march, age fourteen
There was only a week left before the Easter holidays began and Lucas couldn't wait for the break, the past five weeks seeming to have dragged by painfully slowly. He was more than ready for a couple of weeks off school when he could relax with his family and have a chance of seeing Asher without Adler hanging off his arm. At school, it was virtually impossible to get away from her except for during geography lessons and Lucas was slowly coming to dread going to school each day when that meant seeing Adler. Seeing her face annoyed him; hearing her name turned his stomach; catching a glimpse of her with Asher made his brain ache and his heart clench.
Easter would be a good time to get away from it all, and Audrie would be coming home from university. Although she was only a couple of hours away, her schedule was tight and she was a meticulous worker who hadn't been home since the Christmas holidays. Lucas video chatted with her a few times a week but it just wasn't the same as seeing her in person, which he hadn't for ten weeks. He looked forward to her coming home at last for her month-long Easter break, when he could fill her in on everything she had missed without worrying that she had a class to get to or an assignment to submit.
As Friday wound itself to an end, Lucas hauled himself up the never ending flight of stairs to his form room to drop off the days books and pick up his homework from his locker with Mika at his side. She bounded up the steps, her ponytail bouncing, as though it was nothing at all. When she reached the top, she turned around to beam at Lucas, holding her bright yellow backpack off one shoulder.
"Come on, slow coach," she said, jogging on the spot.
"It's the end of the week," Lucas said. "I've used up all my energy."
Far too much of it had been wasted just trying to get through each day without letting Adler's snide looks get to him too much.
"It's the weekend now!" Mika said with all the energy of a toddler hopped up on sugar. She could always find a reason to smile, even in the midst of exams and tests and essays. "All the more reason to be happy. Home time - no school for two whole days."
That was a good point, Lucas thought, using it to propel himself to the top of the stairs and into the classroom. Dropping his bag to the table with a sigh, he emptied it of the physics textbooks he wouldn't need over the weekend, replacing them with the book he was reading for his English literature course. As much as he loved reading, he hated being forced to read books he never ordinarily would have picked off the shelf. He was still eons ahead of some of his classmates, but he didn't like it.
"Where are you this weekend?" Mika asked, arranging her books neatly in her locker. Unlike the others in the form, the two of them had the most immaculate lockers in the whole school: their books were arranged vertically in size order, rather than the teetering pile most of the students suffered with each day.
"My dad's house," Lucas said, gently pushing the spine of his history textbook so it lined up with the others. As he grew older, he hadn't stuck to the same schedule he'd had as a child - he tended to drift between his parents however he wanted to, sometimes spending a whole week at his father's house if he felt the need to get away from the chaos of home. Isabella and Matilda were just that much older, a little more receptive if he asked them to quieten down. They were just happy to get to see their big brother.
"Doing anything?" Mika asked. He shook his head.
"Just work. You?"
"Nothing much," she said, brushing a few stray hairs behind her ear. Tom's coming over tomorrow and I think we're going to see Saori on Sunday, in her new house."
"That's nice," Lucas said. He wasn't good at chit chat but Mika knew that, never expecting anything from him when they talked about mundanities. She was quite happy just to chat and know he was listening, or not to talk at all. Though she had coaxed Tom's words out of him, shining a light on a side of him that had been well hidden for a long time, she was more than content to just be, without the pressure of anything more.
"Mmm, it will be." She checked her phone as she zipped up her bag and hoisted it onto her back. "My dad's here; I need to go. Are you walking down?"
Lucas shook his head. Floyd had texted him at five to four to let him know he wouldn't be there until ten past. Seven minutes to go. "Not yet. My dad's a bit late. I'm just going to wait here."
"Ok," she said with a smile. "See you on Monday!" Waving goodbye, she left with a spring in her step and Lucas dropped down onto his seat once he had shut and locked his locker.
It took two minutes to walk from his classroom to the gate, to the spot where his father always parked to pick him up. For five minutes, he could relax on his own and evaluate the day. For all intents and purposes, it had been just fine. A standard Friday, when he had texted Audrie at lunch to arrange a Skype date for that evening and he had eaten his lunch with Mika. They had done their biology homework together, getting it out of the way within a couple of hours of it being set, and they'd had enough time leftover to power on through with the maths quiz their teacher had given them.
There was a noise in the corridor outside, not uncommon for the end of the school day, and then the heavy door swung open. Lucas's face fell to see Adler step into the room, dead behind the eyes when her gaze fell on him. She glanced around as though it wasn't immediately obvious that he was alone.
