Luke saw his suitcase finally making its way towards him in the bag carousel and try to make his way to the only empty spot to grab it when a woman cut him off at the last second causing him to missed it. The boy fought the urge to scream; this entire trip had been a nightmare from the moment he got to the airport on his way to New York.
Two weeks before he had to go to the ER after getting into an accident in his motorcycle which resulted in Luke breaking his hand and bruising his body. He got a cast for his arm but otherwise, he was fortunate about how he got out of that accident without any significant injuries, and for that the boy was thankful. The next couple of days were hard for him, the pain he could handle but not being able to use his right hand was making the recording of videos harder for the boy and that took a toll on his mood. At first, he tried to continue with his routine, but he soon learned that it was going to be harder than he had originally thought. Still, he would remind himself that things could have ended differently, so without being able to go out and practice his usual sports, Luke decided to look for something to do while his body heal and soon Ben would give him that something.
He had seen Ben for the last time two months ago in Spain when his friend had finally succumbed to Lindsey's charm or maybe just to her constant persuade, either way, when he met them at the airport they were together already. Luke had to admit that he found the pair a little weird Ben was too much of a nice guy for someone like Lindsey although he hoped for the girl's sake that the boy's attitude would rub off on her like it did when she first met Ben almost nine months ago now. Sadly, in the week he spent there with them Luke noticed the girl going back to her old ways, he tried to talk to her about the way she was acting just for Lindsey to dismissed him but what really shocked him was that Ben didn't seem to mind how obnoxious she was acting.
Finally, two days after Ben's birthday Luke said his goodbyes to the couple wishing them the best since then he hardly spoke to the boy that always seemed to be going to Lindsey's favorite places in Spain when he managed to answered Luke's calls. That was until two weeks ago when Ben called Luke and asked him to visit him in New York, the boy agreed instantly maybe the change in scenery would help him get into a better mood, and it would be nice to visit Ben and the rest of his friends that lived in the States. The boy took his time preparing his suitcase knowing full well that it was going to take him a lot of time to do all the things he used to accomplished with ease.
When the day came for him to travel everything suddenly started to go wrong for the boy. His neighbor, who had agree to drove him, overslept and Luke almost missed his flight, and even though he had made his check in online the day before apparently, someone at the counter changed his seat number. Now he was sitting in the row just behind the bathroom for his flight from Cape Town to Dubai where people apparently had a lot of stomach issues, making the next nine hours hard to for him.
Once he made his way to Dubai, the boy went to find somewhere to sleep at the airport while he waited almost 8 hours for his next flight but with the amount of movement at the airport he just ended walking around the entire time. His connection flight was delayed, and when he did his check in Luke noticed that the seat for that flight had been altered too and now he wasn't given a chance to change it. Luke was suddenly seating in one of the back rows just in front of a couple with twin babies, that by the end of the flight he had named the Hardy Boyz, who seemed to cry for 20 hours straight. In reality, one baby would wake up and cried for a while then fell asleep just for the other baby to do the same several times. Turbulence didn't help with the situation, and soon other kids that were sitting near him seemed to catch up to the twins game and joined the tag team of cryers. Luke managed to sleep 2 hours during the entire 14 hours flight, and those were due to pure exhaustion.
Once in New York, the lines at immigration were long but at least they moved fast, and he was soon free to look for his suitcase. Luke decided to go to the bathroom to wash his face and see if that helped him clear his mind so by the time he made it to picked his luggage everyone was around the carousel not giving him a chance to see if his suitcase came. Finally, some people move and even though he still wasn't in a good position to grab his luggage he at least could see if it was coming at all. That's when he saw his suitcase and the "devil woman" stopped him from finally ending this horrible trip. It took him a couple of tries before he was able to get close enough to grab his luggage and then he noticed the handle was broken which made it impossible for him to get it with only one functioning hand. That was it he moved to the side cursing his luck until he bumped into someone, Luke stopped and apologized to the person who to his horror was a pregnant girl.
"Oh my god. I'm so sorry. Are you ok? Did I hit you? Is your baby ok?" The girl looked at the boy funny for a second; he had only bumped into her it wasn't like he had tackled her to the ground. Then he noticed how pale and tired he looked, and she felt terrible for him and assure him that she was fine and asked him if he was.
Luke looked at the girl with a strange expression; New Yorkers weren't precisely known by acting like she did but he was in an airport so she could be from anywhere. Before he could say anything in response a tall boy with Asian features came to stand next to the girl rolling two suitcases with a triumph expression. "I finally was able to get them; people act like animals trying to get their prey instead of someone getting their luggage. Is like dude is a suitcase not food for your family chill."
