by S. J. Smith
"I just meant that if we'd left we maybe could've seen a movie that we would've enjoyed, not that I didn't want to be in the movie with you... I mean, it wouldn't have mattered what movie we saw so long as we were seeing it together-"
"But that movie sucked ass. Seriously I did not take what you said in a bad way. Maybe later when I decide to over analyse everything you said, but not just then."
The cheeky smile on Alexis' face had Lucas instantly at ease. He felt like an idiot the way he'd stumbled over his words like that. The moment he realised that what he said could've come across as a dig at her, he couldn't stand the thought that he might've hurt her feelings.
"You know it's nice to know that I'm not the only one who turns into a bumbling idiot when I'm nervous," Alexis smiled.
"So, you're saying that you were nervous yesterday?"
"Wouldn't you be nervous if you'd just been knocked over by a giant?"
"I am not that tall."
"Yeah okay Gigantor." The vibration of her phone stole Alexis' attention, but when she checked the notifications she saw that it was just another text from Brennan.
"You seem pretty popular tonight."
From someone else those words would've sounded snarky, but Lucas seemed genuinely curious and unphased that she hadn't stopped getting texts all night.
"Ugh I know. I'm sorry. I would turn it off, but if my parents try and call me and I don't answer, they'll send an army out for me."
"No, no, it's fine. I was just curious is all. I get how that is, my mum's pretty protective as well."
"It's so fun, right?" Her flat tone and dead eyes contradicted her words and Lucas found himself grinning at her. Before he could try flirting with her again her phone started ringing and he saw Brennan come up on the screen. Alexis didn't decline the call, but instead pressed the lock key on the side of the phone to stop the vibrating and just let the call ring out.
"Your friends seem pretty persistent, maybe it's an emergency?"
"Pft, yeah... I don't think so. I wouldn't tell them what I was doing tonight, and they don't like not being in the know."
Lucas could've been offended that she hadn't told her friends that she was going on a date, but he wasn't sure if these particular friends were ones that she would share that information with.
"Are these the guys you hang out with at school?"
"Yeah, Seth and Brennan. They asked me to hang out with them tonight, and I told them I already had plans, but I wouldn't tell them what those plans were or who they're with, so here we are." As if on cue her phone rang again, this time it was Seth.
Before Alexis could silence the call again, Lucas reached out for her phone but stopped just short.
"Do you trust me?"
Alexis looked into his eyes looking for any reason why she shouldn't. Aside from a glimmer of mischief there was nothing that made her want to say no. Once she'd given him the nod he grabbed her phone off the table and quickly answered it before it rung out.
"Hello."
Alexis couldn't help admire how his greeting was so laid back, but strong at the same time. She could've been blind and would've felt safe just from hearing his voice.
"No sorry, there's no Alexis here. Yeah man I'm sure."
Propping the phone holding arm up on the table, Lucas continued to listen, but with his other hand he reached across the table and started stroking the back of her hand.
"Dude I think I would notice if there was an Alexis here."
She held her breathe as his fingers danced softly over her skin. One second he was tripping over his words, and the next he was the most confident guy she'd ever met.
"Okay... well, why don't you describe her?"
Alexis covered her mouth with the hand Lucas wasn't occupying to muffle the giggles she could feel bubbling to the surface.
"She sounds gorgeous. I can understand why you want to find her, but yeah no, she's not here. Anyways, gotta go dude. Good luck with that."
The whole time that he'd been on the phone Lucas hadn't taken his eyes off Alexis. He was gauging her reactions to everything he said, not wanting to upset her. Alexis however was the furthest she'd ever been from upset. Lucas had called her gorgeous.
"You know, you probably just sent them into a frenzy. They'll think I've been kidnapped."
His fingers had moved up and now danced over the softer skin of her inner forearm. Her hormones were going insane. All she wanted was for the two of them to leave the restaurant and go somewhere where they could make out in peace for a solid few hours.
"Well if that's what I've got to do to get some time with you. Wait... God, okay that sounded so much smoother in my head, but then I said it and it sounded really creepy." Lucas palmed his face with his unoccupied hand trying to hide his embarrassment. When he looked back up at the girl across from him however, there was no sign that she was creeped out by what he'd said. If anything, the smile on her face was the sweetest thing he'd ever seen.
"So, you'd stage my kidnapping if it meant we could spend more time together. Now if anyone else had said that I'd probably be running for the hills. You however, have me intrigued. So how exactly would we go about pulling it off?"
For the next twenty minutes they discussed the finer details of Lucas’ hypothetical kidnapping of Alexis, and by the time they'd finished their dinner they had a somewhat well thought out plan.
Lucas returned to the table from paying just as Alexis was wrapping up a phone call. He sat back down and waited, trying to think of ways he could draw out their date a while longer.
