Luke and Violet - S01 E28

Story 2 years ago

Luke and Violet - S01 E28

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 28

My brother and sister say their hellos and make their way to the dining area. Violet offers my mom a hand in the kitchen, She brought over a homemade pie for desert. They both walk by me heading to the kitchen, Violet giving me a shy smile along the way.

"And who might just you be?" I turn my gaze back forward and see Mr. Taylor standing tall in front of me. With his stern look on his face, he extends his massive hand out to me.

"Hello sir, my name is Luke...nice to meet you." He shakes my hand firmly. He looks me in the eyes and then looks toward the kitchen, seeing that I was eyeing Violet when she walked by. This guy was beginning to make me nervous.

My dad and Mr. Taylor start a conversation about his service in the Navy. I make my way over to the dining area to sit down with my siblings to get away from them. I needed to prepare myself mentally for the awkward tension and possible drama that is sure to come once everybody is seated,

Lunch is served and we all begin to eat. My parents share a conversation with Clark about his duties and ranks in the military. My brother and sister are on their phones texting and shit. I sit silently playing around with the potatoes on my plate. I did not have much of an appetite. Truth be told, I'm still feeling a bit of nausea from my nasty hangover. I stare into space just not in the mood to be around people. As I hear the adults continue to talk, I look over to Violet. She's doing exactly the same as I am. Playing with her food and staring around, occasionally pretending to be interested in the conversation her husband was having with my folks. We stare at each other every so often when we don't think anyone's looking. This moment was just too surreal.

I stop looking over at Violet when I catch from the corner of my eye Clark repeatedly staring at me. We both make eye contact, his face is exactly the same as always: Stern. It creeps me out.

"Luke...are you not hungry?"

I look over at my mom. Both my parents and Clark look at me, seeing that most of my food is still on the plate, while they all had empty ones.

"Oh uhhh...sorry. Jacob and I had a late breakfast before I got here."

"Long night?" My dad asks me.

"Uhhh yeah...guess you can say that." I tell him while everyone at the table makes eye contact with me.

My mom tells me to get some tinfoil in the kitchen and leave my plate on the stove for later.

As Clark begins to serve himself a second serving of food onto his plate, he starts to make conversation with me, giving me that stern face as usual.

"So Luke...tell me about yourself. I hear you're in college. Any goals?"

Violet looks at me with a nervous smile on her face. With Clark still looking at me and taking notice that I keep staring at his wife, I clear my throat and begin to speak.

"Umm...yeah I'm a student at UCLA working on my undergrad. The goal is just to finish school with a degree. Still deciding between majors right now."

Clark just gives me a nod of approval as he continues to eat his food. He stops chewing as I see him staring to his right at the wall filled with family pictures. He stares at one in particular. It's a picture of my family on the cruise during my recent Spring Break. The picture has a large frame surrounded by palm trees and the ocean with a large logo in bright colors reading "CARIBBEAN CRUISE TOURS."

"That's a lovely picture of all of you. Where did you go?" Clark asks.

My parents thank him for the compliment and tell him about their Caribbean vacation on a cruise, visiting five islands in a span of a week during Spring Break with their kids a couple months prior.

Clark continues to stare at the frame. He then looks at me.

"Huh...I don't see Luke in the picture. Where were you? Sorry for being so noisy...I'm just a very curious guy." He stares me down with the same stern look on his face.

I clear my throat again and speak

"Oh uh...I was away on my own Spring Break vacation down in Cancun with my buddies." I look to Violet quickly only to see her staring at her husband nervously.

"That's pretty cool Luke. It's actually kind of funny, because my wife was in Cancun a couple months ago. Weren't you honey?"

Violet just nods at him with an awkward smile.

Everyone at the table can feel the tension in the air. I think Clark is onto her.

Thinking that things could not get any worse, my mom steps into the conversation.

That's interesting... Luke didn't you tell me you briefly ran into Violet in Mexico a couple months ago around the time you first met?"

Violet and I look at each other completely in shock and then look at Clark. He turns his eyes to her and gives her a weird smile.

"Hmm...that's very interesting you should say that...honey you never told me that you saw Luke in Mexico when you went with your colleague from work."

Violet starts to stutter.

"Oh yeah! Uh...it was quite the coincidence! Luke and I first met when he came home to pack for his trip. told him that was also heading to Cancun. We just happened to see each other out there on the beach. We talked for a little while before we split ways and did our own things"

At this point, I just stare at my plate not knowing what to do. My whole family is quiet now as they look over at me, sensing how awkward and tense the situation at the table was. I look to my mom as she starts to see how difficult she just made the conversation by bringing up the fact that we saw each other.

Clark stares at both me and Violet.

Before he can say anything else, my dad comes to the rescue.

"So Clark, it must be nice to have time off from your duties. Any plans yet while you're here?"

Clark actually lightens up and surprisingly SMILES while he engages in conversation with my dad. He tells my dad about his hobbies including fishing with some close friends of his.

Violet and I sit quietly trying to eat our food. My siblings and my mom sit quietly staring at me.

They know something is not right.

Everybody knows.