Jim had never seen Luke like he was seeing him at that very moment. He looked so sad he was afraid he would start crying any minute.

“Let’s go somewhere where we can talk, uh?”

“No, I don’t want to talk about him”

“Seems to me that it’s exactly what you need”

“I’ve hated him for so long…”

“I thought you loved him”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing…”

He felt the light touch of Noah’s lips on his own, a hand caressing his neck… he opened his eyes for a brief moment to make sure… this is really happening, he’s kissing me…

Noah closing the distance again and kissing him full on the lips, deeper this time, sweeter. His hand never leaving his neck and Luke daring to move up his own hand to touch that skin that has driven him crazy for weeks, that has been forbidden and now…

“Who cares…”

Now it was all gone, the sweet moment, the joy, the hope… all gone.

“Let’s go, Luke”

He got Luke by the arm and just when they turned around they bumped into Noah and the blond woman. Luke looked at Noah, who seemed transfixed.

“Excuse me...”

Jim was the one excusing himself, and the blond woman smiled at him

“It’s okay”

Luke couldn’t stop looking at Noah, he felt his blue eyes fixed on him, he could see the surprise in them, the memories flooding back, a smile…

“Honey?”

The woman was looking at Noah, who stopped looking at Luke and resumed walking with her. Luke stayed standing up in the middle of the sidewalk not knowing what to do or where to go

“Shit, let’s go, Luke”

“No, I…”

Jim made him walk and they entered a coffee shop. He made sure Luke was sitting down on a corner and ordered some drinks for both of them. When he went back to their table Luke was resting his head in his hands

“Eh”

“He pretended not to know me…”

“Maybe he didn’t recognize you…”

“Oh, he did, believe me… son of a”

“Hey, stop it, come on, what the hell happened with that guy?”

“I was stupid enough to fall for the guy”

“When?”

“After high school. That summer I did an internship at WOAK, back in Oakdale, he was there too”

“And?”

“And he destroyed me, Jim, I don’t want to talk about him, okay?”

“You should have seen yourself, Luke”

Luke ran his fingers through his hair and realized that they were shaking, he looked at his own hands

“After all this time and he still makes me feel like jelly… damn him”

“Something must have happened with him, come on”

“It’s a long story and I don’t want to remember”

“You already did, Luke, I’m sorry”

Luke put his head in his hands again

“He has no right to do that to me now. I was doing fine, shit, I was better than fine… and he managed to make me feel like shit, he is sending me to hell again, Jim, and I’ve been there before because of him and it wasn’t nice… I should have punched him, or shout at him, that’s what I should’ve done”

“Calm down, you are almost hysterical. Just stop it, please”

Luke looked at Jim

“You don’t understand, he has no right…”