"Yes Jess, I promise, I'm fine. I can't believe they got you involved in this... I’m sure they were, but they knew I had plans tonight so why were they calling me in the first place?... No I know, I'm not mad at you. I promise I'll message you when I get home. Bye." Turning back to face Lucas, Alexis couldn't hide the frustration on her face and she didn't have the energy to try.
"I'm sorry, I thought it might've actually been something important, but the guys just went straight to Jess to find out where I was."
"It's okay. You have friends that obviously care about you, it's nice."
"I'm sure it would be, except their reasons for caring aren't quite as great. Do you wanna walk around... maybe?"
Without even a second thought Lucas held out his hand, and when Alexis’ much smaller hand grasped his, he never wanted to let go.
"So, I know that Brennan likes you, that much is obvious. Sometimes it looks like Seth likes you too, but then there's also rumours that he likes Jess."
"Yeah, Brennan is my friend, but I just don't like him like that. Seth is a little more complicated, but he does like Jess. I think he's just jealous is all." Alexis couldn't shake the feeling that she was saying more than she should, like any moment now the truth was going to come out about her and Seth, and that really wasn't first date talk. Lucas however wasn't letting up. He didn't think Alexis knew but they actually had study period together, and he'd noticed her. Lucas had also noticed Seth noticing her. Anytime he saw Alexis with Seth, Seth had a tendency of positioning himself between her and any guy that was nearby, until Brennan showed up, then he backed off.
"You and Seth were a thing."
Alexis gasped like she'd been burnt. She tried to let go of Lucas' hand, but he just gave hers a comforting squeeze. She could still deny it, lie and tell him anything else, but she didn't want to. It was insane how she was feeling tonight. It was like she could trust him with anything, but at the same time her head was telling her that he wouldn't understand, that there was no way he could ever accept her history. If he couldn't accept her past with Seth, then how would he be able to accept the truth about her family?
Lucas watched the emotions flash across Alexis' face. She was conflicted, that much was obvious, as obvious as it was that she and Seth had hooked up. Squeezing her hand again to bring her back from her thoughts, Lucas hoped she told him the truth. He'd never felt so comfortable around a girl he was interested in before, and he did
n't want lies to get in the way of that.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Alexis finally spoke, looking ahead the whole time not being able to bear seeing the disgust that would come across his face when she told him the truth.
"We were a thing, it started after I broke up with Marty. It wasn't intentional. I mean I did like him, but I never thought he'd actually like me back let alone act on it, and then he did and it's just been a whole lot of secrecy since then."
"But it's over?"
Alexis risked a sideways glance up at him. He didn't look mad, more curious.
"Yes, of course. I ended it around New Years. He didn't seem to understand that, but I made it clear when school started. He does have a hard time letting things go."
"That explains the jealousy then."
"I know, but I swear it's over."
"I believe you."
Alexis cracked her neck with how fast she looked up at Lucas. She didn't dwell on how good it felt to finally get the kink out, she just stared up at him trying to find anything in his expression that said he was lying.
"You believe me?"
“Of course, I believe you. Why would you lie?" Lucas had overheard a lot of conversations in the weeks he'd been attending Themis College. Didn't hurt that he had some help in the eavesdropping department either, but that was a story for another time. Lucas looked around for somewhere they could sit down and spotted a bench a few metres away. Once they were sitting down and facing each other, Lucas put her mind at ease as much as possible.
"Alexis, I like you. Now I could've totally misread the signs tonight, but I think it's safe to say you like me too. If you say that whatever you had with Seth is over and done with, then that's all I care about. I've never been this comfortable with someone before, and I want to see where this goes. How about you?"
Instead of verbally responding, Alexis leaned in and captured his lips with hers. Her left hand moved up to the back of his neck while her right gripped his bicep. While he was initially caught off guard, Lucas got himself together pretty quickly, only making Alexis wait a few seconds before he was kissing her back.
Chapter 10
Monday morning came far too quickly and yet not quickly enough. Ever since she'd been picked up from their date on Saturday night, Alexis couldn't wait to see Lucas again. He had messaged her when he got home, confessing that he could've kissed her all night. Just thinking about it brought a smile to her face. After she messaged Jess that she was home and alive, Alexis sent a much more detailed message to Em. It was with her memories of the night that Alexis crawled into bed, happier than she'd felt in ages.
This particular morning Alexis didn't even care that they were about to start their day with yet another fifty minute assembly. While everyone else in their group that morning was tired and grumpy, Alexis couldn't stop smiling. She was still riding the high of her date, and her friends were noticing.
Jess knew that Alexis wouldn't last the whole day without sharing the details of whatever it was that had her practically floating, so she decided to sit back and let her friend come to her.
