Thanks to Actor87 and oakdalelover for the amazing words of encouragement! Don't worry, oakdalelover, I've already begun work on the next ATWT story. It focuses mainly on the Hughes family and a new character who is related, by blood, to them. Here's part 3 of Luke and Kevin...

AS THE WORLD TURNS

"The Luke and Kevin Story" part 3

The ride home was even quieter than the ride there. Luke didn't know what to say, but if he did, Kevin didn't know how to answer him. They were both of so afraid of saying something that the other wouldn't like. They were scared to admit their feelings for each other even though those feelings were definitely known by now.

Luke was shocked. It was like he won the lottery, but wasn't exactly sure if the numbers called out were really his. He knew there was a chance, but didn't think that there was a snowball's chance in hell that Kevin would return his feelings. How did Kevin feel about him, exactly? How long had Kevin been interested in him? Did Kevin dream about him every night? Did Kevin write his name on notebooks just so he could look at it? Did Kevin fall weak everytime he was around Luke? The backrub, Luke remembered.

It was a ploy to get his attention, Kevin remembered himself. The backrub was an attempt to turn him on and the drinking was an attempt to get him drunk. Kevin hated himself for endangering the life of his best friend and biggest crush, but he was desperate. He needed to have Luke drunk in order to make out with him. Surely he couldn't have come right out and said it to Luke that he desired him, right? No way Luke could truly want him.

But they were both proved wrong that afternoon, and as the moon started its nightly show of inspiring glow, no one speaked. Not a single word was uttered the entire way, except for the usual "See ya," when Kevin stopped in front of the Snyder home.

