"Hi Mom." Vincent answered the eighty-fifth phone call he'd gotten from his mother as soon as he got back to his dorm room. It was the day he was meant to help Lucas, and he'd had a very busy day, so he'd neglected to call her at lunch when he usually did.
"Why didn't you answer your phone?" Her harsh voice boomed from the other side of the phone. "You had me worried sick."
"I'm sorry mom. I was in class. How was work?" Vincent asked, as he grabbed a granola bar from his nightstand.
"It was worky." She said, and he could already hear her black heals clicking through the phone. All of a sudden it made sense why she'd called so many times; by the time he got home he'd be just missing her as she left for work.
"Do you have to go back?"
"Just for an hour. We can talk when I get back alright?" She said quickly, "Scratch that, It's one of the first real days of your time in college, go out with friends or something." She suggested "Just don't stay out to late, and no drinking, I'm free most of the afternoon tomorrow, so I'll call you then."
"Okay, love you. Bye." Vincent said before hanging up the phone. He sighed and began digging through his clothes for something suitable to wear. He had a feeling it was going to be a long day. Vincent quickly changed into jeans and a grey and yellow sweater. Running a hand through his hair, he walked back to his bed checking my phone for texts, then changed his mind and FaceTimed Hailey.
"Hi."
"Why'd you call me?" She laughed. "We literally just saw each other."
"Cause I'm bored."
"You poor baby." She sarcastically cooed.
"What are you up to?"
"I'm doing homework." She said as she dramatically flipped the page. "Shouldn't you be doing that?"
"Nah. I finished in the library at the end of the day. Have you talked to Ryan yet?"
"No comment." She said eyes widening.
"What'd he say?" Vinny asked excitedly.
"He texted me and asked me if he could see my math homework. Isn't that soooo cute?"
"Oh?" Vincent asked, trying to shield her from his concern. Hailey could be a bit boy crazy, and it wouldn't be the first time someone had taken advantage of that to get her to do their homework.
"He's so hot... like when he's like staring into space, or like when he's all concentrait-ty." She rambled on.
"He's alright I guess."
"Alright? He's freaking gorgeous! Did you see his arms yesterday when he wore a short sleeve shirt? They were huge." She joked.
"He's got a mullet." Vinny complained, hiding his blushing face from the camera.
"It's not a mullet! It's a flow. And I happen to think it's sexy."
"Sexy? Hailey, it could not be any further from sexy if it tried to be. It's ridiculous, he looks like a hillbilly." He teased.
"How would you know? Attractiveness was never your strong suit. I mean, you can't even acknowledge that Lucas is a little attractive, just because you dislike him."
"I guess I just care more about what's inside," Vinny explained.
"Ugh. That's so douchey. Everybody cares just a little bit about appearance, don't try to act all better than me about it, you know you'd prefer an attractive person, over anyone else." Hailey complained.
"I suppose."
"Besides. You act like it isn't possible to care about both, and it totally is," Hailey stated. "Like with Ryan."
"Please," Vinny snorted. "Ryan has the IQ of a frisbee, and he asks you to do homework. Be careful with that by the way."
"He's growing, and besides you know me, I wouldn't help him if I thought he was taking advantage of me."
"I know," Vinny agreed. "I just worry."
"Well don't," Hailey said with finality. "When are you meant to see Lucas?"
"7:30, why?"
"Cause I'm meant to see Ryan today, so I'll call you after to update you, and make sure you didn't kill Lucas. I want to know all about it, I'm very excited," Hailey said.
"What?"
"Anytime you see an attractive person I get excited."
"There's nothing exciting about today." Vinny stated, then added "For me at least. You can still have fun."
"You didn't deny that he's attractive this time." She said, and Vinny let it hang silently in the air for a moment.
"I don't..."
"You hesitated!" She cheered.
"I didn't..."
"Tell me how it goes!"
"Nothing interesting is going to happen besides us fighting." Vincent argued.
"I don't know I get a vibe from him. Be careful," And with that she hung up.
Vincent sighed and looked around the room. Dustin had been out for a few hours and Vincent was glad to see him come back to have some company, but Dustin offered little more than a quick wave before putting in his headphones and going to game on his computers.
Vincent didn't have much homework, so he contented himself with reading for the few hours he had to kill. He had just freshly gotten himself comfortable when there was a knock at the door. Vincent opened it to find Lucas leaning against his doorway.
"Hey. How're you?" Lucas greeted kindly. He was in a soccer crewneck sweater, and he had his blonde hair pushed up out of his face.
"Fine. I've just got to grab my..." Vincent's voice faded out as he grabbed his coat, and quickly wrapped his green scarf around his neck.
"Hi. You're back." Lucas smiled.
"Dude, I'm just about to go for dinner and you can come if you-" Dustin began before stopping as he reached the door. "Is that Marshall? Like the soccer player? You're my favorite player."
"Well it's always nice to meet a fan," Lucas smiled cockily.
"Totally, you wouldn't by any chance want to come to dinner with my friends and I, would you?"
