Lakewood✔️

Secrets can destroy you if you let them

I heard pounding on my front door, waking the whole house. I sleepily got out of bed when dad went and answered it. Then I heard shouting.

"Where is she?"

"Luka, calm down," dad said.

"Where's Malia? I need to see her!"

I slowly walked down the steps and rubbed my eyes, "Luka, what's going on?" I yawned.

He pushed past dad and made his way over to me. Once I was a little more awake, I noticed he had been crying.

"Luka?"

"They lied to me, Malia."

"Who?"

"My parents. You were right."

"Luka, you're not making any sense. I was right about what?"

"That summer, when my mom came along with me. Malia, my mom was cheating on my dad."

"What?"

"And the worst part is it was with Henry. That fucking asshole!"

"Luka, look at me. Tell me what happened," I said in a calm voice.

"It seems the summer before it started, she met him. They hit it off then started sneaking behind my dad's back. But he wasn't completely innocent either. It seems he was carrying on with Maria around the same time. Malia, what am I going to do?" He asked me with a pleading look in his eyes.

"Luka, I'm so sorry. I didn't want you to get hurt. I'm sorry you found out like this," I said, comforting him.

He started crying, and I pulled him to me as he held me tight. I rubbed his head as he cried. I hated the fact that he found out, and I hated the fact that our parents hid it all these years. It wasn't fair to any of us.

After getting Luka calmed down, we sat on the couch, and my parents let him stay. Dad was going to have a talk with Joe in the morning about all of this.

"You okay?" I asked him.

He sighed, "Yeah."

"Luka, I am sorry. I never wanted you to get hurt. You didn't deserve this."

"I know." He grabbed my hand and interlocked our fingers. "Niko is just as confused as I am. Malia, I yelled at him just because he was there. He didn't deserve screamed at."

"I'm sure Niko will understand."

"It's just that I was so angry about it. I put my fist threw a wall."

"Damn Rocky, couldn't you at least punched a pillow or something?" He looked at me, "What?"

"This isn't funny."

"I know, but if you don't laugh, you cry, and I prefer to laugh, or I'll be a cleaning mess," I shrugged.

He looked at me, "Is that why you joke around a lot?"

"It's a coping mechanism I developed after I got diagnosed, helped with my stress. When it gets too much, that's when I do what I did when you guys found me in the bathroom," I said to him. He looked at me concerned as I added, "At least I was clean." He opened his mouth as I said, "Oh, lightened up. It's not the first time it has happened. A bit embarrassing but not the first time."

"I just hated seeing you like that. You didn't deserve what we did to you, and I still feel horrible to this day for it."

"Luka, you guys didn't know. Plus, I have a penchant for getting myself into situations I should learn to stay out of," I said to him.