Elskendes Feud – 08
.x.x.x.x.
Unexpectedly, Mathine's parents had gone up to her as soon as she entered.
"Darling! Guess what?" her mother asked, sounding excited.
It was rare for Mathine's mother to notice her, especially straight on arrival, so Mathine simply blinked at her. "What?"
"We beat them! We had more sales last month than the Bondeviks!" she yelled, "Isn't that great?"
Mathine thought for a moment, and suddenly remembered. The Bondeviks are Lukas's family. It all of a sudden felt strange to her to have to be in competition with him, but she shut her mouth and just smiled and nodded.
"That's great, those bastards deserved it!" She replied and walked up to her room, she couldn't help but wonder why she all of a sudden felt bad for saying that.
.x.x.x.x.
The weekend came and went, nothing had happened which was remotely exciting. Berwald and Tiina spent most of the weekend together, probably having sex or something, Mathine thought. Both of them were no longer ill though, which was something, she guessed. When Monday came, Mathine woke up surprisingly early and was already dressed and fed by the time she had to leave.
"Bye" she called to the empty house as she stepped out to see that Berwald's car wasn't there yet. After a few minutes of thinking to herself, she heard the distinct sound of a car horn.
"Hey guys" she greeted them, going up to the car and making her place in the back seat. "Glad to see you're both better."
"Thank you Mathine~" Tiina replied, giving her a nice smile, "We both feel better now"
"Good!" Mathine cheered. Tiina just kept smiling at her and the group continued to talk about their weekend until they reached the school.
Mathine groaned as she got her P.E kit from her locker, looking over at Tiina. "I hate having P.E first" she sighed. Tiina only gave her a sympathetic smile. "Like seriously, it shouldn't be fa-" she was stopped as she accidentally walked into someone, "Oh hey, sor- Oh, Lukas" she stopped as she recognised the Norwegian boy.
"Hello Mathine. So...what did she say?" Lukas asked, looking briefly at Tiina so Mathine knew what he was talking about.
"Oh, she said yes."
"Thank you" he said as he turned to her. "Does that mean we can practice over tonight?" he asked.
"Sure thing" Tiina replied.
"You know, we need some way to contact to know where to meet up and stuff, like if one of us cancels." Mathine said to Lukas.
"Here" he said and handed her a card. Before Mathine could reply he had already gone. She shrugged and looked at Tiina.
"What is it?" she asked the Dane. Mathine looked at the paper in her hand.
"It's his number"
Tiina gave her a grin and nodded, "Okay then~ I'll go over to Berwald's tonight so you two can be alone."
"Alone? Why would we need to be alone?" Mathine asked, following the grinning Finn to their first lesson.
In between lessons Mathine got out her phone and added Lukas's number, she decided she'd try to call him or text him later so he got her number. Their next lesson was Chemistry, where they had the famous Mr. Braginski. Mathine didn't hate the lessons anywhere near as much as she did at the start, when everything first started between them. Taking her place next to the Korean boy, Mathine gave him a quick smile. Lukas was about to turn around and say something when Mr. Braginski started talking.
"Okay class, now first we will watch a video explaining..." Mathine's brain stopped working at the word 'video' as usually that meant a long boring clip from about thirty years ago showing some old method of doing an experiment the teacher will already explain another three times before making them do it anyway. Videos were pointless in her opinion, so she decided that while the teacher was distracted she would use that time to send Lukas the text she planned to do.
The class all looked around at the sound of the song 'Stay' by the singer Tooji as it started to play, immediately everyone looked at each other until all eyes fell upon the culprit, whose phone was the cause of such noise. Lukas looked at his phone, his face noticeably red.
"Mr Bondevik, please turn off your phone~" Mr. Braginski asked him, his voice sounded sweet but anyone could tell he had hidden motives.
"Ja, sir..." Lukas muttered, he quickly turned on the phone to look at who sent the message. It read:
Hey Lukas, it's Mathine! Add my no to your phone x
He sighed, ready to make Danish woman soup. No wait, she couldn't be considered a woman, could she? No, more like annoying female Dane soup. Said annoying female Dane laughed nervously from her seat behind him, the class just continued to watch the film. Lukas noted he would kill her later, but nonetheless he added her number to his contacts list.