"We could stop for dinner, right Vinny?" Lucas looked down at Vincent with a grin plastered on his face.
"No no. We've got to get to studying. Very important. Let's go." Vincent grabbed Lucas' arm and led him into the hallway.
"Well it was great to meet you! Hopefully we'll be seeing each other again soon!" Lucas called back and Vincent shut the door. "He was nice."
"Yes, very nice, but we've got places to be so..."
"I take it your mom has the car?"
"Y... Yes." Vincent confirmed. He was slightly alarmed by Lucas' apparent relationship to his mother.
"Then I'll drive... unless you'd prefer to walk." Vincent paused for a moment to consider. It was freezing outside, but being stuck in a car with Lucas sounded like hell, so Vincent supposed freezing was the way to go.
"Let's walk."
"Alright." Lucas shrugged in genuine surprise.
The boys walked side by side to the school library. The campus was small, and Vincent was glad they'd walked, though he was a little cold, because it was a nice short walk. Lucas intentionally bumped his shoulder into Vincent, causing him to stumble slightly. It was an annoying move, but Lucas had an easy going smile on his face, so Vinny bumped back, then Lucas bumped again and he tripped off the curb.
"Woah.. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do it that hard." Lucas' face betrayed genuine concern, and Vincent accepted his hand and stepped back onto the sidewalk.
"It's alright. You didn't mean anything by it." Vinny was sure, though Lucas annoyed him, that he meant no real harm, so he allowed the boy to breathe a sigh of relief rather than fighting with him. The ivy coated library came into view a few moments later.
"Here we are."
"Let's get a move on," Vincent groaned.
"You wound me." Lucas mocked, walking off towards the door. The library was warm, and set up with dark wooden shelves and tables. There was even a small fireplace in the corner, and Vincent unwrapped his head from his scarf and let out an involuntary sigh. Lucas picked an out of sight table, set his bag down, and placed his coat on the back of the chair. He rubbed his hands together and blew warm air into them. His fingers were slightly num from the walk.
"So... um... where do you want to start?" Vincent began quietly once he was settled.
"Nah. Want something to drink?"
"No, Lucas. I want to get this over with and go home." Vincent mumbled.
"I'm thirsty. I can't work if I'm thirsty." He said getting up, so Vinny sat in silence waiting for him to come back. After a few awkward moments he came back from the coffee counter with two cups. "Tea?"
"Thanks.. How'd you know?" Vincent smiled looking at the warm steamy cup which had his name scribbled on it. Lucas handed it to him, and he wrapped his still frigid hands around the cup.
"You used to like when we were kids." He frowned thoughtfully sitting back.
"You remembered something like that?" Vincent asked, genuinely impressed.
"Well.." Lucas cleared his throat. "I just remember it because you were too uptight to drink coffee."
"Right... Are you ready to start?" Vinny attempted again.
"But I just got my drink.." Lucas whined, flashing puppy dog eyes.
"Lu... if I didn't know any better I'd think you were nervous."
"Am not." Lucas leaned back in his chair.
"You're just as stubborn as when we were kids." Vincent grumbled.
"If I remember correctly it was you who was the stubborn one." He whispered, the corners of his mouth playing at a smile. "One thing's changed for sure though."
"And what's that?"
"You've gotten much shorter." Lucas teased.
"I haven't gotten any shorter. Someone's just gotten much taller." Vincent said taking him in for the first time in years. Though as children Vinny had been a good inch and a half taller than him, Lucas towered over him now.
"Whatever makes you feel better." He joked.
"Come on. Literature." Vinny said, a smile tugging at his lips.
"Fine." Lucas rolled his bright green eyes.
"Okay, so do you want me to help brainstorm your essay, or do you want me to proofread what you've got?" Vincent asked.
"Brainstorm."
"Alright. What do you want to write about?"
"Romantic Literature." Lucas shrugged.
"I know, but what's your point?"
"I've got to write it for class."
"That's not a point." Vincent mumbled. "Do you even have a working thesis?"
"Can we talk about something else?" Lucas asked, leaning back in his chair. "I'm bored."
"No." Vincent shook his head. "I wrote mine on Mary Shelley and how even though she was married to one of the great Romantic poets she pushed back on the Romantic movement in Frankenstein."
"That sounds interesting, I'll just do that."
"You can't do that, that's plagiarism." Vincent rolled his eyes.
"You want to see a trick?" Lucas asked.
"No."
"See! Look, are you looking? Look, Vinny!" Lucas said with a pencil perfectly balanced on his nose.
"I see." Vincent huffed. "Poetry?"
"BORING" Lucas whined. "Do we have to?"
"Yes." Vincent stated. "So which poets did you pick to study? We can begin with-" Vincent began, but was cut off by a paper airplane hitting his cheek. He looked up to see Lucas' eyes huge with surprise.
Vincent opened the airplane to see it had been made from a sheet of notebook loose leaf paper, and had Lucas' handwriting in the words "I like you, check yes if you like me" in bold lettering.
"Very funny, Lucas." Vincent said crinkling up the paper. "You're a real jokester. You ought to be a comedian."
"You think so?"
