They had a week until graduation. A week left of high school before they could all move onto the future. They all had the same plan. After a band circle one night, they made the decision to get jobs for a year, save up, and pursue their music professionally. They would keep playing whatever gigs they could, but they all knew college wasn’t for them. Luke’s parents weren’t altogether happy with it, but they knew what music meant to their son, so they agreed. Ray just wanted his kids happy, so he was on board with Julie and Alex’s decision, because yes, Alex was his son after caring about the boy for years and living with him for five months. And if Julie wanted to follow her mother’s path, Ray would be damned if he was going to stop it. The Stewarts were just happy their kids saw a future. When they got Flynn and Reggie, they were both just waiting for the other shoe to drop. The kids weren’t sure life would ever be worth it for them. But when they met Willie and his parents, they finally started to believe. Sure, the Stewarts weren’t happy that it seemed like Willie and Flynn were just going to follow their significant other, but they had their own jobs with the band, too. Willie and Flynn were basically their managers. Willie had the people skills, and Flynn had the ideas. The six of them made an amazing team. Once a week, usually Sundays, they split off in their couples for date nights. Alex and Willie got into a lot of trouble on theirs. Flynn and Julie usually did a dinner and movie date. And Reggie and Luke usually ended up back at the park.
It was during one of those park trips that Luke heard someone calling Reggie’s name. Or at least, he heard someone calling Reggie’s full name.
”Reginald! Reginald!” Luke tugged on Reggie’s hand, pulling him to a stop as he turned toward the dark haired woman running toward them. “Oh Reginald, I’ve missed you so much!”
Reggie finally followed Luke’s gaze, his eyes widening like a deer caught in the headlights. “Mom?” Luke was immediately on edge. Reggie never shared much about his mom. All Luke really knew was she left him behind when she left his dad, knowing the way his dad treated him, and that meant Luke didn’t like her.
”Oh, hi, baby.” She smiled at Reggie. “Who’s this?” She asked, glancing at their hands still intertwined. Reggie’s grip on Luke’s hand tightened.
”This is Luke.” Reggie’s voice had never sounded so frail to Luke before. “My boyfriend.”
”Oh,” her expression froze for a second before the smile returned, “That’s-that’s great sweetie.” Luke did not like what was happening. “I’m here to bring you home, sweetie.” Luke really didn’t like what was happening. But he kept his mouth shut. Unless Reggie needed him, he knew he shouldn’t step in.
”What?” Reggie took a step back, away from the woman, “I am home. I have a family here.”
”Oh, Reginald, I am your family.” The woman was still smiling, but it looked weird to Luke. And he knew he was right when Reggie’s grip got impossibly tighter. Any other situation, Luke would make a joke about how Reggie needed to be careful and that a guitarist needed his hands, but he could tell Reggie needed him right now.
”No, I have my own family. You left me.” Reggie sounded close to sobbing, and sure enough, when Luke looked there were tears in his boyfriend’s eyes.
”No, Reginald, I left your father.” She held out her hand, “Come home.”
”No, no, I don’t want to. You can’t take me with you.” Reggie was shaking, so Luke wrapped his arm around Reggie and started guiding him away. Luke ignored the woman calling after them, just continued to let Reggie lean into him until she was out of sight. As soon as they were far enough away, he called Willie.
”Willie! I don’t know what you guys are doing but we need to meet. Now.”
His tone made it clear to Willie this couldn’t be postponed, and the other boy quickly agreed, and then Luke called Flynn, too.
”His mom is back?” Willie asked incredulously. “Are you sure?”
”He called her mom.” Luke shrugged. Reggie had panicked on the way back to the studio, and now he was sleeping on the couch with his head in Luke’s lap. “She just kept saying she was here to bring him home. But he got scared, man. Like really scared.”
”She can’t make him go with her, right?” Alex asked looking around. “I mean, she left him.”
Willie shook his head. “If he was still seventeen she could. But he turned eighteen in February. My parents were able to adopt him because when she left, she terminated parental rights. She can’t force him to do anything.”
”Why is she back?” Julie asked, always the thinker. “There’s gotta be a reason, right?”
”Maybe she just wants to see him graduate?” Alex offered, always the optimist.
Flynn shook her head. “No. We can’t let her near him again.” For the first time, every realized she was shaking. She’d been quiet.
”Flynn? What do you know?” Luke asked carefully.
Flynn shook her head again, like she was fighting some battle with herself. “Reggie’s asleep, right?”
”Yeah.”
”This is going to get bad. Just watch.” Flynn crept forward, hands out. Luke took her hand and guided it to the arm of the couch beside him. “Just watch what happens. When I was first placed with Reggie, I still had a little bit of my eyesight. And it was back then I saw this happen. Everyone needs to back off when I do this. Understand?” There was a confused chorus of agreement. Flynn took a deep breath, like what she was about to do was physically paining her, but she reached out. She grabbed hold of Reggie’s arm, pulling him forward quickly. She stopped just before he fell off the couch, and then proceeded to shove him back hard, so hard that all the air left Luke’s lungs when Reggie’s head hit his stomach. She did it again. Pulled him forward, then harshly shoved him back.
