“Why the hell did you put your hand in the door when I’m closing it?”

He made Noah get inside the flat and led him to the kitchen to get some ice

“Shit, I didn’t want you to close the door…”

He was holding his hand against his chest. Luke gave him some ice

“Here, put some ice…”

Luke put the ice on Noah’s hand and he hissed

“It’s getting really swollen, Noah, you should go to the hospital”

“What? Me? You are taking me”

“I guess it’s only fair…”

They left the apartment and when they finally made it into the hospital and filled in all the papers they still haven’t talked. They were both sitting down in the waiting room, one next to another

“Does it hurt?”

“Like hell”

“Right… sorry”

“Why did you leave like that?”

“I don’t want to talk about it”

“I do, and you are stuck here with me, so talk”

Luke just looked around and picked up a magazine

“Luke…”

“Maybe you should call your girlfriend so she can come here and keep you company”

Shit… he wasn’t going to talk about it. He’d promised himself he would not mention her, but he just couldn’t help it.

“My girlfriend? You mean Lisa?”

“Whatever, I don’t want to talk about it”

“She’s not my girlfriend, how do I have to tell you?”

“You don’t have to tell me anything, I don’t care”

“Of course you care, be honest”

“I guess I am that stupid…”

“You are not stupid, Luke… I am sorry she came in like that on us…”

“It was a good thing, actually… I was trying to come up with an excuse to go anyway”

He stood up

“I’m going to go, you can get a taxi home when you are finished here”

“What? No, stay with me”

“I don’t want to, Noah”

“This is your fault, Luke, the least you could do is stay”

Luke smiled not looking at him

“Well, I guess I learnt from the best…”

And with that he was gone. Noah couldn’t believe it. 7 years before he’d left Luke because he blamed himself for the shooting, and Luke never blamed him for that, he blamed him because he’d left him. Wasn’t that ironic?

===========

A few hours later Noah found himself before Luke’s apartment door. He was tired and his hand was throbbing. The doctor had given him some strong painkillers and he had been told to go home before they could kick in, but he was set on talking to Luke even if he died trying. He looked down at the cast in his hand and thought for a moment that he might not die but he was sure going to end up in bad shape. He knocked on the door and waited.

He heard footsteps and the door was opened

“I can’t believe that”

“I’m going to put my good hand in here, so if you close the door again you’ll break my other hand…”

Noah held the door with his good hand

“Get out, Noah”

“I am not going anywhere”

Luke entered the apartment and Noah followed him and closed the door. Luke sat down at a table with a computer and started typing

“What are you doing?”

“Working”

“Can we talk? Please?”

“There’s nothing to talk about”

“You spent the night with me, making love, and now you don’t want to talk to me? What the hell is going on? Do you do this often?”

“What slam doors on one night stands?”

“One night what?!”

“You know, when you fuck with someone just for fun one night and forget about him the next day”

“Obviously you are used to it… I’m the one who came here twice wanting to talk and you are the one slamming the door at my face”

“Your hand”

“What?”

“I slammed the door at your hand”

Luke looked at Noah’s cast

“Is it broken?”

“Like you care…”

Luke looked back at the computer. He was not going to ask about the blond woman, or about the one night comment he heard. He was not going to let Noah see how much last night had meant to him.

“Yes… one of the bones somewhere around my hand is actually broken… don’t ask me wich one, I can’t remember”

He put one hand on the table as if he were trying to get some balance

“Noah…?”

“Just give me a minute…”

He swayed a little and Luke stood up and held him up

“Here…”

Luke helped Noah reach the sofa and sat down with him

“What is it?”

“Nothing… painkillers, probably”

“You should be at home”

“I can’t go home… I need to understand”

“Understand what?”

“Why you jumped out of my bed… was it really a one night thing for you?”

“Who cares”

“I do… cos it wasn’t a one night thing for me. I woke up thinking that we could have something together and feeling stupidly happy and you just want to run as far away from me as possible…”

Noah lifted his good hand and caressed Luke’s face

“And I want to be as close to you as possible”

Luke just looked at him and took his hand and moved it away from his face

“I need you, Luke…”

“Stop it… you don’t know me anymore, don’t you see? We are nothing but two strangers”

“I am in love with you”

“Come on, Noah…”

Luke stood up and paced around the room with his hands in his head

“Don’t do that to me, okay? We haven’t seen each other for years and we weren’t together for very long really… we were kids and now we are different and…”

He looked towards Noah and saw that he was asleep

“Great… and you fall asleep when I am baring myself… just great”

He sat down next to him and saw that Noah was holding his broken hand against his chest.

“i’m sorry I broke your hand…”

He looked for a blanket and covered Noah with it. He brushed his fingers along the side of Noah’s face

“I used to love you so much…”

Chapter 10