Dark Beauty

Chapter 18

Lucas appeared at my front yard holding a rose. I just smiled dumbly from my bedroom window. My mom who was next to me, seemed as happy as me. 
'So this is your boyfriend?' She asked. 'Aren't you going to let him in, so we can meet him?' 
'Mom, I don't want to freak him out. We aren’t exactly boyfriend and girlfriend.'  At least I didn’t know, he hadn’t used the word girlfriend yet, but we were spending a lot of time together. Lucas had taken me out for dinner last week in his family's country club. It was so fancy that I felt under dressed, but Lucas had said that I looked perfect and that the people there were over-dressed. Of course, I knew he only said that to make me feel better. 
I went downstairs and opened the door. 
'Hey Lucas, do you want to come inside?' I asked. 'I need to warn you; my parents are home.' 
'Well, if I'm taking their daughter out at night, I think I have to meet them.' He smiled and stepped inside. Lucas looked around like it was the first time he had been to my house, but he had come over on Friday night. My parents didn’t know, obviously. 
'Hello Mr. and Mrs. Collins, I'm Lucas. It's a pleasure to meet you two.' He shook both their hands. I noticed my dad analyzing him, would he pass my father scan? We sat on the sofa in the living room and my mother asked Lucas if he wanted water or something to drink.
'So, Leila said you are the captain of the football team.' My father said, trying to start a conversation.
'He is also class president.' My mother added smiling from ear to ear. 
'I see Leila talks a lot about me.' Lucas joked. He had dressed as if he knew my parents would invite him inside. He was wearing a white polo shirt and blue jeans, he had combed his hair and his blue eyes were shinning more than ever, as if something like that was even possible. 
‘She said you were very nice to her on her first few weeks of school.’ My mom said.
‘Well, I think we should always get to know the new students.’ Lucas smiled. ‘And I was lucky to meet Leila.’ 
‘I like the way you think.’ My dad said.
 'We need to go, right Lucas?' I didn't want my parents to start telling embarrassing things about me, and I knew that they would. All parents do that. 
'Yes. I need to bring her back by midnight, right?' He asked. 
'Yes.' My father said. ‘It was a pleasure meeting you.’
We said goodbye and I could see that they had liked him. Great.
I hope I wasn't either over or underdressed today. He hadn't told me where we were going so I tried to use something in the middle and ended up with a low cut, a-line pink dress. It was a little shorter than knee length. 
Lucas held the car door open for me. 'You look beautiful.'  He said as I got in.
I blushed and smiled, sometimes I still couldn't believe he really thought I was beautiful. Not that I thought I was ugly or anything like that, but he had dated Rebecca and she was stunningly gorgeous.
'You're looking good yourself, but for me you always look good.' I said shyly. 
'I could say the same, babe.' He gave a cocky smile and gave me a peck on the cheek. 
He drove without saying much, I asked where he was taking me but he said it was a surprise. 
'I hope you like where I'm taking you.' He said. 
'I’m sure I will.' I answered. Any place with Lucas would be good. 
'Here, put this on.' He gave me a blindfold. 
I nervously put it on, where was he taking me? My heart was beating fast with anxiety.  I felt the car stopping and heard him turning the engine off. He opened the door and helped me out of it. He guided me through a short distance. I felt as if I was walking on a wooden path, he then helped me up some metal stairs.
'We're here.' He whispered in my ear. He carefully took the blindfold off and I just stood there, totally surprised that I was standing on a yacht. 
'Oh my God, Lucas!' I managed to say. 
'Welcome to Georgia, my Family’s yacht.' He gestured. 
I slowly took a step forward. Was he really taking me to his family yacht? 
'You don't like boats! I knew it.' He said.
'No, it’s not that! Lucas, it's incredible!' I exclaimed. 'I just never thought you would take me here.' 
'Why wouldn't I? You're my girlfriend now.'
‘I am?’ I stupidly asked.
‘Of course you are. We’re going out, aren’t we?’ He asked, looking a little confused.
‘It’s just that, you had never used the word girlfriend. I thought we were just going out; you know?’ I tried to explain.
‘I don’t want to just hang out and make out with you.’ He said holding my chin. ‘I want you to be my girlfriend, do you want that too?’ 
