gone ✧*｡ luke a.u.

10: may 15th 2011

LUKE

THURSDAY, MAY 15TH, 2011

They ended up calling Lube Mobile (a car help company whose title Luke tried his best not to laugh at), and waited another twenty minutes for the vehicle emergency guys to attach Ellie's car and tow it away.

Ellie let Luke do the talking. She wasn't happy about what had happened and he knew that, but he also knew it was the right thing to do. What would her parents have preferred: for Ellie and her brothers to have been stranded beside a ruined car for the rest of the night?

"Morgan's gonna kill me," Ellie said while they watched the servicemen check through the car. She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth.

"Your mum?" Luke asked. He'd forgotten her name, and it sounded odd to him, that Ellie didn't call her mother by title. He'd spent his whole life calling his mum, well, Mum. But after what he'd seen of Ellie and Morgan's relationship, he wasn't surprised.

Ellie just nodded. "We didn't tell her or anything," she said. He could tell -- by her fidgeting with the cuffs of her hoodie, biting her lip, fixing her hair -- that she was anxious. "She's gonna think we made off with the car to spite her. Like we'd be that stupid."

"Will she hurt you?" Luke murmured, his eyes on Ellie's face. She glanced away from him.

"I have to make sure she doesn't hurt Dan, or Ro," Ellie said, not meeting Luke's eyes. "I can't let her hurt them. Especially not Ro, he's only ten ..."

"But you don't have to take it all on yourself," Luke said. "You --"

"Okay, we're done." One of the servicemen -- Luke thought he said his name was Phil -- came over, his shirt almost blindingly fluorescent. "We'll give you a call in the next few days to let you know how things are going."

"Thanks," Luke said, shaking Phil's hand.

Ellie and Luke watched the tow truck drive away, back down the freeway. Something about it felt oddly final, like they were watching the sun set after a long day.

His mum came back over soon after. She had been making most of the arrangements, giving contact details to the servicemen and discussing repair costs. "Luke, I'm heading home," she said wearily, pushing hair out of her face. She smiled at Ellie. "Nice meeting you, love."

"You too," Ellie responded quietly, smiling back. "Thank you for . . . everything. I can pay the repairs --"

"No, don't worry about it," Liz cut in, shaking her head and overriding Ellie's protests. "Really. I've got it covered." She looked at Luke. "You're taking them home, right, Luke?" He could tell by the glint in her eyes that it wasn't a question.

"You don't have to --" Ellie protested again, but this time it was Luke who interrupted with a derisive snort.

"What else are you gonna do?" he said. "Walk?" Ellie opened her mouth again, but Luke already knew what she was going to say. "I'm not letting you catch a cab at this time, Ellie. Or a bus. Okay?"

She blew out a rush of air. "Fine," she muttered, resigned. Luke guessed she'd known even before she put up a fight that he'd be taking them home, but tried anyway.

Luke unlocked his -- well, Ben's -- car just as his mum drove off in hers. The dinner she'd been at was probably coming to a close now; it was likely she was just going to pick up Andy, Luke's dad, then come straight home.

"Luke's taking us home," he heard Ellie tell her brothers. "It'll just take ten minutes."

"What about Mum?" came Roman's small voice. "We don't have her car anymore."