start a fight [muke af]

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xxxiii

Luke sat down for dinner with his parents on a warm May evening. He had the weekend off, which meant his parents were in full blown bonding mode with their youngest son. His mother placed a home cooked meal in front of the two men, sitting down to enjoy it herself.

Ms. Hemmings enjoyed cooking, so Luke never felt guilty about her feeding him his three meals. If she were to despise even going near the kitchen, then it'd be a different story.

"Lukey, how's work?" His mother asked, refusing to eat until Luke was completely served. She needed her baby to be healthy, even if he was a legal adult.

"Fine," he responded, feeling as if he has had this exact conversation hundreds of times.

"Can you believe it's been a year since you applied?" She sighed, "It feels like just yesterday."

"I have to go through re-evaluation with Ashton again in a few weeks." He shrugged, not caring much. "There's something I've been meaning to talk to you about."

"Is it about that boy you told GMa about?" Ms. Hemmings asked, raising her eyebrows as she glanced up at the tall blonde.

Luke rolled his eyes, annoyed about his grandmother. Of course his mother would be the first to know. "Yeah, Mom, it's about him."

"Is it the same boy that broke your pretty nose?"

"Only fractured," Luke pointed out. He looked down at his meal, pushing around the macaroni and cheese until it didn't touch the crusted chicken breasts anymore. "But, like, I don't know. I think I really like him," he admitted, a blush radiating the skin on his cheeks.

"Of all the people in this world, you chose a criminal." She turned her head, elbowing her husband, "Get involved."

"He's an adult, Elizabeth, let him make his own choices," Luke's father bitterly responded.

Luke gestured towards his father, "See! Dad thinks I'm an adult."

"I do your laundry, I make your bed, you have no bills. You're not an adult."

"Mom, just hear me out." Luke put down his fork, his fingers feeling over the edge of his plate. "He wasn't, like, in a gang or compulsively stealing cars. It was just one bad night that got him in trouble."

"What is he even in there for?"

Luke bit his lip, murmuring a quick, "Murder."

"You better not have just said murder." She waited a few seconds, hoping Luke would correct her. "Oh, my God."

"It was his father!" He tried to defend.

"Oh, my God!" She said louder, "He killed his father!"

Luke licked his dry lips, trying to figure out a way to convince them. He wished he was like his older brothers, they always knew what to say to get their parents wrapped around their finger. "Pause, pause, wait. His father was, like, not a good dude. He was protecting his mother. Don't you want that loyalty in the family?"

"I do not want a felon in our family, Lucas."

"Mom," he groaned, rolling his eyes again. "He's a good guy, I swear."

She put down her own fork, already losing her own appetite. Luke knew that when his mother started to talk with her hands, it was bad shit. "Let's just reassess for a second, yeah? Let's say it was just one bad day where things got too heated, I could maybe understand that. But, this was the guy that bruised your cheekbones twice then broke your nose."

"It was a fracture!"

"That's the same thing!"

Luke hated being yelled at, he really did. He wanted to run up to his room and hide in bed until the sun rose. But, he wanted to do this. He wanted to do this for Michael.

He understood how stupid he was being, he truly did. Luke knew that maybe Michael doesn't even feel anything for him. Maybe Michael has a true love waiting for him at home. Luke doesn't care though.

At that very moment, he knew all he wanted was Michael. That was it, he knew it like the back of his hand, like the tip of his tongue.

"I need you to stop yelling at me," he said with a shaky breath, "Like Dad said, I am an adult."

"Luke, you cannot date a murderer."

The blonde wanted to laugh, he never thought he'd ever hear those words from anyone's mouth. "I know Michael really well, I sit through every session with the psychologist, I know how to calm him down. I feel although I really know inside his mind," Luke said, "It's like those two years of psychology class really paid off."

"That's great, that's fine, but what if one day he attacks you. It's just you two and there's no one to save you. He could kill you, he could actually kill you." Luke has never seen such concern fill up his mother's eyes. "I will not let that happen."

"With that logic, I should just be locked up in the basement for the rest of my life. Any human being can kill, Mom."

"That's not true! Normal humans know not to kill."

Luke sighed, knowing this entire conversation was far from over. "I'm going to do what I want to do. I'm not thirteen anymore, you can literally not stop me."

"I never want that man inside of my house."

Luke leant his elbows on the table, his hands rubbing over his stubble. "Okay, it was time to move out anyways."

"That's not what I said—."

"I'm going to be with Michael, and you can't stop me." Luke doesn't raise his voice outside of work, no matter how angry he was. He has spoken firmly with his mother before, there are many things they didn't agree on. There's something inside of him that made him want to cry, though.

He was choosing Michael over his mother.