Title: it gets better Chapter: 2 Rating: PG Summary: Characters: Luke,Noah, Holden, Winston, Jade, Gabe Genre: AU Warnings: Disclaimer: This site is no way associated with "As the World Turns", CBS, P&G, or Van Hansis and Jake Silbermann. This is not for profit. No copyright infringement is intended. Authors submit and write their own work.

“It’ll take more than a friendly email to calm that guy down..” Gabe said, eyeing the message on the screen. “Ask him for his address and send him some Valium or some happy pills. He sounds like he could use some.”

Noah rolled his eyes at his friend.

“What? This guy needs to remember how to smile and laugh.. it’s obviously been a while for him.” Gabe said.

“And popping pills will solve his problems?” Noah asked. “I’m just going to reply to him.. maybe he just wants someone to talk to.”

“Or maybe he just wanted someone to ***** at.”

“Well he can tell me himself then.” Noah said as he started typing.

Hey there, sorry to hear about your friend treating you like that. Don’t worry I won’t give you the if he was a true friend speech, I’m sure you’ve heard that one already. I hope you two have worked things out by now. And as for my fairy tale happy ending crap as you called it.. I really do believe things will get better. Maybe not today or tomorrow.. but they will. And you probably don’t believe me.. and that’s fine.. but you sounded pretty upset in your message.. and I really hope you won’t hurt yourself over your friend being such an *******. If you want someone to talk to.. I’m here for you. Feel free to send me a message.. even if it’s another one to yell at me to mind my own business. I’m just trying to help people.. and you sound like you could use some help.. or at least someone that will listen and knows what you’re going through. Just send me a message if you want to talk.

Luke read the message over and over again.

“Who is this guy? A shrink? Social worker? Why won’t he just leave me alone?” he mumbled to himself.

He clicked around until he found Noah’s profile. A picture of Noah with some other guy. Boyfriend? He didn’t say he had a boyfriend.. but he didn’t say he didn’t have one either.

A knock on his bedroom door made him snap out of his thoughts.

“Luke? Can I come in?” Holden asked.

“Uhm.. one second dad.” Luke said and quickly closed his laptop after bookmarking Noah’s profile and opened the door. “What is it?”

“Can I come in?” Holden asked again.

Luke nodded and stepped aside.

“Well Aaron is away and Jade locked herself in her room with Casey.. and I could use some help down in the stables.” Holden said as he walked in and sat down on Luke’s bed.

“I have homework. Exams.” Luke said almost automatically.

“Oh come on, surely you can take a break to help your old man.” Holden said. “I’ve barely seen you since well.. a while..”

“Since I told you I’m gay. You can’t even say it dad.” Luke said sadly.

“No, no that’s not it. Your mother and I don’t care. We just want you to be happy.. and I’d like to spend some time with my son.”

“But I’m not your son am I? I’m a Grimaldi. And I bet you’re thrilled about that. The screw up isn’t yours.” Luke said, purposely trying to hurt the man sitting on his bed.

“Luke that’s not true. You are my son, I’m your father, no matter what.”

“I heard you and mum talk the night I came out.” Luke confessed. “You were wondering what to do with me.”

“We were surprised Luke. And you went to your room and you’ve barely left it since. I worry about you Luke.”

“Why? Are you afraid I’ll tell more people and embarrass you? That people know the pervert is your son?”

“What? What are you talking about? Who called you a pervert Luke? Did something happen?”

“Nothing happened.. or will ever happen..” Luke sighed. “I have homework to do now dad. I’m sorry.. I can’t help you.” He said ending the conversation and holding the door open for his father.

“Luke.. just.. please don’t do anything.. radical. You can talk to me.. and your mother.. I promise.”

Luke nodded and closed and locked the door behind his father.

“Hi I’m Luke Snyder and I’m an idiot.” He said to himself as he sat down on the floor and leaned back against the door.