Reggie flew into a sitting position, “I’m sorry! Momma, please don’t!” Everyone froze as Reggie cowered away, falling off the couch and moving as far from the touch as he could. “I’ll do better, momma! I promise, I will! Please don’t!” Flynn was crying. She didn’t want to do this to him, but the others needed to know. They needed to know this woman couldn’t be near him. “Please, momma! Please don’t get it!”
”Get what?” Luke asked with tears in his own eyes.
”From what I understood before, some kind of...whip...” Flynn muttered, her unseeing eyes staring at her hands and she let the tears fall down her face. The rest of them watched in horror as Reggie flinched. His eyes still wide, but not seeing them.
”How do we pull him out of this?” Luke’s voice cracked as he asked. His heart was breaking.
”We can’t.” Flynn answered helplessly. “I’ve never been able to do it before. The first time, it was when the foster mom we were with was trying to wake us for school. It’s why I’m so gentle when I touch him. I know what it does.” She didn’t try to wipe her face, she let her tears flow freely. She hated herself for doing this. “I’m sorry, Reggie. God, I’m so sorry. I knew what this would do to you.”
”We needed to know.” Julie tried to reassure her, but she didn’t sound confident in her statement. Everyone was crying. Luke couldn’t take it. He got on the floor, taking Alex’s drumsticks. He had to try. He hit them against the cement floor, softly, just close enough to Reggie that he’d be able to feel it. For a second, Reggie seemed to realize something, but then he flinched again. But it was like something struck him from behind. He fell forward, and his shirt slid up his back, only an inch or two, but it was enough to see deep scars. Julie started crying heavier, Alex took his drumsticks from Luke, letting his own tears fall as he started drumming the beat to Bright, just like the last time.
It took over twenty minutes before Reggie finally came back to the present. He didn’t even remember what happened. Willie took the blame, saying that he tried to wake him up too forcefully. None of them would mention Flynn, like an unspoken promise that they wouldn’t break his trust in her. When they explained what happened, it was almost like Reggie shut down. He just stared at the space in front of him for a long time, before slowly reaching down and pulling his shirt over his head. They had seen the cigarette burns, but now they saw the deep leftover gash marks that littered his back. He kept whispering that he was sorry. Luke just held him. Promising that he didn’t need to be sorry and that they wouldn’t let her lay a finger on him ever again.
Two days after the studio incident, they were getting ready for a gig when a man in a lavish suit came up to them. It was a school night, but it was Julie’s aunt’s restaurant and they were so close to the end that nobodies parents cared how late they were. The man in question seemed to have a particular interest in Reggie and Luke. “My name is Caleb. And I’m looking for some spectacular musicians to join the band for the club my wife and I run.”
”Not interested.” Reggie snorted, the rest of the band nodding their agreement to the statement. “We’re gonna make our music. Not play someone else’s.”
“At least hear my pitch.” Caleb offered with a grin.
Reggie raised an eyebrow at the others, unsure what he should say, Luke spoke up, “Like my boyfriend said, we’re good.”
”Oh, boyfriend, I guess that makes you like my son in law.” Everyone stopped moving, looking at the man in front of them. “Oh, did I not mention who my wife is?” Lily came up beside Caleb, and he wrapped his arm around her. “She mentioned how much she would love Reginald to be able to pursue his music in a stable career.”
Reggie blinked and suddenly everyone was standing in front of him, like they were trying to block his mom from getting close to him. Luke quipped first, “Like that woman has any idea what stable is. Leave before we call the police.”
”Excuse me?” Lily smiled, “Whatever do you mean by that?”
”He means that you will never get near my brother again.” Flynn growled. “And if you do not leave, the police will escort you out.”
”Your brother? Oh, you must be the foster girl I’ve heard about.” Flynn stiffened at the words.
Alex shook his head, “She is Reggie’s sister. And no matter what you think is going to happen, you aren’t hurting him ever again. You’ll have to get through all of us first.” Reggie’s hands were starting to shake. He could only catch bits and pieces of what was being said because he couldn’t see everyone’s faces. Julie noticed first.
”Luke, get him out of here. No gig tonight. I’ll tell my tia some family business came up.”
”Exactly!” Lily smiled again, “This is family business. You shouldn’t be involved.”
”No.” Julie argued. “We are Reggie’s family, you are nothing.”
They got back to the studio immediately after leaving the restaurant. Nobody said anything, and Luke just held Reggie as he cried himself to sleep, mumbling that he didn’t want to leave. Luke pressed kisses to his hair, reassuring him that he would never have to. Caleb and Lily weren’t going to get near him. Not if Luke had a say in the matter. The rest of them stayed up all night, planning while they let Reggie sleep. He’d been through enough. By the time the sun broke over the horizon, they had realized that they wouldn’t be able to stay here after graduation. They needed to find a new start. For Reggie.