Toxic Lips [l.h]

f i f t y e i g h t

I furrow my brow. Luke has barely spoken of his sister in the time I've known him, but I can see that there is something inside him connected to her--a secret.

His breathing is fast and irregular as he tugs at the roots of his hair. I've never seen him like this before, and it scares me.

"Luke, calm down," I say, stepping forward and putting a hand on his arm. "Talk to me, Luke."

He stares at me, his eyes filled with sadness and worry.

"I need to show you something."

"Okay," i nod.

He takes my hand and tugs me through the parking lot. At first I think he's going to take me inside the restaurant, but he walks right past it. 

We step onto a concrete panel on the side of the harbour. Luke continues to pull me farther and farther away from where we came. He suddenly stops, bringing me to a halt. 

"Sit," he says and I do so as he does the same.

The concrete is slightly wet from the dew, but I don't mind.

Luke's jaw is clenched tight as he stares at the water. 

"Why are we so close to the water?" I ask him.

"Water calms me down."

He still holds my hands tightly in his.

"She called me, maybe an hour ago," he says. "I don't know how, or...or--"

"Luke if I'm going to understand any of this I'm going to need you to explain some things."

He nods, looking over at me. "I know." He reaches into his pocket, pulling out something and handing it to me. 

It's a photograph.

In it is a family of four, all smiling widely. A tall man stands proudly, with dark hair and green eyes. He smiles, a single dimple carving into his cheek, his hand on the woman's shoulder. She leans into him, her short blonde hair falling in curls around her face. Her eyes are the exact same colour as Luke's.

Her hand rests on a little girl's shoulder. The girl smiles widely, her two front teeth missing. Her light blonde hair spills over her shoulders, her green eyes squinting with her smile.

My eyes then move to the little boy, and my heart melts. 

His blonde hair is long and unruly, his grin the widest of them all. He stands in front of the man, leaning slightly on the little girl, prominent dimples in his plump cheeks. 

"This is your family," I breathe.

"Was. Was my family."

I look up at Luke as he takes a deep breath. 

"My father is in rehab. He was an alcoholic when he was a teenager, but after he met my mother he stopped. He was clean for a long time, until I was nineteen. He got addicted to drugs, then. He was fighting with my mother alot too, I remember. I was at The University Of Sydney, getting my degree. It wasn't too far from where we lived, so I was home alot. I was... I was extremely close to my mother. I found out my father was addicted when I went home one weekend, and my mother greeted me at the door, crying. She was destroyed by it. She loved my father, so much. There wasn't a second that she didn't. And he loved her, too. Maybe too much. He hated being addicted to drugs, and he tried to stop...for her. He knew it was killing her to see him spend all their saving to get more, but he did it anyway. The last time I ever saw my mother was Christmas Eve, five years ago. I knew something was off that year, by the way everyone was acting. Emma, my sister, didn't make fun of me for working towards a degree in maths, which she did every time I came home from uni. My mother didn't make as much food as she normally did, and my father wasn't even there. When I asked where he was, my mother told me he admitted himself to the rehabilitation institute outside of town. He was tired of bringing the family down by being addicted, and he wanted to stop it... That was the worst night of my life, that Christmas Eve."