"Have you see Asher anywhere?" she asked, hardly an inflection behind her voice, as though it was an effort merely to talk to Lucas.
"No," he said. He tried to give her a few of his words as possible. Slipping his hand into his pocket, he curled his fingers around his phone to pretend to be busy, to shake her off. When she made no effort to move, a pinprick of fear poked his chest and he opened up his phone's voice recorder. She looked angry already and with a feeling she was about to say something rude, he wanted to catch it on tape. Maybe Asher would believe she was mean if he had evidence.
Adler snorted. "I'm surprised you don't have him micro-chipped with a log book of all his movements," she said, her eyes hard. He could have sworn he saw her lip twitch into a curl and he couldn't help the glower that settled over his features. He thought about saying something for a second, but he kept his mouth shut.
Adler pulled a face, one of utter disgust, at his expression. "Jesus, who pissed in your cornflakes?"
"I had toast," he said, putting his phone face down on the table. She wouldn't disappoint, he felt: she rarely wasted the chance to put him down if they were alone together, either with a snide comment that she pretended was sarcasm or the kind of look that made plants wither and die.
"Oh my God, you're so fucking weird," she said. The word hurt Lucas's eardrums, hard and harsh. "Time to go back to whatever planet dropped you off on earth."
His eyebrows pulled together before lifting up, her throwaway comment feeling like a stab wound the way she launched it at him, unprovoked. He sat back in his seat, leaning away from her, and tried to tame the hurt on his face but it didn't escape Adler's attention that she appeared to have offended him. She huffed and rolled her eyes.
"Oh my God, learning to take a fucking joke. You're not four anymore - it's not cute to cry. What the hell is your problem?"
"You are!" he cried out before he could stop himself, regretting the words as soon as they had left his mouth. They would only provoke her more and he wished he had said nothing, that he had just kept his mouth shut and she would have walked away. But he had given her ammunition and she loaded her gun. Her face darkened into a scowl, her eyes almost black beneath her heavy eyebrows and full fringe.
"What? Are you freaking kidding me, Lucas? How am I the problem when you're the baby who cries all the time? It was a joke, Jesus. Chill your tits." She rolled her eyes again. He wished they would fall out of her head.
"You pick on me for no reason," he said, controlling his words when he knew everything he said would be recorded too. The last thing he wanted to do was to come off as badly as her.
"Oh, look at you, Mr Innocent," she spat. "You can quit playing the victim card, Lucas. You're the one who spends your life trying to ruin my relationship because you're a jealous little twat."
Lucas shrank back, the words overwhelming him as she threw them like rocks. A fountain of vicious rage seemed to pour out of her mouth as a fire ignited behind her eyes. She pointed at him, her finger long and bony. He didn't know how Asher could bring himself to hold her hand.
"You need to back off, Lucas. Mind your own business and stop trying to ruin my life just because you wish it was yours. Asher doesn't even like you, you fucking fairy, so piss off. Just accept that you're out of the picture. He chose me." She stepped closer, her hand clenching into a fist. "If you keep trying to get in the way, I will kill you."
Lucas was shaking, his heart racing and his skin prickling and he couldn't catch his breath. The most ominous fear filled him, the sickening realisation that Adler was even worse than he had thought, that she wasn't just picking on him: she detested him. She wanted him gone. He pushed his chair back, his quivering hand grabbing his backpack.
Adler span around on the spot to come face to face with Asher, who had just stepped through the door. His eyes were wide, his back straight.
"What the fuck, Addie?" His voice was quiet, laced with disbelief. Lucas felt tears prick his eyes and he pushed past Adler to run outside, to suck in the cool air and replace the nausea in his gut. "Lucas, wait!" Asher tried to grab him but he shook him off, his lungs burning as he ran. The school was almost empty after the rush to leave at four o'clock, no crowds to push through as he ran until he got to the gate. He ignored Asher calling his name, desperate to get away.
His father was there, his car running, and Lucas threw himself into the passenger seat.
"Hey," Floyd said. "How was your day?"
"Go," Lucas said. He couldn't bear to face Asher, for him to catch up with him. The dread in his gut said that he would somehow find a way to excuse Adler, but Lucas couldn't. Not anymore. She had gone too far, pushing him over the edge. "Drive. Just drive."
"Lucas? What's wrong? Jesus, are you ok?"
