Rooftops At Sunrise

16

"You mean, that starting from today, you guys have a whole week to yourselves, and you didn't plan anything?"

The trio are taking their second break amid a park that is in the middle of nowhere. Lucas stares at both Damian and Aoi with bleak judgement in his gaze. He cringes, once he notices they are not ready to reply any time soon. "Seriously?" the young man blurts. "Guys! Come on! What about the festivals they have a few towns away to celebrate the start of summer? And the beach! And if you're looking for aliens, why not stop by a place that has telescopes? I—"

Damian holds up a hand to stop Lucas—the other, he uses to keep his ham sandwich steady, by his lips. "We're poor, dude," he says. "It's already a miracle that we have you, and the van."

And this time, it is Aoi's turn to shoot Damian a scornful glare, as she sips on her medical food; at first, she did not wish to take it out of her water bottle in public—especially not in front of Lucas—but Damian convinced the young woman it was likely less of a hassle for her to start now. You'll be seeing Lucas almost every other second this week, and you'll probably never run into any of these strangers again. Kind of seems like a waste to hold yourself back from eating, if you take both those things into consideration, he had said. And Aoi had thought, that he was right.

Lucas buries his face into his palms and groans into them. "But we can't just keep driving mindlessly like this, it's such a waste of time! And fuel!"

"Well—" Damian waves his sandwich around in a circle. He shrugs. "Do you have any better ideas?"

"Actually, yeah, I do," Lucas tells him, bluntly, as he aggressively points his own food—a pizza slice, courtesy of a local restaurant—toward Damian's figure. "And if you trust me, I promise that I'll take you two both, on the trip of a lifetime!"

Aoi nudges Damian's side with her elbow. "I can't tell if he's being serious, or if he's a joker," she hisses.

To which Damian scoffs. "Me neither."

Lucas rises to his feet. He takes an angry bite out of his pizza. "I can hear you, you know!"

"I don't care," Damian looks him in the eye. He snickers. "The moment I saw you put pineapple on that pizza, was the day you lost all my respect!"

Lucas's lip twitches. He grabs Damian by the arm in a rather threatening manner that makes Aoi skitter a few centimeters away from them. "It's delicious, and you will try it!" the young man exclaims, all the while playfully shoving the slice into Damian's face.

Damian wails an inaudible phrase that likely means he has surrendered, along with a rather lengthy line of curse words, that leave his lips one after the other in succession. If there were any children or parents hanging around the trio that they make, there is no one now.

"Anyway," Lucas brushes the dirt off his knees and finishes his food. He huffs. "I was being serious—I really do think we could turn this trip into something cool, and really memorable."

"How?" Aoi finds herself asking him; she, too, is done drinking the contents of her plastic bottle.

Damian's friend smirks. He rolls up his sleeves, then runs a hand through the front of his long, violet hair. Aoi thinks it rather eccentric ,when Lucas puts on his red round sunglasses, instead of answering her.

Eventually though, the young chef scoffs again, winks, then tells them both: "By making everything a surprise!"