Hey everyone, I found the start to a story that I wrote in 2019 and I decided to try and finish it. Enjoy some more Luke/Manny angst and (eventually) fluff. Thanks :)

Chapter 1: The Party that Started the End.

"Manny? Man'? Manny, come on I'm sorry!" Luke shouted into the darkness, his voice slurry. "Manny please I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..." he called out again, tripping over and holding onto a tree for support. The world span around him.

"Why Luke? Why would you do that?" Manny's voice croaked out. He stumbled out from behind a tree and stared at Luke, bottle precariously balanced between his thumb and index finger. "Why would you do that to me?" He repeated.

"I'm sorry Manny, but you can do so much better." Luke's lip trembled and his hands shook, looking over at Manny. "There's no way I'm letting you hook up with her."

"What, so you can make out with her later?" Manny sounded very angry, but Luke was too drunk out of his mind to properly decipher what he was feeling, nevermind what Manny was feeling.

"No, I wasn't gonna make out with her later... I don't- I don't want to make out with her." Luke replied.

"Well it's always one girl at these stupid parties and it's always the girl I'm trying to hook up with!" Manny was shouting now, and Luke dropped his bottle of beer on a tree branch, smashing it in an instant.

"I'm sorry Manny." Luke looked down.

"Sorry's not enough. I thought you were my best friend. My only friend, Luke! Turns out I was wrong." Manny got back up and threw his bottle into the forest. The sound of more glass smashing made Luke wince. "I was so fucking wrong." He walked unevenly back to the pool from the forest, grabbed his stuff and left. Just like that. With red eyes, Luke watched the back of his fashionable brown silk-hybrid shirt until it went out of sight as his best friend walked out of another fight.

Luke sunk down the tree and sobbed, his head resting on his knees, facing down. He didn't know why he did it, but he always did. He always took Manny's girl, made out with them and then acted like it never happened. He didn't know why. He didn't even like most of the girls. He didn't even like this one, one of the most popular girls in the school. He just stole her away from Manny (who was already busy with his hand up her shirt) and it turns out Manny was drunk enough to finally snap and run off. Him and Manny had been getting into so many fights recently, and it was taking a toll on both of them. Luke knew that they'd never have the innocent, fun-filled and curious friendship with Manny again like when they were younger, but he thought they'd even get on well during his teen years. Turns out that was really difficult to do.

Luke cried there until someone found him, minutes or hours later. Luke didn't care how long it'd been, he just couldn't get the image of the other boy walking straight out, away from the party, away from the house, away from Luke. An adult got him up and walked him to the front door and said goodbye, pushing him a little against his will out of the front door and onto the porch. He found his own way home and burst in, suddenly blinded by the lights and the many colours and voices that were speaking now. His vision cleared slightly and he saw his sisters and his parents standing there, crying and shouting and hugging him and laughing and doing so many things that Luke just couldn't take or couldn't care about at that moment. He could only think about Manny.

He pushed them away and walked into his room, collapsing on the bed with his head swimming from alcohol, adrenaline and the intoxicating smell of his mom's casserole coming from underneath his door. He picked up his phone and without thinking phoned Manny, which went straight to voicemail.

"Hey, I can't answer the phone at the moment. If you want to, leave a message after the beep and I'll get back to you as soon as possible!" Hearing Manny sound so happy and upbeat was a rarity around Luke nowadays. He heard the beep and stayed silent for a moment, struggling to form words in his mind as well as his mouth. He could feel the world turning black around him, but he was determined to say something before he passed out. He whispered softly into his phone, "I'm- I'm sorry…"

"I'm so sorry, Man', I'm so s-sorry." He struggled to contain his rapidly deteriorating situation, and hung up hoping that the voicemail would miraculously not get sent. He'd ask Alex tomorrow morning, she'd be able to do something he was sure. Probably. He dropped his phone next to him and turned on his side, hugging his pillow as he cried into it. He could deal with his emotions tomorrow, or the day after. Or never, never was preferable, but tomorrow was the best option. Right now, though, sleep was the best option- maybe his body really did know what it was doing. Apologising to Manny couldn't wait, but it was better to apologise when both of them were sober and alert than to apologise when both of them were drunk, sleep deprived, pissed off, lonely and absolutely did not get lost in the woods behind a random classmates' house after Luke got a little touchy with Manny's girl… who he was in the process of getting 'touchy' with.

Luke replayed that moment over and over again in his mind, and he should have been proud- she chose him over Manny and he got to touch boobs. Like real, proper ones. Without anything covering them. But he wasn't thinking about that- the only thing he could think about was Manny's broken, hurt face looking back at him as he retreated out of the room and into the woods. That face almost haunted Luke- he understood Manny's pain. He could never feel what Manny felt in that moment, though.

The last thing he thought before he dropped off was that he wasn't sharing Manny's pain- seeing Manny so hurt was making Luke feel the same pain Manny did when she chose Luke over him. Luke was just as heartbroken at Manny leaving as he was at that girl leaving. Except Luke caused her to leave- and he caused Manny to leave too. He needed to apologise, fix it, and make up for it. And he had a plan. As soon as he thought of one, which would happen tomorrow, he decided as he passed out cuddling his pillow.

"Night, Man'" He whispered, thinking the pillow was his best friend. "I'll apologise to you tomorrow."

Chapter 2 coming soon... hopefully :)