Ugly : clifford a.u

Spencer

I’d hoped that Luke would slowly go back to normal with time, however a week later, he wasn’t any better, if anything he was worse.

He didn’t laugh, he didn’t smile, he didn’t do anything. He stayed in his room all day, refusing meals, skipping school and ignoring everyone that tried to talk to him.

Mom said he was grieving. Calum reckoned he was depressed, but I knew the truth, he wasn’t sad, or angry, he was broken. A zombie of sorts, dead on the inside, alive only in the physical sense.

I tried giving him some space like Mom suggested, however waking up to the sounds of him crying, for the seventh consecutive night in a row my resolve broke.

Climbing out of bed, I crept out of my room, I don’t know why I bothered to be quiet, it’s not like there was anyone to wake. Luke was clearly awake and Mom was at work however making noise felt wrong and dangerous in the eerily silent house.

Making my way down the hall to Luke’s room, I didn’t bother to knock before pushing the door open and slipping inside.

Gasping slightly, Luke tried to calm his breathing and lay still, hoping to fool me into leaving. Frowning, I ignored his pathetic attempt at feigning slumber and crossing over to his bed looked down at him.

“Are you wearing pajamas?” I questioned.

He ignored me.

“Luke I know you’re not sleeping.” I sighed, “Your face is wet, I can tell you’ve been crying, are you wearing pajamas.”

Sighing, he allowed his red, bloodshot eyes to flutter open as he nodded.

“Scoot over.” I mumbled, frowning, he rolled over until his back was pressed against the wall.

Lifting his duvet I climbed into the bed and propping my head up on my elbow turned to face him.

“What are you doing?” he muttered, wiping his eyes with the heels of his hands.

“Do you remember,” I said slowly, “After I got home from the hospital and I wouldn’t leave my room because I didn’t want anyone to see my face. So you snuck food in so that we didn’t have to leave and called it our apartment?”

Luke was quiet for a moment, and then surprising me, he spoke.

“And the food got moldy.” He whispered, his voice hoarse, “And it stunk, so bad that Mom thought an animal had gotten in the house and died.”

Laughing I nodded.

“Remember when Dad left.” I said, “We set Mom up on online dating profile.”

“And that creepy guy from Finland with the double chins and the braces send dick picks.”

“Yeah!” I laughed, “Or the time, you got your tonsils out, so we tried to try every Ben and Jerry’s flavor.”

“And you puked all over the new couch.” Luke said.

“And we thought Mom was going to kill us so we flipped it over.”

“And it stunk.” Luke chuckled, “So we dumped Mom’s expensive perfume all over the place.”

“Yeah.” I laughed.

“I forgot about that.” He admitted.

“I didn’t.” I replied, “You’re my best friend Luke. You and me, we’re like…”

“Beevis and Butthead.” Luke snickered.

“I was going to say Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb but that works too.” I laughed.