Then the boy noticed Luke and looked at the girl asking her if everything was ok. "Yeah, Zohu everything is fine. We just bumped into each other, and he thought I was hurt but we barely touch. Actually, I was just asking him if he was ok."
Zohu nodded and noticed how the boy seemed tired then he took a looked at his cast and thought how hard it had been for him, with two good arms, to get his suitcase and asked the boy if he needed help. Luke nodded and thank the couple, soon Coran and Luke stood a couple of steps from the carousel while Zohu made his way closer to it ready for the boy's signal. A couple of minutes later the three of them made their way out of the airport looking for a way into the city while Cora was telling Luke about a friend they came to visit and how excited they both were to get to enjoy New York with her. Luke asked the couple to please joined him at dinner that night as a thank you and how he would love to meet their friend. The couple agreed and exchanged information with the boy promising to see each other that night. "So do you want to share a taxi with us?"
Just as Luke was about to answer Cora a girl's voice shouting the name of the couple came from behind him making the three of them looked that way. The girl that was running towards them looked familiar to Luke, and he concentrated trying to remember from where knew her. Suddenly Cora smiled and called the girl Mal. All the pieces of the puzzle fit in Luke's mind in an instance this girl was Ben's ex-girlfriend, he had just made plans to go out with her and her friends that night, well live was definitely more interesting here than at home in Cape Town or least more drama oriented. Finally, Mal made her way towards them and hug the girl and the boy fiercely telling them how much she had missed them just for the both of them to hug her back smiling and assuring her that they felt the same way, but they were here now. Luke witnessed the scene and could feel the amount of love all of them had for the other and part of him wished he could join in the hug but instead, he took his phone and managed to take a picture of the moment to give to them later on. Zohu was the first one to acknowledge Luke presence making the girl aware of the stranger in front of them; Mal let go of Cora while the girl told her about the guy that they just met and were supposed to have dinner with them that night. Mal turned to say hi to Luke with a smile on her face but the second he saw him the girl inmediately recognized him and thousands of scenes where the boy was vlogging next to Ben came to her mind in an instant. Luke saw recognition in Mal's eyes and the blush that appeared on the girl's cheek and knew that his assumptions about the reason behind the girl following his channel were right.
Luke offered his hand to Mal and told her that he was glad to meet her making the girl wake up of her trance and shake his in return. "Well, I guess your friend came here to pick you guys up so I'll find my own ride back to the city no worries. Call me tonight so we can agree in a time and place after you guys talk to each other."
With that, the boy tried to take his suitcase from Zohu just for the boy to assure him that he could ride with them to the city, "We have enough room for one more right Mal?"
Mal nodded and smiled at Luke while telling him that he was welcome to ride with them back and motioned everyone to joined her in the walk back to the car that was waiting for them a couple of doors down. Cora started telling Mal about their flight and all the things that they were fixing around the house to welcome the baby, a couple of steps behind Zohu chuckled and told Luke that he was the one doing all the work while Cora would choose where things went and they change them. "I swear I'm developing more upper body strength now that when I used to train every day in high school."
Luke chuckled and continue to hear the girls talk about baby stuff with Zohu making little jokes in between his wife comments just for the girl to turn every now and then and stuck her tongue out to Zohu making both boys laughed out loud. Finally, they made their way to the car, and all the luggage was loaded Zohu asked Luke where he was going on the boy gave them Ben's address. "I'm going to visit my friend Ben."
A realization came upon the couple, and Cora even gasp. "Is cool guys I didn't know either until I saw Mal and then I didn't know how to tell you that I knew Ben and..."
Mal stopped Luke and told him that there was no reason for him to apologized or not joined them. She was even shocked that he knew who she was because Ben's girlfriend told her that he never mentioned her but that she would be happy to have dinner with him so they could get to know more about each other. Then the girl turned towards her friends and told them that she was fine, and the couple nodded and smiled. Cora hugged Luke and apologized for her reaction; she assured him that the hormones were really getting to her sometimes just as Zohu nodded looking at Luke making the boy laughed. "One more joke Zohu and you sleeping on the floor today."
Everyone laughed and got into the car, the couple had decided to stay in a hotel near Mal's building trying to make this trip a little more romantic for them, sure they wanted to spent time with Mal but they also looked at this trip like their last romantic getaway before the baby was born. So Luke and Mal went with them to the hotel, and they all decided to go out to Bar Americain to have lunch instead of going out that night so Luke could rest. With that Mal and Luke went back to the car on their way to the restaurant.
