--Lucas--
After hanging out at the pool and the almost-kiss incident, we dropped Max off at home. I missed him even though it was only 30 minutes. The more time I spend with him, the more I want. He's like a drug.
I decided to do something to take my mind off of Max. So I slept.
-
"Lucas! Wake up. I'm home!" My little brother Jordan said. He was at one of his friends house while Max was over.
He tugged on the covers but I just pulled them up further and snuggled my face into the comforter pretending that Max was laying there beside me.
"LUCIAN" he sang.
"Shut up and stop calling me that" I sighed. He was so annoying.
"Lucian, Lucian, Lucian, Lucian." He kept saying.
"Shut the f*ck up." I yelled. I got up and shoved Jordan out of my room.
"Mom!" I heard him yell from right outside the door.
Ugh. He's such a baby. He's in 5th grade like come on grow up already.
I got up and opened the curtains to let some light in my room and went on my phone and looked through all the pictures of Max that I had.
I was so bored.
-
--Max--
BEEP BEEP BEEP
I quickly switched off my alarm, not wanting to hear the ear piercing sound for a second longer. Honestly it wasn't that bad I was just tired. Sunday was spent on Netflix and sleeping.
I got up and eased my way to the shower. I was the laziest piece of sh*t ever in the morning so I woke up earlier than I needed to.
It was freezing cold but the hot water was relaxing.
I got out at about 8:10 feeling refreshed. I put on my favorite dark blue hoodie that I wore almost everyday and pulled on a pair of jeans. I had ten minutes left so I decided to actually have breakfast that morning. I poured some cereal into a bowl and added a little milk. Simple but satisfying.
Right when I finished eating, I heard a ding from my phone.
Lucas: almost there❤️
Another ding
Lucas: 🚗**
Max: those emojis aren't even close to each other. How did you mix them up.😂
Lucas: they're both red...
Now I just feel stupid.
I laughed and walked out of my house seeing the familiar gray car stop in the front.
I got in the car and sat down next to Lucas.
"How" I asked.
He shrugged. The rest of the car ride was filled with silence and secret stares.
"Bye boys have fun" Lucas' mom said.
"We won't" we replied at the same time.
We walked to one of the tables where the rest of our friends were and then got separated.
I sat down next to mason and talked until the bell rang and I was off to first period.
-
--Lucas--
Max and I didn't talk since we walked into the school building. It was now second period and I was suffering in math. I used to be in algebra but the teacher was horrendous and I was failing so I got kicked out. It was good in a way because then I didn't have to flirt with Bella and her "bestfriend" Katie the whole time.
I say "bestfriend" because they aren't really that close. The only reason they're even friends is because their parents have known each other since college and they're both popular.
I got on my phone under the table and unlocked it. I sighed when I looked at the background. It was a picture of me and max. I stared at it for about a whole minute until the teacher called my name.
"Lucas. Get off your phone."
I quickly put it away before she decided to take it up and looked at the board. There were at least five new equations that she solved and explained and I wasn't paying attention. Great. I rested my head on my hand and tried paying attention but it was useless with my mind running at such a high speed.
As soon as the bell rang I got out the room and made my way to gym. I put my stuff down and unlocked my locker as I heard a thud beside me signaling that Max was here.
"Hey what's wrong." I asked. He looked mad but not quite pissed or anything.
"I'm so f*cking stupid." He growled.
"No you're not. Shhhh." I said soothingly while rubbing his arm. "What happened."
"I got a stupid 70 on the easiest science test ever." He said.
"Aww. It's ok." I said running my fingers through his hair. Some people might think that's weird for friends to do but we were just close, that's all.
Max calmed down a little
"Whatever. I don't care anymore. I already had a B and now it's a 79. I'm not supposed to get C's. But life just sucks. If I can't even get one little stupid A I ask for, then I should give up on ever getting yo--" he stopped talking.
"Give on getting what?"
"Nothing. It's not important." Max sighed.
What did he want so bad.
Young
Yo- yo
Yoga
You
Did he mean you. No he couldn't have meant me. It would be nice but...
"Ok boys, a lap on the track!" One of the coaches yelled.
One lap was just a quarter mile which was nothing compared to how much we ran to warm up for soccer.
We walked out slowly with Morgan walking behind.
-
--Max--
I made my way towards Spanish while laughing with Jonathan on the way there. Lucas was already in the room sitting next to Andrew. There was an empty spot beside him where I sat down and Jonathan beside me.
"Ok clase. You need to finish your enfoque and stay quiet. Remember that if you don't know the answer we are going to go over it like we always do." She said while walking around the classroom.
"Hey Max." He poked my cheek.
"Where was your brother when I came over. I just realized he was missing. He looks just like you."
