End of Summer

[Eli]

Story Title: End of summer

Type of story: Oneshot (Independend sequel to my previous Geoff/Lucas oneshots)

Main Characters: Geoff (and Lucas)

BTTB rating: G/A

Genre: Romance/Angst

Does story include spoilers: No

Any warnings: None

Summary: Geoff is trying to figure out how to move on after Lucas.

The freedom of Easter break gave me time to spend hours and hours watching clips of Luke and Noah from "As the world turns", and that gave me the little extra motivation I needed to get started on the oneshot I have had planned for a while now. "The end of summer" is an independent sequel to "U", which again was an independent sequel to my other Geoff/Lucas oneshots. For those of you who didn't read "U", Lucas left Summer Bay to go to a university in Western Australia, pretty much ending his relationship with Geoff. And if you think G/A is a weird rating, I agree with you. I gave it this rating because there's not really any reason to give it more than a G rating except the fic itself is probably (hopefully) a bit deeper and emotionally more of an A fic.

End of summer

It was as if the sound of the drawer closing and him collapsing back in to the stack of pillows again filled the entire room and echoed back from the walls. The last few gleams of sunlight were making their way through the thin, flower-patterned curtains; not orange like they should have been at this time of the day, but pale and weak. The sound of a door closing, a car pulling out of the driveway, and he was alone again. Only it felt like he had been alone for weeks now.

Slowly he turned away, staring into the wall instead of the room. Summer was coming to an end, and Geoff was no longer sure if he knew what season came after that. It used to be fall, but it felt more like winter already, so it might as well be spring. Or just more winter.

“Well, that’s great news, mate!” Tony exclaimed, “Just don’t forget your old man when you become rich and famous, yeah?”

Geoff pretended to write something again so it wouldn’t seem like he was listening, but secretly he didn’t even know what book he had opened. He was too busy trying to absorb every word from the conversation, and trying to ignore the voice inside him that told him Tony knew very well he was listening.

“Sure, sure, he’s right here, just hang on a sec,” Tony said, and Geoff froze as he watched Tony turn to him.

“Geoff, it’s Lucas,” he said, and Geoff got the feeling he was trying very hard to pretend he didn’t know something more had been going on between Geoff and his youngest son before Lucas had left for uni, “He wants to talk to you.”

Geoff got up, trying to look and sound casual as he cleared his throat and muttered, “Oh, okay, sure.”

Trying to hide the fact that his hands were practically shaking he grabbed the receiver and cleared his throat again.

“Lucas? Hi,” his mouth felt like it was full of sand, “How are you?”

“My roommate will be back any second, and I’m sure my dad is listening, so I’ll make this quick,” Lucas’ warm, familiar voice said, not answering the question, “I just need to say something to you.”

“Oh, yeah, I understand,” Geoff replied, not sounding as confident and laid back as he was trying to, “I was planning to go for a swim anyway.”

“I miss you,” Lucas said softly, but sounding a bit sad, “A part of me just want to go back to Summer Bay to be with you.”

Geoff swallowed and tried to make it sound like they were talking about something completely different when he replied, because he knew Tony was the one who was listening now.

“Yeah, same here.”

“I’ll come back to visit you soon,” Lucas continued, and Geoff understood that this was what he had called to say, “But I don’t want us to get into anything again when I do. It will just hurt when I leave again.”

“Yeah, I agree,” Geoff replied, his throat drier than ever, “Sounds like a good idea.”

For the past three weeks he had tried to ask himself how this could be right; how this could be fair, but so far he had failed to find an answer.

“I love you, and what we had was great,” Lucas had said right before they had said goodbye to each other and ended the conversation, “But it’s time to move on.”

For weeks he had tried to figure out how the hell there could be any justice in this, for either of them. Lucas had said he loved him, and Geoff sure loved him, Lucas had to know that. So how could he just give up like that, without even giving the two of them a chance? How could he just give him a mug as a goodbye-present and disappear out of Geoff’s life after all they had been through?

There was no moving on yet, Geoff wasn’t even done grieving.

Like a robot he got up and out of the room when he heard the doorbell. He opened the door and just stared at the tall, muscular young man standing there in front of him.

“What do you want, Aden?” he asked flatly, he wasn’t happy or annoyed to see him, he just didn’t care, “Tony is not here.”

“Oh, I’ll be back later then, Bible-boy,” Aden replied in his usual, mean tone, “You certainly look like you’ve been hit by a truck, what happened? Did you realize you’re just a hypocrite?”

“Get lost,” Geoff replied coldly, “Maybe you’re just bitter because you thought Tony would treat you like a son when Lucas left?”

He didn’t know where it came from, it didn’t really even fit into the conversation, but it was the best attack he could come up with, his head was so full of Lucas it even managed to sneak into his verbal attacks on Aden.

“I don’t need him,” said Aden, just as coldly, “But speaking of Lucas; that’s why you’re all teary-eyed, isn’t it? Do you miss your boyfriend?”

Geoff stared at him, his instincts instantly told him to defend himself and deny everything; tell Aden to get stuffed, Lucas wasn’t his boyfriend!

But another part of him was tired of lying, and that part wanted to give Aden a challenge; something he hadn’t expected.

“Yeah,” Geoff almost whispered, not taking his eyes off Aden for a second, “So what if I do?”

Aden stared at him, and for the first time it didn’t look like he knew what to say or do. The truth had been a more powerful weapon than any verbal attack.

“Well,” Geoff said with a cold smile, still not able to understand where all this was coming from, “I’ll see you around.” Then he closed the door.

The pale light of the afternoon found its way through the frosted glass in the door as well, and the dark shade blocking the pale light revealed Aden standing there, paralyzed for a few seconds before he walked away.

It was as if the sound of the drawer closing, hiding the picture of Lucas Holden in it, filled the entire room and echoed back from the walls as the last gleams of pale sunlight faded away and chased away the summer; making room for whatever season it was that would come tomorrow morning.

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