"Ben talked about you to Lindsey Mal; he used to talk to all of us about you. I don't know what Lindsey tried to gain lying about that but is not true." Luke saw the girl looked shocked and how a little smile started to appear on her lips just to go away immediately and he wondered if maybe the girl had decided to believe Lindsey because it was easier to move on if she thought Ben had done it from the beginning.
Mal focused on controlling her breathing the words of Luke repeating in her mind; Ben did talk about her. When Lindsey told her that she didn't know Mal felt like someone punched her, but she took it as something reasonable. Why would the boy talked about her when she had obviously hurt him deeply. Now that Luke gave her that new information she was happy but she started to worry about how her heart began to pump faster and the need to see Ben started to come back with force. Luke talked again, and it took him a couple of tries to get her attention, and he knew that Mal wasn't present in the moment.
"Hey, are you ok?" When Mal was able to focus again, Luke had taken her hands in his and was looking at her with concern. The girl nodded and felt stupid about her reaction; she began to apologize, but Luke cut her off saying that there was no need for that. The car came to a stop, and the driver informed them that they were at the building, Mal used that chance to get out of the car and asked the driver to bring Luke's suitcase out of the trunk. The boy came out of the car just as the driver gave his suitcase to the doorman, Luke tried to take it from him but then had a better idea and asked him if could hold on to it for him while he and Mal took a walked around the block.
The doorman agreed, and Mal couldn't think of a way to avoid the invitation so soon enough they were on their way. "So can you please tell me what happened back there? I'm sorry if what I said to you upset you, sometimes I just need a filter. I assured you that Ben didn't say anything bad about you, he just told us that you guys had a bad break up that's it. Well, that's not true he talked to me in more detail, but that is because we got to know each other more and still Mal he never said anything mean about you."
The girl nodded. "I'm glad to hear that although I wouldn't have blamed him if he did. I was horrible to him, and if he told you about our relationship, I'm sure you can agree with me."
She then turned and looked at Luke straight in the eyes until the boy had to nod his head making the girl smile, Mal appreciated his honesty and the fact that he thought like that meant that he cared for Ben. Luke assured her still that things happened between a couple that people couldn't understand. "Taking sides is easy but taking the right side is almost impossible. There is no way that an outsider can know exactly what happened between two people without being blind but the love he feels for one of them. I know that Ben is a great guy, but I don't think he would have been with you if you weren't cool too."
Mal smiled but assured him that she was the one that made the situation go bad without any help. Luke listen to the girl while she talked about the several instances where she had mistreat Ben like she was taking confession. The boy started to noticed a patron on the stories, sure Mal would act crazy, but Ben didn't seem to call her out until things took a turned for the worst. By the end of the walked Luke realized that the girl in front of him was aware of her flaws and was taking the steps necessary not to let them take over her.
To say that he was fascinated by Mal was an understatement and he understood why Ben had fallen so madly in love with her. He changed the subject asking her about Zohu and Cora and was glad to see how the girl seemed to brighten up at the mention of her friends. Well, she always referred to Zohu as her brother and Luke wanted to know more about that reason behind that so he asked and could see the girl hesitate. "Zohu has always been there for me, good times, bad times he is always there. He and his family are basically my family that's why he is my brother."
Sure there was definitely more to the story, but Luke could see that if he wanted to hear it patience was going to be crucial and he was okay with that. What was supposed to be a simple walk around the block turned into a two hour walked around the city, where Luke told Mal about his life from when he finished studying psychology to finding his true passion in vlogging to how he had decided to move to Cape Town a couple of months ago. "I still have a place back in Boston, because I think that at some point I'm going to come back home. For now, though I'm happy living there, you should come visit when Evie finally make good on her word and comes too. You two can spend some time there together. I'll show you guys around, and we all can go hiking."
They had discussed how Luke also knew Evie and Azis and how the couple was going strong which made both of them happy for their friends. "Yeah, that would be great except for the hiking cause that is not happening buddy."
Luke laughed and started to noticed how hungry he was all of a sudden so he asked Mal what time it was and the girl was shocked to see that it was noon already. They needed to get back to the building and change so they could go back to meet Zohu and Cora at the restaurant, so with that in mind, they made their way back. Mal went to take the stairs, and Luke followed her not thinking much of it, but he wasn't sure what to do with his suitcase. The girl stopped before opening the door to the stairs and turned looking a little embarrassed telling Luke that they should probably take the elevator instead and they made their way there and got in.
