The Signs We Missed by The Signs We Missed (epub)

Author:The Signs We Missed (epub)
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 0000000000000
Published: 2022-11-13T00:00:00+00:00

Luke had been pacing his kitchen like an injured tiger when a knock on the door made his heart stutter. He froze to the spot, warily studying the wooden rectangle from a safe distance.

The facts: It was a Saturday night. It was past ten. Nobody had ever knocked on his door or even knew where he lived. Except for Sean.

Don’t answer it. Don’t. Fucking. Answer. It. The voice in his head uttered the words the same pace his throbbing heart tried to take his chest apart with.

Sean, a not so circumspect part of him claimed.

Pretend you’re dead, the first voice demanded.

I need to see him.

Dead!

“Shut the fuck up!” Luke pressed his hands to his ears, only now realizing that there had been another knock. It stopped abruptly at his outburst.

For several heartbeats, he just stood there, fighting himself. As if his next step wasn’t inscribed into his core. As soon as he granted them the permission, or rather stopped violently holding them back, his legs carried him to the door in a surprisingly straight line. He caught himself holding his breath when he opened it and instantly attempted to push it back shut with an appalled gasp.

“Luke, please let me in,” she said, her foot blocking the door so it wouldn’t latch.

“Didn’t I tell you to leave me the fuck alone?” He was still pressing his weight against the door, but his mother didn’t retreat the least bit.

“Stop acting like a child,” she said.

“Maybe I will if you start acting like an adult,” he hissed, but let go of the door nevertheless.

“Can I come in?” she asked while his capitulation was already allowing her to do so.

“I don’t give a shit,” he muttered. He turned away and dropped to one of the two chairs at the table, namely the one that wasn’t facing the door.

The other chair scraped across the floor when he lit a cigarette, not bothering to open the window. Wisely, his mother chose not to comment. In fact, she didn’t say anything for a whole two minutes. Luke was beginning to hope she might get back up and leave without another word when she said, “I’m clean.”

Luke almost choked on his suppressed laughter. “Right.” Seeing frustration and sadness crawling up to her eyes was supposed to hurt, but it didn’t. His floodgates were already struggling, and if he allowed her to open them just a single inch, he was doomed to drown. Better to maintain a healthy indifference.

“Have been for almost two months now. Fifty-nine days, actually,” she continued unsteadily. How much worse had she looked at the beginning, then? Luke couldn’t remember ever having seen her in a shape worse than this, but then again, he also couldn’t remember the last time she had tried. Or had claimed to try. “I did it for you, you know. After you left –”

Luke’s scornful snort interrupted her. “Now that’s a nice way to put it,” he said. “Is that what you keep telling yourself? I left? Where’s your

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