A Season in Purgatory
Chapter 40
Lucas leaned back in his chair, trying to avoid looking bored. His mother sat beside him, silently willing him to see the error of his way. Looking around the small meeting room, Lucas surveyed the sea of young faces looking at various spots on the floor. No one seemed overly anxious to make eye contact or even talk for that matter. Lucas was sure that they'd all been brought to these classes against their will, which resulted in the tension that permeated the room.
"Lucas, pay attention," Karen softly hissed, reprimanding him like an errant child. The past few weeks had been a nightmare, she reflected. Lucas had responded to his two week grounding much better than the four games he'd been forced to miss during that time. But if the only leverage she had was basketball, then she'd use it. At some point, Karen had to force Lucas to submit to her rules. She couldn't have her only child drinking like a fish and ignoring curfew. Things simply could not continue the way they were going.
Lucas tensed up at her constant bitching, but forced himself to remain quiet. There was nothing he could say that wouldn't upset his mom and when she was upset, he was grounded. He couldn't bear to spend anymore time away from Brooke. Two weeks seemed like an eternity. And now his mother was insisting that he spent all his free time after work and practice at the Café, so she could watch him like a felon on parole. He'd spent the better part of his life in the stupid Café. When he was a kid, Karen didn't want him staying alone at home, so he'd hung around all night, wasting his life watching her serve people. He was too old to put up with that kind of parental control.
He turned his attention back to the guy in front of the class, who was rambling on about the evil effects of teenage alcohol consumption. His mother had lost it when she'd found the evidence of his late night party with Brooke under his bed. She'd grounded him for 2 weeks and all basketball games, punishing his entire team for a few harmless drinks.
Far worse than missing the basketball games was being forced to attend these boring alcohol prevention meetings that Karen had signed him up for. The class met every Wednesday night for six weeks at the hospital. Besides the dull testimony of "saved" and sober teens, the classes showed gruesome images of fatal drunk driving accidents. An added bonus was the disclosure of medical problems caused by underage drinking. The nature of the classes irked Lucas beyond compare. He could see the blatant manipulation behind every aspect of the course and it ticked him off that they thought they could manipulate him into not drinking by showing him gross pictures.
"I don't drive when I'm drinking," he muttered to no one in particular, seeing the image of a truck on top of a small sports car. Karen overheard his childish snark and pinched his arm like she used to when he was a boy misbehaving in Sunday school. "We can always repeat the course if you can't learn anything in six weeks," she hissed, her fury mounting with each passing moment. Lucas has the ability to project mutiny from every pore of his body without saying a single word. It was one of the traits she disliked about him with a passion. At least with Dan, he was vocal and in your face. Lucas had a surreptitious way of defying her, one that was hard to respond to.
Lucas slumped down in his chair, defiance radiating from him. "In Russia you can drink vodka when you're 13," he added, just trying to make his mother as uncomfortable as he was. "You should have brought Dan with us since he drinks like a sailor," he continued, not caring that his mother was getting madder with each passing word.
"Dan is an adult and he can drink whatever he likes. You, however, are not going to touch the stuff again if you want to get ungrounded before you go to college." She gave him an evil look as the final slide was shown and the class broke up for the week. Karen had better things to do than attend these classes but she did it so that Lucas might learn about why his behavior was so destructive.
They walked down the quiet hallway of the hospital in an uncomfortable silence, each lost in their own thoughts. Karen perked up as they rounded a corner, nearly colliding with Brooke.
"Brooke, what are you doing here?" she politely asked, waiting for her son to remove his tongue from her mouth so the girl could answer. She was uncomfortable with the display, as she'd never really seen Lucas with a girlfriend before. She'd always hoped that he'd bring home a nice girl like Haley, who didn't radiate sex with her every movement.
Brooke looked at Karen, giving the older woman a "duh" look. She motioned toward her candy striper outfit. "I'm volunteering for cotillion," she explained, not sure if the woman was dense or just that desperate for conversation. She was already pissed at Karen for taking Broody away from her for two weeks.
Nodding at the dark haired girl, Karen allowed the couple to speak for a few moments. Lucas was officially ungrounded at midnight and she assumed they'd be on the phone all night regardless.
"Cotillion", she muttered to herself. Only her quiet son could find the town's version of Paris Hilton. Karen watched the kids for a moment, wondering what they had in common, outside of parties and alcohol. Even at her most popular in high school, Karen had never possessed the kind of money needed to get into the elite circles of Tree Hill. Brooke's family burned more money a month than Karen probably saved in a year and it was another reason for her to doubt the girl her son had put so much faith in.
