Summary: Life for Cassie and Luke living together starts out hostile but slowly and naturally morphs into something more open and honest as they start to learn more about each other.
High school AU, enemies to friends to lovers, slow burn, angst with a happy ending, drug use, mentions of teenage sex, underage drinking, explicit language, teenage drama, canon compliant mild violence, football player Luke, musician Cassie, bed sharing, T1D, diabetes, diabetic ketoacidosis, diabetes diagnosis.
Cassie and Luke's first few weeks of learning to live together was an absolute cluster-fuck.
They were both equally, and rightfully pissed that their parents hadn't consulted them on the life altering decision to move in together.
For the first five days, they barely said a word to one another. Their bedroom doors, directly opposite on either side of the hallway, remained firmly closed.
Eventually they progressed from loaded glares and silence to constant arguing.
At first their fighting was fuelled by rage, but somewhere along the way it became ridiculous. More like entertainment than enemy engagement.
They bickered about everything. Who emptied the milk, who used the last of the hot water, whose turn it was to take out the trash, the war on plastic, the music level, the choice of music, what actually constituted good music, who turned the air-conditioning on, who turned it off, climate change, the appropriate amount of clothing to wear in someone else's company, fast fashion, the top local take-outs, the food crisis, the highest source of protein for breakfast, and how to make the best granola.
"It's gotta be crunchy," Luke insisted, peering over Cassie's shoulder as she mixed the ingredients. "And to get it crunchy, you gotta use egg whites."
"Egg whites?" Cassie wasn't convinced. Nor was she focusing. As he leaned in to talk to her, she spilt a handful of cashews all over the bench.
Luke palmed them into his hand and tipped them into his mouth.
"Uh-huh," he mumbled between crunches. "I'm telling you, it's the only way to get the best crunchy granola."
Cassie snorted and poured some more oats and nuts into the bowl. Then, to his dismay, she started singing.
"I know a man was outta touch,
and he'd hide in a house,
and he didn't say much,
deedle-ee deet deet deet deet,
deet deet deedle dee doo.
And like a man
With a tiger outside his gate
He not only couldn't relax
But he couldn't relate."
She sang as she stirred, both the muesli and Luke. Shimmying her shoulders and swaying her hips to the rhythm of her own voice and challenging him with her eyes.
"Funny," Luke crossed his arms and leant back against the kitchen bench, not amused at all, but somewhat in awe. Since her and Marisol had moved in, Luke had VIP tickets to Cassie practicing her music through the walls and door of her room, pretty much every night. But hearing her voice in full proximity was something else entirely. He could feel goosebumps rising along his spine and the back of his neck. Although that could well have been the fact that he hadn't had a hit in twenty-four hours.
Without saying anything more, Luke retreated to his room, emerging a few hours later to smugly berate her sticky, not crunchy granola.
Both of them had pretty busy schedules. Cassie either worked or rehearsed most days after school and on Saturdays. Luke had practice every day after school, games on Fridays and post-match reviews on Saturdays, then he had to work in his dad's garage on Sundays.
When they weren't doing all of that, or hanging shit on each other, they were alone in their rooms with their doors closed – Cassie usually working on her music. Luke escaping.
It was a wonder they even saw each other.
As for their parents, they were rarely home either. But when they were, and the four of them happened to find themselves in the same room, the tension was rife. Marisol tried her best to interact with Luke, but he wasn't interested. Well, it wasn't necessarily that he wasn't interested in her, it was just that if he wasn't at school, or practice, or work, he was generally under the influence of oxy, to varying degrees, and that created an intense dissociation. Which pissed off both Cassie and his dad. Jacob would be instantly on Luke's back about it, without even thinking. Which weirdly, seemed to piss Cassie off even more.
"Hey, Marisol's talking to you." Luke was in such a suppressive, numbing haze he hadn't noticed anyone talking to him. His dad's angry voice jarred him out of it, momentarily, and he stood up and left to his room, for peace. "Don't just walk away!" Jacob called after him.
Luke slammed the door shut.
Cassie followed suit.
A few weeks in, the two of them were forced into a further uncomfortable situation.
