rucas au's

meant to be

She turned towards my voice and gave me a curious look.

"Lucas? What are you doing here?"

"Missy, here, has something to tell you."

"Uhh. Okay? Hi Missy!" She said in a cheerful tone and silence was her response.

"Missy..." I warned.

"No. I'm not going to talk to this weirdo." She muttered.

"Missy." I said in a more stern tone.

"Lucas, what are you doing?" Riley asked.

"Missy." I repeated.

"I'm sorry." She muttered under her breath and tried to walk away.

I pulled her back, "You have to mean it, Missy."

"Ugh. I'm sorry, Riley. You didn't know this but I was filming you do that dorky, stupid award show. And I apologize. Okay? Now, let go of me, freak!" She rolled her eyes while speaking and pulled her wrist from my grip and left.

"Oh." Riley bowed her head and sat at the bench.

"Ignore her, Riley. She's just being mean."

"I didn't realize what I've been doing was dorky and stupid. I do it every Friday so I could reward myself for every good thing I've done in the week so next week I'll do better. I didn't realize someone could be watching. I didn't realize how embarrassing it was." She said it more to herself than to me.

I took my hat off, sat beside her and put my hand over hers.

"It isn't embarrassing or stupid, Riley. Okay, maybe a little dorky," I joked and she smiled, "But you shouldn't feel embarrassed because it's actually really nice that you do that for yourself. And you're unique and special and no one should take that away from you." Her doe eyes looked up at me in disbelief but she stayed speechless.

"Remember the wolves I told you about?" She nodded, "Missy's one of them. She only wanted to make you feel bad because she needed something to feel good about. But she didn't even get to do that-"

"Because of you. You protected me from her. You protected me from the wolf who tried to get me. And I can't thank you enough for that." She put her other hand over mine and looked back into my eyes.

"You don't need to thank me, Riley."

"No. I do. You've been protecting me all this time and I don't understand why. You don't even know me." I shrugged, "Can you please explain to me why you feel the need to protect me?"

"I don't know why, Riley. I just feel like I need to be there for you and I really don't want you to get hurt."

"Your friend in Texas, were you his protector too?"

"I don't really-" I started to tell her I didn't want to talk about Zay, but as I looked into her eyes, I felt like I could trust her with my life, "His name is Zay."

"Did you protect Zay like you're protecting me?"

"I did. Maybe too much. And because of that he got hurt."

"How?"

"I didn't control myself. I did something and I had to leave. And what I did affected him after."

"But you controlled yourself with Missy. What was different?"

"Maybe me. I think I've changed from who I was in Texas."

"Why?"

"I'm not sure," I looked at her, "but I think it started when I met you." Her cheeks reddened and she had to look away.