"No, not if you fail Romantic Literature. Get back to work."
"Ugh!"
"Poetry!" Vinny repeated, but he couldn't help himself from laughing. "Let's go over some romantic Poets."
"Fine. William Wordsworth, John Keats, William Blake... then there's Percy Shelly, married to Mary Shelley, who you wrote about." Lucas rattled off seamlessly.
"Yes, that's correct." Vinny stared at him in disbelief.
"Don't look so surprised! Now what's it gonna take for us to just hang out?" Lucas asked leaning back in his chair.
"A completed essay." Vincent scoffed. Lucas reached down, pulled out a folder, and shoved a stapled paper over to Vincent.
"What do you mean? You..." Vinny paused, looking at Lucas' essay. "You're done?"
"Yeah."
"When?" Vinny read over the paper, seeing that the answers were all correct.
"I did it right after you left the library. I decided to do mine on Percy Shelley."
"Why?" Vincent asked.
"So we could just have time to goof around."
"I... I have to proofread this." Vincent stuttered, taking the paper into his hand.
"Tear me to shreds." Lucas shrugged. Vincent took the paper and a red pen and began going through it. It would have been easier to do it on a laptop, but Lucas hasn't provided one and he didn't want to ask.
Vincent circled only a few mistakes before handing it back to Lucas.
"Good?"
"There are a couple of grammatical errors you ought to fix..." Vincent trailed off. "But it's a good paper."
"Thank you."
"Which brings me to a question; why'd the professor say that you needed a tutor?" Vincent raised an eyebrow at Lucas.
"Alright. You got me. I lied to the professor and said I was having trouble and then I asked if I could have you as my tutor." Lucas stated with a lopsided smile.
"So.. you're.. are you even bad at writing?"
"I'm okay with English. Hit or miss." Lucas shrugged. "I probably will need one, but it's the first week of school? You really fell for that?"
"Well yeah.. why would you- why did you lie about that?" Vinny questioned.
"I wanted to spend time together." Lucas explained. "I knew you wouldn't agree without a push. So I pushed you. We were always such good friends and everything just went south so fast.. and I wanted to get to know the person you are now. Besides, I had fun, didn't you?"
"I don't know? Maybe. You're just so frustrating.. and now I'm upset that you lied to me and.. and you got me in trouble at school today."
"Yeah that was great." Lucas chuckled.
"Not great." Vinny pursed his lips. "I don't like that. I don't like it when you tease me. I hated it ever since we were kids."
"I'm sorry. Listen," Lucas sighed. "You're right. You're totally right, and I'm not just saying that because it'll score me brownie points," Lucas grinned to himself, "I mean it. I've been a total jerk over the past few days, I admit it, not that you haven't been a little testy back, but that's understandable. Let me... let me make it up to you. I wasn't lying when I said I had fun with you tonight, and I really did want to see you again."
"How?"
"Let's start over. Okay? No past, no history, no week of torture. Let's pretend we're just meeting at the library, and I see you and I think you're cool.. because I'd really like for us to be friends again. Isn't there a part of you that might like that too?" Lucas wanted to say that if he really had just come across Vincent at the library he'd flirt and give his number, but held his tongue.
"I suppose."
"Alright." Lucas stood and held out his hand, "Hey! My names Lucas, what's yours?"
"Vincent."
"Awesome name. What's your major?"
"I'm a History major, but I'm taking an English minor. You?"
"Chem."
"Chem?" Vincent stated in disbelief. Of all the things he would picture his former best friend going into Chem was probably the last.
"Don't look at me like that, I can do it."
"Of course you can, I just wouldn't think you'd want to." Vincent's brow furrowed. "I always thought you wanted to be a professor or something."
"Nothing gets past you, Genius." He teased. "Alright. Alright. My mom wants me to be a doctor, and I like Chem better than bio." Lucas admitted quietly. "At least a little bit."
"But if that's not what you want...?" Vincent countered.
"It's what she wants. I don't want to disappoint her."
"In the long run I'd imagine it'd be more disappointing to her if you're unhappy." Vinny said taking his hand. "And you would never disappoint her by telling her the truth, and doing what you love." Vincent made a point out of making eye contact. Lucas looked down at his hand, and Vinny realizing what he had done pulled away.
"Ahem." Lucas cleared his throat and his voice cracked. "So listen, I've been eyeing you from the corner of the room for a few hours, and you seem like super awesome. Already. Anyway, I was wondering if you might like to hang out sometime? I have a soccer game Saturday, and I'd love to see you there."
"I don't know..." Vinny hesitated.
"It won't be long and maybe you could be like my good luck charm, cause I had a bad first game and... I don't know maybe we could grab some food after or something... get to know each other..." He rambled.
"Okay okay!" Vinny relented with a small smile. "I'll be there."
"Great." Lucas' soft smile broke out into a full toothy grin. "Can't wait to see you. Now, stranger, I'm going to go back to my apartment, have a nice night." Lucas saluted Vinny as he backed out the door, bumping into a girl going in, before apologizing profusely.
Vincent chuckled despite himself.