"Hey Y/N." Lucas greeted you in the parking lot with a grin and threw his arm around your shoulder.
"Hey Lucas, ready for Wendy's?" You asked, shrugging off his shoulder, he was always so touchy-feely with you.
Normally you just rolled your eyes at him, but lately it made your heart flutter and your stomach do flip-flops. You didn't want to lose one of your only best friends, and kept it yourself, interacting as you normally would.
"Hell yeah. How was Calc?" He asked, unlocking the car for you to get in.
"It fucking sucked, I completely bombed my test." You recounted your grade from earlier that day.
"How bad?"
"56%. My mom said if I get another F then I get my phone and you guys taken away."
"No Lucas and Ethan?"
"For three weeks."
Lucas gasped, pulling out of the parking lot. "How dare she? Although I'm flattered that I matter so much to you to be taken away for bad behavior."
You smiled down at your lap at Lucas' words. "Oh shut up, you don't mean that much to me."
"Nah, you love me, you have an entire shrine above your bed."
"That's a collage of pictures of me and my friends! It's not my fault you take so many damn cute pictures when we hang out!"
Lucas grinned, reaching over to grab your arm. "I'm flattered, Y/N."
You scoffed, wrenching your arm from his grip, trying to calm your heart down at that smirk that got you every time. As he pulled into the drive-thru, you turned to him with a confused look. "Why are we going into the drive-thru?"
"I thought we could eat our food someplace else today."
"This sounds like the first five minutes of a cop show, are you gonna murder me?"
"Maybe." Lucas said cryptically, and you laughed, his ability to pull off 'mysterious bad boy' around you dissolved as you grew closer to him. Now he was just a loveable goof. Too loveable.
"Alright, you know what I like." You gestured as he pulled up to the speaker to order.
Once you received your food, you looked out the window to try to figure out where he was going.
"Park?"
"Nope."
"The pond?"
"Nope."
"Tell me!"
"It's a surprise, Orlando." Lucas teased you, and you slouched back in your seat, taking a sip of your Dr. Pepper.
Finally, you realized what road he was on, it lead right to the coast. "It's way too fucking cold for the beach!"
"It's only 30, you're such a Florida girl." Lucas snorted, continuing on the road.
"I hope you don't expect me to swim."
"I don't want my precious baby girl dying of hypothermia." He pinched your cheek, and you slapped his hand away.
"Why do I hang out with you? I actually hate you." You said as he found a parking space in the empty parking lot. Nobody wanted to go to the beach in December.
"Aw, babe."
Finally, you arrived at your destination, and stepped out of the car to be met with chilling seabreeze. You were ready to go back in the car, but when you tried to open the door, you found it to be locked.
"Lucas!" You yelled as the lanky boy tore down the shore, your food in hand. "I'm gonna kill you!"
"You've got to catch me first!" He taunted, just as he tripped on a rock.
You finally caught up to him, both of you out of breath, and when you hand helped him up with a triumphant grin, you both broke into laughter. Lucas set down one of his many jackets he was wearing onto a rock for you to sit on. You cradled the warm bag of fast food to your form to keep as warm as possible.
"Y/N, I kinda want to eat." Lucas pointed out, and you shook your head.
"But it's warm!" You protested, and your friend let out an exasperated sigh.
"C'mere."
Before you could register what he was doing, he had pulled you close into his side, and wrapped his arms tightly around your shivering form. Your blood roaring in your ears was all you could hear for a moment as you tried to process what was happening. One of Lucas' hands reached into the bag to pull out a few fries, which he promptly stuffed into his mouth.
"Are you gonna eat, Y/N?" Lucas asked, and you could feel his chest vibrate against your back when he spoke.
"Oh, yeah." You pulled out your burger, and began eating it quietly.
"So what else do you have planned for today?"
"Ethan's going to give me some AP Calc tutoring."
"Oh really?" Lucas said suggestively, and you elbowed him right where you knew he was ticklish.
"I don't like Ethan like that!" You groaned, eating a fry.
"Then who do you like like that?"
At this, you snapped, launching yourself out of Lucas' grip. You couldn't deal anymore, you'd be mortified if he ever found out. Shaking your head fervently, you wrapped your arms around yourself as the cold sank back in without Lucas' body against yours.
"We need to be going back, seventh is over soon." You said, walking back to the car without another word to him.
