38. LUCA'S SIDE

ACT SIX SCENE SEVEN

LUCA'S SIDE

third person

perspective

IF ONE BAD thing occurs in a day, you shouldn't live the rest of the day as if you have had a bad day. Enabling one little situation to depict the rest of your day is a bad habit. For Luca, he lives his life with misery clouding all his judgements. Regardless of how sunny a day is, his mind will be clouded with dismal ideas.

He deserved the punch from Helius. Luca knows that what he's doing is wrong but he couldn't help himself. He was tired of living the way he does, he was growing sick of the life he lives. Being brought up by a toxic household where it's impossible to have a good day coerced him to act the way he does and live the way he does.

But this morning was terrible. He was so close to giving up.

"This is the second time I have asked you this question. Tell me what you did to your mother to call off the usual Valdez tradition of announcing an engagement when a heir turns eighteen!" Luca's father grabs the glass vase in his room and tosses it on to the marble ground. The sound was startling, all the broken pieces of the vase resonating Luca's life.

"I did nothing, I promise, I have no idea myself!" Luca says, taking a few steps back. His father was furious and he wanted to leave the house peacefully for once. But things go south when his father reaches towards Luca's a familiar black box.

"Father, please, just please don't touch that." Luca begs, his heart was scorching at the sight of his father's actions. Luca's father opens the box, pulling out a photo frame, he laughs loudly. Luca's life was a joke, to his family, he was an absolute joke.

The photo frame consisted of a picture of him and Helius' sister Alison. Luca remembers her as a dark part of his past but regardless of all the things she has done to him, he stills ends up reminiscing her. They were only friends, but Alison lied to her brothers Helius and Silas that she and Luca were dating. Luca didn't bother correcting her, he was just shocked that she was the only other person he could touch — or so he thought.

Luca met Alison in a crowded mall, where she 'accidentally' put a hand on his shoulder. He was confused as to why his body didn't react to her touch, he felt normal. He believed that she was someone he could touch without feeling a burning sensation because she told him so. But as months past by into their friendship, Alison simply refused to touch Luca, she'd always wear gloves to avoid the skin to skin contact.

That's all it took for Luca to question her.

And it was on the night of her death. He grabbed her hand gently, mentally pleading that she was telling the truth. But it turned out she was a liar. The discovery that she wasn't someone he could touch felt dreadful, his skin burned at her touch as she proceeded to lie further. Physically he was hurting but emotionally he felt worse.

So he left her in a hurry. He had no medicine to stop his allergic reaction.

And later on the next day, he found out she died in a car accident.

He regrets that day. He wished he continued to play along with her beautiful lie. Maybe things would've been different. Helius and Silas would have their sister.

Luca's dad throws the photo frame on the floor. "Pathetic, hoarding a photo with a girl. Don't tell me you actually like this ugly girl." his heart shatters as he notices Alison's picture shrouded in glass. Even though she lied to him, Luca valued her friendship — he enjoyed her company.

"You didn't have to do that."

Luca's dad howls in laughter. "I can do whatever I want. And the funniest part of it all is that you'll do whatever I say without denial."

Sometimes life felt draining.

Luca never seemed to enjoy it.

Because every day was the same. He felt the same pain.

"Step on the glass." his father snaps. Luca widens his eyes, it was an incredulous demand.

"I have school, please just for once, let me go."

Luca's father grabs Luca's shoulder and forces him to kneel down on to the pieces of glass. The piercing feeling of the shards piercing his skin felt horrendous, his body was in flames and he was simmering. The skin to skin contact pained him more than the fragments of glass cutting his skin.

Tears well up in Luca's eyes. "That should teach you a lesson, kid. Clean up before you leave, Devon Academy hates slackers." his father doesn't care. His father will never care. And that's why Luca will always live his life with fear.

He struggles to breathe as he reaches out towards his medical cabinet, reaching out for a needle. He stabs the needle on his arm immediately, letting out a sigh of relief as he leans again the cold wall.

Why did he have to live such a terrible fate?

He looks at his photo with Alison and smiles sadly. "You shouldn't have died that night. It should've been me."

—

"Luca what are you thinking about?" Sahar asks, applying ice on to the bruise on his face. The pain doesn't bother him anymore, he has suffered worse than a punch from Helius. If Sahar were to see his scars, she wouldn't be able to handle it.

Luca smiles. "Nothing."

"I should've taken you home, I don't know why you insisted on going to my house. If my aunt finds you here, she'll kill the both of us."

If Luca went back home, he'd be in more pain. His father would've caused him much more pain.

"Do you have makeup that matches my skin tone?"

"Why would you need makeup?"

"I don't want to walk around with a huge bruise on my face, people would talk." Luca could care less about what people thought of him. He just doesn't want his father noticing a bruise on his face, he'll be ridiculed and things will end badly.