"Drive, Dad!" he cried out, fumbling for his seat belt. Floyd did as he was told, though he only drove as far as around the corner before he came to a stop on a quieter stretch of road. Lucas was hyperventilating beside him, struggling to catch his breath as he sobbed behind his hands.
"Lucas, what the hell just happened?" Floyd asked, dread gripping him. He couldn't bear to see his son upset under any circumstance but this was a new level of distress. "Hey, you need to calm down. What's going on? Are you hurt? Has something happened?"
Lucas couldn't get himself under control, gasping as he grappled with his seat belt to undo it when he felt like it was suffocating him. He scratched at his neck to loosen his tie, his shaking fingers only making it worse until Floyd reached across and undid the knot, and the top button of his shirt.
"Take a deep breath, Lucas," he said. It had been a long time since he had seen him panic on this level. "Get out of the car. You need some fresh air." He got out and headed round to the passenger side, opening the door and pulling his son out when he sat rooted to his seat. He wrapped his arms around him, gripping him as tightly as he could until Lucas sagged with his arms pinned against his sides, his energy gone. He took a few deep breaths, desperately trying to replenish his air supply as his whole body shook as though he was standing in a foot of snow.
"You're ok, Lucas, I'm right here," Floyd said, his voice steady and smooth. "You're ok." He repeated the words over and over until he felt Lucas calm down, his breathing returning to normal with the odd hiccup through his tears. "Tell me what happened."
"I can't go back," Lucas whimpered against his father's chest. He felt like a little boy again, still more than a foot shorter than his father. "Don't make me go back there; I can't ever go back."
"To school?"
Lucas nodded, burying his face in the polo shirt his father wore for work. He smelled like freshly baked bread, a warm and rich smell that followed him wherever he went when he spent so many hours a day in the bakery.
"Why? Why don't you want to go back? You need to tell me, Lucas. I can't help you if you won't talk to me."
Lucas fumbled in his pocket for his phone, wiping his eyes to see the screen as he found the recording. Pressing it into his father's hand, he got back in the car and slammed the door shut. He couldn't bear to hear the words again, to hear the hatred in Adler's voice. He didn't understand why she despised him so much, what story she had possibly told herself in head to justify what she had said.
Floyd held his breath as he hit play, dreading what he might hear. A thousand possibilities ran through his head but he wasn't prepared to hear what Adler had said just minutes ago. His jaw dropped and his blood ran cold, his veins set alight with pure fury that coursed through him like a wild fire. His hand shook with anger, words failing him as he opened his mouth. Clenching his hands, he got back into the driver's seat and turned around in the middle of the road.
"What're you doing?" Lucas asked.
"Going back to school," Floyd said, his voice hard.
"What? No, Dad, no! Why?" Fear flooded him once more, wishing he could just go home and bury himself under his duvet and wake up in a different day.
"This is horrific, Lucas. What I just heard - that makes me sick. We're going straight to the headmaster. This can't carry on." He jerked to a stop outside the school gates and fumbled for his phone, scrolling more than halfway down his list of contacts until he got to Lucas's mother's name and he hit dial.
"Hi, Floyd," she said with a smile in her voice when she answered.
"Sarah? Where are you?"
"In town," she said. "Liliana and Felicity both ended up going to friends' houses when I went to pick them up so I'm a bit of a lemon. What's up?"
"You need to come to school right now. I'm here with Lucas."
"Is he in trouble? Has something happened?"
"Can you get here? We'll talk then," he said, too furious at the recording he had heard to be courteous. His mind was churning as much as his stomach.
"Ok ... ok, I'm on my way," she said, her happiness dropping from her voice. "I'll be there in five."
He ended the call, dropping his phone into the gap between his seat and Lucas's, and he raked his hand through his hair.
"Why did you call Mum?" Lucas asked, his voice quiet. "You didn't need to tell Mum."
"Yes I did," Floyd said. "This can't go on, Lucas. We need to put a stop to this and your mum needs to know. Oh my God. Who the hell is this girl? What the hell is her problem?"
Lucas closed his eyes and shook his head, his bottom lip wobbling with the effort it took to hold back more tears. "I don't know," he whispered, his composure collapsing once more. He took his glasses off to cover his eyes, biting his cheeks to curb his emotions.
Only four minutes passed before Sarah's car appeared at the end of the road and she pulled up in front of Floyd, getting Charlotte out of her car seat and holding her on her hip before she hurried over to the car.
