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The Earth was round, fact.
Luke could play the guitar, fact.
He hated wearing sleeves because long shirts felt like they suffocated him… fact.
Listing facts were Luke’s way of working through panic. Reggie sang his country songs, Alex strutted his runway walk, and Luke… Luke listed facts. They usually worked, which is why Luke was so confused when they didn’t . The familiar feeling of dread wound tightly around his spine and suddenly Luke’s knees hit the studio’s floor. “Help,” Luke choked out, gasping for breath as he quickly began to hyperventilate.
He scratched at his long sleeve shirt, the only reason he even put it on was because it was ridiculously cold in the studio, and they never realized it before. His skin felt like it was on fire as his hands started shaking uncontrollably. The fabric of the shirt was too harsh, too rough. He should have grabbed one of Reggie’s flannels, or one of Alex’s sweatshirts that Luke knew he could trust. The shirt was drenched in sweat, sticking to his skin and making the whole situation a million times worse. Luke let out a gasp as he leaned his back against the foot of his couch. He tried poofing somewhere, anywhere else, but he wasn’t able to focus on one place long enough to disappear. Luke settled for pulling his knees to his chest as he continued to get overwhelmed by everything. The lights were too bright, the squeaking of the microphone stands was too loud, his shirt was too textured. Then, just as he thought everything was over, he thought he was dying again… he heard her, Julie. Her voice was a blessing in the hell he was forced to live through.
“Luke,” Julie said, trying to get him to focus. “Can you hear me?” Luke struggled, but managed to gather enough strength to nod wordlessly. “You need to tell me what’s wrong. I can’t help you if I don’t know what’s wrong,” she said, and Luke was finally able to meet her eyes. Her eyes shined with worry and concern as she reached up to gently place her hand on his cheek. Luke relaxed at her cool touch. Still unable to talk Luke pawed at his shirt, and Julie seemed to understand what he wanted. After a few minutes of awkward struggling, she pulled his shirt off of him and threw it to the other side of the room.
“Julie,” Luke croaked out, focusing on the color of her eyes. Julie nodded and pulled him in for a hug. Luke peeled apart in her arms, shaking to his core as emotions rolled off of him in waves. He clutched to Julie’s sweatshirt, fist curling around the soft fabric. “Help, please,” he sobbed, burrowing his head into her shoulder.
“I don’t know how Luke, you need to tell me how.” She whispered, running one of her hands through his slick, sweaty hair. Luke took a shuddering breath before whispering,
“sing.” Julie only looked confused for half a second before she started to hum a song he’d never heard before. It was slow, pretty, a ballad. Judging by the weird gaps in the melody she didn’t have it all figured out yet, but he could tell it was supposed to be a duet. Luke’s body stopped shaking, leaving him a sweaty pile of tears in Julie’s arms. He wrapped his arms around her tightly, using her as a grounding force. Suddenly, like a distant memory coming to light, he realized he knew the song she was humming. Slowly, unsurely, Luke joined in on the song. Julie looked up at him. She was still concerned, but this time she was smiling lightly. They finished the song and Luke’s panic subsided to a nearly non-existent level.
“Better?” Julie asked once they got situated on his couch, curling into his chest. Luke wrapped his arms around her, wanting to stay in the moment forever. Luke hummed happily as he nodded in response. She let out a little giggle, and Luke couldn’t help but think he’d never heard a more beautiful sound. Luke sighed in content as she started to run her hand up and down his arm.
“Sometimes…” Luke started, before trailing off, unsure of how he should continue. “Things just get too loud,” he said. Julie didn’t say anything, patiently waiting for him to collect his thoughts. “This time it was the shirt,” he said, knowing it wasn’t enough of an explanation.
“The shirt?” Julie asked, slightly confused. Luke sighed,
“It was too rough, too harsh on my skin. It felt like my blood was boiling.” A beat of silence passed then Julie said,
“We’ll burn it.”
“Burn the shirt?” He asked in a fit of laughter. Julie nodded,
“Yeah, burn the shirt. It made you freak out, it needs to learn it’s place.” Julie looked up at him with a bright smile on her face.
“We’ll burn the shirt then. Start a bonfire.” Luke said as he nuzzled his head into her hair.
“Reggie can sing us his country songs,” Julie said, just smiling wider. Luke settled into silence and let himself finally relax as Julie’s calming breaths filled the air.
Maybe sometimes it felt like his world was ending. Maybe sometimes things got overwhelmingly loud to the point where Luke crashes, hard… but at least he knew he wouldn't even have to go through it alone again.