Two Broken Wings

Chapter 7

Tw: blood

Luke's POV

I was up on stage, about to play in front of a sold out crowed, but when I went to play my gutair, no sound came out. When I tried to sing, no words came out. I couldn't make music anymore. It was my worst fear come to life.

I wake up, beads of sweat dripping from my forehead. I've been having this nightmare since I was three years old. Not being able to play and make music is my worst fear. Music is my passion, it's my soul. Without out it, who am I?

I get out of my chair and walk out of my room. The wall clock says it's 2:27 am. I creep down the hall way and go to the kitchen for a late night snack.

-memory

Me and Liam creep down the hall late at night for a midnight snack.

We are trying to stifle our laughter so we don't wake our parents. I scoop him up and sit him on the counter.

"What kind of icecream do you want little man?" I ask opening the fridge.

"A little of everything!" He giggles.

"Anything for you buds." I say getting out all the icecream as he continues to giggle. Suddenly his giggling turns into agressive caughing.

I drop everything and go to him.

"Hey, it's okay." I say as he coughs argessivly. Whenever he starts coughing like this, we have to make sure he stays calm. It would be really bad if he was freaking out and coughing uncontrollably. "Just cough it all out, you're okay." I say.

But then blood spews out of his mouth. More and more, blood is all over him and the counter as he keeps coughing.

I don't know what else to do but get my parents. I rush to their room and burst through the door and they wake up immediately.

"Luke, it's in the middle of the-" my dad starts but him and my mom both freeze when they hear Liam coughing. They spring out of bed and rush to the kitchen and over Liam.

They took him to the hospital, still coughing and gagging on blood.

I stared at the kitchen. There was icecream on the floor and blood dripping from the counter, dripping into the melted Rocky Road.

This is all my fault. I made him laugh, his weak lungs couldn't handle it. It's all my fault.

__

It was all my fault. I'm the reason he died. He was only three years old. I stumble back from the kitchen, feeling every part of my body shaking. I stumble into the corner table into the living room and I hear a crash.

I jump up and look at the ground to see a vase broken in two pieces.

It wasn't the first time that vase broke though.

-memory

I hold two year old Liam in my arms and fly him around the room while he pretends to be an airplane.

"Faster Lukey!" He giggles.

So I go faster for him. I'd give him the world if I could. Anything for the best little brother I could ever ask for.

As I start to spin around, I bump into the corner table and the base falls over and it breaks.

Liam starts laughing.

"It's funny until Mom kills me." I say, setting Liam down. The vase was only broken in two pieces. I can easily glue it back together and she's never even know. "It's fine though, I can fix it."

"Can I help?" He asks exidedliy.

"Yeah of course." I smile.

-

I whip tears from my eyes and head back to my room. I close the door and plop down at my desk, wishing I could have done more for him.

Reggie's POV

It is late at night and I can't sleep. I can't stop thinking about Hadely. Before I was able to make myself believe that she wasn't really dead, that she did leave with Mom, but today was different.

I can't stop thinking about her, that day when I came home and found her lying on her bed, dead.

She is gone, and it's all my fault. I wasn't there for here, I left her alone just like our mom and now she's gone and it's my fault.

I roll over and look out the window at all the stars. I wish I could be one of those stars, a million miles away from here. Away from everything. Away from life.

**
It's the next morning, a Saturday. Unlike most kids, I hate the weekends. I hate spending time at home because it just gives more time for my dad to tell at me for every little thing.

I hope my dad is still sleeping and I get out of bed, get dressed, and head downstairs to find some breakfast. But as I turn the corner my dad is talking on the phone. I turn around to sneak back upstairs, but he looks up and spots me before I can.

"Reginald, someone's on the phone asking for you." He says holding out the phone.

I walk forward and take the phone and out it to my ear.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Reg it's me Luke." Luke says. "Do you want to come down to the studio today to finish it up and maybe have our first official band practice?"

"Um, yeah just let me ask real quick." I say. I pull the phone away from my ear and look up at my dad. "Can-"

"I don't care what you do, just don't be here. I have people coming over, I don't want to see- or hear- you all weekend." He says.

"Y-yeah okay." I nod. I out the phone back to my ear. "I'm on my way." I say.

"Great, I'll see you there." Luke says.

I hang up the phone and head out of the house, thankful to have an excuse to not be home.

Luke's POV

"Mom, I'm going to Bobby's!" I shout from my room grabbing my journal and putting it in my bag. I grabbed my gutair and head towards the door.

"Luke, you can't go out today." My mom says. I sigh and turn around.

"Why not?" I ask.

"Because Aunt Kathy is coming over today." She says. "Besides you don't need to always be hanging out with your friends."

"We're working on the studio." I say. "We're gonna be a band. I wouldn't expect you to understand." I turn for the door again but she keeps talking.

"Luke, before you do anything with that gutair you need to bring your grades up."

"I'm not even failing any classes." I protest. "My lowest grade is a 78 in math." I don't know why she's so obsessed with me being successful in school. I don't need all this nonsense they're teaching. As soon as I turn eighteen, I'm dropping out of school and putting my focus fully on music.

"That's because of the tutoring sessions." My mom says. "How are you gonna have time to go to those if your wasting time making music."

"It's not a waste of time!" I say raising my voice in anger.

"Don't take that tone with me Lucas." She says.

"Whatever." I groan. "I'm leaving." I say and I head out the door, but of course she always has to have the last word.

"You're wasting your life away with this hobby of yours!" She calls. "I just want what's best-"

I slam the door cutting off her words and I hop on my bike and start riding to Bobby's house. I'm gonna prove it to her, I'm gonna prove that out band will be great. We will legends.

I'm gonna show her that this dream, it's not just a hobby, and it's worth chasing, and I am gonna catch it or die trying.