what do we do now? [muke af]

four

four

Michael was slammed against the brick wall by an older, much more built-up man. "We don't like your kind," he spat.

"Right, cool. I really couldn't care less, though." Michael gave him a smile, his eyes twinkling like the night stars outside. "Look, I need to pee. Can you, just, like—?"

His body was shoved once more into the hard wall, the wind being knocked from his lungs as a knee was jabbed into his stomach. "You fags are ruining my night."

That was a word that broke down Michael's lover. That was a word that Michael can remember Luke losing feeling over. It was a word that was used when Michael came out to his parents. It was a word that was used when the kids used to beat up Luke on the playground. It was a word that was shouted on the streets when Michael and Luke held hands. It was a word that should not be used.

"That's cute," he managed to murmur out.

Michael wasn't like these guys: he couldn't fight. He was in that locked up cell because he networked money, that was much different than the man holding his throat. The man holding his throat killed his entire family.

That's a lot different.

But, here they are.

Michael was dropped to the floor as another kick was shattered into his ribs. The dirty blonde stood up, still covering his face. He didn't know how to fight and he surely didn't want to learn in the hallway at five in the morning.

A punch and some slur was thrown at him once more and Michael figured it was going to be a long night.

Luke woke up in a rush as an unfamiliar sound filled his ears. His paranoid brain filled up with thoughts—it could be an old gang member ready to kill Luke, it could be a robber, it could be the police, it could be a trap.

It was his phone.

His phone was ringing at a quarter to six and he knew it wasn't going to be anything good.

Luke stood up fast, blood rushing to his head and causing him to see three of everything. The dark room suddenly seemed so long as he tried to find his cell phone at the desk across from his empty bed.

He picked it up on the last ring, swallowing a lump in his throat and accepting the call.

It was the prison, as expected. The automated message told him everything he needed to know about the caller, asking if he would accept or decline the call.

Luke was already pissed at Michael. Any reason for calling him at the early hours wouldn't be good.

"Hey, Honey," Michael's voice echoed through the radiowaves.

"Oh, God. Michael, please don't do this."

Michael kind of felt like a child in trouble at school. He had to call his parents and tell them the reason for his black eye. "It wasn't me, I swear."

"What did you do?" Luke forgot about his sleeping daughter across the hall. He needed Michael to know the anger he felt.

"So, get this. I was just doing a casual stroll to the toilets to take a piss, right? And this dude came up to me and just started a fight."

"Don't you dare lie to me."

Michael rolled his eyes, causing the officer sitting across from him to crack a smile before he fell back to his strong persona. Michael spun in the plastic chair as his fingers twirled the phone wire. "Baby, I'm not."

Luke sat down at the desk chair, resting his elbow on the wooden desk. "What's the punishment?"

"Why aren't you worried about my health? I have a huge ass bruise on my side and a black eye. Dude, I was bleeding for like half an hour."

"Michael." His tone was one even Michael didn't want to mess around with.

The older boy itched the skin on his arms as if the ink covering the once pale skin was bothering him. "It'll be another month."

"Another month?"

"I'm not coming home next week."

Luke put his phone down, resting his head in his hands as he tried not to break out into tears. He took deep breaths, he counted to ten. He wiped at his eyes and curled up his knees. "Okay," he finally spoke.

"Okay?"

"What the fuck do you want me to say, Michael?"

There were two things off about the words falling from Luke's mouth. One, Luke rarely swore. Two, he continued to call Michael by his actual name—no nick names, no pet names.

Michael knew Luke well. Far too well.

"I don't know."

"I'm upset."

"I didn't do anything!" Michael defended. His voice rose and he spoke with his hands, even though Luke couldn't see him. "I'm literally being punished for fucking you in the ass."

Luke rubbed his eyes. "Whatever, I want to go back to bed."

"I'm sorry, Lukey. I really didn't mean to."

"You never mean to," Luke clenched his teeth, "You didn't mean to knock me up, you didn't mean to do shit against our government, you didn't mean to get caught. I'm used to it." The crack in his mind was being shown from the crack in his voice.

"Princess—."

"No, Michael. Stop screwing up." He pushed the phone from his ear, pressing the bright red End button. He threw his phone to the ground as he buried his head in his hands, his entire body shaking.

Luke wasn't much of a crier, especially since Michael left. Luke stayed strong, he stayed alive. He hated being so weak.

He felt like the world was simply throwing the worst at him. Luke just wanted a break.