Head Over Heels ✓

13 / the last straw

"That's nice," Lucas said. He wasn't good at chit chat but Mika knew that, never expecting anything from him when they talked about mundanities. She was quite happy just to chat and know he was listening, or not to talk at all. Though she had coaxed Tom's words out of him, shining a light on a side of him that had been well hidden for a long time, she was more than content to just be, without the pressure of anything more.

"Mmm, it will be." She checked her phone as she zipped up her bag and hoisted it onto her back. "My dad's here; I need to go. Are you walking down?"

Lucas shook his head. Floyd had texted him at five to four to let him know he wouldn't be there until ten past. Seven minutes to go. "Not yet. My dad's a bit late. I'm just going to wait here."

"Ok," she said with a smile. "See you on Monday!" Waving goodbye, she left with a spring in her step and Lucas dropped down onto his seat once he had shut and locked his locker.

It took two minutes to walk from his classroom to the gate, to the spot where his father always parked to pick him up. For five minutes, he could relax on his own and evaluate the day. For all intents and purposes, it had been just fine. A standard Friday, when he had texted Audrie at lunch to arrange a Skype date for that evening and he had eaten his lunch with Mika. They had done their biology homework together, getting it out of the way within a couple of hours of it being set, and they'd had enough time leftover to power on through with the maths quiz their teacher had given them.

There was a noise in the corridor outside, not uncommon for the end of the school day, and then the heavy door swung open. Lucas's face fell to see Adler step into the room, dead behind the eyes when her gaze fell on him. She glanced around as though it wasn't immediately obvious that he was alone.

"Have you see Asher anywhere?" she asked, hardly an inflection behind her voice, as though it was an effort merely to talk to Lucas.

"No," he said. He tried to give her a few of his words as possible. Slipping his hand into his pocket, he curled his fingers around his phone to pretend to be busy, to shake her off. When she made no effort to move, a pinprick of fear poked his chest and he opened up his phone's voice recorder. She looked angry already and with a feeling she was about to say something rude, he wanted to catch it on tape. Maybe Asher would believe she was mean if he had evidence.

Adler snorted. "I'm surprised you don't have him micro-chipped with a log book of all his movements," she said, her eyes hard. He could have sworn he saw her lip twitch into a curl and he couldn't help the glower that settled over his features. He thought about saying something for a second, but he kept his mouth shut.

Adler pulled a face, one of utter disgust, at his expression. "Jesus, who pissed in your cornflakes?"

"I had toast," he said, putting his phone face down on the table. She wouldn't disappoint, he felt: she rarely wasted the chance to put him down if they were alone together, either with a snide comment that she pretended was sarcasm or the kind of look that made plants wither and die.

"Oh my God, you're so fucking weird," she said. The word hurt Lucas's eardrums, hard and harsh. "Time to go back to whatever planet dropped you off on earth."

His eyebrows pulled together before lifting up, her throwaway comment feeling like a stab wound the way she launched it at him, unprovoked. He sat back in his seat, leaning away from her, and tried to tame the hurt on his face but it didn't escape Adler's attention that she appeared to have offended him. She huffed and rolled her eyes.

"Oh my God, learning to take a fucking joke. You're not four anymore - it's not cute to cry. What the hell is your problem?"

"You are!" he cried out before he could stop himself, regretting the words as soon as they had left his mouth. They would only provoke her more and he wished he had said nothing, that he had just kept his mouth shut and she would have walked away. But he had given her ammunition and she loaded her gun. Her face darkened into a scowl, her eyes almost black beneath her heavy eyebrows and full fringe.