Imagination || L.H.

Chapter 35

"Luke," I try to say as he storms out of the hospital. His steps don't even falter as he strides across the parking lot. "Luke, stop!" I shout.

Now he does stop and I jog towards him, breathing hard. His hands are clenched into tight fists at his side as he looks down at me. "Are you going to try to yell at me too? Is this when you finally leave me like everyone else does?"

"Luke, no," I say, tears gathering in my eyes as I laugh bitterly. "Of course not. I need you just stop for a second. This is the exact same shit that got you in this situation in the first place. And I know they hurt you. God, I know. But this isn't the way to leave things with them. Luke, they're your family."

He throws his arms out to the side as if in challenge. "Isn't this the exact same thing you did with Blake and Piper? They were the closest people to you, and when they hurt you, you yelled at them and walked out. Am I right?" He takes a step forward so that we're chest to chest, anger burning brightly in his blue eyes. "Don't act like you're any better than I am."

I recoil as if he'd slapped me. Something snapping in me, I let go of the ire building up. Reaching into my pocket, I throw Mali's keys at him, which he catches with a startled expression. "Drive yourself home, asshole," I spit, stalking across the parking lot. "Maybe you'll crash that one too."

I don't look back as I cross the empty lot in the darkness, feeling like I need to scream, cry and throw up simultaneously. The Luke that I grew up with was thoughtful, shy and sweet. Something happened to him when he found out about Celeste and Jack going behind his back, something I can't even begin to imagine. It left him paranoid, insecure and bitter. It forced him to cover up his pain because no one else knew what he did. Those three months between when he found out and when Celeste finally broke up with him took everything he loved, everything he was, and ripped it from him.

While I can't pretend to understand that, I do know how it feels to have two of the closest people in your life betray you. I thought that we had that in common. He knows that pain and yet he threw it in my face so carelessly.

I'd rather walk the fifteen miles home than get in a car with him right now.

*

It's past midnight when I silently creep back in my house, shutting the door carefully behind me. My parents are already asleep, all of the lights turned off. I slide into my room, exchanging my clothes for pajamas. Images of Luke's broken, bitter expression in the parking lot keep flashing in front of my eyes but I block them out. When he's ready to stop acting like a dick to everyone, he can come to talk to me. Until then, I'm not going to seek him out. He doesn't deserve to be the object of my every thought.

I glance at the bed, but memories of Luke hovering over me while he kissed a slow line down my neck overwhelm me. Biting my lip so fiercely that I taste blood, I rip the comforter from the mattress and spread it out on my floor, throwing a pillow down beside it. Worries of whether he got home safely or not threaten to drag me down, but I take a few of the allergy relief pills that always put me to sleep and I'm out cold.

*

My mom lets me sleep until eleven, when she gently shake me awake. "Kat? Wake up, honey, there's someone here to see you." If she finds it weird that I'm sleeping on the ground, she doesn't remark on it.

I groan, pulling my pillow over my face. "If it's Luke, tell him to go away," I say, my voice muffled by the pillow.

I can hear the frown in her voice when she responds, "It's not Luke."

Slowly, I lower the pillow. "Okay, fine."

Nodding, my mom leaves, a familiar figure sliding in my room before the door closes. Calum looks absolutely terrible. Dark purple bags hang under his eyes as a show of how little sleep he got last night. I don't miss the fear and anxiety shining in his dark brown eyes as he rakes a hand through his hair. "Kat, I need your help," he says in a small voice.

I frown, my brows drawing together in concern. "What's wrong?"

Cal leans back at doorway, stumbling slightly. "After you took Luke to the hospital, I drove Ashton and Michael back to my place since they were hammered. I stayed up waiting for you guys because I thought you would be back shortly. But you never came back. I came here and saw that you were asleep, but I couldn't-" He chokes on the words. "I couldn't find Luke. Kat, I've been looking for him all night, all day. I have no idea where he is. I don't know if he's okay, goddammit. Ash and Mikey and my family have been looking for him since this morning and they haven't found anything either." Agony shines in his eyes as he says, "I know you probably had some kind of fight last night, and that on top of him going to see his mom is what leads me to believe that he's gone and done something stupid. Kat, please. Help us find him."

I kick back the comforter, getting to my feet. "I'll do it. Go fix yourself a coffee downstairs while I get dressed, Cal, you really need it."

He relaxes in relief and nods, closing the door softly behind him.

I feel like I'm about to throw up as I throw on some clean clothes and head down the stairs. Guilt bubbles up inside of me until I feel like it's choking me. What if he's stuck somewhere, hurt and feeling like the whole world's against him? What if he's... ?

I can't finish the thought as I turn the corner into the kitchen. Calum's draining the last of the coffee from his mug, setting it down in the sink. He glances up when I enter, jumping into action. "My mom's driving around by the beach in her car, Mali's friend is driving her through downtown, and Michael's with Ash checking out areas by his house. I called Jack and he and Celeste are stopping at every place that they can think of that he might've gone. Andy's with Liz in the hospital, but he said he'd ask around for people that have seen him." He gives me a tight, strained look as he opens the front door and clomps down the porch stairs. "No progress so far. I was thinking we could go through all the places by the pier."

I nod. "We can stop by The Scoop; I'm sure the girls would be more than happy to help us look."

That seems to ease some of the tension in his body as he climbs onto his bike. I bring mine down the driveway as well. As we pedal towards the storefronts along the shore, I try to rack my brain for any places I can think that he would have gone.

"You've checked all the bars, right?" I say to Calum as we round a corner.

He nods. "We checked there first. He's not in any of them."

As we bike down the sidewalk, I look out over the wide open expanse of the Pacific Ocean that matches the blue of Luke's eyes. Where could you be?