"Wait," Luke said. "Bring me to my grandma Lucinda's house."

~~~~~~~~~

Lucinda was working away at her laptop computer in her living room when she heard the doorbell ring. She'd pretty much faded into the background at Worldwide Industries because of her cancer, but she planned an explosive return that would remind each and every one of her colleagues that Lucinda Walsh was, and would always be, a force to be reckoned with.

"Come in, dahling, come in!" she said to Luke when he appeared in her doorway. "Come in from the dark. These days, anybody's bound to be made into a hamburger by some deranged killer!"

"Oh, it's nice to see you're back to being yourself, Grandma," Luke said, smiling. They made their way into the living room and sat down. Lucinda wait straight back to her work, leaving Luke to sit there watching her. She looked at him and realized that she was neglecting the poor boy. La Walsh turned off her computer and gave him her full attention.

"What can I help you with tonight, my good boy?" she asked.

"Well," Luke began, "I really don't know how to say this. I'm still a little bit stunned."

"Stunned? Dahling, what's got you stunned? You're not having problems with your mother, are you?"

"No, no, it's not Mom. Actually, I think things are getting a little better between me and her."

"Really? Because you know how stubborn she can be."

"Yeah, I really think so. I think if I just give her a little bit more time, she'll finally be able to just get over it and realize that I'm not some kind of freak and that I'm still me," Luke said.

"Yes, dear, you're still you," Lucinda said, with a pinch at Luke's cheeks. "Now what's the problem. What brought you here tonight at eight o'clock? Isn't it time for that show you kids are all crazy about? What is it, 'American Idol'?"

Luke laughed. "Kevin hates 'American Idol.'"

Lucinda pretended to laugh along with him, but she couldn't help but ask. "Kevin? Who is this Kevin? Is he a little friend of yours?" she asked, nudging Luke's shoulder.

He smiled, but started to shake his head 'no.' "That's...well that's part of my problem."

"Well, I'm all ears. Go ahead." Lucinda was genuinely interested in what was going on in her grandson's life.

"Okay...now it's going to sound like I made this whole thing up, but I swear, it's all true." He cleared his throat and began to recount the story. "Today, my friend Kevin and I went up to his parents' cabin up by Lake Michigan, and we spend the whole day there. As a matter of fact, we just got back. But anyway, we spent the whole day up there, and well...Kevin doesn't know that I'm gay."

"Oh," Lucinda said. "And you thought today would be the perfect time to tell him."

"Yes! Yes!" Luke exclaimed. "Exactly! But I was so nervous about him hating me, and then we were in the middle of nowhere basically, and if I told him that I was gay and he didn't like it, knowing Kevin he would have just left with the car and just had me stranded out there with nachos and 'I Love Lucy.'"

"Wha? Nachos and what?"

"Oh it's a long story."

"Ah, yes. But you're here now, so obviously your friend reacted better than you thought he would. I mean, you did tell him, right?"

"Not exactly," Luke continued, now with a little smirk of remembrance. "So we were outside in the little pond swimming a race, and he beat me, of course. He's the fastest swimmer this side of Bay City." There was a brightness in his eyes when he said that, showing that he was proud. "And he started doing this little victory dance."

"Ha ha, he did a victory dance, did he? I'm guessing you were the real winner in all of that, ha?" Lucinda commented, again nudging.

Luke loved his grandmother. Her sense of humor was her trademark. She wasn't necessarily a dirty old lady, because, in Luke's eyes, she wasn't dirty and she wasn't old. She was Grandma Lucinda, and she rocked. "Well, you can say that. I got up out of the water and then he wrestled me down to the ground."

"Sounds rough!"

"Yeah, I thought so too, but then he started playing this little power game with me. He wanted me to surrender all of my defense...and then, I just let go. I stopped fighting him back. And then we just looked into each other's eyes, and then..."

Lucinda was holding her breath, but Luke's pause made her gasp for air. "And then?! What happened then?!"

"We kissed."

Lucinda slapped one hand into the other, stood up, yanked Luke into the air with her and gave him a hug. "I knew it! Didn't I tell you a long time ago that everything was going to be all right?!"

"Everything's going to be all right? What are you talking about? Nothing's all right now! I mean, I have my mom on my back all day and night, my sisters keep asking me what's wrong, rumors are starting to circulate about me at school, I have a screwed up kidney, I'm a borderline alcoholic, and now, to top it all off, I just forced my best friend in the whole entire world to be gay."

"You hold on one minute, young man! This Kevin something-or-other didn't do anything that he didn't want to do. Now didn't you tell me that he had you pinned down on the ground? Did he resist your little liplock?"

"No, but - "

"Aha, exactly," she said. She ran her hand down the side of his face. "You know, you're so unlike your mother, it's funny. She was always sure of herself growing up, even now, you have to tell her something a million times before she believes that it's true."

"I just don't want to make Kevin do something that he doesn't want to do. He'll hate me for sure."

"Dahling, stoop saying that. No one is going to hate you. Now all you did was kiss - and it takes two people to kiss, by the way - so it's not like he's going to be traumatized for his whole life. What happened afterwards?"

"Nothing, nothing at all. It was getting dark by the time it happened, so we just got up off of the ground and he said that we should work on getting back home. We packed everything up and came back to Oakdale. We didn't say a thing the whole ride back."

"Well, you're going to call him right?"

Luke smiled as if he wasn't confident in himself. "I don't know if that's the right thing to do."

"Well, dear, when I was a teenager, if some handsome young man like yourself kissed me in a fit of love, I'd be sitting by the phone, just waiting for him to give me a ring. I have no doubt that this Kevin is at home doing the same thing."

"No, I kinda doubt that. If anything, he's probably just getting home to hear his parents trying to break each other's necks. His father just moved back in after he got laid off from his job and things aren't going to well for them."

"Well there you go. He needs you more than anything right now. Apparently, you're what's keeping him sane."

Luke shrugged. "But don't you think you're jumping to conclusions? Two little kisses don't mean anything."

"TWO little kisses?! Well, that just opens another can of worms!" Lucinda started to strut around the room. "He obviously planned for it to happen. He pinned you down on the ground for a reason and he's probably just as confused about the whole thing as you are. You need to call him. You're going to promise me that you'll call him."

"I don't know..."

"Call him! You won't regret it!"

She put her hands around his face. He couldn't let her down. She cared for him too much for him to go and let her down. "All right, I'll call, I'll call. I'll call him tomorrow."

"And maybe the two of you can meet somewhere?"

"No, now that is where I draw the line."

"But you want to see him, don't you? How about this - you tell your mommy and daddy that you're coming here to visit me and you get your friend to come here and the two of you can have the guesthouse to yourselves."

"Grandma!" Luke exclaimed.

"To talk! You can have the guesthouse to talk, or you could walk in the garden perhaps. Whatever makes the two of you happy. Come on, do it. For me?" She looked at him again with those eyes. So innocent, so sweet, but so intimidating. He loved her to death.

"All right, I'll do it," Luke said as he started for the door. "I'll call Kevin and invite him over and we'll talk. But you have to promise, you won't eavesdrop or try to interrupt us."

"I promise, I promise." She opened the door for him to leave but realized something. "Dahling, how exactly are you getting home?"

Luke turned back to her and smiled. "I told Kevin to leave the engine running."

"That's my boy!" Lucinda exclaimed.

TO BE CONTINUED