Always Attract (Chapter 74)
“Reid did you hear me?”
Luke was standing there waiting for some sort of response. Reid’s back was still to him and he could see the other man’s shoulder tense up initially, but besides that he made no other move or sound.
“Reid….I wanted to tell you, I was just….”
“You can leave now,” he said, his voice breaking.
“No,” Luke said vehemently. “I can’t. Not until you listen to me. Please just….”
“You don’t get it, do you?” Reid said finally turning around. “I don’t care. Whatever your reasons, whatever you’re feeling…I…Don’t…Care. Consider whatever there was between us to be some sort of weird experiment. Maybe a higher power wanted to find out if I was human or something I don’t know, but I’m over it. Consider it a blip on my radar.”
“A blip?” Luke said hurt.
“One that I’ll quickly forget as soon as I’m able to escape this town that time forgot.”
Luke looked to his side. He could feel his eyes start to well up. “Well…I’m glad then that everything worked out for you.”
“Me too,” Reid said simply. When he said nothing else, Luke shook his head and walked out the door. He had to get out of there so he headed towards the first person he could think of.
*
“Matt!” Luke called out knocking on the door. “Matt, open up.”
He could hear some movement coming from within, before the door opened up to reveal the man he came to see.
“Luke, what’s wrong. Why are you crying?”
“I told him. Well….I told him what I could, but he didn’t even want to listen to me. He said he didn’t care. I told him…I told him I was sick….”
“You’re sick?”
Luke whipped around to see Casey standing in the doorway of the bathroom. He turned to look at Matt who just nodded. “I was,” Luke said focusing back on Casey.
“Was?” Casey questioned. “And you’re not anymore?”
“No,” Luke said. “I’m fine now.”
Casey nodded. “How sick?”
“What?” Luke said biting his lip.
“How sick were you? What was wrong?”
“Casey….”
“Don’t start doing that thing where you try and back track Luke. Just tell me.”
Luke swallowed the lump forming in his throat. “I’m not proud of it, but…I started drinking again.”
Casey remained silent. There was no look of judgment or disappointment in his eyes. That was one of the things Luke always loved about having Casey as his best friend. When it came to him, he always assessed the situation and worked with him to figure out a solution. His answer wasn’t always the best to listen to, but he never made him feel like a failure. That knowledge and realization made him regret not coming to Casey the previous year for help even more. “It just happened,” he said shaking his head. “And then my kidney couldn’t hold up any more. By the time I stopped again, the damage was already done, so it just started to fail.”
“But you said you were okay now.”
“I am,” he reassured. “I had another transplant.”
Casey licked his lips and opened his mouth to say something when he caught sight of Matt behind Luke. They made eye contact briefly before Matt shifted his gaze away. Casey frowned. Then suddenly images began flashing through his head. Images of seeing Matt for the first time again out of the blue, the scar that he had trailed his very own fingers over, walking into Al’s to find Luke and Matt at the same table acting as if they’d known each other for awhile.
“When did you get your transplant?” Casey said suddenly.
Luke opened his mouth in confusion. He didn’t know why Casey cared about when he had his transplant, but if he wanted to know he’d tell him anyway. “About three months ago.”
Casey’s eyes flicked back to Matt who was now looking directly back at him. Casey let out a small huff of air. “It was you, right?”
“Yeah,” he said nodding yes. “It was me.”
“And you never said anything,” he said like more of a statement than a question.
Luke decided to cut across him. “Casey, I asked Matt not to say anything and how did you know it was him?” He looked back and forth between the two of them, obviously missing something.
“How could you never say anything to me?”
“I tried…that one time…”
“That one time,” Casey said angrily. “One time. Gee Matt, how swell of you.”
“Casey,” Luke tried interrupting again.
“Shut up Luke.”
“Casey,” Matt tried speaking calmly. “I didn’t know what to do.”
“You two obviously have that in common, don’t you?”
Matt and Luke both winced.
“How did…how did this even come to happen, the two of you…” Casey’s eyes went big and round. “Oh God. Please tell me you guys aren’t together.”
Hurt crossed Matt’s face as Luke grew defensive. “Of course not, we’re friends.”
“Do you honestly think I would do that?” Matt said seriously. “After everything?”
“Maybe you’re not together now, but you could’ve been before. Were you two sleeping together?”
“No,” Luke interrupted again. “I’m in love with Reid. I would never sleep with someone else.”
“You married someone else Luke, so I’m not going to even go there with you right now. As for you,” he said turning towards Matt, “I’m not sure what I’m supposed to think is going on.”
“Okay seriously, what is going on between you two?”
“Nothing,” Casey said retreating to the door. “Absolutely nothing.”
Matt tried to call out, but it was no use. Casey was already gone. “Shit,” Matt cursed.
Luke looked at him waiting for an explanation. Matt dragged his hands across his face. “Remember when you said that nothing good would come out of me liking Casey?”
“Yeah,” Luke replied. “He’s straight. Nothing could ever come of it.”
“Yeah,” Matt laughed, “except it already sort of did.”
Luke stood there with his mouth hanging open for what felt like an hour. “You and Casey are together?”
“No…god, I don’t know what we are. I told him I wouldn’t pressure him. Lately he’s been distant, needed some time to think so I was trying to give it to him, but then we saw him with Alison today….” He shook his head.
“So is it just like….a crush or something? I mean…nothing’s actually happened between you guys, right?”
“I might’ve……slept with him,” Matt mumbled.
Luke was seriously dumbfounded at the moment. “Oh my god, I messed everything up for you two.”
“No,” Matt disagreed, “you didn’t. Things have been pretty messed up from the beginning, starting with me having feelings for a guy that’s previously been straight his whole life…until he met me apparently.”
“Did he say that?”
Matt nodded. “I don’t know what he wants. He doesn’t know what he wants. I’ll probably end up crushed when he randomly meets the girl of his dreams one day. This is probably just an experiment for him or something.”
Luke let out a hollow sounding laugh. “Yeah, according to Reid, that’s what I was too.”
“Yeah, well Reid’s full of shit.”
“What are you going to do…about Casey?”
“I don’t know,” Matt said shaking his head. “Try to talk to him; hope that he can forgive me for not telling him everything up front.”
“You really like him?”
“Yeah,” Matt sighed. “God help me, but I really do.”