Branson, Missouri

“So has mister happy replied to you yet?” Gabe asked as he and Noah walked home after school.

“No.. not yet. But I still hope he will. Maybe he just hasn’t seen it yet.”

“Or maybe he just doesn’t want your help. You can’t save everyone Noah.”

“Maybe.” Noah said. “Didn’t you have a Skype date with your parents today?” He asked, changing the subject.

Gabe checked his watch.

“In an hour, and mum wasn’t sure she could make it. They were going out the gates today or something.. and either way.. my dad will want to talk to yours first to make sure I’m behaving myself and my grades are good.”

“Good enough for military school.” Noah said and Gabe nodded.

“Yeah they’d both love to see me enlist and serve my country and all that crap.. but I keep telling them the closest I’ll ever come to being a soldier is when I play one on a TV show or in a film.”

“Well you already got into UCLA, that’s a step in the right direction.”

“Yeah but I’m not going unless you get in too.”

“Are you still on that? You’re crazy. UCLA is a great school. You should go, even if I don’t get in.” Noah said, trying to get through to his friend.

“And go to college without my best friend? I don’t think so.” Gabe said, walking up the steps to the front door and taking his key out of his pocket. “And besides, we applied to almost every school out there,
surely there’s one that will accept us both.”

“Yeah.. surely.” Noah said looking through the post he’d just picked up from the mat.

“Don’t tell me those are more bills.” Winston said when he saw the pile of letters in his son’s hand.

“No.. no bills.. but.. this one is for you.. it’s from a lawyer I think.. I guess mum has made up her mind.”

“What?” Winston said, taking the letter from Noah. “This.. must be a mistake. We had lunch yesterday.”

“Maybe it’s army business.” Gabe suggested.

“Yes, yes, maybe. Uhm.. I have to go.. do the shopping now. I’ll be back soon. Your father is waiting Gabe, he was early today.. tell him I’m sorry but I had to go.”

Gabe nodded and the boys watched Winston leave.

“He is so going to open that letter in his car somewhere.” Gabe said.

Noah nodded.

“Yeah I think you’re right.”

“What else is in that pile? Anything interesting?”

“Uhm.. UCLA.. for me.. but it’s a small envelope.” Noah said and bit his lip, both boys knew what it meant.

“Damn.. well that’s just one school. There’s still Florida and Missouri State and that one in Illinois that we both got into.”

“Northwestern? I thought you got waitlisted for that.”

“I did. I was talking about uhm.. what’s it called again.. in that town near Chicago.. something with wood.. Oak? Something? I don’t know..”

“Oakdale? That school is tiny.. in some little town no-one’s ever heard of.” Noah complained.

“Ah we’ll see where we end up next year.” Gabe said and shrugged. “I better go tell my parents I’m a good boy now or they’ll come home from Iraq just to check on me.”

“Don’t tell them about UCLA or they’ll fly you out there to knock some sense into you.” Noah said and turned his attention to the rest of the letters, happy to see a few large envelopes with school logos on them.

Oakdale, Illinois

Luke stared at Noah’s message. He’d read it so many times now he knew it by heart.

“Why does he care? He doesn’t even know me..”

“Why does who care?” Jake asked walking into her cousin’s room.

Luke jumped.

“Jesus Jade have you ever heard of knocking?”

Jade shrugged.

“Your door was open and I heard you talk. I wondered who you were talking to.”

“No-one.. I was just talking to myself.. about.. something.”

“About what? You were talking about someone caring.. is that someone Kevin? I saw you talking at school today.”

“No.. no I wasn’t talking about Kevin.. and he only talked to me because we have to work together on our final biology project.”

“Still no change in the Kevin department then?”

Luke shook his head.

“Not really..” He said and sighed, deciding he really did want to talk to someone and his cousin would have to do. “I was talking about this video I saw online last week. One of those it gets better videos you know? I sent the guy who made it a bitchy message and he replied.. saying I could talk to him if I wanted to."