"Jacob had to go to a tow," Marisol mentioned as she made her coffee one morning. "Cassie, could you drive Luke to school?"
"Pretty sure he can drive himself."
"In what car?" Marisol raised her eyebrows.
"I'll take the bus," Luke said standing up and shoving his chair backwards, before dumping his bowl and utensils in the dishwasher. He didn't want anything from either of them.
"That's not necessary, you're both going to the same place. Cassie!" Marisol fumed.
"Fine," Cassie huffed, grabbing her bag. "But I'm dropping you around the corner."
For someone who claimed not to care what people thought of her, she seemed pretty concerned about being seen with him.
They sat silent the entire time until Cassie pulled up.
"You'll have to find your own way home," she said matter-of-factly, "I'm going straight to work after school."
Luke got out of the car and stepped around the front of it.
"And don't expect this to become a regular thing," Cassie stuck her head out the window and called to him.
He mock saluted her, which turned into a finger salute, and as he turned to walk away, he swore he heard her chuckle.
It became a regular thing.
In fact, Luke often wondered, if his dad hadn't gone out to the job that morning, and Marisol hadn't insisted that Cassie take him to school, whether things would have turned out the same for them? Whether they would have had the same opportunity day after day to eschew the banter and really open up to each other. Whether they would have become… whatever it was they were to each other?
Cassie did most of the talking, at first. She was passionate about everything. And she wasn't afraid to ask questions.
"So I guess the rumours about you losing your license are for real?" she delved in on the second day.
"I didn't lose my license, my dad took it off me," Luke said to the window. And then cursed himself for saying anything.
"Ah…why?" Cassie peered at him sideways as she kept her eye on the road.
Luke shrugged, "don't see how that's your business."
"Oh, okay then, bro. Just trying to make conversation."
"You surprise me, Salazar," Luke teased. "I'd have thought you were above high school gossip."
"I am," Cassie sat up straighter in her seat.
"Oh yeah, so that's all you heard about me then?" To his surprise, Cassie licked her lips, grabbed the steering wheel tighter and… was that a blush creeping up her cheeks?
"We're here!" she announced quickly, pulling to a sudden halt. Christ, she was an erratic driver. He honestly wasn't sure he'd get to school some days. And yet he still got in the car with her, every damn morning.
If he was being honest with himself, he started to look forward to their morning drives. It beat the shit out of sitting in his dad's truck, trying not to breathe – 'less he irritated the man. And although Cassie drove like a lunatic and he feared for his life some days, her presence was somehow calming. Sometimes she sang along to the radio, or a tune in her head. Sometimes she was quiet. Sometimes she teased him incessantly or sometimes she struck up genuine conversation. Whatever the day, whatever her mood, he found being in the car with her oddly reassuring.
He tried not to ever get wasted before school, during school, or at practice and games, so his mornings and afternoons were often filled with overwhelming uncomfortable feelings that he really didn't know how to sit with. But being in that car with her, for the fifteen minutes, sometimes less, it took to get to school, helped him feel ready and able to face the day. Without narcotics.
After almost a year of using, it was a strange but powerful realisation for him to have - that there were other ways of coping.
Luke started feeling so at ease in Cassie's presence, that he found himself talking more too. Opening up. Letting her in a little.
"Dad took my license off me 'cause I crashed my car," he confessed on one of their morning jaunts. "Said I couldn't handle the responsibility that came with it." He shrugged. "Having a license was kinda pointless without a car anyway."
"You wrecked your car?" Cassie sounded concerned. "What happened?"
Luke let out a big breath. He'd never told anyone this before. It felt like releasing an internal demon, all dark and twisted and wicked. "Dad and I fought. I was…" he paused. "I needed a fix. I got in the car to drive to Johnno's and just... lost control... had to get dad to come tow me."
"Oh shit," Cassie glanced over at him. "He would have been pissed."
"Yeah," Luke swallowed. "I've never seen him angrier."
"Does this have anything to do with you working on Sundays?" Cassie asked.
Luke nodded. She didn't miss a beat. "He's making me fix the car. And I gotta work on other jobs to pay off the parts I use, and the cost of the tow that night."
