waitress // lrh

04 // pink satin

// luke //

It was his day off. Thankfully.

So someone tell him why Ashton, another clerk and good friend, rang him at seven in the morning to tell him that the girl he drove home yesterday had left her cell phone in the break room, and now he was driving all the way over there just to pick it up and give it to her.

Because Luke had no fucking idea.

Maybe it was an excuse to see Calum and their nice home again. But he knew it wasn't, because seeing other people's success just made him feel shittier about himself and what he little things he could afford.

He did want to see Calum, however, since the last time they had an actual conversation and spent time together was so long ago. Luke wasn't normally up for that type of stuff. Today, however, he felt he needed that distraction.

They had hung out for Calum's birthday with Michael, and Luke had invited Ashton as sort of a pity invite from work. He felt bad about it, but Ashton grew a lot on the other three that day, so it was a good thing.

They were all older than Luke, ranging from a couple of months to a year or so, but the slight age gap didn't mean they were more mature than him. Ashton and Calum had pretty sheltered lives their whole life, and while Michael had gotten into his fair share of tussles and had situations, he was still more childish than Luke.

Luke barely earned enough money to live off of. He was in the cheapest place he could afford, and after paying his rent each month, he didn't have really much of anything left for him.

He was zoning out again; something he was prone to doing while driving. Obviously, it wasn't a good thing, but he had never got into an accident. Maybe he ran a few red lights here and there, but it always worked out in the end.

Upon reaching the grand neighborhood, which had mansions with big properties any which way he looked, Luke felt a little self-conscious about his beat-up car sputtering along the nicely paved road, like a weed in a garden or something.

It took so long for some of these families to build their success, their wealth, their happy home life, and here came Luke, with his beaten-up car, traveling through the peaceful neighborhood, just trying to do something good to make himself feel better.

He had always envisioned he would be a dad, head of a big company, with a white picket fence yard, and a big house, just like this. However, what he hadn't taken into account at the age of nine was how broke his family was. Substantially, and emotionally.

Trying to ignore the vile thoughts running rampant through his mind, Luke noticed he was approaching the house. They all looked the same, honestly, but the only way he knew it was the Hood residence was by the little Australian flag hanging on the front of the house.

It was odd to know that somehow, Luke, Calum, Michael, and Ashton were all Australian, and only two of them had met in their hometown. Luke and Michael had moved when they were both sixteen with Luke's older brother Jack to Manhattan, where they all eventually found Calum and Ash. Luke didn't really know about Ash, but Calum had moved even earlier than the other two.

Pulling into the driveway this time, he slowly parked his car, pressing down the emergency brake; since the driveway had a bit of a slope.

Making sure Cate's cell phone was obvious in his hand, he stepped out of the car, walking hesitantly over to the front door. Damnit, it would've been smart to have called. Calum, at the very least. But here he was, ringing the doorbell with the entire Hood family somewhere inside the enormous residence, anyone being liable to open the door.