Kryptonite

Chapter 3: Smoke

L U K E

I think people took showers for granted. The warm water is soothing, in here I'm left with nothing but my thoughts. I've been standing under the shower for a while now, my fingers were beginning to prune up.

Dad was at his job for hours in a day. More often than not, his officemates would invite him to go drinking with them after. He'd come home around midnight, wake up and leave for his work near noontime. I was thankful that he was able to keep that job, it kept him in the office for most of the week. His day-offs were Sundays and Wednesdays.

Today happened to be a Wednesday.

The loud banging of a closing door echoed in my head for a moment. I had barely flinched at the sound, already expecting the loud voice that came with it.

I turned the shower off, deciding that I couldn't suspend reality any longer. Besides, I'd be late for school. Once I was in front of my closet, I grabbed my usual black skinny jeans with rips on the knees then a black muscle tee. Doing my hair seemed pointless, like most things did during Wednesdays. I wore my maroon snapback to hide the dreadful mess. My mom happened to open the door as I was putting my earrings on.

"Morning, sweetie." She looked tired. She always did. It made me mad that the person adding to that exhaustion is downstairs, stomping around like Bigfoot. "Hey, mom. You eat anything yet?"

"Ate before my shift ended at the hospital." Mom eyed my outfit. "Isn't it a little too hot to be going around wearing all black?" She was smiling, though. I laughed, shrugging as I grabbed my backpack. "Let me walk you down." She said, hooking her arms with mine.

Seeing the living room free from any shards of ceramic or glass was a relief. The scene I came home to yesterday wasn't that great.

"You going to school?" My dad's voice came from the kitchen. He was clad in his office clothes from yesterday, wrinkled and reeking of alcohol. "Yeah, I'm about to head out."

Dad appeared with a beer in his hand. I glanced at mom, her face looked torn on what to do. "You shouldn't be drinking this early," I said. He just snorted, continuing to chug down the bottle. It was a split second decision to wrestle it from his grip, sliding past him and heading in the kitchen. "I don't want you being drunk while you're here the entire day with mom." I grumbled, dumping the leftover beer at the sink.

Clearly, that might have irritated him a little. A hand gripped my arm, and before I could react I was spun around and a hand was wrapped around my throat. "This is my house. You have no right to tell me what to do." Dad said the words slowly, his breathe a mixture of alcohol and coffee.

"I think I have the right to tell you what to do, since everything you do is pretty much a danger to us."

"Luke-"

"You have some balls to speak to me like that." Dad was struggling to keep his voice down, a clear sign he was pissed. I, frankly, couldn't care less.

"I don't f*****g care. Someone needs to knock some sense into your useless mind." I pushed him off, not enough to make him fall to the ground but enough to send him a message.

I told mom she should get some rest now. Her eyes shifted from dad to me, deciding that dad would remain calm now. "Take care, Luke. Text me when you get home."

It was quiet until mom's bedroom door shut softly. I had planned to just leave, but just as I got back into the living room, I was pulled back by my shirt. Before I knew it I was in a chokehold. By my own father.

"You think you're so tough." Dad's arm wasn't actually trying to cut off my breathing, but his hold was tight enough that I struggled against it. "You should show some f*****g respect."

Calum

"Calum! Calum!" A high-pitched voice woke me as I felt someone jump up and down my bed. Even before I opened my eyes, I knew it was Carly.

"Good morning to you too, Carly." I laughed, the little girl still in her onesie. She jumped off my bed, taking my hand and trying to pull me into a sitting position. "Mom told me to wake you up for school. Everybody else is already downstairs."

"Alright, alright, I'll be there in a bit." Carly gave up on pulling me up, telling me to hurry before she left my room with her curly hair bouncing behind her.

I rubbed my eyes and stood up slowly, revealing my blue pajama bottoms. I got downstairs after a quick bathroom trip and was met with my family seated around the dining table. "Good morning," I greeted them, earning multiple Good morning's back. I kissed mom on the cheek before sitting down beside the twins, Carly and Coda. Mali-Koa and dad were sat across the table.

I filled my plate with pancakes and bacon before digging in. Mali-Koa was talking to mom about her boyfriend of two years, Tony, and the twins were fighting about which Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle was the best. "It's Leonardo, Carly." Coda said, maple syrup staining his cheek. Carly crossed her arms. "Nuh-uh, it's obviously Donatello."

"Calum, who do you think is better? Leanardo or Donatello?" Coda asked, both twins staring at me expectantly.

"It's Michael-Angelo for me." I grinned, both twins groaning in return. "He wasn't even in the options!" Carly sighed.

"So, Calum, how's school?" Dad asked, sipping his coffee. He looked like your stereotypical working dad right now, sipping coffee in his white button-up shirt and tie whilst reading the newspaper.

"It's fine." I shoved another forkful of pancake into my mouth. Dad raised his eyebrow, looking worried. "Are you sure?"

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, swallowing before I answered. "Yes. I'm doing well."

"Good, I expect nothing less from you."

"You really shouldn't be worrying, dad," Mali-Koa was tying her hair into a messy bun, shooting me a quick look. "Among all of us, Calum would be the last person to have failing grades."

"That's great then," Mom chimed in, placing more pancakes on the table. She gave me a pat on the head before settling down on the vacant chair at the head of the table. "Maybe if he continues, he could graduate as valedictorian at their graduation."

"The teachers probably reserved that spot for him already." Mali snorted, picking at her food.

