Don't Tell My Brother

Chapter 57 - Coincidences

"I get things wrong all the time." Mona added, now twisting one of her braids around her finger. "Sometimes I don't even realise until you or Alex explain it to me, or until someone laughs when I didn't mean to be funny. It's like there's a whole list of rules about social interactions that everyone else already knows, that I have to just figure out myself. Astrophysics is easy compared to other people. But even though I'm bad at social stuff and I make all these mistakes, I still have you guys. People like me, I think, and even if they don't I have two best friends." She glanced up, dark brown eyes briefly meeting Lucas' own. "So people will still like you when you make mistakes. You don't need to get everything right to be loved."

"Exactly." Alex looked as if she was physically restraining herself from wrapping Mona in a tight hug, opting instead to put a hand on her shoulder. "Thanks, Mona."

Mona turned to her, squinting at her expression. "Are you about to cry?"

"No." Alex's eyes were too bright. She sniffed. "That was just...it was very sweet, Mona."

Lucas was feeling a little emotional himself. He cleared his throat, Alex wiped her eyes, and luckily for the both of them it was at that moment that the bus pulled up to the curb. Lucas took a deep breath and stepped on. He was going to go see Damien.

"You're sure this isn't a bit weird? Going to hunt him down at his school?"

"Yes, Lucas, I'm sure. Plus, we're not hunting him down. We're going to Mountbank because I've got a very real, definitely not made up theatre job I need to do there." Alex adjusted the costumes in her arms, and gestured to Mona, who was now wearing the witch's hat. "But if we happened to run into your boyfriend coincidentally," and now her tone had turned mischievous, "then I bet he'd be very happy to see you."

Mountbank's classes ended ten minutes later than Lucas', so by the time they arrived at the school's gates the bell was ringing, its shrill call echoing out across the scattered brick buildings. Lucas was a little disorientated - the surrounding were unfamiliar, he had no idea where he was even supposed to go - but Alex was already marching across the patchy lawn, giving him no time to second-guess himself. He glanced to Mona, who shrugged, and with that silent exchange they both followed Alex into the school.

Now that he'd convinced himself that it was okay to go and see Damien, the next problem was how to actually find him. As students poured from the open doors of their classrooms and filled the hall, Lucas was struggling to keep sight of Alex, let alone find Damien. He hurried after her, keeping an eye out above the crowd, searching for a head of black curls, trying to pick out his voice among the white noise of chatter.

But, as it turned out, somebody else would find him first.

"Lucas!" Was all the warning he got before April appeared, hair tied into two pigtails that closely resembled her cheerleading pom-poms, dressed in pink and looking a little nervous. "I'm so glad you're here! I was going to text you, but I didn't know your number and you don't have Instagram, and I thought I could get Alex's number but that would've been a little stalker-y, y'know?" She was speaking in a high, fast staccato, Lucas barely having a second to process what she was saying before she was speaking again. "But I really wanted to say sorry. I'm so, so sorry about what happened last night. And I'm so sorry I didn't say anything. You don't have to forgive me, I was such a coward."

Her bottom lip was trembling, but she'd set her jaw in a firm line, as if she was doing her utmost not to cry. Seeing her so obviously remorseful, Lucas sighed, and whatever ill will he'd felt towards her evaporated.

"It's okay." He said, and wondered if he should hug her, or try and comfort her somehow.

"It's not okay. You always think that you'll do something when that happens, don't you? Like, you'll stand up, or say something, but then it was actually happening and I just...I did nothing." April hung her head, clicking and un-clicking the clasp on her handbag. "But I've been with him all day, except when we didn't have classes, and we told anyone who had a problem to go sit somewhere else, and if anyone says anything bad I'll make them pay. Look, I even took off my nails, in case I had to punch someone." She splayed her hands out for Lucas to inspect.

Instead of the acrylics she'd been wearing last time, her nails were her own, painted a mint green. Lucas remembered how strong her handshake had been, and didn't doubt that she'd be able to do some serious damage. Especially with how fierce she looked, frowning at the thought of anybody saying a bad word about Damien.

"It really is okay, April. It's really hard, to stand up in a situation like that. And you're helping now." Already, he felt relieved. Even if he didn't seen Damien, having Mallory's words confirmed - someone had been with Damien, making sure he was okay - made Lucas feel better. The knotted ball of anxiety in the pit of his stomach loosened somewhat. "Has anyone said anything bad?"

April pulled a disgusted expression. "I heard Tara Reede asked Sasha Davidson if he'd had trouble keeping it up when they'd...y'know, or if he'd cried after, but I told her that that was a really weird, gross thing to ask, and if she made another joke like that I'd make sure she wasn't invited to anything for the rest of her senior year. Honestly, it's like people have never even heard of bisexuality."

"Amen." Alex said, appearing at Lucas' shoulder. "I don't know who that is, but fuck her."

"Yes, fuck her." Mona said, at Lucas' other shoulder, still in the hat. "Who is she?"

Before April could launch into another explanation, the door to the classroom behind them swung open and Vinnie, Christina and finally, Damien, walked out. They were laughing, Damien loudest of all.

And then he saw Lucas. He froze, mouth open, and stared for a moment. "Lucas?"

"Damien?" Lucas responded, not sure why they were asking questions. "Uh...wow, fancy seeing you here. I was just..." He gestured vaguely to Alex and Mona, "...theatre stuff. Doing that."

Damien was grinning again, the expression breaking like a sunrise across his face. The dimple was very apparent, and just like every time, Lucas wanted to kiss it. "Fancy seeing me here, at my school?"

"Just crazy how these kind of coincidences happen, isn't it?" He was smiling so wide it almost hurt.

"Hey, April." Alex said, in a tone that Lucas recognised as her 'very casual' tone. "I have a costuming thing I wanted to talk to you about. In the theatre room."

April nodded immediately, glancing between Lucas and Damien. "Uh huh. Me too. Very important costume and makeup things. Which I also need Vinnie and Christina to help me with."

"Funny, I also need Mona. As a consultant. An expert."

Mona turned to Alex, thick eyebrows drawn down into yet another confused frown. "But I don't know anything about theatre."

Alex dragged her off anyway, with April, Christina and Vinnie in tow. They disappeared down the hallway, but not before Lucas caught Christina turn to Mona and ask "So, what's with the hat?", to which Mona hurriedly took it off. The last thing he saw was April giving Damien an exaggerated thumbs up, right before they turned the corner and were gone. 

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A/N: Yes, I'm back! Those who follow me/check my page (are they called pages? accounts? no idea) will know I took a short hiatus for school and mental health stuff, but I'm back now, and hope to be posting every two or three days!

We also have more fan art! Many, many thanks to navsmita69 for this Damien! Every time I get any sort of fan content I go like sdkljfhsljl and this art is so cute!!!