Ink & Flowers by J.K. Pendragon Read Free Book Online

I'm not gonna force you into anything. I—" he paused. "I'm not that kind of guy, even if I want to be." He turned away, sipping his coffee and squinting out the window.
    Luke stared at him, curiosity overcoming his distaste. "Why would you want to be?"
    A phone rang somewhere in the apartment and Cooper jumped up from the couch after it, nearly spilling his coffee. "Who the fuck's calling my land-line?" He found the phone, buried under a mountain of paperwork on the table, and answered it with a thick, "Y'ello? Who—who is this?" He glanced at Luke, eyebrows raised in disbelief. "Yeah, can I ask how you got this number?" He was silent for a long while, presumably while the person on the other end chattered at him. Finally he strode over to the couch and passed the phone to Luke with a confused look. "It's for you."
    "What?" Luke felt his heart jump and begin to race. His hands shook as he took the phone. "Hello?" he said, his voice trembling.
    "Luke? Oh good, you are there!"
    "Aunt Marabeth?" Cooper must have seen the fear in Luke's eyes, because he raised his eyebrows further. "How—"
    "Luke, sweetie, you really need to get a cell phone again, how are we supposed to keep track of you?"
    Cooper took the seat across from Luke, still eyeing him. He reached forward and picked up Luke's sketchbook from the coffee table.
    Luke lunged forward. "Cooper!"
    "What?' asked Cooper. "Can't I look?"
    "Yes," said his aunt. "Who's this Cooper man you're staying with?"
    "I—" Luke waved dismissively at Cooper. "Yeah, whatever. What, Auntie? How do you even know about him?"
    Cooper began flipping through the sketchbook, but it was clear he was listening attentively to the conversation.
    "Well," said Marabeth, "Gloria spoke to Beth yesterday, and she had said that you were having some money troubles, so I called your landlord to see if I could talk to him about it."
    "You—you called Rajesh." Luke suddenly felt weary.  "Auntie—"
    "Yes," she went on, "and you can imagine how surprised we were to hear that someone had paid your rent for you, so I asked him for the name on the cheque and he gave it to me. He's a nice man, you know, Luke. Rajesh, I mean. So anyway, I just looked up this Cooper person in the phone book. And, well, I hope he's a very good friend, Luke, you've never even mentioned him. You know even with friends, it's not good to owe them money ..."
    Cooper finished flipping through Luke's sketchbook and picked up his pencil. He leaned back and began to sketch on a fresh page. Luke glared at him, annoyed.
    "Luke, sweetie, you know if you need money, you can ask us for it. Are you staying with this Cooper man now? Brody said some not nice things about him, you know." Ah, there it was. Luke put a hand to his face, wishing Brody had never messaged him.
    "Why, what did he tell you?" he forced out while she paused for breath.
    "Oh, you know." Aunt Marabeth actually seemed lost for words for a moment. "Just ... not nice things. And Rajesh said that he didn't seem very nice at all."
    Cooper was sketching away, glancing up only when Luke spoke.
    "Well, he's fine. He's a nice guy, actually." Cooper grinned, and Luke glared at him again.
    "Then why have we never met him?"
    "I don't introduce you to all my friends, Auntie." Luke could feel all the energy draining out of him. Aunt Marabeth was wearing him down. She was so good at that.
    "Well, Luke, I think we'll just come and pick you up, and you can come live with us until you get another job. You know, Luke, Brody's had several summer job offers already, you could too if you considered what we showed you about the business program."
    "No, Auntie," said Luke firmly. "I don't want to get into this again."
    There was a long pause as Marabeth sighed, and Luke could tell she was chewing her lip in that way that she did when she was thinking of the best way to control people. "Well, when can we pick you up?"
    "What are you talking about?"
    "You're moving home now, right?"
    "What do you mean,