"What was that for?" Lukas hissed at her as soon as they had left the classroom.
"I'm sorry!" she wailed, Mathine honestly felt bad, "I didn't mean it, I assumed your phone would be off, or on silent. Those are the school rules at least."
"No one ever calls me!" he sighed, running a hand through his hair, "It's alright, you didn't know"
A small crowd started to gather where the two were silently debating. Lukas looked at the crowd and then at Mathine before walking off. She was about to run after him and ask why, but felt a small vibration come from her pocket. There was a text there.
I got your number, meet me in the far corner of the playground by the gate where nobody goes. We can practice there.
She looked at it and simply sent a text back saying okay and set off to where they were to meet. She assumed that the reason why they weren't going to the library was so that no one followed them, like they probably would have done, knowing them. The crown soon dispersed, thinking that Lukas had gone off in a fit of rage.
Mathine quickly got to their spot they decided in the far end of the playground, and saw that Lukas was already there.
"Hello there" he greeted, he was sat looking over his lines.
Mathine took her backpack off and sat next to him, getting out her own script. "Hi~ Sorry about earlier."
Lukas shrugged, looking at his script. "It's okay."
Mathine nodded and turned to the first page, "Where are we starting?"
"Death scene"
They spent only about 5 minutes practising, until they got bored. Mathine flopped on the grass, looking up at Lukas. "What do we do now?" she asked, to her surprise Lukas made no move in getting away from her. Maybe they could tolerate each other's company, finally.
"Don't know, are we going to Tiina's tonight?" he asked, glancing over at her. Mathine nodded,
"Yeah, if that's alright? I asked her and talked to her about it in P.E."
"How are we getting there?"
"We usually get a ride home from Berwald, how do you get home?"
"I walk"
Mathine nodded, smiling, "Then you can join us in the car then"
He hesitated, then slowly nodded. "I'll text my parents that I'll be late." He got out his phone, quickly tapping a message to his parents and sending it. "Do your parents know that you'll be home late?"
Mathine shrugged, "Probably not, it's not as if they care anyway."
He looked at her sharply, frowning deeper than usual. His parents would probably freak out if he was home later, actually, they have done so.
The two spent the rest of the morning going on about useless things, like school, home, the play, or anything really.
The bell interrupted their conversation, "Oh, is it Geography next?" Mathine asked. She watched Lukas pack up his things, but raised an eyebrow when he didn't leave.
"What are you waiting for? Get up. Let's go." he said, looking at her.
Mathine smiled widely, he actually wanted to be seen together? It seemed strange, but hey, it wasn't a bad thing. She quickly packed up her bag and walked with him to the next lesson. They promptly got to their Geography lesson, and taking their seats which were on the opposite sides of the room.
Lukas waited for Mathine at the end of Geography, he hadn't really had..."friends" before, so he was still confused as to how his relationship with Mathine would be defined. When she came out the room she looked at him, still slightly surprised. Is it that weird for me to be waiting for her? Lukas thought, but shook it off and started walking for their next lesson, which was Physics, and looked back to see if Mathine was following him.
"Moi, Mathine~" Tiina greeted when the Dane came in the room and sat in her spot, Lukas shortly following and taking the seat in front.
"Hej Tiina" she replied, giving her a big grin.
"Where were you at break?"
"Oh I was-"
"Why did you come in with Lukas?" Tiina asked, then did an 'oh' "You were with him?"
"Practising."
"I didn't say you weren't~" Tiina laughed lightly, "How are we getting to my place? Are we taking Lukas?"
"Yeah, is that okay?"
"Of course~"
Tiina then retreated back to her seat when the teacher returned, Mathine jumped slightly when she felt a vibration in her pocket.
We have English last lesson together, we'll walk to the car together from there then?
It was Lukas, obvious, Mathine quickly sent a reply. She couldn't help but laugh at Lukas's reaction to his phone vibrating, she was slightly scared as to which pocket he put it in. A few seconds later her phone vibrated again.
Okay, see you then.
"Hey, want to go to the library at lunch?" Lukas asked Mathine at the end of Physics, she blinked and looked at him for a few seconds before giving her delayed reply.
"Sure." She then quickly sent Tiina a text and walked with Lukas to the library.
The two then went to the library and spent about only half the time revising, and of course the rest they were distracted by one or another thing and generally conversing.