"Ew. That little piece of sh*t is ugly and looks nothing like me." Lucas said. "Lucian! Lucian!" He mimicked in a high pitched voice.
I laughed. "Lucian sounds hot I don't know what you're talking about." I regretted what I said immediately since no one actually knew my sexuality.
I awkwardly cleared my throat and hoped no one noticed.
"Shut up maxwell." He teased.
"You know that's not actually my name." I stated.
"I know. But if you call me Lucian I can call you maxwell." He stuck his tongue out.
"Lucas. Max. Be quiet." The teacher said.
I stuck up my middle finger when she turned around making my friends laugh.
Lucas started touching my thigh. He looked deep in thought as I stared up at him. He looked up and smiled. I love how we go from crazy and laughing to quiet and serious in just seconds.
I looked down while he continued poking my thigh. I smiled.
"STRAZBERRY!" Emma yelled loudly.
"What is that." Lucas and I asked at the same time. She glanced at Sana and the two of them started giggling
Ugh. I wasn't trying to be rude but they were just getting annoying at this point. They've asked me if I thought strazberry was real and I said that I couldn't answer the question without knowing what it was. The assured me it wasn't anything bad so I said yes and they started squealing like little girls.
"Do you know what that is?" I asked Jonathan
"No. But they asked me if I said it once because I kept saying something that sounded like it." He replied.
"Did they ever ask you if it was real or if you knew what it was."
He shook his head.
"Hey, Max let's mess with Emma and Sana about this strazberry thing." Lucas said to me.
"How?" I asked. "We don't even know what it is."
"We don't need to. We'll just keep yelling strazberry when they're not looking and they'll be confused and when they hear us say it maybe they'll think we already know what it means and so we could talk to them and find out while pretending that we already know."
"Or we could stalk them" I suggested.
"Or that." Lucas laughed.
"Ok clase, we're going to go over the enfoque so be quiet. You should have written down the description of what she is wearing in your cuaderno (notebook). Who would like to go first." The teacher said.
"Me!" Lucas said.
"Ok" she smiled.
"Um. Tiene... blusa negra y Blanca." He said stupidly.
He was actually very smart and knew a lot of Spanish but for some reason he acted dumb.
"Okay. Anyone else?" She waited for a few seconds but no one spoke. "Ok how about number two. What country is that?"
"Costa rica" someone yelled out.
"Hey, I'm from Costa Rica." Lucas said.
"Yes Lucas we know." I said.
"Lucas. Max. Stop talking."
"Si señora" Lucas said as I rolled my eyes.
"Ok we're gonna do círculo now clase. Diez, nueve, Ocho..."
I got up and stood next to Jonathan and Lucas stood at the other end between Morgan and Tim.
--Lucas--
"Ok. I'm going to pass around a piece of paper and they have shoes and the prices on there. So for example, los zapatos negros Cuesta cuarenta dolares (the black shoes cost 40 dollars) and then say if they are Barato (cheap) or Caro (expensive)." The teacher said.
The people went down the circle and I tried not to stare or look at Max too much.
One little glance wouldn't hurt though. Right?
I looked over to where he was standing. He was chewing on the string of his hoodie and I stared at his lips for about a whole minute until I looked up at his eyes. He was looking at me. My cheeks went pink but I didn't look away as he smirked.
I rolled my eyes and started laughing, not being able to keep it in. I looked back at him, still chewing on the end of the string. He was already looking at me. I winked at him making him blush but he quickly recovered and blew a kiss my way which made my heart flutter. The things he does to me.
I looked down trying my best not to smile. I looked back up later and saw Max and Jonathan giggling in the corner, trying their best not to be heard. Jonathan couldn't laugh quietly so he bent down hiding his face behind Max and when he went back to standing up straight he playfully (or flirting) bit Max's shoulder. But no that wasn't what bothered me, it was how absolutely cute they looked together and how much Max was smiling while watching his bestfriend laugh.
If only our winks and kisses meant something real.
-
--Max--
I was in social studies. We had a test tomorrow and I was planning to get an A. I had studied on Sunday just a little. Usually on the day before a test we play kahoot which is a game online where there are questions and four answer choices and you have to pick the correct one as fast as you can. The faster you pick the answer, the more points you get, and the top five get shown on the leaderboard after every question.
The teacher pulled up the game and everyone got out their laptops or phones and typed in their nickname which would show up on the board. I put mine in and looked up at the board and saw STRAZBERRY written there. I narrowed my eyes and looked at hayley and Emma who were giggling.
"What is that." I asked. "Please tell me."
"We will tell you eventually. Just not right now." She said.