"You should strive to graduate as valedictorian. It'll make getting a scholarship in college easier." Dad stated, smiling at me like I've already achieved all their hopes and dreams.

"Speaking of college, how's uni, Mali?" I asked, taking this opportunity to change the subject. My tactic was successful once Mali-Koa started talking about her friend getting married the day after tomorrow.

There was a reason my parents continued to make a fuss about my grades. My dad failed to graduate with high grades when he was in college. Now, he expected me to do what he couldn't do. Mali didn't let what our parents expected bother her, she did what she wanted and she's said a lot of times before that she's disappointed I just let them pressure me like this.

Breakfast continued on like that. An hour or so later, I was ready for school.

"Bye, Cal. Do your best."

Luke

Ashton, Michael and I were waiting for Calum to arrive in front of our school building. Ashton had noticed immediately that something was wrong, so now I was trying to forget what happened earlier. He seemed to understand that I wasn't going to say anything, so now they were talking about what color Michael should dye his hair next.

"I'm thinking pink." Ashton grinned. Michael gave him an incredulous look and Ashton just shrugged in return. "It might look good on you."

"Well, if you want it, I'll do it." Michael placed his arm over his boyfriend's shoulder and kissed his cheek. I fake gagged. "You two are such lovebirds."

At that moment, someone suddenly jumped on my back, causing me to let out a surprised yelp as I stumbled a bit to regain my balance. There was only one person who would do this. Said person cackled at his own actions.

"Hi, Lukey!" Calum wrapped his arms tighter around my shoulders, my arms instinctively moving to support his thighs. I faced sideways, glaring at the boy. "You almost made me fall over, you spork!"

"Speaking of lovebirds." Ashton coughed into his hand and Michael bit his lip to stop himself from laughing.

"Excuse me, it's not my fault you're not strong or coordinated." Calum teased, sticking out his tongue. I played along, pouting at him. "Hey, I am strong!"

"Like a turtle." Calum chuckled and I couldn't help but smile. Suddenly we heard a click sound, a picture being taken. I averted my gaze towards Ashton. He had his phone out, the back camera pointing towards us. I raised my eyebrow as he gave me a sheepish smile. "Sorry, I couldn't help it."

"Why if it isn't the school's favorite couple." Kyle suddenly appeared out of nowhere with Jenna and Mark.

"That's real mature." Jenna scoffed, eyeing Calum on my back as she annoyingly twirled her hair between manicured fingertips.

Calum tried tried to climb off, but I held onto him tighter. "Don't you guys have anything better to do?" I asked them, not in the mood to deal with even more assholes.

"We wanted to talk to you, Luke, and your girlfriend." Mark said. Then he grinned like he had a brilliant idea, turning to Ashton and Michael. "Oh, I've been meaning to ask you two, which of you is the pitcher and the catcher?"

Michael looked like he was ready to pounce at Mark, but Ashton simply gave a disgusted look. "And you call Calum immature."

Calum managed to clamber off my back just as Kyle came between Mark and Ashton. "Hey, no hard feelings, let's not start a riot." He then caught Calum's gaze before staring at me. "Is he always this clingy or is it because he's a-"

"Try and finish that sentence, dickhead." Michael's voice was a bit loud, but it was understandable. I was just trying to not get the four of us suspended.

Kyle met Michael's challenging look. The warning bell rang just before anything else could happen. The smirk growing on Kyle's face was testing all my patience and control to not beat it off his smug face. "Always nice talking with you guys." Kyle turned and began to walk inside along with Jenna and Mark.

"You'd think jerks like that only existed centuries ago." Ashton mumbled, glaring at the back of their heads.

I wasn't saying anything. I'd made up my mind to avoid them once and for all. Kyle's group have always made comments or jokes, and the only reason I've continued to hang with them was because I didn't think they were capable of actually doing s**t like this.

As if my morning hadn't already been ruined.

I was so focused on my thoughts I didn't even realize Ashton and Michael have left. "Luke?" Calum waved a hand in front of me. I was itching for a smoke.

"Luke, it's fine. They're all bark and no bite. They probably have microscopic p*****s, you know? It explains how insecure they'd have to be to go up to people and start making them feel bad." Trust Calum to find the logic of every situation.

"I don't know why I tolerated those fuckers for so long." I adjusted the strap of my backpack, my grip a little too tight.

Calum's eyes narrowed, hand tugging on my wrist until my arm fell back to my side. "Kyle's in a few classes of mine. He's actually a good guy, his parents just raised him to believe different things. Jenna just goes with whatever Kyle wants to do, but she helped me find my glasses once. And Mark is just.. misunderstood, probably."

"Are you defending them?" I gave Calum an exasperated look. He raised a shoulder as if it wasn't a big deal. And to him, it probably wasn't. "They're not bad people, it's just high school. Almost everybody's a jerk in high school."

"Not you."

That managed to make Calum laugh. We decided to head to class before we were officially late for homeroom.

He suddenly turned to me, tugging on my shirt since he was walking a step behind me. I tried not to think about a similar scene this early morning with my dad. "Luke, I learned a new joke."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. What do you call the leader of the potato police?"

"What?"

"Potato chip."

Calum burst out laughing, like he was the one who heard it for the first time. I really tried not to smile, but it crept across my face. "It's because chip sounds like chief, huh?"

"Uh-huh!" He continued to laugh. I shook my head, my voice sounding more fond than I had expected. "You're ridiculous."