Queer as Muke

1.4.3 Sam's Not Dead

"Why can't I get my glutes to look like that?" Corey asks Calum as they sit in their favourite corner of the steam room at the gym. Favourite because it gives the best views of people coming in, going out and everyone everywhere in between.

"Maybe you're not properly visualising the muscle group?"

"Oh I'm visualising it alright...on my face!"

Calum's still sniggering when Michael arrives, sitting down next to them with a humph, "Why me? Why not his mother? Why not you?" he asks, nudging Corey in the thigh.

"Because I can't decide what to wear in the morning. Who in their right mind would give me power of life and death?" Corey pulls a face, looking to Calum for support.

"I couldn't do it either."

"I don't even like Sam."

"Oh come on. You do so!"

"Not enough to be responsible for his fucking life!"

"Well he must have wanted you for a reason."

"Maybe he's secretly in love with you..." offers Calum.

"What? I love you. I'm comatose. Kill me?" Michael rubs his head, cursing Sam with burdening him with this thing.

"It's not over yet Michael, he could still wake up..."

~~~

"Isaac? No. Way!"

"Then don't believe me!" Luke rolls over on his bed to look at Chloe.

"But...I thought you were in love with that Michael guy?"

"Me and Isaac, that's not love Clo, that's just fucking."

She giggles, "Oh and I thought it was detention!"

"Luke!" Liz's voice carries up the corridor.

"I gotta go," Chloe rolls off Luke's bed, grabbing her school bag as she goes, "Hi Mrs Hemmings, bye Mrs Hemmings."

"Bye Chloe. Didn't you have art club this afternoon?" Looking at her watch, Liz is sure it's much earlier than usual that Luke's home on a Tuesday.

"I quit art club."

"You love art club?!"

"I'm not interested."

Liz can't believe her ears, "Since when?! Just last week..."

"You don't know everything about me. A week's like a long time. Things can change in a week." Luke's dismissive tone makes her stall and change tack.

"Well, I was coming to let you know I'm going to Nike Town but you're probably not interested in that either..."

Luke's lips twitch, he knows she's got him, "When?"

"Now, and you can drive."

~~~

Calum stands at the corner of the counter watching his Mum at work. She doesn't know he's there yet and he doesn't say anything; he just watches her moving around, constantly on the go, doing her thing, being herself, and realises how lucky he is.

When she looks up and sees him watching she gives a little wave before coming over. "What?" she asks, looking at the expression on his face.

"Nothing, just that thing you do with your hands..." he demonstrates for her.

"Oh, I do that huh?!"

"Yeah."

"Well, you should know!"

Calum thinks back to what Sam's mum said about loving someone and knowing someone being two seperate things and he knows he's so lucky to have a Mum who both loves him to the ends of the earth and knows him so well, just like he knows her. He'd never thought about it before but it fills him with love to find out how fucking blessed he really is.

"People wake up from coma's sweetheart." Joy holds his hand, knowing without him saying anything that he's thinking about Sam, her warmth travelling through to him, and she gives it a reassuring squeeze.

"Yeah, sure."

"Your Uncle Dave, how long was he in his?"

Calum thinks back, "Nine days?"

"Ten! And I thought I'd lost him," she points a finger at him, "I couldn't tell your grandmother it was AIDS at the time because she couldn't have dealt with it. I wanted to hear all about the white light and the tunnel and did Aunt Theresa get to heaven. First words out of his mouth were 'did I miss the Golden Globes?'!!!" Joy laughs her big belly laugh. "So, how is he?"

"Same. No change. I'm going to go back a little later, I thought I'd take something to his Mum."

Joy's eyes prick with tears and she emerges from behind the counter to hold both Calum's cheeks in her hands, kissing him on one soundly.

"What was that for?"

Waving his question off, unable to speak, she grabs a takeaway box and starts filling it up before starting on a second, smaller one, "Lemon bars, they're great today," she tells him with a crack in her voice.

~~~

"You're a good driver."

"Better than you!" Luke grins at his mum and then laughs at her reaction.

"Okay, slow down, this is a bit too fast."

"This is normal! And you just said I was a good driver! What?"

Liz is smiling at him, "Nothing. It's just nice...you laughed. It's been a while..."

Luke takes the opportunity of his Mum being in a good mood to press his luck, "You know maybe you could get another car and let me have this for school?"

"Oh just hand it over huh? I was twenty before I had a car! I was going out with Jay McCloughland, he could have been your father..."

Luke frowns, "That's stupid. Then I wouldn't be me..."

"He was my first real boyfriend."

"I'd be totally someone else..."

"It was with him that I learned what a kiss really was..." Liz smiles to herself, waiting for Luke's reaction.

"Gross!!! Don't tell me! I don't want to know!"

"Well now you do!" They look at each other, laughing.

Looking at Luke's hand, seeing the nightclub symbol still inprinted, Liz takes her courage by the scruff of its neck, "So...do you have a boyfriend Luke?"

The question lays there between them, suspended in mid air, as Luke takes a breath in. Is this why she asked him to drive, so she could trap him in the car and ask questions? He glances out of the side window, looking for a way out.

"You can tell me. I promise you I won't tell your father," Liz assures him, just praying that he opens up to her. She doesn't know whether she's done the right thing or not but she has to know what's going on with her son, her little boy.

"I don't," Luke tells her emphatically. It's true, he doesn't.

"Then who's Michael?" she asks quietly, not put off in the slightest.

Turning to her, Luke's face is furious, he knows she's somehow found out. But how much does she know? And how the hell does she know his name? Screeching the car to a sudden halt he bolts out of the door to the sounds of his mother calling his name and runs off down the street as fast as he can, in case she decides to drive after him.