"What's going on?" she asked, bending down to talk to Floyd through his open window. He shut the window and got out of the car with Lucas's phone in his hand. Lucas watched as his parents spoke, only turning away when he saw his father press play on the recording. He couldn't bear to see his mother's face when she heard the words Adler had thrown like fireworks that had blown up in his face.
He only got out when his father opened the door and gave him his hand, and he looked up to see his mother's face pale, horror written across it like an awful poem. She struggled to conjure up a single word, each one holding back a river of emotion that would flow as soon as she pulled out the cork.
"Lucas," she said, her voice distraught. "I had no idea it was this bad." She shook her head to herself, wide eyes full of guilt and distress. "This has to end right now." Her horror turned to rage in the blink of an eye. "We're going to go and sort this out right this second."
"I can't go back there," Lucas said, shaking his head. "I don't want to go back in there."
"We need to go and talk to the school about this," Sarah said, her fingers turning white with the strength of her grip on Lucas's phone. "This is beyond bullying - she threatened to kill you, Lucas. I don't care if she says it's a joke - that's not a joke. That's not funny. Come on."
Sarah wasn't to be messed with when it came to her family, the fiery mother hen rising in her. She took Lucas's hand and gripped Charlotte on her hip, storming into the school office with Lucas tripping along beside her and Floyd bringing up the rear. She rang the buzzer until someone answered, stating who she was, and she barged in as soon as the door was opened.
It was all too much for Lucas, feeling even worse to see his parents so fired up. His mother was the most docile person he knew, who cried at virtually everything when she had the world's weakest heartstrings, but she never got mad. He wasn't sure he had ever really seen her angry, or his father. They were calm, patient people. Until he was crossed, it seemed. This was no longer the odd unsavoury look or a snippy comment when no-one was around. This was serious.
He felt numb as he sat in the headmaster's office with Charlotte on his lap, cuddling his baby sister and tuning out of the words flying about around him. When his father put the phone on the desk and played the recording for the head, he wished he could switch places with his sister for a moment. He wished he couldn't hear, but even when he clamped both hands over his ears, he heard the spite in Adler's spit, the accusations brewing nausea within.
He told his side of the story without meeting the headteacher's eyes. He told the grey haired man about how he and Adler had never seen eye to eye since they were four, how she had teased him as a child and with her in school, he dreaded every day. When he heard his mother sniff beside him, her hand curling around his, he couldn't bear to look up when he knew he would see her crying. He just held onto Charlotte as though she was his safety blanket.
He explained why he had recorded the conversation, that he had been scared of what she might say when he had realised she wasn't going to leave, and he had wanted to prove to Asher that his girlfriend was mean. He cried as he talked and he buried his face in Charlotte's hair, glad that she couldn't hear his tears.
The meeting seemed to go on forever. Lucas answered every question that was asked of him, even when his father snapped at the head for interrogating Lucas like a suspect when it was clear that Adler had no defence to rest on. But the head needed all the facts, as he insisted each time Sarah tried to cut one of his questions short. When he told her not to raise her voice, that only fuelled her rage until Floyd put his hand over hers, a silent signal to tell her to keep her cool.
When Charlotte struggled on Lucas's lap, he let her slip to the floor. She turned to face him and traced her index finger from her chin to her stomach, signing her thirst. Lucas held down his pinky with his thumb, forming a W with his three fingers, and he touched his index finger to his lip. Charlotte nodded when she recognised the sign for water and she moved her hand in a circle over her chest to say please. He bent down to open his school bag and he took out his water bottle, popping off the cap before he handed it to her, smiling when she said thank you with her hands.
Whenever he signed with Charlotte, he felt as though he had a special connection to his sister, like they were the only people in the world who knew what they were saying. It still amazed him that they could communicate using their hands, that she knew what he meant without ever hearing the words he used.
He locked himself out of the conversation in the room, focusing on his baby sister's hands. She looked up at him, her huge eyes filled with innocence. He held up his left hand with his ring finger and his middle finger down, moving it back and forth an inch. She beamed and climbed up onto his lap again, wrapping her little arms around him. She loved him too.
It was five o'clock before they left. Lucas walked with his sister's hand in his and a glum expression on his face . The headteacher had said that the situation would be dealt with, though he hadn't said how. He would need to talk to Adler's parents after the weekend, he had said. Sarah had threatened to find them and drag them in but he had hushed her with his hand and told her that wouldn't be necessary. Lucas wasn't sure what would happen, but he knew that he couldn't continue in a school that let Adler get away with murder.
