Luke's feat tapped gently against the moonlit pavement. He was walking slowly down the sidewalk to his house. The tall green trees swayed back and forth. The moon hung in the sky, it's light pale and grey, giving the sky a calm, yet eerie vibe. Luke glanced at his watch. It was 12:00. He walked past the driveway of his house and to the back gate, which creaked as it opened. The buttons beeped as he pressed in the code to the back door. It opened with a fwoosh sound and he closed it as quietly as he could. He tiptoed without a sound through the garage, almost as if floating. The door opened loudly, even though Luke tried to keep it quiet.

"Luke?"

"Yea."

"Where were you?" Luke's Mom walked out of her room and stared sternly at him.

"Just hanging out with a friend."

"I was calling you and texting you! Why didn't you answer me?"

"I'm sorry, mom. My phone ran out of battery."

"Well then you at least need to talk to me before you just leave like that. I don't know what could have happened to you!"

"Well I'm here, aren't I? I'm fine."

"I don't even know what you were doing!" She continued as if she didn't hear Luke.

"Mom, nothing happened! I'm not a baby anymore! My phone ran out of battery, I'm sorry. I should've come home sooner. I won't let it happen next time. But chill out! I'm not in middle school anymore." Luke swept past his concerned mother, a look of surprise on her face, and ran up the stairs to his room. He closed the door and locked it. The only light he turned on was his desk light, he didn't bother turning on the other light. The room was dark. The light from Luke's desk only reached out a small distance; it illuminated his black desk in a bluish black and his plane white carpet in a dull, grey light. Luke pulled his phone out from his pocket and stared at its black screen. He frowned at his reflection in the small, dark mirror. Finally, after a long moment, he threw it on his bed and lay down onto the soft sheets himself. The ceiling stared back at him. Luke could hear his heart beat along with the ticking clock. It drove him insane. He sat up and shook his head, grabbing his phone and plugging it into the charger that hung from an outlet in the wall. It didn't buzz as it usually did when it was plugged in because his phone was in fact dead. Luke sat there next to the wall for a second, then got up. He paced around his dark room, rubbing his eyes. He felt a little bad about lashing out at his mom like that but he was getting frustrated. He didn't need her to follow his entire life around. Luke's mom wasn't by any means a helicopter parent and Luke knew that but sometimes she over reacted. It wasn't that big of a deal that he hadn't been home at 9:00 like a good little sixth grader. He was old enough to be out hanging out with friends and his parents didn't constantly have to know exactly where he was at every second of his life. A small light appeared behind Luke and he turned around to see the source of it. A small apple glowed on his screen as it turned on. He sat down by his phone and waited. After a few seconds numbers showed up with blurry smudges of color behind them. Luke typed in his password. He waited, mildly impatient, for everything to load. He had twenty five messages, five phone calls, and some notifications from other apps. He went straight to his messages. Five were from Ryan.

"Hey ik ur phones dead and idk when you'll see this but r u able to hang tomorrow?"

"Just like"

"Tell me"

"If u can"

"K bye" Ryan smiled for a second at how awkward she was, then remembered. He went back to his contacts. The other twenty were from his mom.

"Why tf won't u answer????"

"Luke"

"Luke!!!"

"LUKE"

"Helllooooo"

"Shit Luke where r u???"

The list went on. Luke ignored the texts. He scrolled through his contacts. He stopped the names from scrolling with his thumb. He stared down at the name that sat blankly on the screen. Matt. Luke bit his lip and clicked on the name. The last message sent between the two was from Luke.

"Seriously common. Don't b immature." Luke felt a pang of guilt. Why did he say that? What idiot part of his brain thought that was the appropriate thing to say? Luke went back to his chat with Ryan.

"I'm sorry I can't tomorrow but I'll see u on Monday :P" he typed and paused.

He held down the delete button until the message was gone. Luke tapped his foot and sighed. To Matt he wrote

"Plz can we talk I messed up"

Delete.

"Ok so I didn't eat lunch with you ONCE. Big fucking deal. Suck it up you fucking ass whole..."

Delete.

"Dude we should really talk. This whole thing is stupid. We've been friends for so long and now we're not talking? Idk what's going on with u and u don't know what's going on with me and we should really just talk this out and try to understand. I don't want to loose you. Your my friend." Luke's finger hesitated by the send button. And finally...

Delete. All in one quick motion Luke deleted the whole message, went back to Ryan's contact, and sent a simple

"I'll see u tomorrow!"