Finally, Luke escorted Rei to the front of the girl's house.
A big and old house that turns out to be only two blocks from Luke's house and he know who owns the big house. They are Mr & Mrs. Fauns.
An old couple who owned a corn plantation in the area. Although it's a little surprising Luke only just found out that Mr & Mrs. Fauns have a daughter, but it's not surprising to see the differences between Mr & Mrs. Fauns with Rei. Rei must be an adopted child. Even so, Luke didn't want to ask just to satisfy his curiosity.
"Thanks for walking me home, Luke."
"Oh, that's not a problem. I don't mind if tomorrow you want to go to school with me."
"Of course. I will come to you tomorrow morning. See you Luke."
"See you later."
They both waved and Luke walked back to his house. As usual, it was only Ulfa knitting in her high back chair, while Ben was harvesting vegetables in his field or milking the goats.
Luke greeted Ulfa and gave her a kiss before walking up to her room on the second floor.
***
It was getting late and Luke remembered Valentina Miller's invitation to the party. He had already refused, but that didn't mean Luke wouldn't come to the party because in the end Andrew and Amy had picked him up at the corner on the street near his house.
"Get out now or I will drag you out," said Amy rather viciously.
So inevitably, Luke changed his clothes and said goodbye to Ulfa that he was going to have fun with his friends and would be back before eleven at night.
After all parties and beer are little ways for everyone like Luke to have fun. It was around half past nine in the evening when Andrew Judge's car pulled up near Luke's house. More precisely, in front of Gerald's shop. Andrew wasn't alone of course, he had Amy with him and it was Amy who texted Luke.
'Hey, Lookey . We've arrived at Gerald's. Come here.'
Lookey is a play on the name Luke.
Luke who was lying on the bed immediately jumped up, replied to a text message from Amy to let him know that he would be arriving in about five minutes. So Luke quickly replaced his T-shirt with more proper clothes and in just a minute Luke was ready to go.
Well, the problem is with Ben. While Ulfa had fallen asleep after dinner, Ben was still watching the wrestling match on television. The living room light had indeed been turned off, but the television was on. It cast a large silhouette in the window blinds behind the couch Ben was sitting on so Luke had to tiptoe behind him with great care. Because as a former veteran, Ben's ears are still sharp enough to pick up sound as long as it's within a reasonable radius.
In the first place, Luke couldn't have come down through the window. Because besides Luke having a trauma with heights-even though it's only 11 feet high-the windows of his room have also been fitted with iron bars. Ulfa says it was installed when Luke was four or five, where he fell in the middle of a snowy night and had to suffer from the cold until the morning before being found by street cleaners. The reason that emerged was that Luke was playing with the open window, then tripped and fell. Ulfa and Ben are reprimanded by the cleaners, questioned by the police, and have to confront social workers. What's more, it appears that a stray dog injured Luke's left arm. So since then Ben started to roll up his sleeves and put up iron bars. He thought it kept Luke safe. But unfortunately, now it's so difficult for Luke to run away from home. He would never have a story like this;
"Yesterday night, I had to jump out of the window just to meet my boyfriend."
Or,
"Do you know? My hoomies climbed throug h the pipe to get into the room and we..."
But, well, never mind.
So Luke walked down the stairs carefully and vigilantly, shoes in hand. Making sure that his footsteps were no louder than the sound of the television, which was currently showing the latest news which discussed reports of a group of hunters being attacked by a herd of wild animals. But Luke didn't want to care about the news because his destination was the main door. He wished the key was still hanging on the door, because it would have been a pain if Ben had moved it to the desk drawer in the front room. The problem was that the drawer would make a sound if someone pulled it out.
Luke was right behind Ben now and besides having to keep up with the sound of footsteps, he also had to hold his breath, because-damn it-some idiot just threw some sort of thing at the window of the house on purpose. It wasn't enough to break the glass, but the sound was annoying. Ben turned his head and Luke crouched under the sofa height at the same time. He had an inkling that Ben would stand up to check on what the jerk was doing, and he was; Ben got up from the couch after putting down the bowl of nachos. So while lying on his stomach, Luke had to step back to get to the side of the sofa. Sitting there peeking at Ben who opened the window blinds. You could see old man Bright looking around left and right, his face would almost stick to the glass if it weren't blocked by iron bars. He spent about two minutes before running anxiously into the room calling out Ulfa's name.
"Ulfa... Oh, no, Ulfa. You're in the room, right, Ulfa?"
Because Ben ran into the room, then this is my chance to escape without problems and like the universe is on Luke's side; the lock still hangs on the door. Thank you Lord.
"We almost would have left without you, Luke," said Andrew Judges as soon as Luke had appeared before him.
"Sorry. There was a bit of a disturbance earlier," he said.
They left in their car to a villa owned by Judges' cousin. That's the party. Passing two or three miles of forest on either side and came to a cornfield and turned a path that led us to a fairly large two-story cottage.
Now it's time for fun! Music and cheers. Wine and peanut butter. Card game and kiss. As well as the spouses and Valentina Miller.
Ah, Luke should have remembered this; As a member of the cheers team, it was certain Valentina Miller would be here. Being in the cool kids group. The problem was, Amy actually pulled Luke's hand to get closer to Valentina who was chatting with another group, but as soon as she saw Luke's presence, her eyes immediately lit up so she left the group. Turned to Luke br
"Oh, hi, Luke."
Luke just raised an eyebrow. He threw an annoyed look at Amy and Andrew who were standing not far from him. He know that he trapped by them. 
"I thought you wouldn't come," Valentina said with twinkling eyes.
By reflex, Luke snorted and said, "I came because Andrew and Amy asked me. Don't get me wrong."
Instead of feeling awkward or offended, Valentina smiled and asked, "By the way, are you thirsty? Want to drink? Just one glass."
It's not a question of asking but an offer like 'I'd like to spend ten minutes with you'. So Luke thought that instead of being distracted by Valentina trying to be around him, he would give those ten minutes one last time tonight. Luke would also state emphatically that he never wanted to see her again and there would be no hope for Valentina Miller.
"Okay. Just one beer," Luke replied.
While Valentina Miller was sipping on a drink, Luke looked around. Staring at some of the people he knew.
There's Frank Gibston, the son of a Sheriff in this county, Mr. Orlando Gibston. He waved at Luke. Because of his father's position, Frank often complained because he had to watch his behavior outside the house. Frank said that if he ever got in the slightest trouble, his father would put him in juvenile detention. But, Luke clearly didn't believe his father would do such a thing.
Then there are the twins Terry and Marie Portner. The family ran a cake shop, which, Ulfa Bright often got leftovers from Mrs. Portner. The twins greeted Luke with, "Hi, Luke," as they passed him holding their boyfriends each other.
Then Jill Hallery. The troublemaker who was expelled from school last year and was jailed for two months because he was caught stealing at a house owned by a couple of lawyers. She was mad, so Luke didn't want much of it with Jill. It's only a matter of time until that crazy Jill breaks this party.
Then when Luke felt Valentina Miller's approaching footsteps while saying, "Here," Luke saw that figure on the corner. The girl, who made Luke frown the most. No more guessing; the girl in the dark coat .
***