Leave It All (Saint Lakes #1)

3. Chapter One

Chapter One

L ucas Speck lay on the floor of his parents’ living room with the lights off and his eyes shut. Sometimes, it lessened the pain to be still and the nausea didn’t threaten as much when he remained relaxed. Other things didn’t happen either.

Unexplainable. Weird shit.

Lucas was already weird enough without adding to it.

If he didn’t know better, he’d think he was cursed. But he really didn’t have enemies, so there went that theory. And if he thought back on his life then he’d had to say the headaches had begun in high school.

The pain through his head sharpened when he chuckled at himself.

Man, had he needed help in high school. He’d been skinny and had worn big baggy jeans that were a couple of sizes too big to make himself less of a target.

He was like that lizard that flared its ruff out and hissed whenever someone bullied him.

The larger clothing had been the best he could do to make himself seem bigger.

Why had his mother let him leave the house like that ?

He shook his head when he thought about that time in his life.

His current state wasn’t much better with his superhero T-shirt that had made him look like a twelve-year-old, and his white undies that did nothing to make him feel even one ounce of sexy, not that he felt that anyway with his brain threatening to pound right out of his big ole noggin’.

His phone rang out the same tinny song that was supposed to remind him he was cool like a ninja, but really annoyed him. He seriously needed to change it.

The phone sat on the coffee table a few feet away.

Lucas sat up, moaning when the pain pounded through the top of his head.

He was reaching for the phone when a white ball of energy left his chest, zinging through the entire room like a bullet until it found his mother’s half-dead plant.

Lucas watched as the brown crinkled leaves turned green and purple flowers popped up by the dozens above the green, all happy and proud.

He lay back down and sighed in relief when his headache subsided almost instantly.

God, why? Like seriously. And, also, what the hell came out of him all the time? A baby? A light baby shaped in perfect roundness?

The phone stopped ringing.

Lucas sighed in relief when the last little bits of pain fell from his head like drops of water. His phone started ringing insistently again.

He grabbed it off the table and pressed the talk button. He barely got a hello out before his best friend Shawn spoke. “Hey, you have to come out with me.”

“I have a headache. Again.” Or rather, he’d had a headache. He was not ashamed to use the headache he no longer had to get out of leaving the house. Call him an extreme introvert. Whatever. He didn’t care. It was underwear city in the house, but he’d have to pants up if he left. Yeah, no thanks.

“Come on. You always say that. Or at least let me throw a party at your house.”

“I’m twenty-six, not seventeen. I have responsibilities to my parents and their house while they’re away for the winter, Shawn. That doesn’t include trashing the place.”

“You lecture so well, Lucas. It turns me on.”

Lucas chuckled. “Shut up.”

“Fine. No party. But at least come out with me.”

“Fine. But not that straight bar by the lake. I hate that place. Way too many homophobes.” Lucas’ last experience at that bar had almost gotten his ass kicked.

A guy had thought Lucas was hitting on him when all he’d done was look over in the man’s general direction.

The guy hadn’t even been Lucas’ type, and when he said that it had pissed the asshole off even more.

The dude had been friggin’ huge, which had scared the crap out of Lucas.

When the guy had raised his fist, Lucas had nearly shit his pants.

Nothing came of it, though. The big guy had stopped as if nothing happened.

His fists lowered, and he turned back to his friends.

“Yeah, agree completely. I wanna get laid, not killed.”

“And I’m driving. The last time, you hooked up with some random guy and left me at the bar.”

“Whatever, dude. I don’t care who drives. I can’t believe I got you to agree so easily. Are you sick? Is something wrong with you?” Shawn sounded genuinely concerned.

“I’m fine,” he lied.

“You do act like a housebound old man. Dude, you need to live a little. Find some guy and let him fuck you. Get drunk. Something besides go to work and housesit for your parents. ”

“I go to college too. Not just work.” And that so didn’t make things better.

No, what he really needed was to get his shit together. His life had veered to the left enough to stunt his growth as a human being.

