𝐑𝐀𝐑𝐄; Luke Patterson

eleven

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"See you tomorrow!" I say back to Cam as I hop off of his car.

I fumble inside of my bag to find my keys and finally open the door, waving back to Cam one last time before closing the door behind me. Thankfully, he didn't insist on yesterday's subject so it was a peaceful day at school. I did not cross paths with either the boys or Julie the whole day and, to be honest, I was glad. I had a normal school day in what felt like forever.

"Ah!" I scream once I turn around and see three boys seating in my kitchen, playing around with my fruit. "Please stop doing that." I plead with them, leaving my school bag on the ground.

"Sorry, Lei." Alex says with a cheeky smile.

Luke wasn't with them but instead a boy with skater clothes and shoulder-length black hair. I look at Alex and raise my eyebrow. If my suspicion was right, that is Willie, the boy that Alex has a crush on.

"Oh.. uh this- this is Willie." Alex stutters and blushes furiously. I try to cover up my giggle but I completely fail and in return I receive a death glare from Alex.

"I'm Lorelei but please call me Lei." I introduce myself, extending my hand to him. "What are you doing here?" I intrude after shaking Willie's hand.

"We came to introduce Willie but also-" Alex starts but Reggie interrupts him.

"We want to know what happened between you and Luke yesterday." Reggie admitted, walking around the house looking at every detail. "He came home with this.. I don't know.. love look." He explained while opening random drawers in the kitchen.

"I do not want to talk about this." I sigh and walk to seat at the counter, taking an apple from the fruit basket. "Where is Luke by the way?"

"Oh! He needed to talk with Julie or something." Reggie answered innocently, receiving a kick from Alex. "That hurt!" He complained and moved onto snooping around in the living room.

The jealously started building up but before I could start stressing over it, I felt Alex's comforting hand on my shoulder.

"Don't overthink it." He advised. I smiled up at him and a loud gasp was heard all over the house.

"I know this girl!" Reggie almost yelled from the living room.

Alex, Willie and I walk to the living room and hover around Reggie who was holding a picture frame with one of my mom's high school photos.

"That's my mom." I clarify grabbing the picture with a sad smile. This was one of the only three pictures that we had in the house. All the photos with my dad were taken down after he died and locked up in the attic, leaving only a picture of my mom in her senior year and two pictures of me as a little kid.

"That's Amaia. She was a freshman when we were seniors." Alex commented. It's so weird to think about the fact that they went to school with my mom. "Wasn't she dating your brother?" Alex asks Reggie.

"Yeah. They were dating for like two years before we died." Reggie agreed and took the picture away from me.

"That's weird. My mom and my dad started dating in middle school." I said. Reggie started looking between me and the picture frame that he had in his hands and that's when it hit me. Oh shit! "What's your brother's name?" I ask with wide eyes.

"Jayce." He simply spoke. The tension was palpable and it just grew when a loud gasp left my lips and a single tear stroll down my face.

"I-" I tried to form a sentence but the knot in my throat grew tighter and the words just didn't come out. I felt dizzy and my sight went blurry, a feeling of sickness almost made me vomit. My dad was a sensitive topic for me even though it had been years since he passed. So Reggie is my uncle?

"Where is he?" Reggie asked excitedly. Maybe because he was hopeful to reencounter his brother after 25 years. How do I tell him he died? "I tried searching for him but the internet isn't as simple as it looks." He chuckled. Just then he noticed my foggy eyes and shaking hands and his smile fell. A sob escaped my lips and I felt Alex coming closer as if to give me some comfort.

"He died." The sentence left my lips as a bare whisper and I wasn't even sure if they would be able to hear it.

Reggie stumbled back a few steps and I saw something I never saw in that boy's face. Sadness. How awful is it to come back from the dead and find out that your little brother has a daughter and that he died. I was already used to the idea of his death, I mean, he died ten years ago. I buried him and said my goodbyes, I had time to heal and get used to the void that he left in my heart.

"It was ten years ago." I add getting closer to him. He looks up at me and as if telepathically we open our arms and wrap each other in a tight hug. As always, his warmth felt like home but today, I knew he was home.

We console each other for a few minutes before getting interrupted by a breathy Luke poofing into the living room.

"What's going on?" He asks and looks around the room, his gaze lingering for a bit too long on Reggie's arm that was wrapped around my shoulders protectively. "I was feeling this intense feeling of sickness and.. and then it was sadness." He tried to explain with his eyes still fixated on Reggie and I's closeness.

"Lorelei is Reggie's niece." Alex said nonchalantly.

"What?"

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AN A little bit of a shorter chapter but I hope you still liked it (:
I don't know why but y'all were all saying that Lorelei was Alex's niece even though I really thought that I was being super oblivious that she was Reggie's niece lmao