"What a lie it all is!"

"All what is?"

"Families! I mean they're just messes. It's like a spilled drink that just keeps spilling and you gotta keep cleaning it up. And you scrub and you scrub and you just can't get the stain up. Show me a happy family, just one!"

Season 4.12- A Family Matter

1981

Luke slammed his locker door shut and turned away from the giggling group of girls. Why were girls like that? he asked himself. So obvious about the whole thing. It drove him crazy. It was like somehow joining the track team had shone some light on him and made all the girls notice him for the first time ever. He pulled his black hat out of his bag and shoved it on his head.

"Luke, my friend has a crush on you!" Liz called out at him from the other side of the corridor. She was stood in her badly altered skirt and huge hair with Oliver Fortnam's arm draped around her, hands wandering a little too much for Luke's liking.

"Shut up, Liz," he mumbled. Great, now everyone was staring at him.

"Which friend, Liz?" someone yelled.

Liz giggled. "All of them," she called back. "C'mon, most everyone has a crush on my big brother, the one and only Butch Danes."

Luke went a deep shade of red. The hallway bristled with laughter. He brushed past Liz and pushed Oliver's arm off his sister in the process. Why Liz entertained these idiots was beyond him. It felt like it was every other night that his father was kicking a different one out of the house at two in the morning. She deserved better. But who was he to tell her that? She'd only ignore him anyway.

Liz was wild. There was no telling her what to do. She wasn't destructive, exactly, only to herself. She'd run away twice, been brought home by the police for illegally driving once, and had had more boyfriends hanging off her than Luke could keep track of. 'She's out of control' everyone would say when they thought Luke couldn't hear. He could hear. And he knew it was true.

The saddest thing was that his father had almost given up trying to control her. Initially, it just made him so mad. He'd be pacing around the living room, calling everyone in town to see if they'd seen her. Luke could almost see the steam coming out of his ears. But once she got home, he just sat and watched her stumble in drunk or high and try and discipline her, but Luke could tell that when she looked up at him, he didn't have the heart to yell at her. Because she wasn't just being crazy for the sake of it. She was sad. So he'd just storm out and go to his garage to work on his boat. It was the only time his father had uttered that cliche phrase: your mother would know what to do.

Luke stuck with it longer, desperately trying to keep her on the straight and narrow. He was trying to carry that, work at the store (which his father couldn't afford to pay him for), and school. He was exhausted. He felt like the weight of the world was on his shoulders.

Once Luke got home he went straight to the garage and starting wiping down the boat. His father had promised him that he was going to take Luke out deep sea fishing for his twenty-first birthday when the boat was finished. He sort of lost track of time until Liz knocked on the door.

"We need to eat, Luke," she said. Luke always cooked for the family.

"Oh right, sorry."

"Y'know, Carrie really does have a crush on you."

"I'm not interested in crazy Carrie."

"That's rude, Carrie's great."

"Carrie's a sex addict."

"That's just a rumor."

Luke smirked. Despite it all, Liz was still his best friend. Not that there was a lot of contention for that spot, but she was. She was the only person in the world who understood what he felt, even just a little bit. But Liz was too much for them, he and his father, they just couldn't understand her. All William could do was tell her she should've known better when she was crying over some loser guy who broke her heart. That wasn't what she needed, but he didn't know what she did need.

"So Oliver...?"

"We're in love, Luke."

"Right."

"We are!"

"What do you want for dinner, Sis?" Luke asked, changing the subject. Liz had claimed to be in love countless times.

"Can you make your scrambled eggs on toast?"

"Of course I can. Just give me five more minutes to finish this off."

"Ok."

Liz smiled to herself. She found it so odd that her brother and father were so obsessed with this piece of junk boat but the way Luke handled it so gently, treated it with such care, Liz wondered if he'd ever find a partner who'd be happy playing second fiddle to a vessel.

William wandered into the garage a few minutes later, exhausted from watching the store all day. If he was honest, the reason he spent so much time at the store was only partly because they needed the money. Home was more stressful. He adored his kids, of course he did. But being a single parent to teenagers was more emotionally draining than it had been when they were young. Before he'd just chuck them up in the air, tickle them, and sneak them a cookie and everything would be fine but now... well now they needed more from him than he had to give.

"How's the boat, son?" he asked.

"It's coming along."

William nodded. The boat had been a project of his for a long time. He used to put Lottie up onto the deck and put a sailor's hat all jaunty on her head to make her laugh. He promised her he'd finish it in time for their honeymoon. Then he promised his young kids he'd take them on sailing holidays. Now he'd told Luke that he'd take him out for his 21st birthday but who knows if the boat would be finished on time.

"Is she sea-worthy?" William asked.

Luke shook his head. "Not even close."

William patted the stern. Part of him didn't want it to be finished. It would feel like the end somehow. The final closing chapter of his life with Lottie. In years to come, Luke would feel the same about the boat but towards his father. Like if the boat was ever finished it would mean he was finally letting the last part of William go.

Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think of teenage Luke and Liz, this is sort of what I felt like their dynamic would be like based on how they are as adults but I'd love to hear your opinions. Also, in case you're lost in the timeline, Luke is 17 and Liz is 15 in this chapter x