"Why are you suddenly able to put up with me?" Mathine asked him randomly,
"What do you mean suddenly? I've been forced to put up with you lots recently."
The Dane decided she could form no intelligent reply and just shrugged, "I guess.." she started, a few seconds later, "It's not that bad though, is it?"
Lukas noted that she would probably be offended if he said it was, so he only shook his head, "Nei...it's alright. I don't mind. It gives me something to do."
She gave him a wild smile and nodded, "Ja? Awesome! It's not that bad, I agree."
He nodded, listening half-heartedly to her nonsense that she blabbed on about.
The rest of the school day went about without any general events, Lukas and Mathine split up to go to their separate maths lessons, but got together at the end of English to go to Tiina's house.
"Okay, so shall we go now?" Mathine asked, once the group of them had met up outside of the English room.
"Sure" Berwald replied, taking Tiina's hand and walking ahead to the car.
"Do they always do that?" Lukas whispered to Mathine when Berwald and Tiina started kissing. She assumed that he meant were they always so lovey-dovey with each other.
"Unfortunately, yes." she whispered back, he nodded.
"No wonder you're always so happy to hang around with me."
Mathine was about to reply when they reached the small sports car. Mathine went up and opened the door behind Tiina, and got in. Lukas just stared at the small car,
"Come on, get in" Mathine called from her seat, Lukas slowly walked over behind Berwald's seat and got in next to Mathine. The seats were really close together and he felt almost awkward being squished in so much. He looked over at Mathine, someone he assumed would have had a similar upbringing to him (as someone who was used to a large amount of space) but she seemed happy as can be in the back seat. "What's wrong?" she asked, when she noticed Lukas looking at her and frowning.
He shook his head suddenly, getting his thought out of his head. "Nei, nothing, I mean. I'm fine" he said quickly, turning his head to look out the window. Mathine raised an eyebrow, but gave up and just shrugged. It didn't take them long to reach Tiina's house, the first thing Lukas thought was 'small' when he saw it. To the normal person, they could only dream of living in a house so large, but of course to Lukas this was a lot smaller than his house.
"Now, Berwald and I will stay in my room, you two can practice in the guest room if you want~" she sang, going to the door and opening it. Lukas nodded, not saying anything. "My mom's not home, but I told her you would be here." she said, going inside and heading to the stairs. "Mathine knows where everything is, so if you want anything Lukas just ask her." He found himself having to take in a lot of information but just nodded slowly.
"Okay" was his simple reply.
"So, want to go over our lines then?" Mathine asked,
all too quickly Lukas gave a response, "Obviously" he put his bag on the bed and took out his script. "I think I'm starting to learn my words now." he said, almost proudly.
"That's good~"
"We should work on emotion..." Lukas muttered, looking at his words.
"Oh, that's a good point..." Mathine trailed on, "It'll suck if we don't act like we're...well...Romeo and Juliet."
"Of course..."
The two ended up practising for the rest of the night until around 7pm and Tiina's house received a phone call.
"Mathine, it's your mother. She wants to know where you are" Tiina's mom said as she burst into the room.
"You still didn't tell her?" Lukas asked.
Mathine shook her head, "I didn't think she'd care. Should I go home then?"
The Finn nodded, "I think that's best, do you have a way to get home."
Just as Mathine was about to reply, Lukas spoke up. "I should get home too. I'm going to take the bust, want to come?" he turned to Mathine.
She still found it curious that he actually wanted to spend time with her, but she nodded and have the Finnish woman a large grin.
"Thank you for letting us come over, Mrs Väinämöinen."
"That's fine sweetie, come over any time."
Lukas and Mathine packed up their stuff and head off to the nearby bus stop. It was raining outside, and neither of them had an umbrella, so their outfits stuck to their now damp bodies.
Lukas sighed, sounding irritated, "Why can't this have a roof?" he asked,
Mathine laughed lightly, "Just ignore it. Look the bus is coming now."
As she said, the bus soon pulled up and the two paid their fare and took their seats at the back of the bus. The ride was mostly quiet, not that many people were on the bus. Mathine's stop was only about 10 minutes away, and she looked at Lukas, slightly smiling.
