Lucas sat beside Melissa on the couch and turned on his phone. He'd just taken a picture of his schedule so he didn't have to carry a paper around everywhere. He read over his schedule and started comparing it to Melissa's.
"It looks like we have math together…" He murmured. "And English. I'm in art third period, though, so we're not in that class together. Science…? No… different teachers…" He kept muttering to himself as he compared the papers. They seemed to have a decent amount of their classes together.
Melissa took the advantage to scoot a little bit closer to him. Just subtly, nothing major, because she didn't want to be too obvious. "What about History?" She asked him, leaning over to look over his shoulder. Totally not another excuse to stay close to him. Not at all.
Her eyes flicked back and forth between the two schedules, and she quickly pieced the classes they were in. "I have choir at 6th period. And then after school I have… piano lessons I think." She mumbled, noting un-important things, just because.
Lucas nodded. "Yeah, we've got history together… I don't know what days I'll have practice after school. Coach'll tell us when it comes to it." He shrugged. He didn't really seem to notice Melissa moving closer, but he definitely did. "He said I'm going to be the team captain his year, so I'm definitely looking forward to that. I mean, it'll be a little stressful with the pressure and all, but I can handle it."
Melissa looked rather surprised, but in a pleased way. "Why didn't you tell me?" She asked, resting a hand on his arm. "That's awesome Lucas! Look at you go." She told him, setting the paper back on the coffee table. "You totally deserve this, you have got to be the best player on that field." She grinned, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. Truly, she was really happy for him. He needed all the good news he could get. A lot of bad things had happened for him, so having something good was really great.
Lucas grinned and blushed again at her excitement, looking away. "Oh, stop… I'm not the best, surely. There's a lot of good guys out on the field." He said humbly. "And I only just found out last week, and since you'd already said you wanted to compare schedules when we got them, I figured I'd surprise you."
Melissa was definitely right about bad things happening to him. She didn't know about the abuse, as far as he knew. She probably would have called someone if she knew. She did know about the deaths of his mother and Claus, however. Claus's death had hit him really hard. Losing a twin was so much harder than losing anyone else, at least to him. They had been really close, and Lucas had quickly declined mentally after that. He hadn't gone to school for two weeks after Claus died, and he didn't contact anyone at all. He ended up returning to school since he couldn't bear to be away from Melissa and his other friends for any longer.
She gave him a teasing smile, and loosened her hold on him. "You're an excellent player, and I really think you're the best. No doubt in my mind you are." She hummed, resting her head on his shoulder. "I'll come to every game, as long as other thing don't get in the way." She whispered, biting her lip, only to let it slip from her teeth once more.
The light flush in Lucas's cheeks deepened a bit when Melissa lay her head on his shoulder. "Thanks, Mel… I look forward to seeing you there." He smiled softly as he looked down at her. He fought a strange urge to kiss her cheek. Definitely can't do that… we're just friends, after all. Nothing more than friends… well, best friends, I guess.
(I'm sorry for disappearing. I'll be plenty more active now, probably until late April)
Her smile only grew at his words, her heart fluttering. 'He's looking forward to it! Well… I mean we are friends…' She corrected herself, knowing he wasn't thinking the same way she was. Then again, no one thought like Melissa. Her thoughts were a mystery, just the same as her mood. The only person who could read her, was probably Lucas. So hiding her emotions towards him, was increasingly difficult.
(No problem ^^)
"So… do you wanna go on that walk now?" He asked awkwardly, still looking down at Melissa. "Still nice outside, anyways… and there's not much else to do in here unless you want to watch a movie or something." Honestly, watching a movie could be fun as well, but Lucas wanted to let Melissa choose what she wanted to do.
Shrugging, she pulled away from him, scooting back into the couch. “Whatever you want to do. I really don’t have a preference. I’m free all evening, so it’s whenever you have to go.” She hummed, glancing over to his hand. So badly she wanted to hold it again, but she wasn’t going to make a move on it. If they did go for a walk, she had an excuse to, otherwise she wasn’t going to. “So what do you want to do?”
"Well, I don't have to head back any time soon… probably just when it's like dark. I walked here, so I'd like to be able to see a bit in order to get home." He shrugged as well. "Um… like I said, it's nice out, so I guess we can go walk? There's a nice park nearby we could go to… they've got swings and a creek and stuff."
Melissa brightened up, standing up as well. "That sounds like fun! I can walk with you to your house too. I've never got to see it before." She hummed, smiling ever so sweetly. She had no clue why, all she knew was that she hadn't seen his house. Melissa never questioned it though, not wanting to invade his personal space. He hadn't done it to her, so she wasn't going to do it to him.
"Uh… y-yeah, okay." Lucas had gone rather pale at that suggestion, but he didn't want to seem suspicious, so he decided not to question it. Guess I won't be enjoying this walk, then… He knew his anxiety was going to gnaw at him the whole time, which wouldn't be particularly pleasant. "My house is a bit of a mess, though." He laughed weakly and stood up, stretching. His back cracked loudly when he did so.
