Thanks for the comments, Michael and amello! Words of encouragement are always welcomed. I've been toying with some ideas for where exactly I want this story to go, and it's pretty much planned from beginning to end now, though I'm still not sure how many parts I want to break it down into. I'm still estimating around 15-20, so look forward to the story continuing throughout June and early July!

Actor87 made a beyond awesome L&K banner that will be put into my signature ASAP, so make sure you check it out! Here is part eight of the story. Just one hint: Kevin and Lily are definitely NOT fans of each other!

AS THE WORLD TURNS

"The Luke and Kevin Story" part 8

"Luke is back to breathing fine on on," Dr. Susan Stewart told alarmed parents Holden and Lily, "but we want to run a few more tests just to be safe."

"Tests, tests? Why do you need to run more tests?" Lily asked nervously. "Give it to me straight, Susan. Is it good or bad?"

"Well, Luke's shortness of breath could have been attributed to anything. Right now, he's doing fine, but there is always the chance that this is just a symptom of something else. In a way, this was a good thing. We now have the chance to go in and check everything and we'll know if something's wrong now. We can prevent something worse from happening."

Lily nodded, but she really wasn't listening. All she knew was that her son couldn't breathe and he was rushed to the hospital by am ambulance. Nothing seemed to make sense to her now. "Can we see him?"

"Sure," Susan replied. "You can go in whenever you like."

"Thanks, Susan," Holden said. Susan squeezed his arm to comfort him and walked away. Holden put his arms around Lily. "I think that after we see Luke, you should get someone to bring you home. I don't think all this stress is good for the baby."

"Oh, no, no," Lily said, kinda laughing. "If you think you're going to convince me to leave my son in that hospital bed hovering between life and death, you're clearly mistaken."

"Aw, come on, Lily!" Holden said. "Dr. Stewart said that he's fine, good as he can be. He wouldn't mind it if you left. He would probably want you to leave so you can get some rest."

Lily just looked at him before going into Luke hospital room. Luke was in his bed, clicking through the channels on the TV. Lily sat herself down in the chair next to the bed. "So, how are you feeling?" she asked.

"Better than I was," Luke replied, not taking his eyes off of the TV, which hung in the air.

Lily put on a fake smile and looked Holden, not once changing her facial expression. "Well, Susan says that you're going to be fine, but they still want to take some tests."

"That's fine with me," Luke replied, still not looking at either one of them.

Holden realized that maybe because it was Lily talking to him, Luke wasn't going to respond too enthusiastically. He decided to take his own chance. "Well, your sisters are at home working on get well cards for you. All of the times you've been in the hospital lately, they've become little pros at it."

Lily laughed, Holden chuckled, Luke just gave a 2-second smile. He wasn't in the mood for this. He just needed to escape. There was something that happened to Luke everytime he became extremely upset. Anyone and anything annoyed him and he just shrugged everything off. If they were all at home right then and there, this would have been time where he would have gone up to his room and locked the door.

This is just screwed up, he thought. Here, I finally, finally, finally give in to Kevin and we finally start this thing up for real, but then my stupid kidney gets in the way. Luke wasn't sure of it, but he just had a hunch that his breathing problem was linked to his kidney. If he was wrong, that would mean that not only did he have a brand new kidney that worked like crap, but he also had lungs that were equally crappy. Maybe I should just die and possess someone, he thought.

~~~~~~~~~

Outside in the hallway, Kevin was on his phone with his father, trying to convince him not to burn their house down. "Oh, Kevvy," Sean Davis cried through the phone. "The insurance! The only way we can get money is by burning this house down and getting the insurance! I'm just thinking of me and you, Kevvy."

He was so drunk, and now he crying his eyes out. So pathetic, Kevin thought, that a grown man lived like this. "I know, Dad," Kevin said, "just, don't do anything until I get home, please."

"Where are you?" Sean asked.

"I'm...I'm out with some friends. I'll be home soon, I promise."

"All right, Kevvy boy," the poor Mr. Davis said. "You're a good kid."

Kevin turned off his phone and was wandering around the hospital like a lost soul. He and Luke were finally there. They were finally at level ground and were on the same page. They understood the other's intentions. But then it happened. Something deep in his throat caused him to stop breathing. Why? Was it some kind of punishment from God for the two young men being together? No, Kevin thought. I can't think things like that. It's just something that happened.

"You!" Lily calmy exclaimed when she came out of Luke's room and saw Kevin. "Who the hell do you think you are?!" she asked him. "You must think you're so cool, putting my son in the hospital and acting like you really care."

"Mrs. Snyder, I'm so sorry," Kevin said. "I don't know what happened. We were just sitting there and he couldn't breathe anymore! I don't know what happened!"

"Oh I know what happened!" Lily yelled. She started to imitate a stereotype of the modern teenage boy. "Yo, Luke, I got some booze and some smokes, why don't you come on out here and we can get wasted and high! It's gonna be rad, dude!"

"What are you talking about!?" Kevin yelled right back. Normally, he could be so contained. Calm, cool, collected. But when people accused him of things he didn't do, he became their worst nightmare. "You and your husband have been against everything I do for the whole year! God forbid your son has a friend who actually cares about him!"

"You don't give a damn about my son, Kevin," Lily said, back to normal volume. "You're just upset because you lost your drinking buddy. I swear, if I knew that you were trying to get my son hooked on marijuana..."

"MARIJUANA!?" Kevin yelled in question. "There was no marijuana anywhere! I've never even touched the stuff and Luke hasn't either!"

"Yeah, well, whatever has my son in here has to be your fault. He was doing fine until he started hanging with you again."

Kevin started to laugh. "I find it funny that you blame all of his problems on me. When he started drinking, you blamed it on me, but it was really because of you and your boyfriend. And then that Jade chick came into town. You can't tell me that I'm the reason for everything wrong in his life."

"I don't want you here," Lily said.

"That's for Luke to decide!" Kevin felt a little tear come out his eye. He couldn't believe this woman. He cared so deeply and tenderly for her son, but she didn't know it. He didn't want to see him hurt. If he could, he would have snapped his fingers and the two of them would have been back in the back of the old truck, waiting for the stars to appear in the sky. "I care about Luke. More than you could ever understand," he suddenly said to Lily.

Kevin started to walk towards Luke's door, leaving Lily speechless. No, she thought. You have got to be kidding me. The words that came out of his mouth were words spoken from a lover, not a best friend. My god, Lily thought. What the hell is going on here?

