Excerpt For A Story I Have No Title For Yet Approaching me from across the lot he snatches it from my hand with a sense of relief settled upon his face. Glancing down at the photo his fingers ran carefully over the developed film, as if tracing the patterns present in its ink. When his fingers found satisfaction slipping the photo into his back pocket Luke's cold blue eyes met mine. There was silence between us as he probably wondered what I saw and it stayed that way long enough to become uncomfortable. But as I was about to speak up to break the silence Luke turns away and proceeds in his regular path forward into the school. "Luke," I called out. "What," He spat in my face, turning around to face me once again. "Was that," I hesitated to ask. "Was that what?" "Was that your father?" I was indicating to the photo and he knew it. I hadn't looked at the photo for long but I knew it was a picture of his family. All of them seemed so happy in the photo, which seemed odd considering the way they lived in my presence. "It is," He muttered to me. "May I ask what happened?" Luke stood frozen his eyes carefully studying me. Even in the stoic nature of his expressions towards me there was always something easy to read about him in between the line. Sadness sept through the cracks of his mask alongside with the circulating thought that considered telling me everything. It was experience that brought me to see it, even if people thought they hid themselves pretty well. It was rare to see a perfect mask erected to hide such pain and tragedy within. Shoving his hands into his sweatshirt pocket the blank emotionless reflection of his face crinkled into irritation. His jaw and lips tightened with the passing second of him and I facing each other. He wasn't going to tell me anything. The became clear. "Well can you at least show where I need to be?" I asked quickly to change the subject. "Fine," He barked, taking a few steps backwards, "C'mon let's go."