When Two Worlds Collide: chapter 5
Summary:
Popular. Jock. Outspoken. Handsome. Straight.
These are all words you would use to describe Luke Snyder
Luke's just your normal average teenager. An excellent basketball player he's on track for a full ride scholarship. His parents Lily and Damian Grimaldi couldn't be prouder and Luke's never been more popular with the kids at school. Luke however, is miserable. Isolated from the rest of his family, he's thrown himself into playing basketball only to please his parents but dreams of studying creative writing at university.
Meet Noah Mayer: Quiet. Straight A student. Bookworm
He's also gay
He's everything Luke wants to be.
So what happens when their two worlds collide?
Everything after that becomes a blur for Luke. The boys have scattered, but Luke hardly payed any attention to where they’ve disappeared too. Paramedics arrive, Luke unaware that his screaming has attracted the gardener working nearby.
Luke rides in the ambulance with Noah on the way to the hospital. He's shaken up, with a few bruises and he shrugs off all attempts for the paramedic to check him out insisting they focus only on Noah who hasn't regain consciousness since they first put him in the ambulance. He clutches Noah's hand in his and won’t let go.
When they arrive at the hospital Bob has to physically restrain Luke from following the nurses when they take Noah away to be examined.
He struggles with Bob
"Luke, stop you have to let the doctors examine Noah, they can’t do that if you're in there, getting in their way"
Luke opens his mouth to protest, but Bob holds firm and a nurse directs Luke to the waiting room.
Luke’s so focused on Noah he hardly even realizes when Holden arrives followed shortly by Lily and Damian. He knows they are there, but all his attention is focused solely upon Noah and to make sure he’s going to be ok.
Luke's folded himself into the plastic chair, arms wrapped tightly around himself, attempting to keep himself together, yet totally numb. He's totally blocking everything and everyone out, barely acknowledging the presence of his dad and completely ignoring Lily together with Damian. Lily is almost hysterical demanding to know what happened and freaking out at the sight of Noah’s blood on Luke.
Every time he closes his eyes all he can hear is the sickening crunch of Noah's leg breaking, hearing Noah's screams, the screams of pure pain echoing into the emptiness of the alleyway.
His stomach turns over and he bolts for the toilet down the hall only just making it in time emptying his stomach until there's nothing left but dry heaves.
Strong hands caught him and held him up when he would have fallen flat on his face into the toilet bowl
"Shh" Holden's comforting voice washes over him, and Luke's pulled into Holden's arms as if he's 5 again rocking him back and forth on the restroom floor and Luke realises he's sobbing, heaving gasping breaths.
The minutes ticked by and Holden held Luke until his tears dried, just the occasional sob/hiccup. Luke pulled away, wiping away the tears and Holden helped him to his feet. Luke splashed cold water on his face and leaned, braced his hands on the sink, watching the slightly red water swirl down the sink.
"I love him, Dad. I just love him so much," Luke whispered, closing his eyes, head bowed almost as if he were saying a prayer. “I’m sorry you had to find out about it this way. I wanted to come to you and…”
"Shhh, I know" Holden moved behind Luke, rubbing his hand up and down Luke's back
"You're my son, Luke. I will always love and support you no matter what."
"You don't raise a boy for 17 years without knowing. You may have hidden it well from Lily and Damian, but I saw those looks and the touches you thought nobody else could see.”
“I stayed away because I thought that's what you needed from me. Some part of me believed that you had them, that you didn't need me anymore. You may not be my own flesh and blood but I love you just the same and want what's best for you.
The son I raised would be proud and hold your head high and would go back out there and make sure that Noah knows how much he means to you.”
“I made the mistake of letting the person I love more than anything in this world go and I’ve been regretting it ever since.”
Luke's missed this so much, more than he'd realised having Holden around. Holden had always been there for him such a strong pillar of support and encouragement.
He'd been so scared of what everyone would think but he knew now that Holden would have supported him no matter what
Holden pulled Luke into a hug and Luke held on tight. They pulled away and Luke gave Holden a watery smile and together they headed back out into the waiting room.
Lily’s still there and she glanced up when they both come back. She rushes forward to hug Luke but he shrinks back and away from her and she stops in her tracks a hurt look crossing her face. Damian is down the hall, speaking quietly but urgently into his cell phone but Luke really couldn’t care less what he was doing. He just didn’t have the energy.
“Luke,” Lily said, drawing his attention back to her “What on earth were you thinking?” “Getting involved in something like this and for someone you hardly even know?”
Luke can’t quite meet Lily's eyes and all the words he wants to say to her get stuck in his throat.
