The Truth Runs Wild (Philip x Lukas)

Chapter 2

Finally, Lukas set his jaw, impatient. "You don't understand, anyway."

"No" Philip agreed, equally irritable. "I definitely don't."

They worked in an irritable, tense silence for the next ten minutes, typing on their laptops until Lukas finally broke the silence again. "Philip?"

"What."

Lukas paused again, eyes dancing to and away from Philip's face. "Can we...do you think we could start over? Just forget what I did yesterday? I know I was a dick" he hurried on, "but I'm really sorry. And I just want to get this dumb project over with, just like you do- we won't be able to do that if we don't talk."

He had a point. Even if Philip sort of wanted to punch in the face. Or kiss him. Either was fine. "Okay."

"Okay?" Lukas released a breath, looking relieved. "So you're not still mad at me?"

Why did he even care? "Yeah, I'm still mad at you" Philip replied, honestly. "But I'm willing to forget that for the time we're working on this project."

After that Philip expected it to be extremely awkward, and though it definitely still was a little bit, they both really did just want to finish it quickly so that they could go home and in the end they actually got quite a bit of work done. By four o'clock most people had already left as they gathered their stuff and headed out into the school parking lot, where grey rain was drizzling down. Philip turned up the collar of his jacket.

His bike was next to Lukas's motorbike in the stands, though the stand next to his had been empty when he'd arrived that morning. They both looked over at each other as Philip undid his bike lock, Lukas smiling a little bit. "Thanks for fixing my tyre" Philip said, a little grudgingly. Lukas also seemed to have polished the bike frame itself, the blue paint looked cleaner and brighter than he remembered, but he didn't mention this.

Lukas gave him a slow grin. "We're even now though- I was a dick, but I did fix your bike. Hey. Don't even try to deny it, dude."

"Fine" Philip shrugged, though he was maybe smiling now. "We're even now."

After a beat, Lukas took a breath before saying in a very casual voice, "so, can I have your number? So that we can plan when to meet up to do the project again?"

It felt weird to exchange numbers, but Philip agreed.

Opening his mouth to say something, Lukas was still grinning when someone called his name from behind, and both boys turned round. Rose was walking out the school, wearing a patterned dress that seemed way too short for the chilly fall weather and smiling at her boyfriend. Immediately Philip noticed the change in Lukas's body language: he stiffened at once, the easy grin falling off his face to be replaced with an arrogant little smirk, and he completely turned his body away from Philip. "Hey you" Rose said when she reached them, greeting him with a kiss.

"Hey you" Lukas murmured back, lips brushing her throat and making her giggle.

Seeming to notice Philip, she pushed him back and gave him a friendly smile. "Hey, you're Philip, right? You've just moved here?"

"Yeah, that's right. From the city" he replied, careful not to invite any further questions from her on this with his tone.

Luckily, Rose got the hint and didn't pursue it further. "Nice. So, you and Lukas are friends?"

"We're just working on this dumb history project together" Lukas said quickly, his tone almost disinterested. "It's so boring, I want to shoot myself."

In fact, once they'd finally gotten talking, Lukas had seemed surprisingly animated about the subject, even volunteering to do more work than Philip. Not that Philip mentioned this now. Obviously.