"See you tomorrow, Lukas." she said, he looked at her blankly, but he wasn't frowning, just wearing a usual blank non-smiling face. To Mathine that was the equivalent of a smile, "Bye"
"Goodbye, see you" Lukas replied, waving to her when she gave him a massive over the top wave. "She's such an idiot..." he muttered to himself once she left.
.x.x.x.x.
That night the two of them got home, both of their families were worried, but otherwise were not mad at either of their children. Both Mathine and Lukas had their dinner and went to bed quite early, and both of them slept like babies that night. Somewhere else on the other side of the city, in a popular bar, their families were meeting. Of course this meeting was not intentional, it was just unfortunate that one of the members of the Bondevik family ran into one of the Densen family. They were both Mathine and Lukas' uncles. The encounter started off badly from a start, both were drunk even before entering the bar. The Bondevik was the first one to enter, and the Densen came in after. It started off bad, and got worse. First they exchanged words and insults, then Bondevik threw a beer bottle at Densen. After that it turned into a full on fist fight. There were punches, bites, smacks, kicks, everything. There were sirens everywhere, and Densen grabbed the beer bottle that he was hit with. It was now covered in broken glass and beer. Nobody knew what drove him to do it, alcohol? Hate? Whatever stupid feud their families had, Densen picked up the broken bottle and smacked Bondevik around the head with it. Bondevik fell to the floor, bleeding and unconscious. By the time the police got there, he was already dead. Of course, Densen was put into prison, much to the disappointment to his family; and, of course, the Bondeviks had to break the news to each other about the death of their dear relative.
Mathine woke up that morning and lazily got out of bed, it was early in the morning, around 6am. When she got dressed and headed downstairs, the last thing she expected was to see her parents, fully dressed and already in the kitchen.
"Mom? Dad?" she asked, walking into the kitchen and sitting at the table with them.
"...Mathine. You know your uncle?" her mother asked slowly.
"Which one?" she had many.
"Christian..." she muttered, sighing and taking a sip of her coffee. Both of her parents looked like hell, both were in their pyjamas and had bags under their eyes.
"What happened to him?" Mathine asked.
This time her father spoke up, "He killed a Bondevik." Mathine felt a lump in her throat.
"Which one?"
"I don't know, some insignificant sibling." So by that he meant one of Lukas's uncles.
Mathine nodded and went to make herself a coffee.
"Ah...so what's happening to him?"
"Life imprisonment" secretly Mathine was thinking that he deserved it. But of course, she could never say that to her parents. It was wrong to kill, and Mathine didn't like her uncles anyway.
Lukas woke up to having is mother knock on his door at 6:30 am. His sister was awake and downstairs, awaiting whatever bad news she could tell they were about to receive.
"Okay, let me get dressed." he said.
"No...we need to speak to you and Eyríður"
He raised an eyebrow at that and went to open his door, looking his mother in the eyes he could tell she had been crying. She was in her pyjamas and holding a mug of hot coffee.
"I made this for you sweetie, come downstairs and drink it." she handed him the hot drink and head for the stairs. Lukas's mouth was slightly open, and things just felt...unreal. He was dreading whatever his parents wanted to say, he could tell that they weren't angry with him. The Norwegian got his slippers on and took a sip of his drink. Perfect, as usual by his mother. He headed down the stairs and sat next to his younger sister at the table. Their parents were sat opposite.
"So what's up?" he asked, taking a sip of his drink.
"Your uncle..." his mother started, but she started crying and his step-father wrapped his arms around her. "He...got...at the bar."
"What?" Eyríður asked, still confused.
"Which uncle?" Lukas asked.
"...Njål"
Lukas's mouth dropped, he had always been very close to Njål.
"W-what happened to him?" Lukas already had an idea, and his mouth went dry at the thought of it. He took another sip of his coffee to try to calm himself, but it did no use.
"He got killed..."
Eyríður gasped, Lukas only bit back tears. He hadn't cried for a very long time, and he wasn't starting now.
"Who did it?"
"The Densens"
The sensation Lukas felt at those two words was like a shot in the stomach. He wanted to faint, or sleep, it felt out of this world. All the boy could do was nod. "O-oh...I'm getting dressed" he put his half-full mug of coffee back on the table and head upstairs without a word. His mother sighed shakily and clung to her husband, she too was also close to Njål.
