𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐒𝐇𝐄 𝐆𝐎𝐄𝐒 • Luke Dunphy

xxvi . the storm

Tiana sat on the Dunphy's couch, scrolling through holiday photos that Belle had sent her. Luke was taking selfies with a selfie stick, which Tiana tried hard to ignore, and Alex and her friend were studying.

Phil walked into the kitchen, causing the kids to all stifle back laughs. That morning, there was a clown in i didn't at the neighbourhood block party. Phil was the clown. Phil was terrified of clowns. He was pulled out of the hall of mirrors on a stretcher. That's all you need to know.

"No! Oh my God, the computer froze!" Alex suddenly yelled, making Tiana jump slightly and finally focus on the people in front of her.

"Daddy to the rescue," Phil said.

"You know what dad, I think it's okay, I just need to do a hard reset."

Phil picked the laptop up off the table and placed it down on the island. "No, I don't think it's a reset issue, I think the surge projector just blew. I am going to plug this bad boy directly into the wall, and..."

A sudden flash of lightning made the computer turn off. "Oh my God, you fried my computer, my work is gone!"

"Honey, calm down, these hard drives are designed to withstand temperatures of up- Oh my God, it's on fire!"

Phil remembered that Jay and Gloria had a generator, so they'd probably have power despite the outage. Everyone headed there, and Tiana was quiet the whole way. Was the weather gonna be this bad in New York? She hated storms.

After another disaster (aka Phil trying to open a pickle jar, ending in Alex's computer braking in half), Tiana just wanted to relax. She sat on the couch, hoping for the storm to soon pass over.

"Ay, there's a puddle!" Gloria yelled.

"Stella or Joe," Jay said, "I'll see you in a couple of hours."

"No, no, no, no, look. It's a leak because it's coming through the wall."

"Most likely your gutter's backed up," Phil said, consider it handled. Luke, to the gutters!"

"You guys can't go out there," Tiana insisted, "It's dangerous. You'll get struck by lightning and die!"

Luke placed his hand on Tiana's head, lowering her back down to the position she'd just jumped up from. "Just because you're scared of storms, doesn't meant we are," he said, "I'll be fine."

Cam, Mitchell and Lily soon arrived, too, with a party of eight year old girl's. That was Tiana's queue to leave the living room, so she moved to the kitchen. It was dark, but there was still a bit of light coming from the foyer.

Finally, Phil came back in, supporting a disorientated Luke. "I told you you'd get struck by lightning," Tiana joked, but she didn't hear a laugh from Luke, "Shit, are you okay?"

"Not really."

Claire fixed up an ice pack for Luke, and he sat next to Tiana on the couch. "What happened?"

Luke shrugged. "I don't know, I collapsed."

"Oh my God, maybe you really did get hit by lightning."

Tiana turned slightly, so that her legs were no on the couch. Luke took the opportunity to place his head down on them, he couldn't sit up for much longer.

"You know, maybe I should take your advice more often. I wouldn't be hurt if I just stayed inside."

"That wasn't advice, Luke," Tiana said, "I just have an irrational fear of storms."

"Your irrational fears are useful sometimes."

"Hey, it's not my fears. Maybe I'm just useful. Ever think of that?"

"Thought of it, realised it was wrong," Luke joked. Even hurt, he was still joking. Tiana ran her fingers through his hair. "That's nice."

"It is?"

"Mhm."

Luke eventually fell asleep in Tiana's lap, which seemed impossible with the screaming of eight year old's in the background.

As she began to drift off herself, she was awoken by the sound of her phone chiming. Before checking the text, she checked to see if Luke was still asleep. He was.

private messages

MOM
Home ASAP please.

TIANA
is in an hour okay?

MOM
Fine.

Why was she being nice? Of course, she wasn't perky, but by Tiana's standards, she was nicer than usual. She's usually call her yelling and asking where she was despite having been told a million times.

Shit.

"Honey, sit down," Tiana's father said as she walked into the house. Was he... sober? "Me and your mom have been making some tough decisions lately, but we've found a house, and we're moving to New York."

Tiana sat in silence. "You don't seem shocked," her mother said.

"I'm not. Why would I be shocked that you guys are, yet again, ruining my life. Fuck you. I'll start packing."

"Great. We leave a week after your prom."

"At least I won't miss that," she said sarcastically.

With what she'd said to her parents, she was expecting a besting, but she didn't get one. All she got was upset. It was official now. She'd have to tell Bell, Daniel, Manny, Luke. She'd tell them after prom, though. She wouldn't wanna ruin it.

this is kind of a filler chapter (except the end part) but i promise we're almost there)