Sahar sighs. "I think I have something, I'll be right back." she walks upstairs, leaving Luca alone.

Luca glances at his phone. His finger hovering over Helius' number. He wanted to apologise. He didn't mean to say the things he said, he never used Alison, he would never think of doing so. It was the piled up anger and bitterness from the start of his day that made Luca act the way he did.

"Hey Luca! Could you come upstairs? The lighting downstairs isn't good enough for me to match the makeup to your skin tone." Sahar exclaims. Luca stands up abruptly, but as he does so, he could feel the pain on his knees. The glass he kneeled on in the morning was beginning to sting.

He takes a deep breath before walking up the stairs. Each step felt uncomfortable, each step reminded him of the scene of him being pushed down to kneel on fragments of glass.

Once he reaches the top of the staircase, he finds Sahar sitting down on the chair in front of her dressing table. Lined up was several shades of foundation.

"They all look the same colour."

Sahar laughs. Standing up from the chair, she grabs Luca's arm gently and makes him sit down on the seat. The warmth from her arms causes him to shiver, he still couldn't get over it, she's someone who could get away with touching him.

"Trust me they're all different shades." she begins to apply a shade of foundation to Luca's cheek softly. Her face was incredibly close, Luca could notice her pretty eyes as he looked up. He knew why Helius admired Sahar so much. She's beautiful on the inside and outside.

And sometimes he does admire her too. But he was too reluctant to accept that. He believed that he liked her for the fact she can touch him and not for who she is. Luca doesn't want to lose her like he lost Alison. He doesn't want to like Sahar because he doesn't want to feel sad when she does eventually leaves.

Because everyone Luca wants in his life, eventually leaves.

"I don't think you should've sided with me." Luca says. Sahar pauses, his words confused her.

"But Helius punched you."

"He had a good reason Sahar, you shouldn't have bothered with me." Luca says, placing his attention to the mirror in front of him.

"And what is the reason?"

Luca didn't want to hide this from Sahar. But he had to. She'll call him a freak if she realises that she's the only person who can touch him. He couldn't bare the idea of losing such a friend. She's nice, friendly and caring — without her Luca would feel miserable because she places good in his life when everything feels bad.

"I said something uncalled for, if I'm being honest, I should apologise to him after you apply the makeup on my bruise." Luca didn't want conflict in his club. Everyone there has their own troubles, causing further trouble goes against the principle of the group.

Sahar nods her head. "I shouldn't have chosen a side, it was dumb of me to do that after everything Helius has done for me."

Luca raises his eyebrows at her phrase. "What has he done for you?"

A bright smile appears on her pretty face. "He always compliments me, advises me and appreciated me. We even spent some time in the park in fancy clothing talking about life." her words cause Luca to smile. It's nice to know that Helius has been treating her right all along.

But with Asher in existence, Helius has no chance.

And Luca never had a chance in the first place. Even with his childhood links with Sahar, Asher is more significant in her life.

"He's a good guy. There's a reason why he's called golden boy at Devon academy." Luca says. Sahar gently applies the correct shade of foundation over the bruise, making sure to cause Luca no discomfort at all.

"Covered. All you have to do is take this with you and nobody will notice you have a bruise." Sahar hands him the right shade of foundation.

Luca glances at the mirror astounded. It's as if the bruise was never there in the first place. "Thank you Sahar," his words were enough to make her feel delighted.

Just as Luca stood up, he felt his legs stop working. Resulting in him to fall on to the ground. Sahar reaches down immediately, supporting him up. Her eyes scan his body sceptically, she has been noticing the way he has been walking all day. He was walking with a pained expression, at points of the day she'd notice him limping.

"Luca is there something you're hiding from me?"

The air felt serious. And Luca wasn't sure how to lie his way out of this.

"Hiding? Why would I hide something from you?"

Sahar sighs. She had no choice. She pushed Luca down on to her bed, applied pressure on his leg. And just as she does so, Luca hisses in pain. Her heart melts at the sight of his pained expression.

"Liar." she grabs her keys and phone from her desk. "Let's go."

Luca widens his eyes. "No I'm fine, I'll meet Helius and go home—"

"Luca I swear to God, you're not going anywhere. You and I will make a trip to the hospital to see exactly what on earth is wrong with you." Sahar, pulled him up, holding his arm securely. Luca felt his heart beating rapidly, he didn't like this, he hated that he felt this way.

"We can't go to the hospital." he mutters. Hospitals include touching, examining and people.

"And where else would we go?" Sahar demands.

Luca runs a hand through his hair. "I-I just want to go home, I have a private doctor. Please don't take me there, it's better if I'm treated at home."

"Fine, I'm coming with you."

Luca sighs. "I know you don't like my mother Sahar, don't come. You'll be uncomfortable, that whole house is too much for you. I don't want to bring bad memories into your mind, it honestly is enough that you care this much for me and I appreciate it."