Cassie pulled up around the corner from school and watched as Luke got out. After closing his door, he leant through the window.
"I've never told anybody this shit, so if it gets around school, I'll know you're not as superior as you think you are."
"Pfft! Your secret's safe with me," Cassie waved him away with her hand and wiggled her little finger. "I pinky swear," she smirked.
Luke shook his head in disbelief. Nobody did that anymore. Nobody over the age of ten anyways.
Cassie told him things too. Like, about her dad being a fuckup and skipping out on them, her mum's subsequent dating fails and how fun that had been growing up. Her dream to be a rockstar.
"You play at the bar where you work, don't you?" Luke didn't always meet Johnno there, and they didn't always deal inside, but he'd seen her once, carrying her keyboard in. A small part of him had wanted to stay and watch her perform. To see the strange creature that was Cassie Salazar in her natural habitat, up on stage, doing her thing. "Do you sing there too?"
Cassie shook her head. "I just fill in, sometimes do back-up vocals. Nora and I, we're gonna start our own band." She worried her lips, and he could tell she wasn't sure about sharing the next detail. "I just gotta write some material first."
"You haven't written anything before?" Luke was genuinely surprised. She spent a lot of time in her room, jamming.
"Not yet. We play covers mostly."
"I like your covers," he looked over at her and a small smile escaped him.
Cassie smiled back.
He wanted to say more. Encourage her to keep trying with her writing. But he didn't want to come on too strong or give her a big head. Girl already had a shit tonne of self-belief. She didn't need his half-arsed attempts at cheering her on.
Besides, things between them were starting to settle at home, and he didn't want to cock that up with some weird comment.
Their bickering had developed into conversing. About all sorts of things. From the ridiculous and mundane to more serious and important issues. Cassie had an interesting perspective on life, and he found himself bringing things up sometimes, just to hear her opinion on them. Sometimes just to hear her voice.
Luke had never had those kinds of discussions with anybody. Not his brother. Not any of his football team mates, friends or romantic interests. Certainly not his dad. And despite how close they were, not even his mum.
Even though Cassie had something to say about everything, when they were in the car together, she also listened. Really listened. She wasn't listening to formulate a response. She wasn't listening to give advice. She was simply there, holding space, letting him let it out. Whatever he needed to. Whenever he needed to.
He started to think they could be friends. True friends. Like the kind you could be yourself with and not worry about judgement. Like the kind you could express your opinions and argue with, without worrying about your differences dividing you.
For the first time, in a long time, Luke's thoughts were consumed by something other than just getting through the day, holding his shit together and getting to his next hit. For the first time in a long time, he found himself actually wanting to have a clear head – to think things, feel things, and talk about them.
Until one morning Luke threw himself into the Subaru and almost threw the whole 'thing' away.
He'd had a particularly unsettling start to the day, with Jacob on his back about the way he was handling, or rather not handling, the new living arrangements and his treatment of Marisol.
"We gotta do something about this," Luke muttered, slamming the door.
"About what?" Cassie started the car.
"This… whole… living together thing. I mean, you can't be happy about it."
"I'm happy for my mum," Cassie said, glancing over at him with a furrowed brow.
"Really?"
"I don't know what you're suggesting, but I've never interfered with my mum's love life and I'm not about to start. Who she sees is her own fucking choice."
"And what about you?" Luke asked and then clarified. "What about your life?"
"Well, it'd be a hell of a lot easier if you wore more clothes and stopped taking that shit you take."
Was she really going there with this? And what the hell was her problem with him being half-naked in his own house?
"What's that to you?"
"You want your dad off your back, I want my mum to be happy. The only thing getting in the way of all of that is your drug use."
Wow. She really wasn't mincing her words that morning.
"Oh, so now you're gonna lecture me? Is that it?"
Cassie shrugged, "if the shoe fits!"
"Pull over. I'm getting out." This was a mistake. A big mistake. All of this. Their parents moving in together. Cassie driving him to school. Him opening up to her. He wished now that he hadn't done that. She'd just taken everything she knew about him, his number one vulnerability and thrown it in his face. What was he thinking? Friends? Hell no.
