Delilah's POV 

I'm woken up to a sudden jumping on my bed. I open my eyes slowly to see Ashton looking down at me, his face a few inches from mine.

“Ashton, what are you doing here? What time is it?” I mumble, turning my head.

“Luke is missing,” he says quietly.

He gets off of me and stares at me. I check the time, and it's 10:52.

“What do you mean he's missing?”

He shrugs. “Andrew called me a few minutes ago. He said Luke wasn't in his room, and his window was open.”

I sit silently for a little. Ashton has been hanging out with Luke more ever since the other day, I guess they're friends. I'm not really sure, Ashton doesn't really tell my about Luke, mostly because he thinks I don't want to have anything to do with him.

“I'm worried, Del,” Ashton whispers.

“It'll be okay. He couldn't have gone too far.”

“You don't know Luke. None of us do, really. He could be anywhere.”

I chew on the inside of my cheek and rest my head on my hand.

“I was with him last night. He seemed fine.”

“You were with him again?” I wonder what Luke and Ashton do. Luke doesn't seem to want to do much.

“Yeah. Andrew trusts me with Luke. What if I did something?”

“Ash, I'm sure you didn't do anything.”

He shrugs. “Will you help me look for him?”

I nod slowly. Luke may not be my friend, but Ashton is my best friend. I know he'd help me with anything.

I may also be worried for Luke too. Don't tell Ashton.

I quickly get dressed, and we head out to look for Luke. We packed some waters, food, and flashlights. We could be looking for Luke all day.

Ashton and I decide to split up. Andrew and Ashton are driving through town, so I've decided to look through the neighborhood. Maybe he just left for a walk or something.

I highly doubt that though.

After half an hour, no one has found Luke. I've asked neighbors, I've gone through yards, I've even checked sheds. He's nowhere.

I try to think of all the places I've seen Luke. There's not many. There's the therapist's, his house, Ashton's house, and the park.

The park! I can't believe I didn't check there sooner. I run down to the park and search for Luke. It can't be that hard to find a 6 foot tall boy dressed in all black, right?

He's not in the obvious places like the swings or the slide. I check the basketball field, but he's not there either. I head towards the fenced off area, and I see Luke hidden in a bunch of trees. He's hugging his legs into him and looking down. I crawl through the huge opening in the fence that's been there forever. I quietly walk over to Luke, not wanting to scare him like last time. As I get closer, I can hear him crying.

“Luke?” I whisper.

He looks up at me through the trees, his eyes red and swollen. His cheeks are rosy and blotchy and tears stain his face. His band shirt is all wrinkled and dirt covers his jeans.

When he sees me, he quickly gets up and starts to run. He runs fast, quickly getting further away from me and deeper into the trees.

I run after him, worried for his safety. He's clearly upset about something, and he could do anything to himself.

There's tons of trees as I run further away from the fence. I've lost Luke, he could've gone anywhere. I look every direction and see him laying on the ground. His pants are ripped, and there's some blood on his leg. He must have fallen in the short time that I lost him.

“Luke!” I shout, running towards him.

He tries to scoot away from me, and he's crying even harder now. Something is seriously wrong.

I look down at the small cut on his leg and look at his eyes that are filled with tears.

“Just let me help, alright?” I say.

He slowly sits up and lets me sit beside him. He doesn't look at me, he stays turned away.

I can still hear him crying.

I grab the water out of my bag and pour it over his cut. I gently wipe it with a tissue I found in my bag, and he winces.

“Sorry,” I mumble.

We sit silently for a few minutes. I'm unsure of what to say or do. I'm not good at things like this, especially with Luke. He's so different and hard to understand. I don't know why he's so upset right now. I decide to start with simple questions, the way I've seen therapists do.

“Why are you out here?” I ask quietly.

He stays turned away from me.

We sit silently some more. Questions aren't going to work because I know he won't answer, so I just start saying what's on my mind.

“I know you don't like me, and I haven't always been so great to you. But you're clearly hurting, and I don't want to see you upset. It's not good to keep it all inside, trust me. You don't have to tell me everything, or anything if you don't want to. I just... I think it'd help you if you told someone. Maybe Ashton, you trust him, right? Just so you're able to get it all out, you know? You probably don't want me here, but I am, and I'm not leaving you here alone.”

He doesn't give a response for a few seconds. He slowly turns around and faces me. He won't look me in the eye, and he nervously bites his bottom lip. At least he has stopped crying. He takes out a piece of paper from his pocket, along with a pen. He quickly writes something and passes it to me.

It's been 210 days since she died. And it hurts. A lot. Every day goes by, and she's not here. I hate being here without her. I hate everything. I just miss her so much. It's so hard to get through every day.

I look up at Luke after I read it, and he finally looks me in the eye. He suddenly bursts into tears, and he starts to sob. I put my hand on his back to comfort him, and he flinches at first.

“It's okay to be sad, Luke,” I whisper. “You don't have to go through this alone.”

He takes in a quick breath and collapses onto me, his head resting on my shoulder. It takes me by surprise, and I slowly wrap my arms around him. He cries into my shoulder for awhile, his tears soaking my shirt. I don't say anything, I let him cry.

I didn't expect this from Luke. He seemed unbreakable to me. But in reality, he's hurting every single day. Today it was all too much for him, and he broke down. It seems that everytime I'm with Luke, I see a different side of him. He's a giant mystery waiting to be uncovered.

I wonder how long it's been since he's actually cried. I think he tries to hold it all in and not think about his sadness. He tries so hard to be strong and tough, but he's just like everyone else. He feels emotions even more than others.

Suddenly, my phone rings. Luke picks his head up and wipes his eyes. I take my phone out of my pocket, it's Ashton.

“Anything?” Ashton says the second I pick up.

I look over at Luke, who is sniffing. I reach for a tissue and hand it to him. “Yeah. I found him.”

Luke looks over at me. He looks so young and fragile, like he could crumble with the slightest touch.

“You did?!” Ashton asks. “Where is he?”

“He's at the park. Just give him some space, okay? He's alright. I'll bring him home, and we'll meet you guys there.”

“Okay. I've gotta let Andrew know! Bye, Delilah!”

Ashton hangs up, and I look over at Luke.

"That was Ashton. Do you want to head home now?"

Luke shakes his head. He's looking at the cut on his leg, trying to wipe off the dirt.

“Does it hurt?” I ask him.

He shakes his head.

“Does anything hurt?” I'm not sure if he hurt anywhere else when he fell.

He nods and points to his chest.

“Your chest hurts?”

He shakes his head. He hesitatingly reaches for my hand and brings it up to his chest. I can feel his heart beating.

I realize what he's telling me, and I nearly start crying too.

Luke's heart hurts.

awww omg this made me sad :(

did i rush through this update or is it alright?

if you didn't notice, i posted a michael fanfic, so go check it out and tell me what you think!

i'm gonna start using tumblr again & i need blogs to follow. mine is wherestheband :)

ilyasm

-ashley