He had four years to go until he was thirty. It might have sucked ass to think about, but he needed some motivation. At the rate he was going, he’d be in college with a below average GPA until he was sixty. He should have been finished three years ago at the very latest.

“So, what time did you want to go out?” They set a time and Lucas hung up the phone.

He passed his dad’s office and stopped when he saw the dead plant.

Shit, his mom was going to kill him. The only thing he had to do was water three plants.

Well, except for the one that he could magically revive.

Why was it only the violet and not the others?

Maybe he could do that with all of them, then he really wouldn’t be a failure at the watering thing.

He walked into the room and stood for a second. He thought about the plant when it had been alive, expecting something to happen, but nothing did. In his mind, the thing came back to life, the leaves grew green and full, hanging over the pot the way it had looked before his parents had left.

He balled up his fists and tried again. Still nothing came. He sighed in frustration, blowing air out through his nose. He turned as the ball of light left him, along with the exhale.

The light zinged, almost hitting him but he ducked at the last minute. The light finally found the plant. The leaves turned green instantly. Lucas hesitated before running his finger down the pretty foliage .

His heart beat a wild rhythm, and at the same time he was so tired he could barely stand. Lucas turned, going to his room even as his eyelids slid shut. He fell onto the bed face down.

****

“… sleep when you’re dead. Come on, Lucas. Get your lazy ass out of bed.” Lucas groaned and rolled away from Shawn’s touch. Shawn wasn’t having any of that though, and the shaking of Lucas’ shoulder started again. “You sleep harder than anybody I know.”

“Not usually. Something weird happened,” Lucas said before he could check himself.

“What?” Shawn’s hand left his shoulder and Lucas rolled over to face him, opening his eyes as he did.

He noted the time and realized only a few minutes had passed. Thank god for the fifteen-minute power nap, because he felt better already.

“Nothing. Just felt sick.” No way would he open up about the plants.

“Still getting the headaches?” Shawn eyed him knowingly.

“Yeah.”

Shawn averted his gaze to the nightstand. “You’re still coming out with me, right?”

“Yeah.” Lucas sat up.

Something was off with Shawn. Guilt oozed from his pores but that wasn’t the only thing.

He wasn’t dressed to impress the way he normally would be.

Lucas had known Shawn since their junior year of college, and in all that time Shawn had always dressed like a slut whenever they went out.

It was his thing, so for him not to was strange.

Also, Shawn had circles under his brown eyes as if he suffered from some ailment.

The flu, maybe ?

Reading auras had always been something Lucas could do, even as a kid. It had taken him a long time to figure out his ability. A library trip in middle school and many books had enlightened and clued him in to the fact that he wasn’t alone in his aura-reading abilities.

Shawn had a gray color around him. Sickness. On the outside of that was a pale purple. Fear.

Hm.

Lucas climbed out of bed. “I don’t think either of us should go. We both look like run-over-shit.” He started out of the room.

“No!” Shawn shouted and grabbed his arm. The hysteria surprised Lucas and seemed out of place, given it was a trip to the club for dancing and not life and death. Then Shawn’s expression softened, and he smiled. “I’m fine. You’re fine. Let’s just go and have a good time. I really need this.”

Nausea clawed up his esophagus the second Shawn’s hand closed around his arm.

He must have made a face because Shawn let him go, holding up his hand as if in surrender

“I need to shower first.”

Lucas thought about it as he walked to the bathroom and the entire time he showered. The oddness of the day clung to the recesses of his mind, refusing to let go.

When he was finished, he wrapped a towel around his waist and headed back into his room. Shawn sat in the center of Lucas’ bed with his legs crossed and his phone in his hand, probably playing a game.

Lucas turned his back on Shawn and opened his closet door.

“Hey, you should play something for me.” Shawn pointed to Lucas’ guitar.

Lucas turned to the instrument, which sat next to his closet in the corner of his room .

“Sing me a song, Daddy.” Shawn batted his eyelashes. The Shawn he knew was back, not the closed-off scared man who’d walked into his house a few minutes ago.