"Don't be an idiot," she sat up, looking at the door like he was going to wrench it open, and commando roll out onto the road. How dumb did she think he was? And what the hell did she care anyway?
Luke started rummaging in his bag for something, finally retrieving a small packet of white pills.
"What are you doing?" she looked from Luke to the packet, to the road and back again. "Luke, you can't take that shit to school with you. Do you have any idea what they'll do if they find it?"
"I said pullover!" He demanded.
"Okay, okay," Cassie slowed down and merged into the side lane. "Just let me find someplace safe."
Luke hugged his bag to his chest, his long legs taking up the entire space in front of the seat. He sniffed and squeezed his temples with one hand, his right foot tap, tap, tapping on the floor of the car. He'd never taken a hit before school, let alone at school. He didn't even know why he brought the shit with him. It was just some impulsive, last-minute thing he'd done after he argued with his dad that morning. Some days he felt like his body and his brain weren't his anymore.
"Hey," Cassie's voice broke through the haze of anxiety building inside him. "You don't have to do this Luke," she said soft and low. Her voice was like a cradle, supporting him, rocking him.
He looked out the window. Why wasn't she stopping already?
"Look. I'm sorry, okay?" Cassie's voice was sincere. "You're not responsible for how your dad acts. You're not responsible for how anybody else acts. I shouldn't have said that." She looked at him, almost pleading. "Let's just go to school, okay? You can lock your shit in my glovebox for the day. It'll be safe. And so will you." Her voice was soothing. "Please."
Luke clenched his backpack tighter, looked over at her with wide eyes and brows raised, closed his lids and nodded slowly, his leg still tapping involuntarily. She was right. Taking drugs to school felt like a step down a path he couldn't retreat from. What the hell had he been doing?
Cassie took one hand off the wheel, and without looking at him, placed it on his knee. Luke stared at her black painted fingernails and numerous rings, her pianist fingers playing some made-up tune on his leg - the light, energetic brush of her fingertips sending sensations he didn't understand, along his thigh to his core. Luke shifted in his seat and Cassie removed her hand, glancing at him briefly before taking the last corner to school.
That day, she didn't drop him around the block. She parked in the school car park. They both got out at the same time, gazed at each other over the roof of the car and then went their separate ways with quiet, confidence boosting nods.
If the kids who were in the carpark watched them and whispered amongst themselves, Luke didn't notice. He was too busy trying to figure out what the hell had just happened. Him trusting her, their argument, her calling him out on his drug use, the way he'd felt with Cassie's hand on his knee. He'd never felt anything like it, and he couldn't even begin to describe it, let alone define it.
That night, after their parents had gone to sleep, Cassie stood in her open doorway and called out to him. He came and stopped in his doorway, the hallway stretching between them like no man's land.
Cassie held the packet from the glovebox in her hand.
"You want this back?" She queried, sounding reluctant to give it to him.
He hadn't actually missed it. He'd come home from practice to eat dinner, the two of them had sat down at the same time to watch TV on the couch, then he'd read some of his book on his bed, sent a few messages, tidied up his room and got ready to sleep. Like an ordinary human being, with ordinary things to do and think about, on an ordinary kind of schedule.
It felt weird. Daunting. Usually, when he wasn't dulling all his senses with oxy, he was thinking about dulling all his senses with oxy.
"I'm shocked you didn't dump it," Luke found himself saying.
"I almost did," Cassie's voice waivered a little. "But I gave you my word it would be safe. And that means something. Even if it also kinda means that I was enabling your habit. Which I'm definitely not okay with. And I will not be doing it again. Consider yourself warned."
She really did have a lot to say. About everything. But he realised he didn't mind. He kind of enjoyed her rants. They gave him something other than the pain to focus on. The pain that the little white pills usually placated.
Luke took one step over no man's land and slightly into her territory, standing stock in front of her, his eyes flitting from the bag dangling in her fingers, to her shoulders and neck, her lips and then her eyes, which quickly flicked up from his bare chest to meet his gaze. They stood like that in silence for a moment, staring into each other's eyes.
Cassie dropped her hand and scrunched the bag into her fist. "Why do you take it?" she half-whispered, her eyes tender.
