE GREW UP WITH A GOOD relationship with her parents, specifically her mother. she was their first blood child since madeleine had been adopted, and that automatically made their bond strong. they didn't have to explain why she possibly looked different than her parents, because she didn't. while madeleine was always the "cuter" kid, gracie was at least the most talented. she first learned how to play piano when they visited tonia's parents house and the little blonde wandered to the parler where she found a grand piano.

since then, she begged her parents for lessons and was the child who the family ogled at during every get together. until madeleine discovered ice skating. then all the money that used to go to gracie for her lessons went to the slightly older girl to pay for her equipment, teams, and competitions.

that was fine, it's not like gracie was upset because she loved going to all of her sister's meets and competitions just as much as she did. plus, she saw the hockey boys.

and then jj came along and immediately killed their parents money on sports of all kinds. he tried soccer, then baseball, then football, then hockey, and finally lacrosse. that was the only sport he seemed to stick with. again, gracie was proud to be in a family of such talented kids and she was always supportive of him, even though his new sport alongside madeleine's meant that she had to quit lessons altogether instead of just lessen them.

she actually enjoyed teaching herself guitar, it made her feel smart. and it all payed off in the end because her parents put her into los feliz high school specifically for its' esteemed music program. she couldn't have been happier.

... until she got sick every morning she woke up for school because she knew she had to sing and play in front of her classmates. she started to skip the classes she used to cherish and do homework for fun for, instead laying in bed and vomiting nonstop. she in turn started to skip lunch, worrying too much that she'd throw up from it.

it was a never ending cycle throughout gracie's freshman year. it made her despise music. it made her want to quit and throw away every instrument she owned. it didn't help that she constantly compared herself to her peers, deeming herself bad beside them.

she told her mom some of this, mostly that she didn't want to focus so much on music. even though gracie believed the words she spoke, tonia's response was the reason why the girl became so hard on herself.

"good, that way you'll bring your grades up and get into a good college, like mads."

like mads.

she needed to be good. she needed to have amazing grades. she needed to push herself to be better than others so that her mom would see her talent and not immediately jump to compare it to her siblings.

gracie needed her mom to see her.

that's why hiding behind a bush in luke's backyard made her tears flow freely down her face.

"so, emily's his mom?" julie questioned with a sniffle. she was standing behind a bush similar to gracie's, but the boys were kneeling since it wouldn't cover their heads.

"yeah," alex answered, "yeah, luke comes here a lot." gracie stifled a sob at the sight of luke, the boy she'd grown to like so quickly, crying on his kitchen counter as he stared at his parents, the ones he left behind at seventeen.

"he thinks we don't know, but..." reggie glanced at the girls, pretending not to notice gracie and her tears, "we've been following him. all he does is just hang out like this and watch them." the blonde wiped her face, her hand resting over her mouth.

reggie continued, "they never really do anything though."

luke was hugging his knees, slowly moving his hand from cupping his cheek to rub against his leg as his eyes followed his mom. she was placing a chocolate cake down on the kitchen table, a deep frown lining her own face.