Chapter Text
Luke spent an hour in his room every morning perfecting his sparkly eyeshadow.
He wouldn't leave his house without being able to look in the mirror and feel like he looked somewhat “pretty”.
Michael, on the other hand, was the complete and total opposite of Luke. He refused to wear anything that anybody could even perceive as slightly feminine. Luke had begged Michael multiple times to let him do his makeup, but Michael's immediate response was always a sharp “Fuck no.”
Luke and Michael met for the first time on the first day of Year 6 in primary school. Michael was already sitting in his assigned seat, leaning back lazily, fiddling with a damaged pencil with bite marks around the end, when Luke, the new student, nervously stepped into the classroom. Michael looked up when Mrs Evans began speaking.
“Attention, everybody! This year we have a new student joining us.” She pointed at Luke, encouraging him to speak. “Introduce yourself, dear, don't be shy!” Luke nervously stepped further into the classroom, quickly glancing back at the door before speaking.
“Hi.. I’m Luke.. Uh, Hemmings.” He looked down at his shoes and mumbled, “Not sure if I was meant to say my last name.” Mrs Evans laughs softly. “You’ll be extremely behind the other students in this class since you’re a transfer, so there is no pressure to get as high of grades as them.”
Luke looks at her, then back at everybody sitting down, watching them giggle to themselves and each other, wishing she hadn't said that in front of everybody. Michael felt sorry for Luke when he saw everybody laughing at him, and looked down at the pencil in his hand, tightening his fist around it and raising his hand up high. He aimed the sharp end of the pencil towards Mrs Evans, determined to do anything to stop the other kids from laughing at Luke.
He wasn't entirely sure why he was doing it; he didn't even know the boy. He flung the pencil at Mrs Evans, launching it across the room and stabbing her in the arm. She yelped out in pain as the pencil dropped to the floor. The other students redirected their laughter towards her instead of Luke, exactly what Michael was hoping for. Luke looked around the room with a confused expression on his face before his eyes stopped on Michael, who was there with his eyes on Luke, smiling. Luke smiled back and mouthed, “Thank you”.
Fast forward to now.
Luke wakes up next to his boyfriend, Myles, after he crashed at Luke's house after a party. Luke puts his hand over his eyes to block out the sunlight shining directly on him from the window, then blindly reaches out towards his bedside table, moving his hand around for a moment before finding his phone and picking it up to call Michael.
Michael hears his phone buzzing on his bed next to him; he picks it up, groaning in annoyance as he reads the caller ID. He answers the phone after letting it buzz for a few seconds.
“Luke, it's 6:30 in the morning on a Sunday.”
Luke puts the phone up to his ear and excitedly whispers to avoid waking Myles up. “Mike. Oh my god, he's sleeping next to me.”
Michael's face drops from behind the phone, suddenly wanting to chuck it across the room and watch it shatter to pieces, except he doesn't know why he's upset that Luke's boyfriend is sleeping next to him, or the fact that he’s so happy about it. He wants his friend to be happy, right? But the thing is, ever since Luke started dating Myles, Michael has seen him so much less. They still hang out at school every day, but Michael misses their after-school hangouts at his house. He misses being as close to Luke as Myles is now.
He then realises that he hasn’t responded to Luke.
“Uh— that's cool!! Happy for you.”
“Thanks, Mike!! Call you later.”
Luke begins to move his phone away from his ear to hang up the phone. Before he hears Michael speak again, he pauses his movements to listen.
“Hey, wait, am I still seeing you later?”
Luke had forgotten they had plans. He doesn't want to cancel on Michael, but to avoid that, he’d have to cancel on his boyfriend. He figures that he’s known Michael for so much longer; therefore, cancelling on him once can’t be that big of a deal, surely.
“Ahh, shit. I completely forgot, Mike. You know I don't want to cancel on you, but I was planning to spend the day with Myles.
Michael rolls his eyes, thinking of how to respond without making it obvious that he’s upset with him. He can't come up with anything, so instead he decides to hang up the phone and deal with responding in a short text later on.
Michael huffs and sits up, making eye contact with himself in the mirror opposite his bed, seeing how much of a mess his hair is. He stands up and plods to the bathroom, leaving his phone behind on his pillow, which is blowing up with texts from Luke. Michael takes his time washing and styling his hair; it still looks messy, but it's the type of messy that Michael likes.
Luke texts Michael repeatedly after he hangs up, apologising, convincing himself that Michael’s never going to speak to him again. Of course, that's dramatic, but that's just how Luke's brain works sometimes. He turns to Myles, who remains asleep next to him. Luke reaches out his arm and gently shakes Myles’ shoulder to wake him up.
“Michael hates me.”
Myles opens his eyes and looks up at him, then closes them again as his head starts to spin. “Christ, why are you waking me up. I drank too much last night; my head kills.” Luke repeats himself, “Myles! I said Michael hates me.” Myles rolls onto his back, putting his hands over his eyes, irritated. “I’m trying to sleep, Luke.”
Luke gives up and stops bothering his boyfriend and continues texting Michael.
Michael returns to his room and notices his phone lighting up the minute he walks through the door. He steps closer and makes out that the notifications are all from Luke, who he is just a little angry at right now. Okay, maybe he’s more than a little angry. They have been inseparable for years, and Luke just suddenly has a boyfriend one day and chooses him over his best friend?? Michael picks up the phone anyway and opens the messages.
Luke: mikeee i’m sorry!!
Luke: come on dont be mad at me :(
Luke: i’ll make it up to you i promise
Michael half-smiles at Luke's messages; he's still upset, but he would feel horrible making Luke feel guilty for too much longer.