Luke exhaled and broke their gaze, crossing his arms over his chest and looking past his shoulder down the hall. It was her who was being vulnerable now, showing him how much she actually cared. Cassie spent a lot of time and effort putting up a wall, protecting herself. Luke was honoured she'd shown that part of her to him. And in the last week or so he had come to realise that she would be the one he told everything to, eventually. But he wasn't quite there yet.
"Are you gonna give it to me or not?" He muttered.
"Give it to you?" Cassie coughed a little, taken aback. "Oh, you mean this?" she held it above his open hand. "Sure. But you owe me."
She dropped the packet and he caught it, curling his long fingers around the soft plastic.
"Oh, I do, do I?" His mouth curled up in the corner.
"Mm hmm," she murmured, eyes glinting
"We'll see about that," he said as he walked back to his own room, leaving the door open.
Lately he'd taken to leaving it ajar so he could hear her playing louder and clearer.
Her music was becoming kind of like medicine to him, her voice an elixir of life.
And he needed a hell of a lot of healing.
After that day, Luke started to let his guard down more and more around Cassie. Maybe, even got a little careless.
He usually closed his door and hid in his room when he was taking a hit, or right in the thick of it. Only coming out high when he absolutely had to.
One night on her third trip to the loo in between jamming, Cassie walked out to find Luke face down on the floor in his room, white powder on his desk and a little on the carpet.
"Luke!" she rushed over to him, shoving his shoulder and side to try and get a response.
He groaned instantly, much to her relief, and she helped him roll over and sit up slowly. He took her in with half-lidded eyes.
"You're pretty," he said, smiling a dreamy smile. Cassie's mouth dropped. "Pretty fucking annoying…" he added, mumbling.
"I'm gonna forget you said that, because you're messed up right now."
"How would you know?" Luke slurred, clenching his jaw and glaring at her through heavy eyes.
"Aside from the fact that I just peeled you up off the floor? You can't stand wearing pants when you're messed up."
"Wait…" Luke lifted his chin and patted the tops of his thighs, feeling the material. "I'm not wearing any pants?" Then he stopped to consider her. "Huh... sorry 'bout that."
"Rrrgh," Cassie threw her hands in the air and gritted her teeth. "Who's the fucking annoying one?" She seemed agitated, or grumpy. She did have these inexplicable fits of grumpiness from time to time.
She watched as he stumbled around the room, pushing aside books and tipping out a basket, rifling through it.
"Hey… can you…" he waved his hands around, gesturing the room, "Can you help me find my pants?"
Cassie sighed, a deep, resigning sigh.
"Forget about your pants, okay. Just, come over here," she stood by the side of his bed, pulling back the covers so he could crawl in. "Just try and sleep it off, okay."
When she went to replace the covers over him, he shook his head. "I get itchy… the oxy…"
He thought he heard her mutter something like "that explains the lack of clothing."
"Hmmm?" he asked
"Nothing," she replied, and left them folded back at his feet.
As she stood up to go, Luke grabbed Cassie's wrist gently, feeling her pulse beating rapidly beneath her skin, her hand warm and soft.
"Stay with me?" he asked her groggily. "Please."
Cassie hesitated and then nodded, sitting beside him on the bed, with her back pressed against the headboard and her feet tucked under the peeled back covers.
"Can you… sing for me?" he asked, his already hazy with the promise of sleep.
He felt her tense beside him and then let out a long, deep breath. She nodded in the dark, not to him per se, because he couldn't see her, but more like giving herself permission. Permission to also let her guard down a little. Put herself out there.
It was a tune he'd heard her playing the last few nights, but this time she slowed it down and added the lyrics for her acapella lullaby. He didn't recognise the song, but then he was no music connoisseur, as she constantly reminded him. He liked it. It was relatable. So relatable, it could have been written for him.
