“Again, harsh.”
“Shut up. I mean that since you’re used to things going wrong, youlet go. It's a self-preservation technique, man. It's understandable. But right now it's not helpful.”
Luka fidgeted with the tag on his collar, rubbing his thumb over the engravings on it. He didn’t have the strength to take it off, even if he had ‘let go’ like August was saying. He didn’t know what that said about him;hopeless loser,maybe?
“He wouldn’t let me be helpful,” Luka finally said.
“Yeah, which was shitty. But do youreallythink it's a ‘blow up my otherwise perfect relationship’ level of shitty, though?” August shook their head. “You’re gonna fight sometimes, and you’re gonna have to learn to talk to each other about hard shit. I think you need to call Reno and explain to him just what he did.”
“I don’t know what to say to him.” Luka tugged on the tag, feeling helpless. “It’s not like he’s reached out to me either. I don’t know why I have to be the one to break the ice.”
“You can start with an ‘I’m sorry.’ That’s usually a pretty good place.” August walked back over to the couch and slumped down into it. “Don’t make that face at me, bro. I’m not saying this is all your fault. It’snotall your fault. Neither of you is fully in the wrong here, and placing the blame on you or him would be useless. I’m saying thatnowthat things have happened, you’re both being kind of fucking stupid.”
“He’s not.”
“Yeah, he is,” August bit back. “He owes you an apology, too. He messed up by not looping you into what was going on and not trusting you to deal with things with his help. Because of that, you both handled things like shit. Look, we can sit here all day and point fingers at you and him for different things, but that's not useful. He should have contacted you, even if it was just to make sure you were home safe.”
Luka frowned. “They probably thought it was best to give me space. I sort of asked for it. Now I don’t know if he’s giving me space or if we’re justover.”
“Ridiculous," August said. “One of you needs to call the other.”
Luka stopped playing with the guitar pick and leaned back against the couch’s armrest, tucking himself under a thin blanket just to feel covered. When it became apparent he wasn’t going to say anything else, August sighed and got back up.
“I’m getting a slush from Sonic. Text me what you want. You need to eat. When I get back, you better be upright again.”
“Sure,” Luka replied, barely cracking an eye open to watch as they left. As soon as the door closed and Luka heard August’s Jeep start up, he slid down the couch and curled into himself.
Why was it up to Luka to text Reno first?
He didn’t know if anyone had tried to reach him over social media; he’d deleted all his accounts after the second week of being back. He didn’t want to see updates on anything anymore. All the wild speculations, the rumors, the way they kept dragging him back into everything, even though he’d bowed out. He saw a photo of Reno’s sisters from a beach trip being shared around, and the lewd things people were saying about them made him feel so sick to his stomach that he deleted everything right then and there.
They had his phone number, anyway. It wasn’t like they couldn’t reach him. And, while Luka didn’t expect any of Reno’s friends to reach out to him after he’d basically walked out on Reno, he still flinched every time his phone vibrated.
Xavier
Heard you were back in town
Luka rubbed his eyes. What thefuckdid Xavier even want? He hadn’t thought about him in months, and they’d only slept together twice last winter.
Xavier
What do you want.
So cold. I was seeing if u were busy tonight. Situationship didn't exactly pan out.
Oh so you ghosted me for a new fling, then when that went wrong you texted me? Do I have that right?
Luka watched the ‘…’ pop up a few times before losing his patience.
Xavier
Lose my fucking number.
Then he blocked him. Luka felt sick to his stomach, mostly because when his phone buzzed, he’d dared to hope it was Reno texting him. To get Xavier instead was a cruel joke. Life was making fun of him; he just knew it.
He opened up his chat with Reno and stared at the name at the top.
Hikaru