Mal walked out of the elevator telling Luke that she would meet him in the lobby at exactly one o'clock and wave goodbye to the boy, that gave him thirty minutes to clean himself up and put on new clothes. Luke made his way up and walked to Ben's door, he knocked a couple of times, and soon his friend was opening the door looking worried. "Where have you been? I thought your flight arrived at twenty to nine, is almost one I was worried sick about you and your phone is off."
"Sorry dude I had a crazy moment, and my phone is dead, and I didn't think of charging it. This entire trip was a nightmare until I made it to New York and things got significantly better, but come on give me a hug before chewing my head off." Ben wanted to ask him what did he mean about the New York part but instead went and hugged his friend asking him how was he feeling.
Luke pushed his suitcase in and dropped his backpack next to it and asked Ben to please help him get those things to wherever he was going to stay. Ben nodded and went to showed him Carrie's room; the girl had moved out entirely by now, so Luke was free to use the entire room without fearing to break something from the girl. Luke started to take his clothes out of his suitcase while Ben sat on the bed listening to his friend spoke about his trip giving him some hilarious details about the babies on his flight to New York.
The boy then motion Ben to follow him to the bathroom where he went in and closed the door but continue to tell his friend stories although at some points it was almost impossible for Ben to hear him. A couple of minutes later he appeared again with his hair wet, and Ben gave him a weird look. "What? I can shower in 5 minutes; I master that art since I live without hot water."
Ben told Luke to change and then to come back to the kitchen, so the boy walked alone to his room and started looking for something nice to wear. He finally decided on a black polo shirt, with black jeans and boots, he hoped the place didn't have a dressed code of he was probably going to ruin the experience for everyone. Checking the time Luke realized that he needed to be in the lobby in less than five minutes, so he grabbed his wallet and made his way out to the kitchen.
"Dude, I have to go meet the people I told you about. We are grabbing lunch, but I'll come back after that so we can talk more." Ben looked at Luke like he had no idea what the boy was telling him. Apparently Ben couldn't hear Luke talking when the boy had mentioned meeting the people he met at the airport. Luke saw his watched again saying goodbye to Ben and promising him that he was going to explain everything when he came back.
At that moment the front door open and Lindsey came into the apartment talking about how lame was the gym at the building and how they needed to find another place. The girl stopped in her tracks when she noticed Luke standing there. "Oh, I forgot you were coming today."
"Nice to see you L. Well I'll leave you now. See you in a couple of hours." With that, the boy was out of the apartment and making his way to the elevator, as soon as the doors open he got in followed by Ben, who he hadn't noticed was walking behind him asking for an explanation about where Luke was going.
Luke told Ben about the scene in the airport and how he met Cora and Zohu. After that Luke told him about how he had discovered that they were friends with Mal when the girl came to pick her friends up, and Ben went pale. "Mal? My Mal?"
The boy nodded just as the elevator's door open showing Mal in a beautiful dress standing in the lobby of the building looking at her phone while biting her lip. Both boys stared at her for a second, and then Luke got out of the elevator and walked to her while saying hello. Mal turned and smiled at him. "Luke I was worry you were going to be late, and I didn't have your number to call you. We need to get going before we are late, I called the restaurant, and they are holding a table for us."
Mal grabbed Luke's hand and pulled the boy towards the door; she didn't even see Ben looking at them from the elevator until the boy came out and called her name making the girl stopped and turned towards him. "Ben, hi!. How are you?"
"Fine, how are you? I haven't seen you in three weeks how are your injuries?" Luke turned to look at Mal studying the girls face and body wondering what had happened to her. Also, he found it funny that they had that in common, that opened a whole new line of conversations for them.
Mal chuckle and assure Ben that she was fine, just working hard so she didn't have a lot of free time but she was happy. "I'm sorry Ben, but we need to go, Zohu and Cora are waiting for us."
With that, the girl waved goodbye to Ben again and pulled Luke moving the boy quickly towards the door. Ben stood in the middle of the lobby seeing them go with a strange feeling taking over him; he didn't know why but there was something there that he didn't like.
Luke ended up staying all day out, the four of them managed to get tickets for a play and decided to make a day of their outing. Sure, he was exhausted, but Zohu and Cora were hilarious, and Mal was really nice to be with too. Luke found the interactions between the trio lovely to watch especially the ones between Mal and Zohu with the amount of time he spent traveling he missed that kind of relationship that only families had.
He borrowed Mal cellphone and wrote a message to Ben to let the guy now he was going to arrived really late that night and not to worry. The night ended at Mal's apartment where the boy met Carrie and stayed up talking with her even after Mal went to bed telling the couple to go on without her. Luke ended up crashing on the girl's couch and woke up to banging on the door; he stood a little disoriented and started to make his way to the door.
