Shattered Illusions

Chapter 8.

Luke and I went to a Halloween party and what started out as a fun night ended up an evening ruined by Luke’s temper.
Cathy Lipton threw a huge Halloween party. Her parents were out of town. Once everyone got wind of that, more than 100 people showed up. Cathy was one of the more popular people in school and was no friend of mine but Mark and some of our friends stopped by, we decided to go.

There was plenty of liquor flowing at this party so Luke and Mark proceeded to get drunk. I was happy that Luke had gotten over his jealousy of Mark and they seemed to be becoming friends.
We were standing around the bonfire in the back yard drinking and talking with some friends when I heard a familiar voice say, “Well if it isn’t Luke Walker. I heard you are a pretty good magician.” It was Matt Hooper, my ex boyfriend. He always got mouthy after he had a few drinks. I turned and saw him walking this way. It gave me a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Matt looked over at me and laughed, standing three feet from Luke now.

“Why don’t you show us some of your tricks. Hey show us how you picked the lock and got into Julie’s pants. That’s a good one because everyone knows she’s closed for business.” I could see the anger flash in Luke’s eyes and his fists clenching.
“No Luke” I whispered.
“Matt why don’t you shut up and.........” Luke didn’t give me the chance to finish the sentence before punching Matt in the face, breaking his nose. Matt got up, too drunk to pay attention to the blood running down his face. He ran head first into Luke, knocking him to the ground. Both boys were wrestling around in the grass drawing quite a crowd. People were cheering. Luke got up and started kicking Matt. He kicked him in the face, the ribs, and in the stomach. Anywhere his blind rage directed him. I could see Matt wasn’t getting back up so I ran over to Luke and said, “Luke stop! That’s enough!” Luke didn’t even turned to look at me he just swung his arm around knocking me to the ground, giving me a bloody nose. I saw blue lights and heard someone yell “Cops!” and people scattered. Luke didn’t hear. He was still wailing on Matt. I felt Mark help me to my feet and say, “Are you ok? Is your nose broken?” He handed me a napkin that I used to dab the blood from my sore nose. “No, i’m ok.” It hurt but it didn’t feel broken.

I saw the cops pulling Luke off Matt and cuffing him. “Fuck off!” Luke growled at the cops. He kept struggling in the handcuffs and cursing at the cops until one of them threatened to tase him. This made him be still but he kept leaning in the handcuffs until one of them grabbed a handful of Luke’s hair and jerked him backwards. “Listen you little son of a bitch, I will tase your ass to calm you down if I have to.” Luke stood still looking at me through disheveled hair. His eyes were pure fire. I’d never seen anyone so angry. I wanted to plead with him to cooperate with the cops and not make things worse but I didn’t get my chance before the cops put him in the police cruiser and drove away. I began to cry and Marked hugged me.

The police questioned me, Mark and a few others on what happened. It was clear that Matt provoked Luke but they were painting a less than flattering picture of Luke. Anyone who was left standing around with alcohol on their breath was taken to the police station and their parents called. I’d only had a couple of drinks but they took me to the police station to call my parents when they heard Luke had hit me. While on the way to the police station I explained to them about Luke’s temper and what Matt had said to set him off. I told them Luke didn’t mean to hit me. He just swung without looking. It fell on deaf ears. The cop in the passengers seat turned to look at me and said, “That’s how it starts. ‘It was an accident’ “ he mimicked me. I could feel my face turning red. “Then it goes further until someday it’s you he has on the ground kicking. I’ve seen it a million times. You mark my words. Get rid of that punk bastard now before it gets worse.”
“Luke would never do that to me.” I said, fighting the tears in my eyes.
“Hmmf” the cop grunted and turned around in his seat. “They never learn do they?”
“No they don’t” his partner answered.
I could feel the tears streaming down my face now. I wanted to see Luke. I wanted him to wrap his arms around me and tell me everything was going to be ok.

I only saw Luke briefly at the police station before my parents came to pick me up. On the way home they were silent but once home, the questions began.
“Where you drinking? I know Luke was.”
“Did he hit you anywhere else?”
“Has he hit you before?”
“What were you thinking, going to a party with alcohol around?”
“Are you sleeping with him? Because if you are......”
“Stop it!” I screamed cutting them off. “You don’t know Luke like I do.”
I was crying uncontrollably. In between sobs I was trying to explain to them our connection; how sweet he was to me and how much we loved each other. They just stared at me and my swollen nose.
“No, he’s never hit me before and he didn’t mean to do it tonight. He wasn’t even looking at who he was swinging at.” I could tell they were having none of it.
“You can’t tell me he didn’t know it was you standing there. That he didn’t know it was your voice he heard telling him to stop. If you two have such an intense connection then he would have known.” My father told me.
“Now I’m asking you again. Are you sleeping with him?” My dad yelled.
“No” I lied. There’s no way I could tell my father. He’d go ballistic and forbid us to see each other.
“Richard, get out of her face. She’s been through a lot tonight and needs some sleep.” Mom to the rescue.
“Sheila, i’m telling you. If she’s having sex with that boy I’ll wring his neck!” Dad said to her as if I wasn’t even there.
“Dad!” I cried.
“Julianna, go to bed. We’ll talk tomorrow.” Mom said making intense eye contact with me. I knew what the conversation would be like based on our previous talk about Luke.
I cried myself to sleep that night.