Michael: luke its okay lol i’m not mad, its not really a big deal
Luke: it is though i wanted to see you, i miss you
Michael feels his cheeks go red as he reads that text; Luke misses him. Luke wants to see him.
Michael: i miss u too but i’ll see u tomorrow at school
He slumps back down onto his bed, feeling like an idiot for even being mad at Luke in the first place; of course Luke is going to want to spend time with his boyfriend.
He can't understand why he was even jealous; he puts it down to him being jealous that Luke has a boyfriend and he has never even had a girlfriend, or liked a girl, for that matter. Of course, he’s thought girls were pretty. But he has never had the desire to ask any of those girls out, or even have a conversation with them. Luke has asked him before if he likes guys, to which he responded with a stern, “Absolutely fucking not.”
Michael isn’t exactly homophobic; he supports Luke, who is openly bisexual. He just finds the idea of himself even glancing at another guy in that way extremely disgusting. His friends used to bully Luke for being bi and wearing makeup until Michael beat the hell out of one of them last year for making Luke cry. After that happened, they all started being nice to Luke since they didn’t want to lose the popularity status of being friends with Michael.
The next day, Luke tiredly dragged his feet into the school building, exhausted from waking up 2 hours earlier than he necessarily had to to apply his makeup perfectly. Year 11 had already been another year of him getting ridiculed every day for being too “feminine”, but this, of course, only happened in classes he didn’t share with Michael. Michael would never sit there and watch him get bullied without intervening and landing himself in a week's worth of after-school detentions. This particular day, he had History in the morning, one of his few classes that he didn't share with Michael. He walked into class before the teacher arrived, sinking into a chair near the window. He leaned forward in his seat, a grumpy expression on his face.
He hears the classroom door open with a click, looks up, seeing his boyfriend walking in, and smiles sleepily. “You don't even take this class, My.”
Myles grins wider and steps closer to him. “Maybe I started taking it to spend more time with you.” Myles’ smile fades but is still faintly there. “Or maybe it's one of the only classes you don't have with Michael, y’know, you don't have to be right next to him 24/7 in school.” Luke blinks at him, confused by his words. “I’m not with him 24/7.” The older boy rolls his eyes, glancing away before speaking again. “You know you are, but it's okay. I’m not mad at you.” He sits down on the chair next to Luke’s after pulling his backpack off and setting it down in front of him.
Luke follows Myles with his eyes, wondering why Myles had to clarify that he wasn’t mad at him. Luke hadn’t thought that he was mad at him. The awkward silence stretches on until Mr Bailey enters the classroom to start the lesson plan.
After class ends, the couple walk hand-in-hand out of the classroom and into the busy hallway. Luke spots Michael standing by his locker and rushes over, pulling his boyfriend with him. “Mike, you wouldn't believe the mistake I just corrected Mr Bailey on,” He giggles.
Myles unlocks his hand and pulls it away from Luke’s, his smile noticeably tightening. Luke looks over at the boy when he feels him distance himself, frowning without even realising. “You good, My?” Myles crosses his arms. “Can we talk?” The younger boy nods and follows Myles to an empty room, leaving Michael confused and certain they are talking about him.
They walk into the room, Luke heading in after his boyfriend, closing the door quietly behind them both. “You look mad,” Luke observes. “Did I do something?”
Myles turns around to face him. “Why can't you go one day without talking to him?”
He pauses before answering, “Who is him— oh, Michael? He’s my best friend, that's why.”
“That doesn't mean you guys need to be together all the time. I mean, I’m your boyfriend, and you give him more attention than me.” Myles lets out a sigh before continuing to speak. “You should hear the shit he says about you to his friends. He isn't as supportive as he makes out to be.” He turns his head to the side, hiding the smirk that he can't hold back.
Luke's eyes widen, suddenly feeling dizzy, like the room is spinning and he can't slow it down. “What?”
“I didn’t want to hurt your feelings by telling you this, but I’ve overheard Michael talking about you to his little friend group more than once. I've heard words like ‘annoying’ and ‘problem’ being thrown around.”
“You’re lying. Mike wouldn't do that. He literally gave one of them a black eye for upsetting me last year.” Luke says, shaking his head in disbelief
“Believe me or don't, Luke, I’m not lying.” Myles turns his head back towards him, reaching his arm out to touch his shoulder, but Luke steps away. His eyes dart around the room, refusing to meet his boyfriend's gaze. He turns around quickly, pulling the door open and stepping out of the room, speed-walking down the corridor, pushing through the students in the crowded space.
Michael spots him from afar, notices the upset look on his face, and yells, “Luke, wait!” starting to follow behind him. Luke ignores him and keeps walking, bringing one hand up to wipe away the tears forming in his eyes. “Hey! What's wrong? Talk to me, please.”
“Just stop, Michael!” Luke exclaims, his voice shaking, practically running through the corridor.
Michael opens his mouth to speak, but stops himself. A frown on his face as he watches his best friend leave. He realises that his talk with Myles must have made him this upset, so he doesn't hesitate before storming into the room that he had earlier seen them go into, Spotting Myles and rushing towards him. Michael grabs him by his T-shirt with both hands and slams him into the wall aggressively. “You said something to him. What did you say?”
Except he didn't do that. He stayed standing there in the corridor, staring at the door that Luke had just gone through. He knew that if he had lashed out at Luke's boyfriend and nothing had actually happened, the boy might never have spoken to him again, and that is Michael's worst nightmare.