Suddenly the two girls ran towards him and told him to looked first, Mal asked who it was, and Ben voice came from the other side of the door confusing everyone. The girl opened the door revealing Ben who focused on Luke first noticing his wrinkling clothes and then to the two girls that were wearing pajamas. "Sorry guys is just that I woke up and Luke wasn't there, and I was worry."
The girl's faces soften, and both of them assure Ben that it was ok and that they were sorry he felt like that while inviting him to come in. However, Luke looked at Ben with suspicious. His friend never said he was worry about him. Luke would bet everything he owned that Ben was more worry about what was that Luke was doing and with whom more than the possibility of him getting into any trouble. Still, he would save that information, for now, there was no need to talk to Ben when the boy was still not ready to open up.
Ben came into the apartment and the memories of the last time he was there came crashing making the boy lightheaded. Luke noticed that and remembered the boy talking about the breakup; he turned to look at Mal who was looking concerned and sad and thought that those two still needed to work a lot of things out. Mal took a step toward Ben and putting her hand on his arm asked him if he was ok.
The scene that played next broke Luke's and Carrie's heart, in front of them Mal and Ben stood now face to face looking each other in the eyes while their eyes started to get watery. Mal made a move to hug Ben, but the boy took a couple of steps back while saying that he was going back to his apartment before Lindsey got worried about where he was and left the girls apartment. Luke said a quick goodbye to the girls promising to come back in a couple of hours to go out with them for breakfast; he made a point of looking at Carrie with encouragement before leaving.
The door closed leaving both girls alone, Carrie made her way slowly towards Mal trying not to spook the girl. She knew that this was a moment where the girl could either open up or began to build her walls up again. Mal felt Carrie's arms and cried feeling like everything that had happened that day came back to hunt her. "I thought I was getting better. I really thought I was moving on."
"Is ok Mal, I think this time what you are feeling is just what Ben brought to the situation, the pain of seeing him relive the moment is what makes feel like this. How about we go out? Let's take a walk, and if you don't feel better, you can call Stella. I bet Zohu and Cora wouldn't mind if we change the plans for today." Mal nodded weakly and went into her room to change, making sure to breathe deeply.
Carrie was right seeing Ben react to walking into her apartment like that was what triggered her reaction this time, and it was important to remember that she was no longer the girl that did that to him. She hoped that at some point Ben would be ready to talk about what happened between them at length so she could explain herself but for now Mal was doing what was right for her and that had to be enough.
The girls walked for over an hour talking and even managed to do some meditation at Central Park, but the time Zohu called them Mal was feeling ok and together they went to pick the couple up. Carrie sent a text to Luke telling him where they were in case he wanted to join them and the boy answer saying that he was on his way.
When Luke followed Ben out of the apartment, the boy ignored him entirely while they went up the stairs to the apartment. Just as Ben was opening the door, Luke caught up with him and made him turned to face him. "Ben stopped. I fell asleep in the apartment talking to Carrie sorry I didn't think to sent you a message. Now please tell me what is happening to you because you are shaking."
"Nothing, I was worry about you, so I went down to asked Mal because you two go out together. You are ok, and everything is fine so let it go Luke." They went inside the apartment together; Luke stepped in front of Ben standing between the boy and his room. "Ben listen to me you are not ok. I can only guess what happened there, but I can see that you are not ok and you need to talk about it."
At that moment, Lindsey came out of the room looking mad and sleepy asking the boys what was going on. Ben moved around Luke and went to kiss the girl with such intensity that she seemed surprised. Since she had made those rude comments to Carrie, the boy wasn't exactly in the mood to be with her at all, and suddenly now it seemed like he couldn't get enough of her. Without stopping the kiss, the couple went into the room and closed the door behind them leaving Luke standing there looking at the door shaking his head in disapproval.
Luke wanted to open the door and forced Ben to grow up, just like Mal had chosen to do but he was scared of what he could witness if he did. Walking into the bathroom, he took a long shower and went back to his room laying on the bed and then he remembered that he needed to charge his phone. Luke took his laptop and started to edit some footage that he had managed to film last night while listening to music on his headphones. When Carrie's text arrived, he was uploading the video to his channel, so he answered and made his way out of the apartment. Just as he was about to walk out, he stopped at the door and finding a piece of paper he wrote in big letters that he was going out and had his cellphone with him, so there was no need to worry about him and put it on the fridge.
Notes
So what do you guys think? I honestly like angry Luke, well I like Luke in all his forms but yeah. Thoughts?