It was the end of the day and things were decidedly not fine, because Lucas hadn't heard from Damien.
"This is actually a good sign," Alex said, trying to haul an armful of theatre props out of her locker, "if you think about it."
"I have thought about it." Lucas said, resting his forehead against the cool metal of the locker beside Alex's. "All I'm doing is thinking about it." He glanced sidelong at her, eyes wide behind his glasses. "Tell me I'm overthinking it."
"You're overthinking it." Mona said, standing between the two, fiddling with the strings of her hoodie.
"Thanks, Mona."
"Anytime."
"But seriously," Alex continued, finally stepped back from her locker, nearly hidden behind the stack of costumes in her arms, "you are. He said he'd text if something bad happened, right? Maybe everything's just going really, really well."
"Maybe." Lucas stared into the steely grey surface of the locker. "Or maybe it's because everything's gone horribly wrong, and he's too distraught to even open his phone."
Mona paused, having wound the string all around her finger. "Alex's version makes a little more sense."
"I know that logically," Lucas said, still slumped against the stranger's locker, "but I just can't be sure." It was the not-knowing that was killing him, eating away at him like he'd swallowed acid. He couldn't put it out of his mind, no matter how hard he tried.
"So let's find out."
"What?"
"Let's find out. I can totally make up some fake excuse to go to his school, since we're doing this whole musical with Mountbank. I was going to store this all in the Drama office, but I guess I could go and visit the costuming people first, most of them are Mountbank students anyway..."
Lucas checked his phone. It was practically a reflex by now. The crowd of students was thinning as everyone trickled towards the exits in twos and threes, out into the bright sunshine of the afternoon. It was loud enough, with all the talking and laughing, that Lucas thought he could've easily missed the sound of a new notification amidst all that noise. But his screen stayed infuriatingly blank.
"Mona, is he checking his phone?" Alex asked, trying and failing to peer over the large black witch's hat perched on top of her armful of fabric.
Mona nodded. "Yep."
"No," said Lucas, just a second too late.
"You suck at lying." Alex lifted her leg high into the air to kick her locker door. It slammed shut with a loud bang, only to fly open a second later. "A little help?"
Mona stared at her nonplussed for a moment, before reaching out to slowly shut Alex's locker and fasten the lock. "It helps if you use your hands. Maybe you should get someone else to help you carry that stuff."
"Maybe I should. Hey, Mona?"
"Yes?"
"Can you please carry some of my stuff?"
Mona obliged, taking a blue and white checked dress, the witch's hat and a pair of ruby slippers from Alex's arms, giving her a free hand which she promptly used to snatch Lucas' phone away. Ignoring his cry of anguish, she slipped it into her pocket.
"We're going. Otherwise you'll get so anxious waiting for that text that you'll be sick, and I bet even if he did text you wouldn't be sure he was okay. You'll feel better if we go and track him down, so you can see him properly."
She was right. Damien could easily lie over text, to make Lucas feel better or to hide the fact he was hurt, and Lucas wouldn't be able to tell the difference if he couldn't see him properly. And he just wanted to see him, as stupid as it undoubtedly was. It must be a honeymoon phase, Lucas tried to reason, because missing Damien already was surely unreasonable. But the fact remained that seeing Damien this afternoon would make him feel better. He wanted to see him, simple as that.
"Excuse me? Lucas?"
Lucas glanced up. With his forehead still pressed against the locker, he could only look at the girl who'd spoken out of the corner of his eye. Taller than him, blonde, lots of freckles. She was in his US History class. Emily, or Emma, or...something. Was this another Richard-from-Economics situation? He wasn't sure if he could handle another invasive question about Damien, no matter how well-meaning the questioner was.
"Do you want something?" It came out a little shorter than he'd meant it to.
"Yeah, you're...sorta blocking my locker."
"Your locker?" It took a moment to sink in. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry." He pushed off the locker – Emily's/Emma's locker – as hurriedly as he could, scrambling back to stand beside Mona. "That's your locker. Right. Sorry, again." Glaring at Alex as she smothered what was obviously a grin, he gave Emily-or-Emma an awkward little wave before turning his attention back to the conversation.
"You're right." He sighed.
"I usually am. Coming, Mona?" Alex was on a mission now, tucking the costumes under her arm. Mona looked at her blankly, so she elaborated. "To Mountbank. Damien's school."