"Oh my god" Lily whispers, bringing a shaking hand up to cover her mouth, and Luke knows that with her quick brain it hasn’t taken her long to put all the pieces together. "This is what you've been hiding from us all this time?" "When you were coming home drunk every night"
Luke's head comes up and this time he meets his mother’s gaze full on, he wasn't aware she even knew he'd been drinking. Lily gave him a wry smile
"I’m your mother, Luke you didn’t really think that I wasn't paying that much attention to you that I wouldn't notice. You tried to hide it from us, but I could hear you in the mornings, all those times you told me that you picked up a stomach bug or that you thought it might have been the flu, I knew you were hung-over.”
Lily gave a shuddering sigh “Oh god.”
“I’m sorry,” Luke said, shrugging miserably
Lily sinks slowly down into her chair, and puts her head in her hands. Luke looked to Holden and he nodded slightly, motioning to Lily. Luke sat down in the chair next to her. He hesitated for a second and then tentatively put his hand over his mother’s. Lily gave a small gasp and grasped onto it with both hands.
They all glance up at the sound of footsteps in the hallway and see Margo walking towards them.
"I’m sorry" she said, hesitating, speaking to Holden, but addressing everyone in the room at the same time
"I know this is all so much to take in and you're probably still in shock, but we need to get a statement from Luke about what happened tonight, and since you're the only witness, we need to get a move on so we can get out there and catch these guys who did this to Noah."
Margo gestured behind her.
"We will need to do this down at the police station, so Luke can make a formal identification, if need be"
Luke’s head shot up to stare directly at Margo,
"No" just the one word, spoken quietly, but with steel determination "I won't leave Noah"
“I can’t leave him,” he said, hoarsely but determined.
"It’s ok" Margo said, stepping hastily forward with a wry smile "I expected Luke to want to stay anyway so I had one of the intern nurses set up one of the small offices for us to use, is that ok?"
Luke nodded and followed Margo down the hall.
Luke sat down on the couch in the office, while Margo leaned against the desk.
"Right," she started kindly
"Luke can you tell me what happened tonight?"
"It’s my entire fault" Luke said, blinking furiously, eyes stinging, burning with the effort of holding the tears back.
"We fought," he choked out "I got upset and I said all these awful things to Noah, and he left
"Luke, honey" Margo went down on her knees in front of Luke, grasping his large hands, in her smaller ones.
"Luke it’s not your fault.”
Luke shook his head, pulling his hands out of Margo’s grasp.
"I should have been with him! If we hadn't of fought he wouldn’t have been walking out there all by himself, then I would have been with him. I could have fought harder and made them stop. If it hadn't been for me, Noah wouldn't be in this mess
"Luke, you were outnumbered against these guys, it was 4 against 2" “Honey there wasn't anything more you could have done, you went to him and you tried to help him and you've stayed with him now, been here with him, every step of the way"
"I take it then, you got a good look at these guys then?"
"Yes,” Luke said
“My basketball team mates and they used to be my friends too.” Luke can feel a spark of hatred growing in his gut as he is talking about them.
“Kevin and Mark were the main ones, i think Brian and Cody were just there as back-up, they've always been followers, anything Mark and Kevin tells them to do, they follow."
Margo makes some notes into her notebook and Luke takes a deep breath
Both Margo and Luke look up at a knock on the door and Holden pops his head through the opening
"Bob's back"
"Right Luke you can go, but we will need you to come down the station, at a later date" she hastily adds when Luke opens his mouth to protest "And also to make a formal identification when we pick the four of them up to charge them"
Luke jumps to his feet and rushes out, followed closely behind by Holden and Margo.
Lily and Damian had gone, Damian whisking her away, claiming her and the baby needed rest. Luke was grateful he only had Holden there to deal with, he really felt like he couldn't cope with his mother's hysterics right now. It felt like a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders now that Holden knew that there would be no more lies and deceit between the two of them, he really missed his dad, while living with Lily and Damian. Margo left them at the waiting room already speaking on her phone as she rushed off, getting the alert out on the four boys who had attacked Noah.
"Noah's being moved to recovery now," he smiled kindly at both Luke and Holden.
"He's sustained a broken leg, which we have set, and will need to be in cast for 6-8 weeks. He's also got a fractured wrist, a few cracked ribs and a fair few bumps and bruises." Luke sagged with relief and was pretty sure the only thing holding him upright right now was Holden's hand, warm and supportive on his shoulder.
"However, there's some swelling on Noah's brain which is why we’re keeping him pretty heavily sedated for now, to give his brain a chance to heal and for the swelling to go down. We will know more after he wakes up to know for sure, whether or not there's brain damage."
"Can I see him?" Luke asked, voice trembling slightly. He was perilously close to crying again.
"I see no reason why not, just be warned Luke he won't be waking up tonight and he's got a lot of tubes and wires connected to him, but talk to him and let him know you're there, I’m sure he is able to hear you,"
Bob gave Luke a quick hug and a handshake with Holden and then a nurse was there, directing them to Noah’s room.