Sahar frowns. "What happened to you? Who did this to you? Why are you like this? Luca I don't want to see you like this, it hurts knowing that you're hiding this much."

This was just a small part of everything Luca is hiding from Sahar. She has no idea about how Luca lives his life. She wouldn't ever understand. And Luca accepted that ages ago.

"I fell down. It's embarrassing to explain the whole story." Luca partially lies. He was pushed down to lean on glass by his psychotic father and his skin to skin contact burned his skin. If anyone heard that, they'd feel incredibly uncomfortable.

Sahar glances at Luca one last time. "I don't want you to drive, please take a cab." she mumbles, helping him down the stairs. Her heart aches each time Luca closed his eyes because of the immense pain.

"It's fine. I drove us to your house, it's easy to drive back to mine."

"It's not safe, I'll call Asher. He wouldn't mind taking you home."

The mention of Asher's name causes Luca to frown. He doesn't want Asher to feel like he's constantly using him. All Luca wants to be is a good friend. He doesn't want to give the impression that he needs help all the time, he's sick and tired of others feeling they need to help him.

"No, it's fine." Luca says, but Sahar ignores him. Proceeding to text Asher.

"Sit down, he said he'll be here in five minutes. You're lucky he's around the neighbourhood."

Luca groans before abiding by her rules.

"About earlier, could we forget it happened?" he mumbles, the whole confessing to Sahar he 'likes' her the second time was inappropriate and damaging to their friendship.

"Oh." that's all she says.

"It was ignorant of me."

"I don't think it was." her words catch him off guard.

"What?"

"I think the timing was bad. I feel as though if you ask me the same question in the future I would say—"

The door bell rings.

Sahar jumps up to get the door, leaving Luca in a shocked state. He couldn't think properly. Numerous thoughts were clouding his mind. But they were all good for once.

"Asher's here, he's waiting for you Luca." Sahar exclaims, but all Luca could do was nod his head; he felt speechless.

Before he could leave her house, Sahar wraps her arms around his body. Luca could feel his heart beating against hers, it was the smallest actions she does that kept testing him nonstop. If this was what love felt like, Luca needed it to escape his murky life.

"Thank you." he whispers as she pulls away from the hug.

From a distance Asher could notice the both of them hugging. A accomplished smile appears on his face. Luca finally has found his happiness. This was what Asher wanted all along, someone to be there for Luca, someone for Luca to hold and spill all his emotions to. And for Asher to even think of taking that person away, was incredibly selfish.

Luca takes a seat inside Asher's car, thankful that he could hide his secret longer from Sahar. But at some points he questioned his loyalties, is what he's doing classed as immoral? But the less she knows the better, he certainly values their friendship and the last time Luca questioned someone they ended up leaving forever.

"I heard what happened between you and Helius." Asher says, his eyes focused on the road.

"Whatever I did back there was wrong, I shouldn't have brought up Alison." Luca says, playing with the silver ring on his finger.

Asher glances at him for a second. "And what will you tell him? That you're sorry?"

Luca nods his head. "If you don't mind, could you take me to my private doctor first." he murmurs, the pain on his knees was becoming unbearable.

"What did he do now?" Asher clenches the steering wheel tightly. That was the worst part about Luca's reality, his toxic and manipulative father who takes every given opportunity to harm Luca mentally and physically. Luca never gets a break, he's always expected to be the best of the best even with all the trauma that's laced with his life. And that's what Asher hated the most, his ability to feel sorry for Luca was too strong, strong to the point he's willing to give up almost anything for him.

Luca glances out the window, the soft breeze fanning his face. "Today was different. He made me kneel on glass and grabbed my shoulder — leaving me all alone to fend for myself." his words were soft, so soft and innocent. Asher pitied him, he wanted to do everything for Luca, if only they could exchange lives.

Asher would put an end to his misery in an instance.

"I don't understand why you won't speak about this to higher officials, it's domestic abuse."

"Once news gets let out, everything will be ruined for me. I'd rather suffer in silence than have hundreds and thousands of people mocking me for not being 'man' enough to go up against my father." Luca says, leaning his head against the car seat.

"Why can't you leave him?"

"I always ask myself that. Would life be different if I packed all my bags and moved out? Would the media twist my story? Would I be made fun of by family members? I just want to leave but I know that since my father knows my biggest weakness, he won't be afraid of telling the whole world it. A freak who is allergic to touch, I'll be the most vulnerable person in the city."

"There has to be a way out."

"Well if you find out Asher, let me know." Luca whispers, staring blankly at the dark scenery outside. "Because I don't think I can last any longer."

-

do you feel bad for luca? don't hate someone before understanding their side of the story! what are your ships?

thank you for 120k reads! i appreciate the support from all of you! i hope you enjoyed this chapter just as much as i liked writing it.