“And do you? Is he cute?” Jade asked.

“I.. I don’t know.. I never replied to his message.”

“Why not?”

“I.. I don’t know..”

“Show me the video, I want to see him.” Jade said and grabbed Luke’s laptop.

“Alright, alright, give me a second.” Luke said taking his computer back.

“Don’t worry, I won’t look through your porn collection.” Jade teased.

Luke blushed but gave her the laptop.

“This is it. It’s a nice video really..”

Jade watched the video and then began to type something.

“Hey, hey, hey, what are you doing?”

“Replying to this Noah guy. He’s cute and Branson isn’t that far from here.”

“What? No, Jade, no!” Luke said trying to close his computer.

“Oh come on, I’m doing you a favour. This guy is cute. You’ll never get a boyfriend if you don’t put yourself out there.”

“I’m not looking for a boyfriend. Please don’t do this..” Luke pleaded.

“Why not? Boyfriends are fun.” Jade said and grinned.

Luke rolled his eyes at his cousin.

“Speaking of boyfriends.. where is yours? It’s been a while since I’ve seen you without Casey.”

“Being held hostage by his mother. She hates me so she does everything she can to keep him away from me.” Jade said, not taking her eyes off the screen.

“I wonder why..” Luke mumbled. “What are you writing? Let me read it.”

“Relax. I’m not saying anything weird. I’ll let you read it when I’ve sent it.”

“No I want to read it before you send it.” Luke demanded.

“Does he know your name? He doesn’t does he? Should I sign it with your username then?” Jade asked, ignoring Luke’s demand.

“What are you sending him? Let me see.”

“Just a friendly message. Don’t worry.”

“You realise those words mean nothing coming from you right?”

“But you love me anyway.” Jade said and gave him a quick smile. “And.. sent. You’ll thank me one day.”

“I very much doubt that.” Luke groaned as he sat down to read the message Jade had just sent Noah.

Branson, Missouri

Hey Noah, sorry for my last message.. you just caught me on a bad day I guess. I really liked your video, it looks good. I hope it helps people the way it helped me. I’d like to talk to you and get to know you better. You seem like a nice guy. You looked really nice in your video. If your offer still stands, message me back, maybe we can figure out a way to chat directly sometime?

“What the hell..” Noah said reading the message on his screen. “Is he flirting with me now?”

Before he had time to even think of replying another message appeared on his screen.

Hi, sorry about that message.. my cousin hacked my account and she is on this one woman mission to find me a boyfriend. Sorry she bugged you. Just ignore that message.. delete it. Thanks for replying to my message, it definitely didn’t deserve a reply. I’m fine though and I promise you won’t take my bad mood out on you again. You can block my account if you want. My cousin was right about one thing though.. you did catch me on a bad day. Well..uhm.. anyway.. have a nice life Noah.
Bye.

“Have a nice life?” Noah said to himself and typed a reply.

Have a nice life? What if I would like to get to know you too? What if I was looking for a new friend. Someone to talk to? Your username doesn’t tell me anything. Tell me something more about yourself. How did it go with your friend? Did you work things out? Sorry if I’m coming on too strong.. I’d just like to get to know you. After the day I’ve had I could use someone to talk to myself. Reply if you want to chat. I’m not a weird internet pervert, I promise. Just a guy trying to make new friends.

“God no I can’t send that. He’ll think I’m some freak stalker..”

“Did mister happy reply to you?” Gabe asked as he sat down on the sofa next to his friend.

“Yeah.. or.. his cousin did.. I think. But I don’t think he wants to talk to me anymore. He wished me a nice life.”

“Message clear and understood.” Gabe said and closed Noah’s laptop. “I really hope you weren’t working on anything important that you hadn’t saved yet.” He said grinning. “Come on, get your jacket, we’re going out.”

“Out? Out where?”

“Anywhere but here, I just saw your mum’s car pull up. I don’t think your parents really want us here right now."