Drop Dead Gorgeous (YoungWritersPrize)

The Old City

It was still pretty early, I'm not quite sure what time it was, but it was definitely too late. To go to school that is.

We overslept.

I tried caring about missing school, but I simply couldn't care less. So much about being a good girl.

Lucas was leaning on the edge of an open window, smoking his first morning cigarette. Shirtless, of course. He did this thing where he slightly narrowed his eyes, every time he took a puff of smoke.  Shades of grey were lazily dancing around him, wrapping him in a veil of smokey delight.

»School?« I asked with my weird morning voice.

He slowly took another breath of the dying cigarette, pouting his mouth in a way that he was able to blew an ashy circle through his lips. He shook his head.

»Mom gone for work?« I muttered in a tired way.

He nodded.

Ash was playing with his toes, trying to bite them, but Lucas hardly flinched.

»We could do something today.« He finally spoke.

»Like what?«

He shrugged.

I looked at the floor, noticing the same black Hard Rock Cafe shirt he was wearing for the past few days. »Clothes.« I said. »You need to get some clothes.«

»I can just wash this one.« He pretended not to care.

»You can't live with just one shirt.« I rolled my eyes.

»I believe that I'm perfectly capable of doing that.« He mocked me.

»It's kinda gross.« I commented as he stared at me.

He was piercing me with his dark eyes with golden flecks, which were apparently only visible in the right light. »I'll go get some clothes from the apartment.« He sighed.

»Great, I'm coming with you.« I jumped out of the bed, hitting the cold bedroom floor with my bare feet.

He lifted one of his eyebrows, looking questionably at me.

»What? I'm not waiting here. If I'm skipping school there's no way I'm staying at home.«

He smirked and picked up the shirt.

»Wait.« I said and snatched it right out of his hands. »The Ash test.«

»What?«

»The Ash test. Cats like the smell of sweat and if your shirt stinks she's gonna rub her nose in it, meaning it's 'washing machine' time.« I placed the shirt next to the cat and she almost immediately started rubbing her cute pink nose into the stinky shirt. »That's it,« I said and picked up the shirt. »this is going into the washer.«

»What am I supposed to wear in the mean time?« Lucas asked, shocked.

I looked at him, glancing with my eyes from his feet, all the way up to his beautifully carved torso. »Jacket.«

»Just the leather jacket?« I heard him yell as I was walking out of the room. I grinned, imagining Lucas wearing nothing but the jacket and jeans. I guess even I can be the pervert sometimes.

                                      *                                  *                                   *

The old path towards Lucas's apartment. Old buildings falling apart, stray cats and dogs looking for a bite of food, trash bins filled with too much garbage, suspicious men walking up and down the street in a nervous way...Yeah, this path definitely wasn't all rainbows and unicorns.