‘Of course I want to.’ I smiled.
‘You’re my girl now.’ Lucas said getting closer to me.
I locked my arms around him, eliminating any space between us. 
'So I'm your girl?' I tried to make a sexy voice as I softly pressed my lips to his jaw. 
'My girl.' He whispered in my ear. He pressed my body closer to his. 
 The yacht was pretty big. On the deck a nice small dinner had been placed. 
'Did you prepare all of this for us?' I asked. 
'Technically I had it prepared, but it's still for us.' He said. 
He showed me the rest of the yacht. There was a room with a king sized bed. The walls were beige and there was a little fridge in the corner.  He then showed me the rest, everything was really fancy. Never in my life did I think I would set foot on a yacht, especially this big and luxurious. 
The engine started and in less than half an hour we were in middle of nowhere. I was kind of nervous, being alone with Lucas, what if he started to think I was boring? Okay, breathe. I just needed to be myself. I needed to start thinking higher of myself. 
'Wow, look at the sky.' I said to Lucas. 
'Beautiful right?' The sky was full of stars, shinning bright. No city lights covering them. He stopped the engine and wrapped his arms around my waist. 
'I think here is good enough.' He gently kissed my neck.
From a distance I could see the shore, however we were still kind far. 
'I’ve had some insane parties here.' Lucas smiled to himself. 
'Isn't it dangerous to have drunk people in the middle of the ocean?' I asked. 
'We usually don’t go so far from the shore, and my parents have life guards.' He explained. We sat on some sunbathing chairs and I kept looking at the stars as he told me stories about all the parties he had thrown in this yacht.  From the way he told me about them I noticed he really liked giving these parties. Some really crazy things had happened in this very yacht. I didn't do much talking, sometimes I asked him to explain something I didn't quite understand or comment on things I thought were funny or unbelievable. 
'Hey, how about we eat now.' He said as he got up. 'I was going to hire someone to serve us, but I thought it was better to stay just the two of us.'
'I think it's better too.' I agreed. I was going to get up but he told me to wait. 
After some few minutes he asked me to follow him. He led me to the deck where I had seen the dinner table. Now it was lit up with candle lights and two plates were placed one in front of another. 
'I hope you like it.' He said shyly. I walked up closer to the dinner table. 
'It looks delicious.' I beamed. Was this really happening to me? Was I really in a yacht alone with Lucas having a candle lit dinner? Well, I think I deserve a little of romance, as a prize for every time I had to cancel a date or a party or even being grounded because of a ghost. 
I sat down and Lucas sat in front of me. 
The food looked delicious. There was a juicy piece of salmon served with a passion fruit sauce, and green salad and shiitake. My mouth started watering just by looking at it. 
I took the first bite of my salmon, and it was just how I expected it, amazing. 
'I hired one of the best chefs of Luanacris Beach.' He grinned. 
'Oh nice.' I really didn't know what to say. I wasn't used to this, all this luxury and wealth. 
'Have I already told you how beautiful you look?' He asked. 
'Yes, but you can say it again.' I smiled.
'You are beautiful. Today, yesterday and always.' He smiled and laid his hand on mine. I blushed, it was so nice to be here with him.  This seemed more like a fairy tale. I mean, wasn’t he too young to be this romantic and mature? He acted as if he was Prince Charming. 
'So, do like living in Luanacris Beach?' Lucas asked. 
'Well, at first I thought I wasn't going to like it, but now I'm loving it.' I smiled at him. 
'I hope I'm one of the reasons you like it here.' He teased. 
'You know you are.' I said. 'You, Jake and Avery make Luanacris Beach perfect.' 
'Don't you think Jake is a bit weird?' He suddenly said. 'I heard some things about him.' 
'I don't think so.' I said sharply 'You shouldn't believe in everything you hear.'  
'Okay, okay, I was just saying...' 
'You don't need to say anything. He is my friend, I know him.' I snapped. I didn't mean to be rude, but I just can't stand people talking shit about Jake.
'Woah!' Lucas said. 'Remember that I'm your boyfriend.' He joked. 
'I know, and if someone said anything bad about you, I'd defend you until the end.' I squeezed his hand and smiled again. 