"Sky-y-y-y-y-y, sky-y-y-y-y-y)
Lost but not yet found
Made up of pieces that I picked up off the ground
Some nights I swear, no matter how hard that I try
Feels like I'll never touch the blue side of the sky
Blue side of the sky
Full speed on the Five, both of my eyes closed
Tail-bound, Oceanside, don't care where I'll go
Tell me a thousand times, I'm betting on false hope
But I swear I'm gonna find it
You can try to hide it
You can try to hide it
You can try to hide it
But I swear I'm gonna find it
The blue side of the sky-y-y-y-y-y
Blue side of the sky-y-y-y-y-y
Blue side of the…"
He fell asleep thinking he'd have to ask her about the original some time.
He woke up not long after, feeling cold. The drugs hadn't fully worn off, but he was lucid. From where he was lying, he could see that she'd cleaned the shit off his desk and closed the bedroom door. He felt a sudden pang of guilt for putting her in that position. He rolled over and was struck with an overwhelming feeling of relief and gratitude that she was still there, sunk down beside him on the bed now, still awake. When he shivered, she used her foot to lift the blankets up to her hands and then pull them over the two of them, her face indecipherable.
"Don't let me take that stuff anymore? Okay?" he said sleepily.
Cassie nudged in closer, put her hand on his chest where his heart was beating slowly underneath and shushed him back to sleep.
That morning, after she snuck out to shower herself and change for school, she emerged from the bathroom to find him dressed and ready, leaning in his door frame across from hers
He looked briefly down at the ground before handing her the plastic packet from the other day.
"You're giving it back to me?"
Luke swallowed.
"I was hoping…" he looked away again. "You could just hold it for me, you know, until I really need it."
As he spoke, he remembered the warmth of her hand on his heart, the fruity smell of her breath as she moved in closer, comforting him, in his bed, a few hours ago, with her soft, reassuring voice. Did he mention how much he lived for the sound of her voice?
"I want to help Luke, but not like this." Cassie lowered her eyes. "I don't want to be your dispenser."
"Okay," Luke nodded. "I understand." He took a deep breath and looked her dead in the eye. "Keep them away from me then, okay? I just… I want to stop Cassie. I want this shit out of my life. Out of all of our lives."
For once, she didn't know what to say.
So she didn't say anything. But she took the bag.
Two days later he was begging her for it.
It was Frankie's 16th birthday party, and she had convinced him to go. Not together. Well, they were going there together but they weren't together. Anyway. Luke didn't do parties. The noise, the crowd, the lights and the lack of space bugged him. Previously the only way he could cope at a party was to take a hit beforehand and just drift through the night.
But Cassie was having none of it.
"You asked me to help," Cassie said, hands on hips as they stood in their separate doorways, about to depart. "And besides… you owe me one, remember!"
She was dependable, that was for sure. And formidable in black platform boots, a cut off Janis Joplin tee and leather mini-skirt, her hair teased into a high ponytail
"It's the only way you'll get me there," Luke said with a defiant look on his face.
"Suit yourself," she snapped, storming down the hall and out the front door. "Have a nice night."
He went to the party. Without taking anything. But he didn't last very long in the thick of it.
Which was how he came to be sitting in the gutter drinking a beer two hours later. He'd had enough. Plus, it was a hell of a lot cooler out there, and other than the thud of the music inside the house, and the occasional car passing, it was peaceful under the dim glow of the streetlight.
Until he heard two people arguing. One of them was definitely Cassie. The other sounded like… Armando.
Luke stood up and followed the sound of her voice. It was so familiar to him now. A permanent fixture in his life.
As he got closer, he could see the two of them standing by the yard gate near some cars parked in the driveway. A couple of kids hung by the fence, faces in their drinks, pretending not to notice the altercation.
"Just because we had sex doesn't mean you have a right to touch me anytime you like." Cassie seethed.
"Whatever." Armando shrugged. "You wanted it."
"No! That's exactly what I'm saying. I don't want you touching me. I don't want you talking to me. I don't want you near me. I don't want you - point blank. Just leave me the fuck alone!"
A few more kids had gathered now, and Luke inched closer, concerned by the tone in Cassie's voice. Concerned that Armando might react impulsively. He was drunk. And he was a big dude. And he didn't take lightly to people ordering him around.
"Oh so… you wanna play hard to get?" Armando smirked and took a pass at her arse.