-
--Lucas--
Max and I had made a deal. We had a few classes with Emma and Sana and so we were gonna go with what we said and stalk them. The first thing that we needed to do though, was find out who else knows about strazberry. So far we know that Emma, Sana, Hayley, and maybe Kayla and Emma no.2 know. Kayla is in our Spanish class and we see her laughing sometimes when Emma or Sana mentions strazberry. Another person that might also know is this emo chick named Destiny that talks to Sana in this class which is language arts.
She's really weird and wears all black and keeps the hood of her jacket on most of the time but I've heard her say she isn't emo. I'm pretty sure she also listens to heavy metal music and her hair is purple but i don't know. She's actually really smart and seems nice and doesn't wear heaps of black makeup like those other emo people in movies.
Anyway, enough of Destiny. I looked down at my desk and tried listening to what Sana and Destiny were talking about.
"No! Death would be so cute though." Sana said.
"But he's an asshole."
What the heck was death. They're weird.
"Ok anyways how's mango salad?" Destiny asked Sana.
"Um. It's okay. We haven't talked in a while but he's just so cute and I can't." Sana said, sighing.
Do they name everything after fruits?
"Mango is a cute child, he's just rude." Destiny said.
"Yea. A lot of people say he's rude but he hasn't said a single mean thing to me since the first time I saw him." Sana shrugged.
"Lucas. There's a dick on my laptop." Justin whisper yelled at me. "I wonder who drew it." He said sarcastically.
I laughed. Sometimes we're so childish. I take that back, we're always childish.
"Ms. Simpson! Someone drew a testical on my laptop." Justin said as if proving my thoughts.
"A what?!"
"Something very inappropriate." He said while looking at whoever drew it.
"Yea. I think it's part of the reproduction system." Morgan said.
Everyone was being so sarcastic.
"Let me see that. You know you can report that as vandalism." She said not understanding the sarcasm.
"No it's okay." Justin said.
I looked over at Sana and Destiny. They were looking at Justin with annoyed expressions on their face.
"Ok." The teacher said while walking away.
Everyone went back to talking and I put my head down making it seem like I was tired but I was actually listening to Sana and Destiny.
"...I hate her. She's a slut." Sana said.
"Who?" Destiny asked. I looked up just in time to see her looking at Bella and then back at Sana.
"Yea. Her."
Yea I totally agree Sana.
"Same!" Emma yelled out of nowhere.
"Same." I said to her.
"Shut up Lucas." Emma said while rolling her eyes at me.
I loved annoying her. She was such a classic white girl. She always said same and every time she did I would say it back and watch her roll her eyes.
I saw her look at Sana and mouth something like "I hate him so much."
"Yeah but strazberry." Sana said.
"True."
So strazberry involved me?
I was so confused. But at least I have something important to tell Max.
-
"Max!" I called from near the school door. He was waiting for his mom to pick us up. He looked at me and then walked over.
"I have news."
"About what?" He asked.
"Strazberry." I said.
"Oh yea me too but it's not that important. Hayley and Emma used strazberry as their nickname in kahoot and I asked them what it was and they said they'll tell us eventually." He said.
"Is that it?"
"Yea. What's your news?"
"Ok. I was thinking about all the people that know about strazberry and I came up with Emma, Sana, Hayley, Kayla and maybe Emma no.2 and destiny."
"Oh yea. The one with purple hair? She's in my math class."
"Yea her. Ok so I was listening to what Sana and Destiny were talking about in language arts and they were talking about something called mango salad. I think that's two people because destiny said something about mango so mango and salad are different people and I think Sana likes mango."
"So mango could be Sana's crush and salad could be Sana." Max said.
"Yeah. I think. And then you know how Emma always says same and I say it back? Well that happened and she mouthed something like 'I hate him' to Sana and then Sana said 'yeah but strazberry.' And Emma was like 'true' so I think strazberry has something to do with me and maybe you too."
"Wait so are you saying they ship strazberry because mango salad is a ship." Max asked.
I nodded. "And they're all fruits. Strazberry is strawberry and raspberry."
"So they ship you with someone and I'm somehow involved?" He asked.
"I don't know man. We just have to keep stalking. They're complicated." I said.
We climbed into the car and stayed silent the whole time. This was a lot of news in just one day and I had to write it down somewhere to remember. This wasn't just a joke anymore. It had something to do with me and Max was somehow involved and I would find out.
When I got home I got out a notebook and wrote strazberry on the cover. In the first page I wrote all the people that knew what strazberry was. On the second page I wrote down what I found out today and what Max said about telling us eventually.
I know writing about it was a little overboard but it had something to do with me and Max, and I was determined to find the truth.
-
--Max--
"So they ship you with someone and I'm somehow involved?" I asked.
"I don't know man. We just have to keep stalking. They're complicated." Lucas said.
They ship my Lucas. With some other piece of shit girl. And somehow I'm involved. No. They should be shipping me and L-. Why am I involved in the first place?
This is just wrong.
-