Finally Free -- JATP Luke x MaleOC

Chapter 23

When he arrived, he noticed the tense silence in the room. Luke looked around quickly to notice that everyone was taking a test.

Bad timing.

Jay noticed Luke's presence quickly and glared at him, making Luke flinch. He saw the annoyance in Jay's eyes, but behind that was something else. Fear? Shock? Luke wasn't sure.

As Jay turned his gaze back to the paper in front of him, Luke moved forward and crouched by his desk.

"Jay, I need to talk to you," Luke said, his voice quieter than usual. He wasn't sure why he was being quiet, it wasn't like anyone could hear him. He chalked it up to the testing environment.

Jay glared at him, a silent message of 'can't you see I'm busy here' passing through.

"It's important," Luke said, looking down at Jay's test. Luke didn't understand much of the material there, Alex was always a better mathematician than him, but he saw that was almost done.

Jay held up a single finger, a sign that Luke interpreted as 'just give me a minute.' Luke nodded and moved away, leaning against the nearby wall while Jay finished up his test.

Luke wasn't sure if it was the familiar testing environment or the fact that he wasn't sure exactly what he was going to say once he and Jay left the classroom, but he felt nervous. Because in his head, Jay's panic yesterday was completely caused by Luke.

It felt like the shortest and the longest three minutes of his life, but Jay soon got up to turn in his test. Luke moved towards the door of the classroom as Jay asked for permission to use the restroom. The two boys swiftly left the classroom and Luke followed Jay to an empty hallway.

"What's up?" Jay asked, crossing his arms as he leaned against the lockers. "I know I said you guys could bother me in that class, but I had a test."

"Well, it looks like you did good on it," Luke remarked, a smile playing on his face. It quickly fell away when he saw Jay's face. "Um. I wanted to say I'm sorry."

"You already apologized to me yesterday," Jay scoffed. "You should worry about Julie right now, she's really upset with you guys-"

"Not that," Luke said, looking at Jay's dark eyes. "About the darts."

Jay's eyes widened and Luke took a breath, trying to calm his nerves.

"Oh," Jay said. "T-that."

"Yeah," Luke said. "Listen, I never meant to trigger anything, I'm so sorry I did, I wasn't thinking-"

"It's fine," Jay said abruptly. "Really, it's...it's not that big of a deal."

Luke took in Jay's posture. He was tense, his hands were stuffed in his pockets, he was bouncing on his feet, and his eyes were shifting around. Whether Jay thought it was a big deal or not, it definitely affected him.

"If anything, I should be apologizing," Jay continues. "For panicking like that and then yelling at you like that last night."

"You had every right to be angry with us, we messed up bad," Luke said, repeating Alex's words from the previous night. "And panicking isn't something you should apologize for either."

"It's not like any of you knew," Jay said. "No one there knew, besides Julie."

"Yeah, she always knows everything, doesn't she?" Luke asked, smiling when Jay chuckles.

"Yeah. She does."

Luke gives a small laugh after that and the two boys stare at each other for a moment, getting lost in each other.