'I'm just messing with you.' He laughed. 'Hey, let me show you something.' he got up and took me by the hand to the place where we had been laying before dinner. 
'My mom always kept staring up at the stars with my father, telling me how beautiful they were.' He put his hand around my waist. 'I never saw anything special in them, until today.' I turned to face him. He looked right into my eyes. 
'Today, with you by my side, I can finally see the beauty of the stars. Maybe I see that now, because your eyes shine just like those stars, so when I look at them, I think of you.' He gently lifted my chin up, so our mouths were inches apart. I held my breath for a second, and then he kissed me. We had already kissed many times, but I still had some butterflies in my stomach. It seemed like I was living in a fantasy. 
'My eyes only shine when I'm with you.' I said, kissing him back. 
We sat on the stretchers and continued kissing, one of his hands slid to my thigh and the other rested on my back. His lips went from mine to my neck and he leaned forward pushing me against the backrest of the stretcher. Half of his body was on mine, the hand that was on my back was now on my waist. My heart started pounding on my chest.  
‘Wait.’ I said when he started kissing my neck again.
‘I’m sorry.’ He said sitting up 
‘I…’ I didn’t know to say.
‘It’s okay.’ He smiled. He hugged me and I rested my head on his chest. 
We stayed there until Lucas alarm went off. 'We need to go, or your parents won't trust me anymore.' He said looking at his watch. 
I got home right on time. My mom was at the porch reading. When Lucas dropped me off, she smiled at him and waved. 'So where did he take you?' She asked the minute he drove off.
'He took me to his family yacht.' I smiled. I told her the whole date with a big smile on my face.
'Oh Leila, he seems like a really nice young man.' She said. 'I told you moving would be good.'
'Yeah, you were right mom. Thank you.' I kissed her goodnight and went to bed and fell quickly into a sweet dream. 

Lucas asked me to sit with him and his friends the next day. The majority of last week he had been sitting with Avery, Jake and I, so it wouldn’t be fair to ask him to sit with me again. I put my tray besides Lucas and received mixed looks. Some looked at me as if I were an Alien and others had a sweet welcoming look. Needless to say, one of the dirty looks was from Rebecca. 
‘What the hell is she doing here, Lucas?’ She pointed at me with her long thin finger.
‘As my girlfriend, I thought it would be nice for her to sit with us.’ He answered. 
‘You are kind of desperate, right?’ Lindsey said. ‘I mean, you go out once with Lucas and the next day you guys are dating!’ 
I stared at her. All eyes were on me and I didn’t know what to answer. She was right, we had moved kind of fast, but Lucas and I had been hanging out for some time and I had fallen so quickly for him. After all, there wasn’t a rule book about dating, if he asked me to be his girlfriend when I clearly wanted to, why play hard to get? 
‘There is no fast or slow when it comes to love.’ Lucas looked at me and smiled.
‘So cheesy!’ One of his friends joked. 
‘Yeah, that’s why I have a girl and you have no one.’ Lucas said. 
‘So what did you two love birds do this weekend?’ Ashley asked. ‘Did she make you hang out with her weirdo friends?’ 
‘They are not weird.’ I said. ‘And now that you mentioned it, we had a lovely date. Didn’t we Lucas?’ 
‘Yes,’ he said, I don’t know if it was my imagination but I swear he was looking directly to Rebecca. ‘I took Leila to meet Georgia.’ He grinned. 
‘YOU WHAT?’ Rebecca seemed to have lost it for a second. Then she breathed and smiled. ‘So you went on a little trip on his family yacht?’ she looked at me.
‘Yes, it was lovely.’ I smiled. I know it was bad to show off, but she sure deserved it. 
‘Wow man, you guys must be serious for you to take her to Georgia.’  Thomas said poking Lucas with his elbow. 
‘Oh, shut up.’ Rebecca said. ‘Let’s go, I can’t sit in the same table as this loser.’ She and her two friends got up and left. I could still feel her rage and jealousy even after she left.
‘Sorry about that.’ Lucas said, squeezing my hand. 
‘It’s okay.’ I kissed his cheek. Only now did I realize what it meant for him to have taken me on his yacht. It meant that I was special. That he really liked me.