"Why?"
"Because Lucas needs to see his boyfriend."
That seemed to be enough to convince her, so although she was still a little nonplussed the three of them were soon walking out of the school gates and onto the sidewalk, heading for the bus stop. (Lucas had briefly considered asking Mark for a lift, but thought he'd dragged him into his love life enough times for one day. He deserved a break.)
All the walking was giving Lucas time to think, and the more he thought the more he worried. This was too much, wasn't it? Damien said he'd call him, and that would be fine. Going to his school was too clingy, too overbearing. Could he really not go a day without seeing him, all because he was getting a little worried? He was making a big deal over nothing, like always. Abruptly he stopped in his tracks, a few feet away from the bus stop. Alex ran right into him, and it took Mona a few seconds to notice they'd stopped at all.
"Maybe this isn't a good idea." Lucas said. Without thinking, he'd begun to bite at the skin around his thumbnail. "Isn't showing up to his school a little weird? I don't want...we didn't agree on it, it might be too much. I'm being ridiculous."
"Lucas," Alex began. But the word wasn't exasperated, like he'd expected it to be. All his worrying must get annoying to deal with, he was sure, but Alex's tone was soft and kind as she continued. "I know you're stressed about all this. Because you're you, and this is a new relationship, and I bet you want to do everything perfectly."
"Maybe not perfectly," Lucas said, "but I want to get it right."
That wasn't so unreasonable, was it? There had to be some way to get it right. Getting it right meant Damien was okay, that they stayed together, that he wouldn't mess things up and have to lay awake at night replaying embarrassing scenarios in excruciating detail to find out where exactly he'd gone wrong.
Alex smiled. "Hate to break it to you, Lucas, but that's impossible. This is a relationship, not an essay. People are messy and confusing and the worst. There's no way to 'get it right'."
"I get things wrong all the time." Mona added, now twisting one of her braids around her finger. "Sometimes I don't even realise until you or Alex explain it to me, or until someone laughs when I didn't mean to be funny. It's like there's a whole list of rules about social interactions that everyone else already knows, that I have to just figure out myself. Astrophysics is easy compared to other people. But even though I'm bad at social stuff and I make all these mistakes, I still have you guys. People like me, I think, and even if they don't I have two best friends." She glanced up, dark brown eyes briefly meeting Lucas' own. "So people will still like you when you make mistakes. You don't need to get everything right to be loved."
"Exactly." Alex looked as if she was physically restraining herself from wrapping Mona in a tight hug, opting instead to put a hand on her shoulder. "Thanks, Mona."
Mona turned to her, squinting at her expression. "Are you about to cry?"
"No." Alex's eyes were too bright. She sniffed. "That was just...it was very sweet, Mona."
Lucas was feeling a little emotional himself. He cleared his throat, Alex wiped her eyes, and luckily for the both of them it was at that moment that the bus pulled up to the curb. Lucas took a deep breath and stepped on. He was going to go see Damien.
"You're sure this isn't a bit weird? Going to hunt him down at his school?"
"Yes, Lucas, I'm sure. Plus, we're not hunting him down. We're going to Mountbank because I've got a very real, definitely not made up theatre job I need to do there." Alex adjusted the costumes in her arms, and gestured to Mona, who was now wearing the witch's hat. "But if we happened to run into your boyfriend coincidentally," and now her tone had turned mischievous, "then I bet he'd be very happy to see you."
Mountbank's classes ended ten minutes later than Lucas', so by the time they arrived at the school's gates the bell was ringing, its shrill call echoing out across the scattered brick buildings. Lucas was a little disorientated - the surrounding were unfamiliar, he had no idea where he was even supposed to go - but Alex was already marching across the patchy lawn, giving him no time to second-guess himself. He glanced to Mona, who shrugged, and with that silent exchange they both followed Alex into the school.
Now that he'd convinced himself that it was okay to go and see Damien, the next problem was how to actually find him. As students poured from the open doors of their classrooms and filled the hall, Lucas was struggling to keep sight of Alex, let alone find Damien. He hurried after her, keeping an eye out above the crowd, searching for a head of black curls, trying to pick out his voice among the white noise of chatter.
But, as it turned out, somebody else would find him first.
