Together We Fall

Chapter 24 | The Pieces of Jigsaw Puzzle Just Got Harder To Find

"Damn," Max uttered before he gave Luke a bag of ice. "You look ugly, Luke. What happened?"

"Matt came to my house. Seeking for revenge, I guess," Luke took the bag and put it on his cheek where one of the bruises was.

"Where is he now?" I asked.

Luke put down the bag and raised one of his eyebrows. "I'm sitting here, looking so fabulous with bruises on my face and you ask me about that asshole instead of my condition?"

"Why would I ask about your condition when you're obviously looking like shit already?" I retorted. "So, where is he?"

"He was unconscious just now, so I sent him off to the hospital," Luke sighed after rolling his eyes.

What the hell? Apparently, the fight was so intense and knowing Matt was defeated by Luke wasn't so surprising because as much as I hated to say this but Luke was an exprienced fighter. He'd been in a lot of fights. So, punching people was like picking a fight with a punchbag to him.

"Oh shit," Max muttered. "Was it that bad?"

"Pretty bad," Luke shrugged and arched his lips. "I had to drag him out to my front yard and left him there after calling the ambulance with his phone and brought along his keys before I came here."

"Guess, I have to be there and fill in the papers for him," My blonde friend took his brother's phone from Luke then walked towards the front door and turned around shortly to tell me where the first-aid kit was before he left.

Great. My friend had just abandoned me in his home alone with this bastard. But the brightest side of this situation was I got to ask him a lot of questions about his sudden get-together with Max but not with Tyler, the cause of Matt and his girlfriend's break-up, the girl who accused him last year, the reason why Ellie made him steal the suit she bought, the reason why he didn't show up at the school just now and more.

This was my chance to gather all the pieces of jigsaw puzzle and put them together to create a perfect picture of Luke's real life. His puzzle would just get bigger and bigger and far more harder to solve if I kept waiting for him to open up.

"I'll get the first-aid kit," I told him before I made myself a way to the kitchen where that thing was then walked back inside to treat Luke's cuts and bruises.

I sat next to him and offered him the palm of my hand for him to place his hand on. Frankly, I couldn't believe that I willingly wanted to do this but since he used to help me treat the cut at the corner of my lips, I guess it wouldn't be fair if I didn't do the same.

Luke smiled at me quietly then he put his hand on the palm of my hand. His skin was smooth and the size of his hand was bigger than mine. This was my very first time to hold his hand without bickering.

I gulped before I began to cleanse the blood on his fist with an absorbent cotton I found in the first-aid kit. As I brought his hand a little bit closer to my face and wiped all the blood attentively, I could feel Luke's eyes were staring at me.

I didn't know why but somehow, he made me feel nervous and my heart was pounding so hard like I just ran a thousand miles. My hands were slightly  trembling and I tried to keep myself together—mentally slapping myself over and over again to get to my senses.

"Get a grip, Lennox!" My inner voice screamed.

"I know you've been wanting to ask me why didn't I come to school just now, am I right?" Luke suddenly spoke.