Brennan however had a sinking suspicion of what it was that had his best friend in such a good mood. He just didn't know who that 'what' was, and that was giving him anxiety.
Seth had gotten a peak at Alexis' phone over her shoulder before he sat down and had seen the name of who she was messaging.
L.
Seth had scoffed to himself as he sat down. She hadn't even put his full name in her phone, just 'L', like he was some Japanese anime character. He wondered to himself if he should tell Brennan about the mystery guy that Alexis was texting, however one look at his face told Seth that he already knew there was a guy.
The bell rang signally the start of the school day, and the group dispersed to their homeroom classrooms before heading to the school assembly. Alexis chatted happily to a very confused Katie who had grown accustomed to the other girl's bad morning mood. As they took their seats in the gym Alexis scanned the crowd until she saw Lucas half way across the gym. She gave him a small wave and he nodded his head in acknowledgement, a beautiful smile on his face.
Alexis was crushing hard. The realisation of this led her to question whether or not it still counted as crushing on someone when you know they like you back. Or did liking someone mean you had stronger feelings than you did with a crush? All of these were important questions that she would pose to Jess later.
8.50 - You look beautiful today x
Lucas
Looking up to where she'd last seen Lucas, Alexis found him staring back at her, a sly grin on his face. He knew what his compliments did to her. Ever since Saturday night when she'd gotten all cute and shy when he called her gorgeous, he'd taken every opportunity he could to see that same reaction. When there got to be too many people in the way, Lucas turned back in his seat to face the stage. As he did so he made eye contact with Seth, who was weirdly enough, staring him down. Not one to back down from a challenge, Lucas held the eye contact. Even if Alexis hadn't come clean about her history with Seth, of which she had also sworn him to secrecy, Lucas would've had to be blind to not see that Seth had a thing for her. And maybe even being blind wouldn't have stopped him from figuring it out.
Neither boy was backing down, though Lucas couldn't understand Seth's possessiveness of Alexis. From what she'd told him, Seth had made it clear that they had to remain a secret, and then he'd hooked up with someone else. But when she'd ended things with him, he refused to let go. He might've wondered why Seth didn't just go after someone who wasn't in a relationship already, and who he could have an open relationship without hurting anyone else, but just from their one date, Lucas already knew that Alexis was amazing. The way she kissed him alone was enough to make him willing to 'go to the mats' for her.
Finally, it was time for them to stand for the national anthem, and Seth was forced to look to the front of the gym. Willing or not, Lucas was counting that as a win.
For the rest of the assembly Lucas thought of the next date he wanted to take Alexis on. For the first time since moving from over east, Lucas was grateful for being held back a year. It had something to do with his mid-year baby status. When they’d moved he had had to repeat year six which he hadn’t been enthused about. Now though it meant that he was one of the few Year Elevens’ to have their licence.
He considered inviting Alexis with himself and his sister this weekend when they went strawberry picking. His sister had said she wanted to officially meet Alexis, but he’d have to see how Alexis felt about meeting his family so soon. By the time they were picking their chairs up at the end of assembly, Lucas had no less than five well planned date ideas and two rough ideas. Hopefully Alexis liked the sound of at least a few of them.
◆◆◆
Jessica had been right. No more than ten seconds after the two girls took their seats in their second period English class, Alexis leaned close and whispered the words she had been waiting to hear all morning. "I went on a date with Lucas." And even though Jessica had been waiting for this information all weekend, she still wasn't prepared for the excitement she felt. Her boyfriend Aaron had been speculating for months that there was something going on between Alexis and Seth, and the couple had agreed that if it were true then it wouldn't end well. Besides, Alexis deserved someone better than Seth, and while Brennan was a great guy he was also far too sensitive for someone with Alexis' personality.
"Tell me everything."
Not needing any further prompting, Alexis told Jess everything starting from when they quite literally bumped into each other on Friday afternoon. If their teacher was aware that he didn't have the full attention of the two girls, he didn't let on. They kept up with their notes half-heartedly so they at least couldn't be accused of not paying attention at all.
"So, I kind of just... attacked him, but then he kissed me back, and then afterwards we talked more about our families. He has an older sister who's a teacher and a dog name Zeus. Then before
he went to bed he texted me again saying 'sweet dreams', and I got a good morning text when he woke up the next day, and oh my god he's so perfect."
They were currently meant to be discussing the key points they would be making during their speech next week, but Jess wasn't letting Alexis off the hook until she spilled every last bean. And Alexis was not arguing. While Em was excited for her and wanted to hear how the date went, she didn't get the same thrill from their romantic lives as Jessica did.
"Have you two talked today?"
"Not face to face yet, but we texted good morning and he sent me a message before assembly telling me I looked beautiful, and he put an 'x' at the end."