lights up - part 2
i woke up earlier than him that day. i made him tea and left it on the windowsill with a note.
ran to get some groceries, be right back.
i grabbed my wallet and ran off to jeremy's dorm, banging on the door, only to be surprised by who answered it.
"lucy?" i gasped
"hi tom." she yawned "what are you doing here so early?"
"it's 9:30, luce."
"yeah, what are you doing here so early?"
"is jeremy dressed?"
"probably." she took a pause "actually, i don't know, hang in there." she closed the door and went inside, as i tried to process what had just happened. "yeah, he's good, come on in."
"mate!" jeremy exclaimed, he had his robe on and was sitting on the table with a mug of coffee
"hi jeremy." i looked at both of them, lucy on the bed scrolling through her phone and jeremy and his usual puppy-like energy staring at me "big night?"
jeremy opened his mouth to say something but then looked at lucy, who didn't move a muscle with the question "...nah. not... not really."
"drunk night. you know." lucy said, springing out of bed
"yeah!" jeremy's voice came out high pitched "totes! cool!"
"weird. okay, i need romantic advice, which now seems silly because you two are a probably the least helpful pairing possible to help me with that."
"why would you say that?" lucy said, sitting on jeremy's lap
"because you're a cold broken witch and he's a labradoodle who doesn't know what's currently going on."
"she is not a cold broken apathetic wicked witch of the west—"
"i only said she was half of those things."
"and i'm—"
"he's right." lucy interrupted
"and i'm kidding!" jeremy awkwardly tried to save himself "obviously! what were you saying, tom?"
"have you found the answer to your soldier charming dilemma?" lucy asked
"actually, it got more complicated."
"how is that even possible? tom, you—" jeremy started to ramble
"he kissed me."
"he what?" both of them shouted
"yes! by all means, announce that to the entire building! actually, why don't you go and tell that to anya too?"
"holy shit, mate." jeremy chuckled "well, then it's sorted!"
"of course it isn't, labradoodle." lucy said "he's still dating the girl! plus, it was just a kiss and we don't even know the context."
"there's more, actually."
"holy shit you banged!" jeremy shouted
"no! and again, why don't you tell that to the whole building?"
"well, then what's more?" he questioned
"he... he was not in a good place yesterday, first of all, he kissed me but in a total awful-headspace-impulsive moment. second of all, he couldn't go to sleep, so what happened is that i laid beside him on the bed until he fell asleep... and then i kinda fell asleep too." jeremy squealed and lucy prompted an 'awe', which in fact surprised me "anyway, i left him a cup of tea and a note and came straight to you guys. well, for jeremy at least, i was expecting to meet you later."
"yeah, i get that." lucy sipped from jeremy's mug "well, what what type of advice do you want?"
"i... i don't know. what do you guys have?"
"i dunno man, just talk to him. there's not much you can do except that." jeremy said
"but what should i say to him?"
"literally anything." lucy stood up "you haven't talked about it at all, it seems, so any word that you speak to him is better than the current situation."
"she's right mate."
"oh my, thank you so much, tweedledee and tweedledum, very good advice, but what about i just kill myself out of embarrassment?" i said sarcastically
"it's not our fault you brought a two-sentence situation. two-sentence situation, two-sentence advice." lucy said.
i got up and gave a light punch on jeremy's arm and hugged lucy goodbye, as i left the door i said "congrats to the happy couple." which both of them answered with
"we're not a couple!"
lucy tone was way more monotone, obviously.
;
"you're back! what did you get?" sco turned as i opened the door
"huh?"
"you said you were going to get groceries. what did you get?"
"right... i ended up not going." i decided to just be upfront. i started to talk, but so did he, we ended up not hearing each other "you first."
"okay. listen, i think we should just let last night go."
"what do you mean?" i felt my heart sink
"i was not being myself, it was kind of embarrassing and i'm really sorry."
"you don't think we should talk about it?"
"what is there to talk about?"
i took a second to realize that it wasn't just resistance i was meeting, sco was not going to talk about the kiss or the rest of the night, not even about what i said about my brother maybe.
"nothing. yeah, let's just leave it behind."
"good." he smiled softly.
"yeah. good." but i just remained serious.