Lucas chuckled, and the tension eased a bit. “Can I get dressed first?” Lucas turned back around and grabbed a shirt off its hanger.

“Not that one.” Shawn sighed. The bedsprings groaned as he scooted to the edge.

Shawn touched the center of his back. Lucas sucked in a breath at the fear coursing through him. He instantly knew it all belonged to Shawn.

Shawn took the shirt from him even as Lucas moved away. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I’m fine. It’s fine.” Lucas’ words came out in a rush.

He bent over at the waist and breathed in slowly through his mouth, letting it out through his nose. Once. Twice. Shawn took a step toward him. “No! Don’t touch me.”

“Okay, man. Sorry.”

Who had Shawn running scared? Someone was hurting his friend. He could tell that much for sure.

The thought pissed him off.

His headache built at the top of his head as if his emotion was bringing the magical ball of light to the surface again.

He really needed to experiment with it a little more, somewhere safe. Maybe in a forest, away from people. After all, he had no idea what it would do to a person.

Could he kill someone with it, or would it heal them like it had the plants?

He’d go to the park off M-43 that hardly anyone ever went to and experiment tomorrow .

Shawn turned back to the closet, rummaging through Lucas’ shirts without a word. A quiet Shawn was never a good thing.

Lucas straightened and decided to put as much distance between them as possible. He would have left the room if he could have, but he still needed to get dressed.

Lucas opened his dresser drawer and grabbed underwear. He pulled them on under the towel before discarding it.

The socks he chose had penguins on them. He loved their silliness and maybe he needed to lighten up a bit. After shutting the drawer, he opened the next one down and randomly selected jeans.

Maybe Shawn finally had been dating someone and hadn’t told Lucas about it. Maybe the person was abusive or something.

He dressed as he asked the question. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on with you?”

“Nothing is going on. And ditto, man.” Shawn turned and threw a button-down shirt at him.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Lucas took the shirt.

“You haven’t been telling me shit either.”

“There’s nothing to tell.” Lucas buttoned his shirt. He wasn’t paying attention to what he was doing. His entire focus was on Shawn.

“Well, then I guess we have the same fucking story, don’t we?” Shawn walked over to him. Lucas held up his hands, letting Shawn know he didn’t want to be touched. “Relax. I’m just going to button your shirt for you. You have it all messed up.”

Shawn’s fingers were a whisper down the center of Lucas’ chest, but no skin actually touched.

“Is someone hurting you?” Lucas asked.

Shawn’s eyes widened. “I got it handled.”

“Just tell me, Shawn. ”

Shawn smirked and focused on Lucas’ buttons again. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

“Try me.”

“Play for me first and I might think about it.”

Lucas smiled. “No, you won’t but I’ll play for you anyway. What do you want to hear?”

“I don’t know. Something relaxing.”

“You know you’re probably my best friend, right?”

Shawn chuckled. “Probably.”

“Okay, you are my best friend.”

“And you’re mine too, Todd. And we’ll always be friends forever, won’t we?” Shawn said in a high-pitched voice that made him sound like a child.

Lucas laughed. “I should have never told you that Fox and the Hound was my favorite movie.”

“It’s a cartoon, Lucas. And it’s sappy.”

“Well, excuse me for not liking the guns and violence that you like.”

“The guys are hot in those movies. It’s the only reason I watch them. All those muscles, and usually they don’t have a shirt on. I love a nice, chiseled chest. And I like ’um, big.”

“Yes, Shawn. I know that. I’ve seen the guys you’ve left the bar with.”

Shawn stepped away from him and turned, taking the few steps to Lucas’ guitar. He picked it up by the neck and handed it to Lucas.

Lucas took it. “I have something I’ve been working on. Maybe you can tell me what you think.”

Lucas pulled out the chair in the corner and sat down. Shawn sat on the edge of the bed. Lucas took a moment to tune his instrument before playing.

The music soothed them both.