~ Luca ~
The cafeteria roared. Luca felt grounded in the cacophony of voices. It was the same as any first day. Reunions filled with too much excitement and not enough sincerity.
Every year was the same. Students would embrace and make every effort to convince their peers of how terribly they were missed. Luca always used to wonder why both parties had failed to check up on the other during the two and a half months of absence.
Though he wasn't moving, the noise bounced off of enough surfaces around him, helping to project a nearly complete image of everything that was happening.
Though the cafeteria was full, Luca understood that he sat alone. He supposed that he could have blamed it on his pink hair, but in a school this big, he would be surprised if he was the only one with an alternative look. His face was unfamiliar to anyone who paid attention. So no one claimed him. The general population tended to avoid the unfamiliar until one was brave enough to approach and initiate the beginning of a relationship.
Luca had been sitting there for about thirty minutes and no such person had attempted first contact. But that was okay. He could wait some more. He wanted to make friends. For that reason, he tried to dial it down. No piercings. Nothing provocative on his shirt. Couldn't do anything about the hair and hats weren't allowed in school. At the very least his pink hair would be a reliable conversation starter.
The longer Luca absorbed his surroundings, the more he realized that people did indeed have questions for him. His sensitive ears tuned in to several conversations at once.
"Check that kid out. Is his hair really pink?"
"Never seen pink hair on a dude around here before."
"Wonder which administrator will nab his board first. Pretty sure you can't bring that inside."
"I think skater kids are hot."
"Shit! He's looking this way!"
Luca sank his fingers in his roots and slid them all the way back to the nape of his neck.
Someone come talk to me already. This is getting old.
Usually Luca wasn't this shy. But there were so many people.
Luca dragged his hand back through his rough curls again. Crowds this big, especially in a confined space, did nothing to help ease his nerves. In fact, they put him on edge.
The large crowd closed in around Luca as more and more kids filed into the cafeteria. The bell was probably close to ringing.
"Lucas? Lucas Brighton?"
He turned suddenly at the sound of his name. The voice gave the impression of a shield, as if the owner would rather not be speaking to him.
Speaking face to face like this, Luca fought the urge to let his gaze naturally coast above the stranger's head. It was a habit that could give too much away about him. So he adjusted accordingly and replied with a simple, "Morning."
"I'm Blaire. I'll be your peer mentor for the week. Can I have a look at your schedule, please?"
Once again, the voice was polite but heavy with reluctance.
Luca tried to offer a friendly smile as he handed over his schedule. While she looked it over, his ears tuned in again to the voices around them.
"Look. I told you he was new. He's got one of those student babysitters following him around. Poor guy."
"Check out who got assigned to him. You can tell she's soooo happy to be there right now."
"Right. The guy looks like a handful."
Luca shut the voices out. Then he turned his attention back to the girl, who was busy talking to another student. He picked up a thread in their conversation.
"To be honest, I really don't want to be here right now."
Something in him decided that this was enough. He didn't have to sit here and listen to this. While the girl was preoccupied, he got up and walked off into the crowd.
Luca was used to people misunderstanding him. And thanks to his sharp ears, he no longer let comments like the ones he heard this morning get to him. It wasn't the first time someone had passed judgement without getting to know him. And it wouldn't be the last. He knew that.
But there was something in that girl's voice — as if she was guarding something sacred and fragile. It drew on his curiosity and at the same time prevented him from coming any closer.
Whatever. If she didn't want to try, then screw it.
Luca was outside, scaling the building's columns and low-rising walls. Thankfully, this building was an easy one to climb.
When he was high enough to feel the air's resistance, he heard a shrill voice from below.
"What are you doing up there?" It was the girl. "Are you insane? Get down!"
Luca crouched and sneered at her. "Go back inside or you'll be late for class. Just call the administrators. I don't care."
"Lucas, wait!"
He walked towards the center of the roof where she couldn't see, still pissed that her voice had the power to make him care. When she yelled his name like that, it compelled him to stay.
