Chapter 7

Raina had allowed a comfortable silence land over her and Luke as she tried to collect her thoughts and muster up the courage to explain what had happened. The old man from behind the counter was making his way towards them with two slices of apple pie that had vanilla ice cream on them in hand. Suddenly, she could feel Luke's gaze on her as she watched the old man set down their plates.

"I'm celebrating..." she began, "I finally got accepted into a nationwide music competition..." she added as she began to push her pie around the ice cream to get the perfect bite. In the corner of her eye, Raina could see the smile growing across Luke's face.

"Raina, that's awesome and amazing news!!! You'll finally have a chance to progress further with your music!!" Luke exclaimed as he could barely contain himself. He pulled Raina's head towards him and placed a big kiss on the side of her head. Raina's cheeks turned hot, and she prayed that Luke would not notice. Which seems he had not, or he would have teased her about it. Raina rubbed her cheek as if doing so would make the heat disappear. Luke kept going on and on about the possibilities. It almost seemed as if he was more excited than her. Finally, after a bit of rambling, Luke paused mid thought, "...but what's it got to do with my brother?" Raina dug her spoon down deep into her pie like she was digging a hole to hide in. A sigh left her lips as she began to explain how she had tried to get ahold of Asher and forgotten her parents had gone to town. Which reminded her that she should text to let them know where she went. While continuing her story, she pulled her phone out of her pocket. While she was unlocking the screen, Raina had finally caught Luke up to speed now. Luke peered down at her while she was messing around on her phone. "You're still in love with him...after all these years, you would think you'd give up by now..." he whispered a bit, staring at his plate. Raina did not seem to acknowledge this at all as she randomly stood up a bit frantically, throwing her cash on the counter.

"Keep the change.." Raina said as she pushed it in the direction of the old man. "We gotta go..." Luke looked a bit bewildered at the sudden change in the atmosphere. "Apparently, Asher is at my house freaking out because no one is there, and I'm not answering. He can go weeks without answering me, but I miss a couple of phone calls, and the sky is falling. And my phone doesn't have a good enough signal to get a call out..." Luke could not help but roll his eyes.

"Let's go calm down your second dad." Luke groaned out a bit bitterly. He was enjoying his time alone with Raina since it barely happened anymore since he started college out of state. It seemed that every time he came home, it was either all four of them together or at least three of the four. Grabbing his motorcycle keys, Luke got up from his seat and put his arm around Raina. "Always entertainment going on when I'm home." The two of them made their way back to the house. Riding home didn't feel as freeing as the ride out. Raina could feel all the stress coming back down on her shoulders. Was home starting to feel constraining? She had never felt this way before. In fact, going home always felt relieving.

When pulling up, they could see that now Asher's truck was in Leon and Luke's driveway, so Luke just pulled in there. They could hear the three of them bickering a bit back and forth. Raina passed Luke back his helmet and could hear that they were talking about them. "Ain't too late... we could hop back on...go to a motel for the night..." Luke whispered. Raina shook her head and slammed her shoulder into him. Raina glanced at her house to see that her parents were not back yet, which she found odd, but they were adults. She turned her gaze back toward the guys house to see both Leon and Asher walking up on her. Leon somehow got to her first and threw his arms around her, catching Raina off guard completely. Ashley walked by them, heading to her car seeming pissed off yet glanced back, giving Leon and the back of Raina's head a sad look. Ashley then hopped in her car and drove off. Leon kissed Raina's forehead and then moved quickly towards Luke. Raina did not know why, but she found herself grasping at him. It was to no avail, though.

"You!" Leon yelled as he pointed at Luke, "You shouldn't have taken her out!"

"Excuse me???!!! Since when in the fuck are you her keeper?!" Luke growled as he moved closer to Leon. Raina moved to step in between the brothers, but Asher wrapped his arms around her from the back. She squirmed about, but his grip was too strong. Suddenly, she felt wetness on her back that felt like raindrops. What in the world...

"You could've at least answered your fucking phone!!!" Leon screamed as he grabbed Luke by his neck more of a warning it seemed then anything. Instinctively, Raina began to pull from Asher again... Leon was now whispering in Luke's ear. She watched as Luke's face turned from anger to confusion. Raina had been able to break through at this point to slow down in her tracks as Luke's face turned pale and sad. Leon released his grip and pushed Luke away. It seemed as if time had stopped as Raina looked from Luke's sad face, to Leon's back as he ran his hands through his hair, and then she turned back to see Asher bent down with his hands in his face. Her eyes then moved to her house at the empty driveway.