Beginning of Secrets

No Way

The first step of apologizing is throwing away the idea that you were right. Perched on the bottom step of the staircase leading into Lans High, Lucas sat with his earbuds stuffed in his ears. Five different people had mentioned Carvington while Lucas was at church. Lucas even tried to call Carvington after church. His call went straight to voicemail. Students laughed as they entered the building, not even sparing a glance towards Lucas. Other cliques of students gathered in front of the building speaking to their friends. He preferred the ambiance in the library.

Lucas bounced his leg as stared at the pages of his book. After hearing a fellow student utter the words "Joseph Carvington", he shoved his earbuds in his ears, turned on the loudest songs in his playlist, and attempted to read the same page for the last ten minutes. Occasionally, he would graze the crowd before going back to staring at the black text. He pushed himself to focus on the unfocused blots of ink on the page. The blots became words and finally began to make sense, his leg was at rest. He attempted a full sentence. He held his breath after reading the sentence.

"The deer-in-the-headlights awareness that something really, really bad's coming, but not being able to do anything about it, is probably the world's best (or should I say worst?) recipe for ultimate, deluxe, supersize terror."

The tempo of the song he was listening to picked up to a lightning fast speed and his heart joined it. He slammed the book shut. He let out a heavy breath, tightly shutting his eyes. "Dammit," he breathed, his eyes flying open, before pulling his phone out his back pocket. The screen lit up, illuminating a white 7:30 on top of a picture lying on top of a picture of a character from a cartoon he watched.

They were late.

He unlocked his phone, clicked the phone application, scrolling through his contacts until he landed on one. Clicking the call button, an image of the Leo making vulgar gestures popped up on the screen while the music was changed from electronica to a long ring.

One.

Two.

"Why are you calling me?" He heard Leonardo ask, his voice echoing. He felt someone nudge his foot before the call dropped.

Leonardo stood before Lucas. He eyes were still misted from waking up. He stretched out his long limbs, yawning.

"Didn't know you were here," Lucas said.

"Oh," Leo said moving Lucas' backpack on the step in front of Lucas, taking its place. "Thought you still would be at the library."

"I'm not," Lucas said, stuffing the book into his bag. He placed his backpack on his lap. He exhaled heavily, closing his eyes. "He didn't come with you, today?"

"Nope. He called and said he was going to walk by himself."

"Oh." He called. Did that mean he was all right?

"You're worried about him too, huh?" Lucas didn't respond. "You hate being around people almost as much as I hate salad. Why else would you be at your personal hell so early?"

He shrugged, ruffling his curly mop. "I've changed my thoughts on people." Leo snickered. Lucas simpered.

"Okay," Leo said his voice dripping with sarcasm. "I hope you know Jess is still upset about you going off on Sophia. You know how she gets with stuff like that."

"Yeah," he muttered. The loud crowd hushed, and everyone stopped. The people in cliques were stopping their friends before pointing towards the forming crowd near the front of the school. Leo stood slowly, towering over the crowd to see what was causing all the commotion.