Melissa saw his paleness, but didn't mention it. She herself, did like to keep the house rather cool. So she assumed that was what was wrong. Her smile was still bright, and her heart skipped a beat. "This should be fun!" She laughed, watching him stand and stretch. Hearing his back crack, she cringed just slightly. Though she was trying not to let it bother her.
"Mhmm. Let's head out." Lucas headed towards the door, looking over his shoulder every few seconds to make sure Melissa was following him. He'd always seemed to be afraid of being abandoned, and while he'd never brought it up, it wasn't surprising considering Claus and his mother and all. He pushed opened the door and stepped outside, hoping the fresh air would relax him a bit.
She smiled, taking a second to do a double check on her stuff. 'Phone, wallet, pocket knife, and house key.' She checked her mental list, patting her pockets. Quickly she jogged up behind him, to stay close by. She never liked leaving him alone, it never sat well with her. He was always anxious, so it seemed to her. She didn't want to be apart of that fact.
Lucas looked over at her when she came up to his side and smiled weakly. He made a mental note to stop being so weird. "Um… I think the park is about a five or ten minutes walk from here. Is that okay?" He asked, glancing over at Melissa again as he spoke.
"It's fine with me, as long as you're OK with walking there." She smiled, taking his hand in her own. "You alright Lucas? You sound off to me." She whispered, trying to keep a soothing tone. Worrying something was wrong, she took his other hand, and stood in front of him to catch whatever he had to say. With his truth telling facial expressions.
Lucas blushed when Melissa took his hands and looked down at her. Shit… she's going to know if I'm lying, won't she? One of the major downsides of how large his eyes were was that they were incredibly expressive. They tended to give away his lies. "Um… I-I'm just a little nervous about you coming over. Like I said, the place is a mess, and my dad's become rather reclusive and unfriendly since… w-well, you know…" He was struggling to make eye contact as he spoke, though technically nothing he'd said was a lie.
Sighing, she shook her head with her small smile. "Come on Lucas, it's me. You don't have to be nervous about anything, when it's related to me that is." She told him, loosening her hold on one of his hands. Gently tilting his chin upwards, her green eyes looked into his blue ones. "You're house won't scare me away, I promise." Melissa whispered, holding their hands up a little bit. "Nothing you do will ever scare me off, I swear."
Lucas managed to meet her eyes, his own wide and tinged with the anxiety he was trying so hard to hide. I don't think she realizes what she's getting herself into… "If you say so, Mel…" He sighed softly, resisting the strong urge to just melt into her touch. After being around his father for so long, it was hard to believe that touch could be good. That it could feel so nice and not make him afraid or in pain. Melissa's touch was just so gentle, and he couldn't help but relax… just a little bit. His eyes fluttered for a second before shutting as he gave in, sighing softly again.
Once his eyes were closed, she let her frown settle in on her face. 'I don't know what to do for him…' Melissa worried, to herself, as she studied his face. He looked so tired, it scared her even more. Whatever was going on, she didn't like. Things were clearly bad at the house, but she couldn't say anything to him. He would tell her otherwise. Even as best friends, they had lied to each other plenty of times. Why would this be any different? Gently, she ran her thumb over his bottom lip in a tender way. "You really don't look too good…what's that?" She asked suddenly, noticing the bruise on his neck for the first time they had been together.
"What's what?" Lucas asked, opening his eyes again to look at Melissa. When he noticed where Melissa was looking, he paled and tensed up slightly. "That's nothing… I-I was just laying on my bed and tossing a baseball and didn't catch it one time, that's all…" The lie wasn't horrible, but the execution absolutely gave him away. He wouldn't be so anxious about it if something that simple were the case. Oh god. Shit. This is bad. Very bad. Hhhhhhhh!
Her bright green eyes gave him a look, he would know she didn't believe him. "That's a ton of bull shit, don't lie to me Lucas." She said firmly, her calm demeanor fading. She didn't care at this moment, whatever it was had some form of impact on him. "We aren't going anywhere until you tell me what's going on." Melissa said, still holding his hand. Her hip was jutted out on one side, with her free hand resting on it. "No lying, I want the straight truth."
Lucas started trembling slightly and glanced around anxiously, clearly unable to make eye contact anymore. "I-I… um…" He stammered weakly, trying to figure out what to say. She's going to find out anyways, just fucking say it, for god's sake. "M-My dad started drinking when mom died and more when Claus died. After Claus, h-he started… um… he gets angry a lot, and he takes his aggression out on… me…" Lucas seemed to be edging closer and closer to panicking by the second. Melissa had experienced one or two of his panic attacks before. His breathing was sharp, shallow, and quick, and tears stung the corners of his eyes.