"Will Lukas be okay?" Eyríður asked.
Her mother nodded, "He'll be fine...now, come on...let's get ready for school. I'll drive you."
.x.x.x.x.
Mathine spent the whole of maths (her first lesson) worrying about Lukas. She had no idea if he even knew his uncle that died, but for all she knew maybe they were close. In all honesty, Mathine wouldn't have turned another eye if it was her uncle that was killed, she thought most of her family were horrible anyway. But it seemed that Lukas's family were closer than hers anyway. Several thoughts ran through her head. When the second lessons started, Mathine almost ran to English. She was incredibly disappointed when she didn't notice the Norwegian boy in his place by the door. Mathine looked over at Tiina, who shrugged with a frown, mouthing 'Not in maths'. She groaned, if Lukas was mad at her for this, she would be so devastated. Mathine had no idea why she felt so bad, but it seemed that in all her lessons, there was something...missing. She could feel the class looking at her, it was all over the news. Everyone knew that her family (and to them, therefore her) killed a Bondevik. The similar pain and worry went through break, Mathine went to the library alone, in hopes of Lukas walking in. In her third and fourth lessons (which she didn't have with Lukas) she spent worrying. At lunchtime, however, when going to the library, her usual seat had the Norwegian boy she was looking forward to seeing all day in it.
Mathine carefully sat by Lukas, looking at him. He stood up, took her hand and started leading her outside. The group of students in the library looked onwards, they were probably all thinking was Mathine was thinking. Lukas wanted to kill her. She blinked, watching him. He had no bag with him.
"W-when...when did you get in? You weren't in English..."
"I came in after break" he replied, his voice was flat and hoarse. He was really upset. Mathine frowned deeply.
"Lukas-"
"Shush. We'll talk about this in a minute." she soon noticed that he was taking her to their spot in the corner of the playground where they were before. It was behind a bush, so no one could ever walk in on them. A good place to kill her, Mathine thought.
He let go of her when they got there, and sat where he had just the day before. Mathine sat next to him, trying to get a look at his face. Lukas's head was cast down. There was an eerie silence between the two.
"Lukas..."
He sighed, shakily, Mathine noted. After about another minute of silence he looked up at her. His eyes were red and he looked tired. "He...was my favourite uncle..."
Mathine felt her stomach in her throat again, "Lukas...I'm so sorry."
"You didn't do anything..." Mathine was surprised he wasn't blaming her for her uncle's actions, "Who did it...?" she has no doubt he knew it was a Densen.
"My uncle Christian. I barely even know him. He's probably an ass."
She heard him grumble at that, and she temporarily worried if she angered him. "More than that...what was his punishment?"
"Life in jail"
"...okay" he sighed again, and ran a hand through his hair. He stood up slowly, looking down again. Lukas himself didn't know why he stood, but he stayed in the same position even when Mathine stood up herself.
"Lukas?"
He didn't look at her, he felt empty. But then he felt a tap on his shoulder, and he had no choice but to look up at the Dane. "Wha-" he was about to finish when he saw Mathine with her arms extended out. She had a frown on her face.
"I know you're sad, but...just...come here..." he looked at her hands for a second before looking up at her face. After a few seconds Lukas slowly moved over to her and wrapped his arms tightly around her waist.
They stood there for a long time, Mathine hugging Lukas close. After a while they sat down, Lukas still in Mathine's arms. He would occasionally sigh or shake, Mathine could tell how hard it was for him not to cry, and she silently stroked his back to calm him.
"I'm so sorry..."
"Stop apologising..." he muttered into her neck, which was where his head was. "you make me think it's your fault if you apologise, and it's not. It's out families' fault" she nodded,
"This stupid...what is this even? Some sort of enemy thing, it's controlling their lives."
"It is...I'd never kill anyone from your family..."
"Neither would I..." Mathine stopped, thinking over her words, "because we're friends."
She could feel Lukas tense up at that, then relax again. She sighed and pet his back again, comforting him.
"Thank you, Mathine."
"You're welcome, Lukas".
(( I'm so sorry for this taking so long! I was really busy, but I eventually updated. This has been my longest chapter so far though, so I hope that's a good compensation. Please if anyone likes this please R&R it would make my day! Let me hug you! ))