She'd talked to Dan about the best way to handle Brooke. After all, Luke had been a model son until he'd started dating the girl. Dan had pointed out that telling Lucas he couldn't see the girl would probably backfire, creating more problems than it solved. Dan had defended the girl, stressing that she was loyal and fun, two characteristics that Lucas definitely needed in a love interest. She sighed, fighting the urge to lock her son away from the temptations of the world. Lucas had been a nightmare since he'd found out the truth about the accident. Both she and Dan had struggled with how to handle the boy since his attitude seemed to grow daily.
A movement out of the corner of her eye caught Karen's attention. An awareness of facts grew, alerting Karen to the source of her troubles. Motioning toward Brooke's hands, she sweetly asked "What do you have there, Brooke?"
The girl looked down at the folder she carried. "Oh," she exclaimed. "I was supposed to rush these to the lab for Dr. Brown," she explained to Lucas. Karen's eyes narrowed at the girls words. She was working at the hospital and had all sorts of access to medical records. At least now Karen knew who had uncovered the files from Lucas' accident. Brooke was the person responsible for opening up an event that should have been locked away in the past.
Brooke kissed Lucas quickly on the cheek. "I have to get these downstairs," she said, rushing off. Karen watched as she trotted off, muttering to herself "hope no one dies."
Three days later…
The door to the Café opened, letting a rush of fall air into the small interior. Karen looked up and smiled when she saw Dan leading his parents into her business. "Hello!" she merrily called out, not having seen them since the wedding a few weeks ago.
Roy helped May toward the counter, making sure she was comfortably seated before looking up at Karen. "We're about to take off for home and I thought we'd stop in to say good-bye," he said, surreptitiously staring at the blonde boy in the back booth of the Café. As part of their new "understanding", Karen was making Lucas spend all his free time at the diner, so that he'd not inadvertently wander into trouble. Her son was furious at being tied to her apron strings, but managed to show up at a decent time following school and practice. Karen had made it very clear that she didn't trust him anymore.
Karen followed Roy's questioning glances toward her son and knew what he wanted. "Why don't you all have dinner before you hit the road?" she suggested, hoping that Lucas would get used to their presence on his turf before they had to leave.
Dan smiled at her graciousness and sat next to his mother. He loved Karen's cooking but the tension resulting from being around Lucas usually made it hard for him to enjoy meals at the Cafe. Reluctantly, Dan called out to his oldest son. "Hello, Lucas." His tone was neutral, attempting to sound slightly friendly. Unfortunately, his effort fell flat as Luke's steely blue eyes rose from the book he was reading, met Dan's eyes for a single, cold moment, and then fell back to the novel he was ensconced in.
Karen watched as her son dissed Dan's attempted greeting. It was nothing new to see Lucas ignore Dan but his blatant disrespect was grating on Karen's nerves. "Lucas, shouldn't you be doing your homework?" she asked, knowing that his last teacher's conference yielded several warnings about declining grades. Unfortunately for Karen, her overly intelligent boy would rather read books completely unrelated to his school assignments than focus on his actual homework.
The Cafe was silent as Lucas kept reading a moment. He finally found a stopping place, putting a book mark in the worn Dickens's novel before trading it for his physics book. Unfortunately, physics was no where near as entertaining as fiction. But Lucas was also aware that his grades were sliding faster than the stock market on Black Friday. He wasn't sure what the problem was. He'd always gotten excellent grades and managed to find ways to focus, even on subjects he wasn't particularly interested in. Lately, he could barely make it to class on time, let alone pay attention to his teachers. Once he'd forced himself through the inevitable Monday dinners with Dan and the wasted evenings at the Cafe, Lucas wanted nothing to do with his school work. Fiction at least offered an escape from the miserable life he currently had.
The clock ticked slowly, customers coming and going in steady droves. Roy finished his coffee and pulled his wallet out of his pocket. Karen put a hand on his, objecting. "You are not going to pay for dinner," she insisted, knowing that without his financial backing, there would be no Café. The least she could do was to give him and May a good meal before their trip back to Florida.
