Chapter 2
April's POV
Hey, Kepner." he said.
Exactly the way he called me that day in the fifth grade when I transferred to his school and he saw my name tag.
For my first crush, I guess I was pretty bold at that time. I called Lucas to the tree in the backyard of our elementary school:
"Hi, Lucas." I grinned.
"Hey."
"I'm feeling a little embarrassed about this but I have something important to tell you" I bit my lip. I was so anxious.
"Alright, what's that?"
"I like you."
"I like you too. You're a really good friend to me, you know." he smiled, innocently.
Oh, he thought I meant it as a friend. I wanted to escape rejection so I decided not to make myself clear.
Soon, we were in middle school and the feelings disappeared. They were not very serious anyway.
"Hello?" Lucas snapped me out of my thoughts.
"Oh, thanks for helping..." I said, pretending not to remember who he was.
"It's Lucas Calloway. From school?" he said.
"Oh my gosh, it's you! I knew you looked familiar." I smacked his arm, playfully.
"You've changed a lot, April." he said, sort of scanning my face.
"In what way?" I asked.
"You're taller, prettier, I don't know, just a little different." he pointed out, carrying my bag and leading me to the seat on my porch.
"Thank you."
"So what are you doing back here?" he asked.
"Things didn't work out in Chicago. I was between jobs, actually."
"Oh."
"It's okay." I shrugged.
"What about you?" I asked, putting a strand of hair behind my ear.
"I'm working here." he stated.
"Lawyer, right?" he always went on and on about it back in high school.
"Yeah, but the firm isn't such a big deal." he pointed out.
"It doesn't matter. You're doing what you love whether the firm's big or small." I truthfully said.
Then, I got another text from the group chat about the meet-up.
"Sorry, let me reply my friend first." I said, then had a genius idea.
"Lucas, can you do me a favour?" I asked.
"Anything, Kepner."
"Will you pretend to be my boyfriend?"
"What?" he laughed.
"Don't worry, forget I asked." I said with pretence.
"That trick won't work on me. So for how long?"
I laughed a little in disbelief. "For a few hours when I meet with my friends next week."
"Sure."
We exchanged numbers and said goodbye. Come to think of it, just like in fifth grade, I was once again bold with the way I acted towards Lucas.
*****
We decided to meet at Janken restaurant around 7pm and Lucas would pick me up.
"Hi." I said after opening the door.
"Hey," he paused looking at me,"You look gorgeous." he smiled.
I was wearing a white short corset dress.
"Thank you." I said, resting a hand on my hip.
"Can I come in?" Lucas asked me.
"The place is kind of far so I thought we would leave now."
The ride to the restaurant was okay except that I was a little surprised that Lucas owned a Cadillac.
Anyway, we got there and met Zoey and her boyfriend, Mark, Emily and her fiancé but we were all still waiting for Hazel.
"April!" Hazel ran towards me and gave me a big hug.
"I can't believe you're here. I missed you so much." she pouted.
"I missed you too, Hazel." I embraced her again.
"So, who's this?" she looked at Lucas, checking him out.
"I'm her boyfriend." he said, his arm snaking around my waist.
"Ohh." she smiled awkwardly.
"Let's all sit down." Zoey said.
I won't lie, Emily's fiancé was so annoyingly narcissistic. He went on and on about his work life and praised himself every two seconds. I was really bored and hungry so I snuck my hand under the table to text Lucas and ask him to call the waiter.
We ordered and I was surprised with Lucas' very expensive taste and suspicions flooded my mind.
After dinner, I told Lucas that he could just drop me in front of his apartment and I could walk home from there.
"I have something to tell you." Lucas said, in the car.
"That's great, because I have something to ask you, but you can go first." I snapped.
"After my freshman year in North Dakota, my mum's small business was failing and she had no one to help her. You remember that my parents got divorced, right? I couldn't just watch.I dropped out of school to help her out. You ever heard of Lucetta?"
Lucetta wasn't a small business, though. It was a large-scale cosmetics company.
"Yeah." my eyes widened.
"That's it." he stated.
"Why did you lie? Do you pity me?"
"I'm sorry, April."
That was it, the memories were coming back like this. Lucas called me Kepner in playful or just normal situations, but I would know he was serious and sincere with his words and actions when he called me April.
It may seem silly but it was true.
I let a breath. "I don't need anyone to feel sorry for me. I'm not some charity project."
"I really don't think that about you."
"Don't lie anymore. Okay?"
"Of course. Come on, I'll walk you home."
We were almost at my house, when I was telling him about college shenanigans.
"Wait a minute, can you come work for me?"
"What?"
"For real? I'm looking for a secretary."
"I studied marketing and no, thank you." I wasn't that desperate.
"Yeah but unfortunately, we don't need anyone for that."
"I can totally figure this out myself." I said.
"Let me help you out. Please?" his hazel eyes stared right into mine.
"I don't know, let's talk later."
"If you want to help, let me know if there's a free apartment in your building. I want to rent one." I said.
My mum would come back soon and I didn't want to stay there. I was trying to be independent and all.
"Alright, but just think about the job thing."
"Goodnight, Lulu." I laughed.
"I can't believe I actually forgot about that ridiculous nickname." he laughed.
"What? Ridiculous?" I said, still laughing. I just knew that he secretly liked the name.
"Just sounds kind of feminine." he said.
"Goodnight."
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April's dress<3