Luca found a smooth stretch of roof away from the gravel. He got on his skateboard and practiced some moves. He grinded for about fifteen minutes until he heard a metal door slam open. That must be the principal. Suspended on the first day of school. His parents were going to love this.
"There you are." The girl. She sounded really, really pissed this time. "Whatever you're high on right now, it must be really strong. Because if we get caught, they could suspend us until graduation."
It sounded like she had come up here alone, which meant...
Luca kept skateboarding. So what if she hadn't called the principal on him?
"What are you doing up here? A good girl like you should be in class."
She chuckled, but there was nothing funny in the sound. "You don't know the first thing about me, Lucas."
There she goes again, saying his name like she owned some part of his soul.
"And you don't know shit about me. So beat it."
Her voice was hot with emotion. "Don't tell me what to do. Can you just get down from the roof so we can go to class?"
Luca kicked his skateboard and exploded, "Stop pretending like you care!"
That shut her up.
Luca gathered up his board and walked to the edge of the shelf. Fine. He would get down. But he was going to class on his own. He didn't need a stupid peer mentor. She was off the hook.
He hopped down onto the lower shelf.
The girl screamed his name. Did she think —
Warmth blasted from behind him, tumbling over the roof's edge and onto his shoulders like a cosmic waterfall.
Luca froze. It couldn't be.
He looked up.
The fallen star from yesterday was hovering overhead. Pulsing, glowing.
"You're that girl," he said, "the yummy girl, right?"
She was breathing hard and bent over the lip of the roof in relief. Thanks to the swallowed comet, he could see her outline with breathtaking clarity.
Delirious, but happy, she replied, "Yes. I'm the yummy girl. And you. Are. Not. Dead. Thank the lord."
He climbed back onto her side of the building, mesmerized by her ability to glow.
She rushed forward and before he knew it, her arms were hugging his torso. Immediately, his sense of touch started to analyze and assess her.
She had curves in places Luca didn't expect. Her hair, a moisturized nest of springy curls, brushed the underside of his chin. He breathed in sweet, berry scented gloss, which made him wonder if her lips were as full as her hips and thighs.
She said, "I know we just met, but you scared me half to death."
That was an understatement. The girl was shaking. She clung to Luca as if he were her only lifeline. Or maybe it was the other way around. Maybe she feared that if she let him go, he would float off the roof for good this time.
The light from deep inside her hugged him too. He couldn't believe how genuine it felt. He bathed in its warmth until it began to ebb.
"I'm sorry," he said. Luca could not remember the last time he apologized and actually meant it.
"I didn't want to be anyone's burden."
At first he didn't know what to do with his hands, but eventually they ended up resting just below her shoulder blades where her curves joined at a tight middle.
Finally, the girl let him go.
"I haven't been a very good mentor. Can we start over?"
By now her light had almost gone out. But it had left its imprint. As long as she was close enough, Luca wouldn't make the mistake of not recognizing her again.
"I'm Blaire Sunderland. Welcome to Honeybrook."
"Hey." He smiled and dragged his hand through his pink curls. "Just call me Luca."
There was a shuffling of papers. The schedule he had handed over earlier, he assumed.
"Oh, um, so you prefer that over Lucas?"
Luca shrugged. "Sometimes. Depends on who I'm talking to."
"Ah," he heard a smile in her voice, "I get it."
Luca confronted an impulse that told him to reach out and touch her. Pull on a lock of hair. Brush his thumb against her cheek. Feed a finger through a belt loop in her jeans and tug her close — anything to ignite her star again so he could match her voice with a sight just as complex and transfixing.
But not everyone reacted so well to being touched without inviting it. And the last thing Luca wanted was to scare Blaire off.
So he kept his hands to himself and followed her back inside the building.
+++
So Luca and Blaire had their second encounter!!!!! Did you like it better than the first? Let me know your thoughts.
Stay true to yourself,
Coco