May smiled at her sweetly. "It's such a nice place, Karen. You've done so much with it," she commented, knowing that for years the place had been a used bookstore or something. Her smile faltered a moment, as she stared longingly at the remote grandson sitting in the back of the Cafe. The older woman strengthened her resolve and walked over to where her grandson sat.
She slid into the booth across from him and smiled as he looked up in annoyance. "Hello, Lucas," she cheerfully said, determined to maintain her normal personality while everyone in her family was walking on eggshells around the boy. Danny was at a complete loss at dealing with his oldest son and Roy just got angry at the boy's attitude.
Lucas gazed at her with weary eyes, resolving himself for yet another grandparent bonding session. After the wedding he'd managed to avoid them the entire time they'd been in town but Lucas knew it was only a matter of time before they tried again. He didn't want to be mean to the old woman in front of him but he didn't want to have to associate with anymore Scotts either.
"Roy and I are heading back to Florida, so we won't see you for a while," she explained, folding her hands on the chipped Formica table top that separated them. She waited patiently for a response, for any sign of life from the sullen child in front of her.
"Bye," Luke finally replied, knowing that anything else he said would more than likely get him in trouble. He could sense the other people in the small Cafe staring at him and he knew more than likely his mother already had her talons out, ready to bitch slap him. Besides, telling the woman that he didn't care where she went or if he ever saw her again was redundant. She wasn't a part of his life and he didn't really care to spend any time arguing the point.
May took in his disinterested expression and reached out and gently grabbed his hand. She looked down at it, noticing how very similar it was to Danny's. She looked at him, noting his confusion over the way she was studying his hand. "You have Danny's basketball hands," she explained, knowing that most of the Scott men were made to shoot basketballs, much to her dismay. That stupid sport had dominated her family's life for over two generations.
Lucas took in her words and shrugged his shoulders. "I'm glad to know he gave me something because he sure has hell hasn't provided me with much in life." His tone was bitter and caustic, but it was the best he could do. You couldn't treat him like scum for his entire life and then send in a stealth grandma to soothe away his pain.
May leaned back in her seat, very much aware of the anger in the boy's words. "I don't blame you for being mad at Danny. He's gone and made a horrible mess out of something that should have been a joyful event," she slowly began, knowing that she was on uncertain ground. "But Roy and I didn't abandon you. We just want to know our grandchild."
Lucas slammed his book shut, not caring if his mother was watching or not. "You passively abandoned me just as he actively abandoned me. You never once tried to help my mother and me, so why should I give you the time of day?"
May smiled at him, knowing the deal that Karen and Roy had was top secret. Lucas would probably never know just how hard Roy had tried to take care of him. "You may never know what we've tried to do, Lucas. I just hope that some day you'll try to have a bit of empathy for people who get caught in the crossfire of a family battle." She stood up before reaching out and touching the crown of golden hair, much like her own blond locks. "Take care of yourself."
She was gone before he realized it, still affected by her touch and her grandmotherly aura. He totally missed having grandparents and as a small child, he'd desperately coveted the yearly visits Haley got from both sets of grandparents. In the middle of sleepless nights, he could admit that he was curious about his other family. But the anger and hatred he felt usually overpowered any moment of weakness or curiosity. Dan was tainted goods and everything he touched turned evil.
He was startled out of his reverie by May, who'd abruptly turned back to where he sat. Against her better judgment, she took the pencil out of his frozen hand and began writing on the pad of paper he kept his class notes in. "That's my email address. Maybe you could drop me a note sometime and let me know what's going on in your life?"
Luke's eyebrows rose, an incredulous expression on his face. "You use email?"
She nodded brightly, happy that she'd thought of this desperate attempt to reach out to him. "I check my email daily. If you want, I could get your email address, too," she suggested, knowing that he'd not willing exchange the information. May was a wise woman who'd been surrounded by stubborn men her entire life. If she could manage and contain Roy, she could find a way to weasel them both into Luke's life. Roy and Dan were all bluster and overt action. She preferred to accomplish things with a bit of slyness.
Lucas watched her walk away and rejoin her family at the counter before looking down at the email address on his notebook. HER family, he thought, not his. Ignoring the good-byes that were taking place so near to him, he reopened his text book and shoved the offending notebook out of sight. He had better things to do than to obsess about a wanna be grandmother.
Thanks for reading and replying. I appreciate the great comments I've gotten lately. I know the story seems like it's moving slowly, but there's usually a reason behind every line I write. Things are building to a mini-nova shortly. I'm saving the super nova for the last chapter.