She slapped his hand away and Armando tried to grab her arm and pull her up against him, but just before he could, Luke got close enough and shoved Armando in the chest, standing between him and Cassie.
"She's not playing bro," Luke said with intense focus, his hands loose by his sides, but ready.
"What the fuck would you know?" Armando spat, reeling forward into Luke's space.
"I know she doesn't want you touching her," Luke remained firm and fixed.
"And what are you gonna do it about?" Armando was livid and itching for a fight.
"He's not gonna do anything," Cassie came around from behind Luke, turning her head to glare at him.
"You're pathetic." Armando lifted his chest and jutted his head forward at Luke. "You gonna let her talk you down like that? If she was my woman, I'd put her in her goddamn place man."
Luke huffed. "Yeah.. that's why she's not yours." She didn't belong to anybody.
"Stop it!" Cassie snapped. "Luke, just shut up and walk away."
"Yeah Lukey," Armando jeered, rocking back and forth on one leg, taunting. "Do what your Mummy says."
Luke rolled his eyes and turned to walk away, content that Armando had made enough of an idiot out of himself for one night and grateful for a clear head to help him see it. Cassie turned too. But Armando wasn't satisfied with that. He wanted more. He was determined to rile his rival.
"Bet your real mum's turning in her grave right now, watching your dad fuck some gold-digging immigrant in her marital bed."
Beside him, Cassie let out a sound like none other he had heard from her before. A sharp, wounded sound. It pierced Luke's skin and made a rush to his chest, like a shot of adrenaline.
Luke could feel the wrath rising in him and without even realising what he was doing, he lurched around and rushed to tackle Armando, but the quarterback was already on Luke, grabbing him around the top of his torso in a football hold and throwing him to the ground on his side.
There was a loud crack as Luke collided with the edge of the concrete driveway and the small crowd that had gathered gasped in anticipation. Cassie included.
Luke tried to get up but Armando had him pinned down and as he turned, the star player pummelled his sides and stomach over and over again.
"Stop it!" Cassie yelled, trying to push Armando away.
Luke vaguely noticed a couple of the guys show up and drag Armando off him and escort him out the back of the house. Frankie put his hand out and pulled Luke up.
"You alright man?" Frankie asked, putting his hand on Luke's shoulder as he stood bracing on his knees.
Luke shrugged him off. "I'm fine," he managed to say, clutching at his ribs as he stood, the effort making him grimace.
The crowd had dispersed a little, but he couldn't see Cassie anywhere.
"She's inside with Nora and Riley…" Frankie said, noticing the way Luke glanced around him, unsettled.
Luke nodded and started walking down the drive, towards the road, one hand on his side.
"Where you goin' man?"
"Home."
Luke was done. He just wanted to get out of there. Go home to his sanctuary. Well at least it had been his sanctuary until Cassie and Marisol had moved in. Nothing had been the same since. He thought his life was a mess before, now it felt even more chaotic. His head hadn't been this clear since his mum died, and yet, he was so confused, and in pain. What had he been thinking, giving Cassie his shit? If he had been fucked up at the party, he wouldn't have even noticed her and Armando arguing. He wouldn't have stepped in and stopped it, and he wouldn't have got hurt. Why the hell had he done that? Because… Cassie.
"She'll only be a minute man," Frankie called out. "I'll go get her."
Luke kept walking.
He got a fair distance, uncomfortable as he was, before Cassie rolled up beside him in the Subaru.
"Get in," she said without looking at him.
"I'm good to walk," he muttered.
"Stop tryin' to be a hero." Cassie snapped. "Just get in the car."
For a while they were both silent on the drive home.
"Don't ever do that again," Cassie finally spoke her piece.
"Do what?" Luke was trying hard to breathe through the pain.
"Fight my battles."
Luke scoffed. "You know, you can be a feminist and still have someone show up for you."
"Show up for me?" Cassie's voice rose. "Is that what you call showing up? Losing your cool? Waving your dick around? Getting the shit beaten out of you?"
"Yeah," Luke winced. "That wasn't really part of the plan." What plan? There had been no plan, other than to stop Armando from hurting her.
