The Eternal Sleep

Dinner with Family is never easy

    Luca can boldly say, he genuinely contemplated not showing up to dinner. He could make it a night without, after all, high school thought him that the human body could survive for months without food, and almost insane conditions if one was determined enough. Besides, if all else failed, he could always eat when everyone had gone to bed.

    A light rapping of knuckles on the door suggested that his decision might be out of the question, he groaned and rolled his eyes, sliding off his chair and onto the ground like a discarded towel. “Kid, you in there?”, of all people, it had to be Sean. He just wanted to hide under a rock for the next century or so, minimum.

    “Yea, I’m here.” He groaned again softly, thinking it might be too quiet for Sean to hear. He took a breath to repeat the sentence when the voice answered hesitantly.

    “It’s dinner time, we got take-out from Minshoos.” Luca was too stunned to reply. Minshoos was his favorite place for take-out, their food was spicy and came with fried dumplings filled with chicken. Usually, when Jasper came home for the weekends, they’d get his favorite foods. To be honest, he didn’t even know that Sean knew his favorite things.

    Clearly, he took a little too long to answer because Sean cleared his throat awkwardly, “We got both fries and chicken for you, but you could always switch with mine if you want fried rice instead.”

    “Uh, n-no, the fries are good, I’ll be down in a bit.” Sean shuffled off. Luca could never understand the guy, he knew in his heart that Sean was a good guy, but every time he tried to get close to him, he was reminded of loud screaming and a look of pure fury. It was the look that he expected to see from Sean should he ever look at him again. Logically, he knew it wasn’t true, but his mind was a hard thing to convince.

    A look of fury was one thing but if Sean ever gave him a disappointed look, he doesn’t think his heart could take it, it would shatter into tiny little pieces and flow through his bloodstream and shred him from within. Luca pulled himself off from the floor, shaking out the tense muscles. He needed to stop being so dramatic.

    Dinner was, as usual, never really quiet. Jasper waved at him in greeting, the ever-pleasant smile present on his face. Sean nodded at him and softly called his name in greeting, but Luca merely hummed and nodded back, not catching his eyes. His mother, however, had barely acknowledged him before asking Jasper an endless stream of questions. To be honest, Luca felt slightly sorry for him and would stand up for him, but the spotlight was something he disliked more than being ignored.

    “Hay, Mama, today was really okay, just like every other day. You don’t need to worry.” Luca could see Jasper was becoming slightly stressed, beginning to resemble a bird with their feathers puffed in defense, but Luca just kept his head down.

    “Of course I worry, because seems only one of my sons seems to be doing anything useful with his life.”

    There is was, the unnecessary affront about something he couldn’t help, he was seventeen and taking up excessive space in the house, not that the law stated he couldn’t get a job till eighteen or anything. He chose that moment to nonchalantly sneeze into his elbow, silently blaming the spices clogging his sinuses. He merely sniffed and responded in the deadpanned tone he reserved for moments like these, “Rude.”

    “Sorry Luca, I’m sure Alyse didn’t mean that.” It didn’t take a genius to know that Sean was glaring at his mother, Jasper unsuccessfully stiffing a guffaw. Uneasiness immediately flooded Luca’s system, however, he’d rather not have Sean and his mother arguing with each other. It reminded him far too easily of his father and the shouting matches they’d have at the table until one of them left in anger.

    “It’s fine, Mom’s just joking.” Luca plastered a smile on his face as he played with his food. “School was pretty short, got my test results back from the maths exam.”

    “And?” his mother huffed.

    “I got eighty percent.”

    “You’ve dropped.” She shook her head in disappointment, Luca wanted to roll his eyes, choosing to place one arm on the table to prop his head up, an empty gaze trained on the plate.

    “Yep.”

    “That’s amazing, Luca.” He glanced at Jasper making a genuine face of excitement, he never understood how Jasper would easily wear his emotions on his face and mean it.

    “Uh… thanks?”

    “Did you get to do anything exciting?” Sean prodded him verbally. Luca thought about his most exhilarating moment, teleporting and fighting the ogre-like giant. Luca was certain his joy had lit up his face if Sean and Jasper’s reaction of leaning in closer to hear was any indication.

    “Yea, in the game, Jay and I got to fight this ogre and-“

    “Oh, for the love of stars, you and this game, it’s all I hear about.” His mother’s sound of frustration made the words stick in his throat. “Can’t you do something useful like Jasper for once?”

    “Alyse!” Sean interrupted. It was too late however, Luca felt his heart plummet, his fingers twitching at the sudden pain fluttering in his chest.

    “Uh, it’s fine.” He gently pushed his plate away, trying to ignore how his stomach twisted in nausea as he watched the half-eaten plate of food. “I’m, uh, not as hungry anymore.”

    “Luca, you barely ate anything.” Sean tried to reach for his arm, but Luca gracefully pulled himself just out of reach.

    “Yea, must be a stomach bug or something, been feeling off whole day.” He lied through his teeth and he knew everyone at the table knew it, but they didn’t call him out on it.

    “Do you want any medicine or anything? I’m sure we could get it.” Sean always sounded so sincere, it made Luca want to shove his headphones in his ears and play music so hard his ear drum damaged, just so he didn’t have to hear it anymore.

    “N-no, I have a lot of homework to for the weekend, so I really should be going.” He left the table, and headed to his room, waving a hand at Jasper’s ‘Don’t work too hard!’.

    As soon as the door closed behind him, Luca struggled to breathe, if only his mother knew. That game that she dissed so much had gotten him in contact with some of the brightest minds. He’d still be stuck in a frenzied cycle of panicked studying and taking tests.

    Armando, the tested genius of the team had sat with them tirelessly, hour by hour, and went through every subject they had an issue with. The gyms offered more than just weapons training, it gave you training with instruments, Luca could successfully play violin, guitar and piano and had the printed certificates to prove. Rena had thought him how to paint, Olivia thought him to drive, Jay had thought him dancing and Luca had thought them coding and building both games and applications in return.

    He pushed himself off the door and dropped himself on the bed, pulling his bag next to him and digging through it. Very carefully, he plucked a couple letters from the folder in the back of the bag. Luca spread them out on his bed, all of them already opened, except one. The letter from the school of ‘Scientific Research and Technological Advancements’ lay unopened for the last week. The others were letters from very top schools, all of which he’d been accepted to but this one in particular had caught his attention, it was the most distinguished school in the country, and he was terrified to open the letter.

    Luca scrubbed a hand over his face and sighed. Tenderly, he picked up the letters, placing the unopened on top and placed them on his desk. He still had a month to decide. He pulled out a notebook from his bag and flipped though the many pages filled with drawings and notes, things he wanted to build and code in the future. He wasn’t lying, he did have homework, it just wasn’t for his current school. Luca knew if he wanted a chance at such a high school, he had to be carrying evidence that he was worthy of it, and what was wrong with getting a head start.    

    He’d finished his exams a month ago, taking the option to do it early by his teachers’ guidance. No one had asked or even been aware in his family and he was glad, it meant that it was a time of no pestering and a couple months with which he could do anything with.

    The downside, however, was while his exams were over, the rest of the school population still had normal classes. This meant that he still had to attend school for a proper attendance record, as boring as it was with no friends there.

    Luca rubbed his eyes and set to work on a clean part of the notebook, the pencil gliding across the page.