CHAPTER 6
Popular. Jock. Outspoken. Handsome. Straight.
These are all words you would use to describe Luke Snyder
Luke's just your normal average teenager. An excellent basketball player he's on track for a full ride scholarship. His parents Lily and Damian Grimaldi couldn't be prouder and Luke's never been more popular with the kids at school. Luke however, is miserable. Isolated from the rest of his family, he's thrown himself into playing basketball only to please his parents but dreams of studying creative writing at university.
Meet Noah Mayer: Quiet. Straight A student. Bookworm
He's also gay
He's everything Luke wants to be.
So what happens when their two worlds collide?
Everything after that becomes a blur for Luke. The boys have scattered, but Luke hardly payed any attention to where they’ve disappeared too. Paramedics arrive, Luke unaware that his screaming has attracted the gardener working nearby.
Luke rides in the ambulance with Noah on the way to the hospital. He's shaken up, with a few bruises and he shrugs off all attempts for the paramedic to check him out insisting they focus only on Noah who hasn't regain consciousness since they first put him in the ambulance. He clutches Noah's hand in his and won’t let go.
When they arrive at the hospital Bob has to physically restrain Luke from following the nurses when they take Noah away to be examined.
He struggles with Bob
"Luke, stop you have to let the doctors examine Noah, they can’t do that if you're in there, getting in their way"
Luke opens his mouth to protest, but Bob holds firm and a nurse directs Luke to the waiting room.
Luke’s so focused on Noah he hardly even realizes when Holden arrives followed shortly by Lily and Damian. He knows they are there, but all his attention is focused solely upon Noah and to make sure he’s going to be ok.
Luke's folded himself into the plastic chair, arms wrapped tightly around himself, attempting to keep himself together, yet totally numb. He's totally blocking everything and everyone out, barely acknowledging the presence of his dad and completely ignoring Lily together with Damian. Lily is almost hysterical demanding to know what happened and freaking out at the sight of Noah’s blood on Luke.
Every time he closes his eyes all he can hear is the sickening crunch of Noah's leg breaking, hearing Noah's screams, the screams of pure pain echoing into the emptiness of the alleyway.
His stomach turns over and he bolts for the toilet down the hall only just making it in time emptying his stomach until there's nothing left but dry heaves.
Strong hands caught him and held him up when he would have fallen flat on his face into the toilet bowl
"Shh" Holden's comforting voice washes over him, and Luke's pulled into Holden's arms as if he's 5 again rocking him back and forth on the restroom floor and Luke realises he's sobbing, heaving gasping breaths.
The minutes ticked by and Holden held Luke until his tears dried, just the occasional sob/hiccup. Luke pulled away, wiping away the tears and Holden helped him to his feet. Luke splashed cold water on his face and leaned, braced his hands on the sink, watching the slightly red water swirl down the sink.
"I love him, Dad. I just love him so much," Luke whispered, closing his eyes, head bowed almost as if he were saying a prayer. “I’m sorry you had to find out about it this way. I wanted to come to you and…”
"Shhh, I know" Holden moved behind Luke, rubbing his hand up and down Luke's back
"You're my son, Luke. I will always love and support you no matter what."
"You don't raise a boy for 17 years without knowing. You may have hidden it well from Lily and Damian, but I saw those looks and the touches you thought nobody else could see.”
“I stayed away because I thought that's what you needed from me. Some part of me believed that you had them, that you didn't need me anymore. You may not be my own flesh and blood but I love you just the same and want what's best for you.
The son I raised would be proud and hold your head high and would go back out there and make sure that Noah knows how much he means to you.”
“I made the mistake of letting the person I love more than anything in this world go and I’ve been regretting it ever since.”
Luke's missed this so much, more than he'd realised having Holden around. Holden had always been there for him such a strong pillar of support and encouragement.
He'd been so scared of what everyone would think but he knew now that Holden would have supported him no matter what
Holden pulled Luke into a hug and Luke held on tight. They pulled away and Luke gave Holden a watery smile and together they headed back out into the waiting room.
Lily’s still there and she glanced up when they both come back. She rushes forward to hug Luke but he shrinks back and away from her and she stops in her tracks a hurt look crossing her face. Damian is down the hall, speaking quietly but urgently into his cell phone but Luke really couldn’t care less what he was doing. He just didn’t have the energy.
“Luke,” Lily said, drawing his attention back to her “What on earth were you thinking?” “Getting involved in something like this and for someone you hardly even know?”
Luke can’t quite meet Lily's eyes and all the words he wants to say to her get stuck in his throat.