"Lucas!" Was all the warning he got before April appeared, hair tied into two pigtails that closely resembled her cheerleading pom-poms, dressed in pink and looking a little nervous. "I'm so glad you're here! I was going to text you, but I didn't know your number and you don't have Instagram, and I thought I could get Alex's number but that would've been a little stalker-y, y'know?" She was speaking in a high, fast staccato, Lucas barely having a second to process what she was saying before she was speaking again. "But I really wanted to say sorry. I'm so, so sorry about what happened last night. And I'm so sorry I didn't say anything. You don't have to forgive me, I was such a coward."
Her bottom lip was trembling, but she'd set her jaw in a firm line, as if she was doing her utmost not to cry. Seeing her so obviously remorseful, Lucas sighed, and whatever ill will he'd felt towards her evaporated.
"It's okay." He said, and wondered if he should hug her, or try and comfort her somehow.
"It's not okay. You always think that you'll do something when that happens, don't you? Like, you'll stand up, or say something, but then it was actually happening and I just...I did nothing." April hung her head, clicking and un-clicking the clasp on her handbag. "But I've been with him all day, except when we didn't have classes, and we told anyone who had a problem to go sit somewhere else, and if anyone says anything bad I'll make them pay. Look, I even took off my nails, in case I had to punch someone." She splayed her hands out for Lucas to inspect.
Instead of the acrylics she'd been wearing last time, her nails were her own, painted a mint green. Lucas remembered how strong her handshake had been, and didn't doubt that she'd be able to do some serious damage. Especially with how fierce she looked, frowning at the thought of anybody saying a bad word about Damien.
"It really is okay, April. It's really hard, to stand up in a situation like that. And you're helping now." Already, he felt relieved. Even if he didn't seen Damien, having Mallory's words confirmed - someone had been with Damien, making sure he was okay - made Lucas feel better. The knotted ball of anxiety in the pit of his stomach loosened somewhat. "Has anyone said anything bad?"
April pulled a disgusted expression. "I heard Tara Reede asked Sasha Davidson if he'd had trouble keeping it up when they'd...y'know, or if he'd cried after, but I told her that that was a really weird, gross thing to ask, and if she made another joke like that I'd make sure she wasn't invited to anything for the rest of her senior year. Honestly, it's like people have never even heard of bisexuality."
"Amen." Alex said, appearing at Lucas' shoulder. "I don't know who that is, but fuck her."
"Yes, fuck her." Mona said, at Lucas' other shoulder, still in the hat. "Who is she?"
Before April could launch into another explanation, the door to the classroom behind them swung open and Vinnie, Christina and finally, Damien, walked out. They were laughing, Damien loudest of all.
And then he saw Lucas. He froze, mouth open, and stared for a moment. "Lucas?"
"Damien?" Lucas responded, not sure why they were asking questions. "Uh...wow, fancy seeing you here. I was just..." He gestured vaguely to Alex and Mona, "...theatre stuff. Doing that."
Damien was grinning again, the expression breaking like a sunrise across his face. The dimple was very apparent, and just like every time, Lucas wanted to kiss it. "Fancy seeing me here, at my school?"
"Just crazy how these kind of coincidences happen, isn't it?" He was smiling so wide it almost hurt.
"Hey, April." Alex said, in a tone that Lucas recognised as her 'very casual' tone. "I have a costuming thing I wanted to talk to you about. In the theatre room."
April nodded immediately, glancing between Lucas and Damien. "Uh huh. Me too. Very important costume and makeup things. Which I also need Vinnie and Christina to help me with."
"Funny, I also need Mona. As a consultant. An expert."
Mona turned to Alex, thick eyebrows drawn down into yet another confused frown. "But I don't know anything about theatre."
Alex dragged her off anyway, with April, Christina and Vinnie in tow. They disappeared down the hallway, but not before Lucas caught Christina turn to Mona and ask "So, what's with the hat?", to which Mona hurriedly took it off. The last thing he saw was April giving Damien an exaggerated thumbs up, right before they turned the corner and were gone.
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A/N: Yes, I'm back! Those who follow me/check my page (are they called pages? accounts? no idea) will know I took a short hiatus for school and mental health stuff, but I'm back now, and hope to be posting every two or three days!
We also have more fan art! Many, many thanks to navsmita69 for this Damien! Every time I get any sort of fan content I go like sdkljfhsljl and this art is so cute!!!