“Oh, it’s Luke. Hi Luke,” said someone I’d never seen before in my life. I looked at the pair walking towards me in confusion while the person that spoke before spoke again. “Ryan has never told me even one physical attribute about you. He goes on and on about how you’re hotter than the sun and forces greater than our mortal understanding decided to create the most perfect guy, but I still know you’re Luke.”
“You’ve seen pictures,” said the other person. A big and scary looking person.
“Even if I hadn’t! It’s the sad puppy dog face. Ryan’s been wearing the same one lately.” Hearing that made my own sad face intensify.
“Alright, alright,” said the scary person. “You might as well come inside.”
I had no idea what was going on, but these people seemed to know what they were doing, so I went into Ryan’s room with them.
* * *
Ryan
Being back in Lake Forest, the stupid place I was born that had neither lake nor forest, I could go to any number of places. I could visit friends or family who could comfort me and attempt to cheer me up. I went to school. In the summer. Because I was lame.
I couldn’t even get in. I’d finally made it to senior year, or just before it, didn’t I get my own key? Maybe when school actually started. For now, I just stood outside.
This is where my relationship with Luke started. Maybe inspiration would strike, a way to fix everything. The sun was beginning its descent to the other side of the world, but it was still a hot day out, so I went to a shady tree and sat under it, staring up the branches.
Luke and I pretended to be totes in love right there in the building next to me. Then we actually fell in love. We fought, we kissed, we did so many things right there. It was next to me and so far away at the same time, just like how everything concerning Luke seemed to be these days.
If I could go back, would I tell Luke we should wait? Be together later when I came back from Chicago. Probably not. Impatience alone would make me want to act; patience may be a virtue, but it was never one of mine. And maybe it was good this happened now. The longer we waited, the more time we’d get invested in each other without knowing we weren’t compatible like that.
Or maybe we were and we just didn’t have a chance to find out before the distance pulled us apart. Did it even matter now? Who cared what our original problem was when we just seemed so… we were together but it’s like we weren’t, we were a memory. A melancholy one. Sweet because thinking of Luke brought up some of the happiest times in my life but sad because it was over.
Then I would remember, oh yeah, it wasn’t over yet. And here I was, staring up at the dark brown branches of this tree, abundant leaves protecting me from the sun and I didn’t know what to do, so all I could do was wait. For something unknown. To be put out of my misery. For a plan to save the day.
I just wasn’t sure that last one was very likely.
Then again, patience was never my strong suit. Was I really just gonna sit here waiting for the end? I love Luke. I wanted Luke and Luke wanted me. Was that enough? We were on one side and then everything else was on the other side, telling us no, this isn’t going work, dragging us apart.
Eventually, we had to see the signs, look at the evidence, realize that we didn’t belong together. But whatever cosmic forces were pulling the strings, who made them the bosses? I just… If I wanted Luke, I had to fight for him. I didn’t sit around waiting for the end. I took action and figured out the best way to proceed. If there wasn’t a best way, I said screw it, and forged ahead with the craziest way to proceed.
I was going do that. I was going to fight for Luke. For me. For us.
Any second now. I was going to get up and fight.
Probably.
Maybe.
Any second now.
* * *
Luke
This was… weird wasn’t a strong enough word. I was in Ryan’s dorm room, but Ryan wasn’t here. Everybody else from Ryan’s Chicago life was though. His bestie and his roommate. The latter looked big and scary but was a very welcoming host. If there was one thing the Chamberses knew, it was manners, though we hadn’t been great about showing it lately, but still, this dude had manners.
Jeremey didn’t have regular stuff to offer me, so he gave me a protein bar and saline solution. I wasn’t going to drink the saline. He was just out of bottled water and didn’t have anything else and didn’t want to give me no beverage, so a liquid was close enough.
If he had looked anything like me, I would think Jeremey was my long-lost brother. Not because we looked alike but that was still Chambers 101. Doubted they offered that class here.
“You’re not really…. what Ryan said you were,” I told him. Then I felt a little self-conscious as the other person in the room with us watched me with a little smile. “And Ryan didn’t tell me what you are!” I made sure Morgan knew. “Because it’s a secret, I get that.”
“Do you?” Morgan asked. They didn’t seem mad.
“Not at all,” I admitted. Seriously. It was that thing where when you tried not to think of something, you focused only the thing you shouldn’t think about. I was curious about the secret.