If Cassie had any sympathy for him as he struggled to get out of the car, she didn't show it.
"Ugh… hurts like a bitch," he groaned as he bent his tall frame to fit through the door and braced to get himself off the seat.
As soon as they got down the hall Luke crowded into Cassie's doorway, with as much presence as he could manage.
"I need my shit," he demanded.
"No."
"Jesus Cassie, I'm in pain. Just, one okay?" he whined desperately. "Just one!"
"You should have thought about that before you started throwing punches," Cassie was steadfast.
She stood in front of him, in her room, a fierce look on her face. But underneath he knew she didn't want to be torturing him. And he'd never intended to put her in that position. But then, he'd never intended to get injured either.
"Cassie." Luke was firm. "Give me my shit."
"I can't," she took a deep breath in and let it out again. This time she didn't look at him. "I dumped it,"
"You what?" Luke's voice went up.
"You heard me."
"Why the fuck would you do that?" Luke glared at her; his eyes wide, disbelieving.
Cassie sniffed. "You asked me to remember? You were standing right there," she pointed to his doorway, "and you pleaded with me to make it all stop. Well, that's what I was doing."
"No!" Luke was furious. "No, no,no, tell me you didn't dump it."
"I dumped it," Cassie's voice almost broke, and Luke instantly hated himself for dragging her into his problems.
He leant his head back against the door frame, banging it against the wood repeatedly. "Fuck!" he muttered.
Cassie stepped towards him, her hand reaching out to touch his chest, like she had the other night, in his bed, but Luke shrugged her off, distraught.
"You know I'll just get more, from Johnno, right?" He rubbed his hands through his hair and went into his room, rifling through neatly folded piles of clothes. "I can get more," he said again, ripping his varsity shirt off, determined.
"What are you doing?' Cassie stepped across the hall and was confronted with a series of large dark blotches marking Luke's ribs and abdomen. "Oh my god. Luke."
He followed her line of sight.
"What do you care?" Luke muttered, changing into a flannel and jacket. "You literally got rid of the one thing that could help me."
"You're going to see Johnno now?" Cassie cried.
"Maybe."
'Luke, that's crazy." Cassie gestured wildly with her hand, trying not to look at the fiery bruises on his torso. "Let me get you some ice for that, okay?"
"I don't need your help Salazar," he moved to push past her in the doorway, but she blocked him with her arm on the frame.
"You don't have to do this Luke." God, that voice.
"Get out of my way," he said firmly, his heart racing.
"Let's just get a beer from your dad's fridge, some Panadol if you're in pain, a pack of peas, and let's wait it out together, okay? You can do that, alright?" She was so close to him now that he could feel her breath on his chest, hear her heart thumping. She reached up and cupped his shoulder. "You can do that," she said again, sliding her palm over to his chest to try help him regulate his breath.
Luke closed his eyes and clenched his jaw, shaking his head. He turned away from her, let out a string of curse words, walked over and sat down on his bed, burying his head in his hands.
"Can't do this," he said over and over. "Can't do this shit. Any of this. I'm so fucked up." His leg bounced nervously.
"Hey," Cassie lowered herself beside him and placed her hand on his knee, like she had in the car that time he was flipping out, only this time she flattened her hand over his thigh and squeezed it tight. "You can do this. You're stronger than you know."
Luke took his head out of his hands and peered at her from the side. She looked different. More serious. Worried. Somehow, he'd managed to sap all the joy out of her. All the light and humour. He looked at her lips, closed and taut, her cheeks sunken and eyes downcast. And he knew it that moment he didn't want to be responsible for her misery. Anyone's misery. Even his own.
He reached out his hand and placed it over the top of hers on his knee.
As they touched, Cassie jerked hers away, stood up and said, "I'll got get you those peas," and left the room.
When she came back, he asked her to stay with him again. Something in her eyes told him she didn't think it was a good idea. But she nodded anyway.
"Just keep those peas away from me," she added, and he was delighted to see her lips curl up a little. "And just because this is the second time I've slept in here; doesn't mean it's going to become a regular thing."
It became a regular thing.
AN: Thanks for reading I would love to hear your thoughts on this, feedback fuels my writing!