"It's going to be ok, baby," Sarah said, one arm around his shoulders as they walked, and she pressed her lips to his temple. "I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry. But we're going to fix this."
He nodded. He hoped she was right.
"Floyd?" she said.
"Yes?"
"Do you mind if I come over? I think there's a lot we need to talk about," she said, lifting Charlotte onto her hip when the little girl raised her hands to be held.
"Absolutely," he said. "You don't need to get the girls, do you?"
She shook her head. "Not until seven. Actually, you know what, I'm going to ring Truman," she said. "He should be there too. All four of us should all be on the same page when it comes to our son."
*
When they got home, Lucas headed straight to his bedroom with Charlotte's hand in his to leave the adults to talk, leaving his phone with his father as he explained what had happened to Cora, whose outrage was audible through two sets of doors. Lucas blocked his ears when he heard Truman arrive. Plugging in his earphones, he blasted a playlist of classical music as he powered up his laptop and Charlotte climbed onto his bed to play with Leo, the lion soft toy he'd had since he was little.
He had arranged to video call Audrie at half past five: it was already twenty-five past and he was still a mess. It was obvious he had been crying, the rims of his eyes red and sore where he had scratched them with the rough sleeve of his jumper. His cheeks were blotchy, a dead giveaway.
Almost as soon as he had signed into his account, a call from Audrie rang out and he tried to calm his cheeks before he answered. When her face came into view, he smiled. She was sitting at her desk in her slightly messy university bedroom, some of her favourite National Geographic posters tacked up on the wardrobe and her door, where the tape wouldn't leave marks.
"Hey," she said, covering her mouth as she ate some kind of vegetarian noodle meal. "How's it going?"
Lucas couldn't hide the day from his sister. He had never lied to her, never hidden the truth from her when things hadn't gone the way he had wanted. With a sigh, filling his lungs before slowly emptying them, he told her what Adler had said. He could repeat her word for word, each syllable burnt into his head, and he powered on through even when Audrie gasped and spluttered on her food.
"What the fuck? Oh my God, Lucas, are you ok?"
He nodded. He was physically fine, anyway. She hadn't hit him, though there had been a moment that he feared she would.
"She said she would kill you? What the fuck? That's not ok, Lucas. Did you tell someone? I hope you told Mum, oh my God."
"I told Dad," he said. "My dad, when he picked me up. He rang Mum. They went to the headmaster."
"So they bloody well should! I hope she gets kicked out. She needs to be expelled. That's awful, Lucas. That's completely inexcusable. What about Asher?"
"He heard. I don't know how much but he was there when I left and he tried to run after me," Lucas said, wondering what his friend would say. He dreaded it.
Audrie was fuming, twitching with rage as she talked. "I hope he cut that bitch out of his life right then and there," she said, a horrible clatter sounding out when she dropped her fork into her bowl. "Have you talked to him?"
Lucas shook his head. He scooted his chair back when Charlotte toddled over, hauling her onto his lap. She waved at Audrie who waved back with a grin.
"Hi Charlotte!" she said, signing out her sister's name. "How are you?"
Charlotte gave her a thumbs up, nestling back against her brother. He held her on his lap, his hand on her belly, and rested his chin on her head.
"If he has any sense at all," Audrie said, slipping back to the previous strand of conversation, "then he'll at least text you. If he heard any of that and he doesn't text you then I'm sorry, Lucas, but he's not worth it."
Lucas swallowed hard. That was something he was afraid of, a thought that weighed so heavily on his mind he thought he might crack. Instead, he held onto Charlotte like a life support. "I don't have my phone on me," he said. "Dad's got it." He looked up when he spied movement behind Audrie, the shadow of her door opening and a person walking in. "Who's that?"
Audrie looked over her shoulder and smiled. "That's Cooper," she said. "We have ecology and evolution together."
"Is he your boyfriend?"
She laughed, glad that she had her earphones in and he couldn't hear that. "No. We study together. Cooper, this is my little brother, Lucas, and my sister, Charlotte."
"Hi, guys," Cooper said with a wave. He had a friendly face and glasses: Lucas liked the look of him. He waved back. Charlotte waved too. "Your family's adorable, Aud."
"There's more where they came from," she said with a laugh. "Wait, how come Lottie's with you if you're with your dad?"