~
After that day, your friendship continued on as it had before you started forming a crush on Lucas, as if you didn't have feelings for that perfect, brunette boy. Now graduation day was upon you, and you were ready to go off to a big state college, while Lucas was still unsure, and Ethan was going to try out his YouTube channel full-time.
"Lucas! Give me my graduation cap back!" You whined as the taller boy held it above his head.
"You'll have to earn it, Y/N." He teased, to which you rolled your eyes.
"I think twelve years of education and suffering is enough."
"Hm, I'll think about it."
"I'm gonna walk in two minutes!"
"How you got saludictorian after skipping with me so much still amazes me."
"Surprise, I'm sucking all the teacher's dicks for good grades."
"Even Mrs. Martin's?" Lucas deduced, still holding your red cap.
You groaned, hearing the valedictorian's name being called out, meaning you were next. Not having time for your friend's antics, you kneed him in the crotch and secured your cap onto your head just seconds before your name was called out. Ethan, who had been watching your interaction with his brother earlier, gave you a big smile and a thumbs-up. You grinned back at him as you walked out, waving to the crowd, scanning for your parents.
They were right beside the Nestors' family, who were also taking pictures. Over the past year, you'd gotten close to the boys' entire family, from brother to parents to grandma. They were your family away from your family, even though they were only two minutes from your house.
You stood beside the valedictorian as she gave her speech, nervously holding the notecards for your own speech. Once she had finished, she stepped back to allow you to climb onto the podium. Your leg was bouncing nervously under the podium as you took deep breaths to calm yourself down. Public spekaing was not your forte.
"Hello, uhm, I'm Y/N Y/L/N. I am honored to be saludictorian for the class of 2015. Many of my classmates don't even know who I am, honestly. I moved here from Florida just before this school year started so I haven't been around for as long as some of these others." You flipped through your notecards as you spoke, trying to keep your pace at a normal one. "But in the past eight or nine months I've made awesome friends and have had such a great experience at CEHS. So a huge thank you to all the school personnel and my classmates for making my last year of high school a good one."
There were claps as you walked to join the valedictorian. You stood as the diplomas were handed out in alphabetical order, meaning you had to clap politely for a while until your friends were up. Ethan walked first, and you clapped loudly, sending him a huge grin as he stepped up onto the stage. Next was Lucas, and your hands were going red from just how hard you were clapping, and your voice was strained from cheering.
He sent you a wink before standing by his brother and the other students that were neither valedictorian or saludictorian.
After the ceremony, the whole class stood together on the grass to throw their caps. You felt someone sidle up to you as you took yours off, and you turned to see Lucas with an ear-to-ear grin on his face.
"Hey Lucas!" You gave him a hug as the principal started the countdown to throw the caps.
On three, you threw yours up, and yelled with your peers at the huge weight of high school finally being lifted off your shoulders. The caps were just starting to fall back down when you felt Lucas tap your shoulder. You pivoted to face your friend when you suddenly felt a pair of lips on yours.
As caps fell around you, you pulled yourself closer to Lucas' body, partially in disbelief that this was happening and just to feel him against you. When he pulled back, you got back on your flat feet, a heavy blush spreading through your cheeks.
"Y/N, will you go out with me?" Lucas asked, still close to you, and you could only nod, a huge smile across your lips that were soon pressed to his again.
"Holy shit!" The voice of Lucas' twin rang in your ears, and you turned to Ethan still with your smile.
"Hey Ethan." You said as nonchalantly as you could.
"Don't say 'hey Ethan' as if you two didn't just make out!" He exclaimed, and you could see that he was beaming as well.
Your family and the Nestors found you soon after, Ethan seemed more excited to tell everyone about you and Lucas than you were.
"Lucas and Y/N kissed!" He yelled before any of the parents could even say Happy Graduation.
"I know! I got pictures!" Mrs. Nestor said ecstatically, holding up her camera.
"Lemme see!" Lucas exclaimed, and you rolled your eyes at him.
"Congrats, love." Your dad said, kissing your head as your mom hugged you, eyes filled with tears.
"We're so proud of you." She said.
"This was nothing. Surviving him for any longer will be a challenge." You gestured to Lucas with a giggle as his head snapped up from the camera.
"I heard that!" He darted over, hugging you tightly. "And you love me, Y/N."
"Sure." You hugged him back, now truly content with your life in Maine.