~~~~~~~~~

In the Luke's room, Holden was curious. "You were with Kevin when it happened," he casually said.

"Yeah," Luke answered.

"So does this mean that he's coming around?"

Luke didn't want to say anything there. He didn't want to be the one to tell people that Kevin was gay. That was Kevin's job. He remembered how furious he was when Lily told Lucinda about himself. Even after he told her he didn't like it, she went and told Dr. Bob Hughes that he was gay too! Luke didn't want Kevin to be upset with him.

"I guess so," Luke replied hastily.

"Did you tell him about your feelings?"

"Um, well, he knows. And he...uh..."

And just then, Kevin came into the room. "Hey, Luke, Mr. Snyder."

Holden shook Kevin's hand. "We were just talking about you. I can't thank you enough for knowing what to do with what happened. If Luke was alone out there and - "

"Ah, it was nothing," Kevin said. "I was just making sure my best friend here was okay."

Luke tried to catch Kevin's eyes to tell him not to lay it on too thick, but his attempts were unsuccessful. Kevin was so happy to see Luke well again that he didn't care what came out of his mouth. At this point, he just didn't care what anybody thought of their friendship.

"Luke's done a lot for me over the years, and I was just returning the favor."

"Ah, yes," Holden said. "Well, I'll leave you two some time to talk." He turned at gave Luke a look that pretty much told him that he knew what was going on and approved of it. He left the room.

"Kevin," Luke said, "I think he knows."

"Knows what?"

"He knows that you're gay."

Kevin just looked at him for a moment. "Do you honestly think that I care who knows that I'm gay right now? All I'm worried about is you and how you're doing. Are you feeling better?"

Luke didn't understand him. "I'm fine, but what do you mean you don't care? What if your father - "

"I don't care about him, Luke. I don't care if the whole world found out. I just realized today how easily you can lose someone that you love. God forbid, if something horrible had happened to you today, I would have been kicking myself for not letting people know how much I love you. Your parents wouldn't have believed me if I told them. As a matter of fact, I just got into it with your mother in the hallway. She had the nerve to accuse me of making this happen to you!"

"She did what?!" Luke became livid. "She ruins everything! Everything! I'm sick of her trying to make decisions for me. She tries to live my life and she wants me to live the way she wants me to and I'm tired of it! When she finally dumped that Keith creep, it was MONTHS after I told her that he wasn't any good. She's so self-centered! I thought she was changing, I really did. She went a proved me wrong again."

"I can't wait to see her face when I tell her that I love you," Kevin said. "That'll put her right in her place!"

Luke wasn't so sure of that. He couldn't care less what Lily thought of Kevin, but he didn't want his boyfriend to have to put up with Mr. Davis's mess. "I think we should wait until you are sure. There were times when I wanted to come out, but decided against it because it was the wrong time. When I thought I was going to die, I wanted to, but it was just going to make things worse. Besides, if your father found out, he would kick you out."

"But I don't think I can wait until we graduate before I say anything to him, Luke. I can't imagine going through a whole year of loving you and wanting you, but not being able to have you because of what he would think. I want to move out, but I just don't know how I can do that and still stay in Oakdale."

And then, a light bulb went off in Luke's brain. "Oh my God," he said, "I have an idea."

"Anything would sound good right now."

"You can stay at Grandma Lucinda's guesthouse!"

Kevin's face brightened. "Do you think she would go for it?!"

"She'd love it!" Luke exclaimed. "She'd love having you around and getting to know you. It would be perfect! And she's not like most older people either, she's really cool. The two of you would get along great!"

"Well when can I speak to her about it? I mean, I'm sure she wouldn't want me to suddenly show up on her doorstep with all of my stuff. Besides that morning she found us passed out, she doesn't even know me."

"We can go to her place tomorrow or whenever and talk about it. She's going to be ecstatic!

Kevin looked at the happiness in Luke's face. There it was, he thought. There's that smile that I love to see. "You're perfect, you know that? You're everything I could ever want," he said, taking Luke's hand. "We're going to be all right."

Kevin was glad that there'd be a chance that he'd get out of his father's home, but he remembered something. Lucinda...he heard that name before, and it wasn't in conversation with Luke either. Wait a minute, he remembered. Lucinda is the name of the woman who owns Worldwide. Jesus Christ, he thought, Luke's grandmother is the reason why my dad lost his job? No, it can't be the same woman! She's rich, she must own a company. How many rich businesswomen named Lucinda could there be in Oakdale? Only one, he finally admitted to himself. He didn't know how it was going to go wrong, but he knew it would in the end.

TO BE CONTINUED...