"Because Mum came over to talk to Dad and Cora and she brought Lottie. And your dad's here too," he said. "They said they needed to talk. They're talking about me."
"They're probably just talking about how to deal with this," Audrie said. "Don't worry. It's going to be ok. Adler will get her bitch butt kicked the fuck away to Kazakhstan."
"You're swearing," Lucas said. He didn't like it when she swore. She grimaced.
"Sorry, Lucas. I'm just angry. Maybe I should come home this weekend; I could come home tomorrow morning and be back here on Sunday evening."
"No, it's ok," he said, shaking his head. "I'll see you on Friday."
She smiled a sad smile. "Ok."
There was a knock on the door. Lucas turned around in his swivel chair when he said, "Hello?"
The door opened and Cora poked her head round, giving him a warm smile. "Hey, hun," she said. "There's someone here to see you."
For a dreadful moment, Lucas had an image of Adler turning up behind his stepmother but when she stepped back, it was Asher standing behind her. He stepped into the room and Lucas slipped Charlotte off his lap, leaving Audrie up on his screen as he stood.
"Hi," Asher said, his voice small.
"Hi."
There was a second's pause before he stepped forward and threw his arms around Lucas, holding him so tightly he couldn't have got away if he tried. "I'm so sorry," he said, his voice cracking. Lucas wasn't used to that - Asher was the strong one, the one who fended off everything with a laugh and a joke. He wasn't the one who cried. "I'm so sorry, Lucas. I'm such an idiot."
Lucas wrapped his arms around Asher, relishing in the warmth of the hug he had missed. They stayed like that for a while until Asher pulled away at last, wiping his eyes. "I don't expect you to forgive me for being so stupid and blind, and I know I can't make up for everything that's happened. I ... I hate myself for not believing you. I'm so sorry."
His words were achingly genuine, his tears real as they slipped down his cheeks and he sniffed hard, brushing them away with his sleeves.
"It's over. It's completely over. I ... I know you told me but I had no idea how bad ... oh my God, Lucas, I feel horrific. I'm so, so sorry. You were right all along and I didn't see it and I said you were wrong but you weren't. I'm so sorry."
Lucas didn't say anything but he hugged Asher again. Not tightly this time. He just held him. He just wanted to feel him in his arms. Part of him wanted to say it was ok but he knew it wasn't: nothing that had happened was ok, but to see his friend so distraught, he felt his anger and his blame drifting away. It wasn't Asher's fault, after all. He had been bewitched.
"You broke up with Adler?" he asked, cursing her name. Asher nodded.
"As soon as I heard what she said. None of that was true, Lucas. I don't know why she said any of that. You're my best friend and you always will be, and I'm sorry it took me so long to realise she was trying to make me choose her over you. I would never do that. I would always choose you."
Lucas's heart skipped a beat, soaring in his chest despite the chains that Adler had wrapped around it. "Thank you."
"I'm sorry I didn't believe you. I will never doubt you again. Of course you're not wrong. You're never wrong," Asher said with a laugh. "I know you're mad and upset and hurt right now, and it's my fault for not listening just because I didn't see it, but do you think we can try to go back to how things were?"
"Before her."
Asher nodded, a hopeful smile making it onto his lips. He opened his bag and took out a couple of bags of Haribo and a DVD. "I have sweets and Harry Potter. I figured that might be a good place to start. Whatever I can do to help, you just tell me. Whatever you need."
Lucas hugged his elbows to himself. When Charlotte tugged at his sleeve, he signed for her to hold on a moment. Asher watched his hands. "I'm going to join the talking hands club."
Lucas's eyes lit up. "You are?"
Asher nodded. He had been lucky with his hearing, better than it should have been for a child born as prematurely as him, but it got a little worse each year and though he tried to avoid the inevitable, he knew that he might not still have it by the time he reached thirty. He was already halfway there. "It'll be fun, and useful," he said, not voicing his fears. "We can do it together."
Lucas grinned, a flood of relief to have his best friend back. He felt like he had lost him for a while, the year separating them, but they had followed the trail of breadcrumbs behind them and ended up back where they belonged. He only wished it hadn't taken what it had taken for that to happen.
+ - + - +
it's kind of hard to believe this book was only supposed to be thirteen chapters long initially. i never would have been done telling the story with so little scope. i hope you enjoyed this chapter!
also, i just noticed it is now the 17th of july - maddie's birthday! (and liliana's and matilda's ... and peter's) today is the one year anniversary of the text maddie got that changed her life!