bulletproof - calm ot4

11- baby, what's it like to be alone?

TRIGGER WARNING: f-slur

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I'm finding out in the hardest way, the consequence of every mistake I've ever made. Baby, what's it like to be alone? I don't wanna know. I don't wanna know.

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Luke stares blankly at the ceiling above him, covers pulled up to his chin. The sunlight peaks through his lightly closed curtains and he knows he should be at school, but he can't bring himself to move.

His body aches from last night's beating, his wrists burn from last night's cuts. He wants to sleep, but he can't close his eyes.

Luke knows his boys will be worried, but he can't bring himself to go to school. He sent them a quick text: sick. He deals with enough shi t at home, he can't handle school, too.

The pale boy can still hear his parents screaming downstairs. Usually their fights don't last more than a night, but sometimes there are exceptions. Sometimes they'll take their anger out on Luke multiple times within a single twenty four hour period.

Those days are the ones where Luke seriously considers ending it all. Usually, he doesn't feel guilty about his suicidal thoughts, but this time, the pale boy feels a slight sense of shame. This time, he has someone who cares about him. Someone to live for.

This time, he has three someones who care about him. Three someones to live for.

As he hears loud footsteps up the stairs, he thinks of his three someones. As his door is thrown open so hard the knob makes a hole in the wall, he thinks of his three someones. As his father strips his comforter off of him, grabs him by the collar and throws him to the floor, Luke thinks of his three someones.

His father's foot hits his back repeatedly, right over old bruises, and he bites his tongue. He tries to stay strong, to keep his focus on his boyfriends and not his pain, but eventually, he succumbs to tears.

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"I think I'm gonna go check on Luke," Michael decides as he walks out of school holding Ashton's hand. "Calum can drive you guys to my apartment after you pick his stuff up. Is that okay?"

"Yeah," Ashton agrees, squeezing Michael's hand. "Do you want us to come with you?"

"No, it's okay," Michael brushes Ashton's offer off. "If he's up to it I'll bring him over. If not I'll...I don't know, make him soup or something. That's what you do for sick people, right?"

Ashton laughs, shaking his head fondly at Michael. "You're so lucky you have me to take of you."

"Shut up, I'm definitely the pants of this relationship."

Rolling his eyes but grinning, Ashton presses a quick kiss to Michael's lips. Feeling his heart flutter in ways he'll never understand, Michael kisses back gently--something he never thought he would be capable of doing.

"I really like you, you know that?" Ashton asks, his cheeks hinted red.

Michael grins like an idiot. "I know, babe."

-

Michael pulls his truck into Luke's driveway. He's never been to Luke's house before--he found the address in the school directory--so he isn't even sure if it's the right one, but he has an uneasy feeling that it is. The paint on the front of the house is feeling, the grass is brown and the curtains are all drawn shut. Michael knows that Luke's parents aren't very good parents, so it seems to make sense that if they don't take care of their own child, they wouldn't take care of their house either.