"Oh my god" Lily whispers, bringing a shaking hand up to cover her mouth, and Luke knows that with her quick brain it hasn’t taken her long to put all the pieces together. "This is what you've been hiding from us all this time?" "When you were coming home drunk every night"
Luke's head comes up and this time he meets his mother’s gaze full on, he wasn't aware she even knew he'd been drinking. Lily gave him a wry smile
"I’m your mother, Luke you didn’t really think that I wasn't paying that much attention to you that I wouldn't notice. You tried to hide it from us, but I could hear you in the mornings, all those times you told me that you picked up a stomach bug or that you thought it might have been the flu, I knew you were hung-over.”
Lily gave a shuddering sigh “Oh god.”
“I’m sorry,” Luke said, shrugging miserably
Lily sinks slowly down into her chair, and puts her head in her hands. Luke looked to Holden and he nodded slightly, motioning to Lily. Luke sat down in the chair next to her. He hesitated for a second and then tentatively put his hand over his mother’s. Lily gave a small gasp and grasped onto it with both hands.
They all glance up at the sound of footsteps in the hallway and see Margo walking towards them.
"I’m sorry" she said, hesitating, speaking to Holden, but addressing everyone in the room at the same time
"I know this is all so much to take in and you're probably still in shock, but we need to get a statement from Luke about what happened tonight, and since you're the only witness, we need to get a move on so we can get out there and catch these guys who did this to Noah."
Margo gestured behind her.
"We will need to do this down at the police station, so Luke can make a formal identification, if need be"
Luke’s head shot up to stare directly at Margo,
"No" just the one word, spoken quietly, but with steel determination "I won't leave Noah"
“I can’t leave him,” he said, hoarsely but determined.
"It’s ok" Margo said, stepping hastily forward with a wry smile "I expected Luke to want to stay anyway so I had one of the intern nurses set up one of the small offices for us to use, is that ok?"
Luke nodded and followed Margo down the hall.
Luke sat down on the couch in the office, while Margo leaned against the desk.
"Right," she started kindly
"Luke can you tell me what happened tonight?"
"It’s my entire fault" Luke said, blinking furiously, eyes stinging, burning with the effort of holding the tears back.
"We fought," he choked out "I got upset and I said all these awful things to Noah, and he left
"Luke, honey" Margo went down on her knees in front of Luke, grasping his large hands, in her smaller ones.
"Luke it’s not your fault.”
Luke shook his head, pulling his hands out of Margo’s grasp.
"I should have been with him! If we hadn't of fought he wouldn’t have been walking out there all by himself, then I would have been with him. I could have fought harder and made them stop. If it hadn't been for me, Noah wouldn't be in this mess
"Luke, you were outnumbered against these guys, it was 4 against 2" “Honey there wasn't anything more you could have done, you went to him and you tried to help him and you've stayed with him now, been here with him, every step of the way"
"I take it then, you got a good look at these guys then?"
"Yes,” Luke said
“My basketball team mates and they used to be my friends too.” Luke can feel a spark of hatred growing in his gut as he is talking about them.
“Kevin and Mark were the main ones, i think Brian and Cody were just there as back-up, they've always been followers, anything Mark and Kevin tells them to do, they follow."
Margo makes some notes into her notebook and Luke takes a deep breath
Both Margo and Luke look up at a knock on the door and Holden pops his head through the opening
"Bob's back"
"Right Luke you can go, but we will need you to come down the station, at a later date" she hastily adds when Luke opens his mouth to protest "And also to make a formal identification when we pick the four of them up to charge them"
Luke jumps to his feet and rushes out, followed closely behind by Holden and Margo.
Lily and Damian had gone, Damian whisking her away, claiming her and the baby needed rest. Luke was grateful he only had Holden there to deal with, he really felt like he couldn't cope with his mother's hysterics right now. It felt like a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders now that Holden knew that there would be no more lies and deceit between the two of them, he really missed his dad, while living with Lily and Damian. Margo left them at the waiting room already speaking on her phone as she rushed off, getting the alert out on the four boys who had attacked Noah.
"Noah's being moved to recovery now," he smiled kindly at both Luke and Holden.
"He's sustained a broken leg, which we have set, and will need to be in cast for 6-8 weeks. He's also got a fractured wrist, a few cracked ribs and a fair few bumps and bruises." Luke sagged with relief and was pretty sure the only thing holding him upright right now was Holden's hand, warm and supportive on his shoulder.
"However, there's some swelling on Noah's brain which is why we’re keeping him pretty heavily sedated for now, to give his brain a chance to heal and for the swelling to go down. We will know more after he wakes up to know for sure, whether or not there's brain damage."
"Can I see him?" Luke asked, voice trembling slightly. He was perilously close to crying again.
"I see no reason why not, just be warned Luke he won't be waking up tonight and he's got a lot of tubes and wires connected to him, but talk to him and let him know you're there, I’m sure he is able to hear you,"
Bob gave Luke a quick hug and a handshake with Holden and then a nurse was there, directing them to Noah’s room.
CHAPTER 6