close [nick robinson au]

「02」 Like a Song on Repeat

No matter how hard he tried, Nick just couldn't get Lucas out of his head, and it was starting to really tick him off. Usually he was able to fall asleep fairly quickly without too much effort, but now he was having quite a bit of trouble. He was laying in bed with the softest blankets he owned wrapped around him, and his room couldn't be more devoid of light, but he still wasn't able to drift off. 

He just kept replaying his conversation with Lucas over and over again, trying to figure out where it went wrong. One second he was actually starting to smile, and the next he was angry again. No matter how long he spent thinking about it, he couldn't figure it out. There had to be something he was missing, and he was determined to find out what it was.

When he finally did manage to drift off, he didn't have any dreams he would remember.

Morning came all too soon for Lucas, and it was all he could do not to throw his phone out the open window across from his bed to stop the alarm from blaring. Staying up all night doing extra credit to get his grades back up had seemed like a great idea at the time, but now he was filled with hatred for the past night. He moved through his morning routines like a zombie, and when he eventually made it to school, he probably looked like one too. 

Lucas was ready to go home the second he set foot inside the writing lab, but he still had upwards of seven hours left before he could see the beauty of his own bed again. He spent the first half of his day thinking longingly of lunch when he'd be able to get some real shut eye without the fear of another detention hanging over him like an ax ready to behead. 

When lunch finally came around though, his hope of resting went up in smoke and drifted away in the wind. 

Nick's eyes scoured the entire cafeteria before they settled on the boy he was looking for, sitting at the very back of the room. Lucas's curly hair falling forward haphazardly almost covered his dark eyes, but Nick could tell they were focused on the half-eaten sandwich in his hands. Nick tried not to second guess himself as he walked over to, but when Lucas finally noticed him and the tired look on his face turned to a sour glare, he almost stopped dead in his tracks. 

Part of him thought talking to Lucas again wasn't worth all the trouble, but the rest of him remembered the buzz from the day before when Lucas had stared into him the day before, and the second part of him won. 

He sat down across from him, folded his hands on top of the table, and opened his mouth to speak.

"What could you possibly want today?" Lucas asked before he could even say hello or whatever else he was planning on doing.

"I know it's almost December, but you really don't have to be that cold." Nick responded quickly, frowning as the words tumbled from his lips.

Lucas was so tired he actually laughed a little. "Nice comeback, you find that online?"

Nick shook his head. "Came up with it just now. I'm smarter than I look."

Lucas laughed again in spite of himself. "I'm sure you are, but that's not really hard to believe considering you look like a total idiot."

"I do not!" Nick insisted, leaning back and folding him hands across his chest.

"Yeah, you actually do. I think it's the hair."

"Whatever, Cruz, I think I look great."

Lucas's laugh faded back into a frown and his brows furrowed. "You've got my last name now?"

If Nick was affected by the mood drop, he didn't let it show. "Yeah, I do. Since apparently Lucky is off the table, I thought I'd try Cruz."

Lucas dropped his head into his hands for a moment. He was not awake enough to navigate a full blown conversation with a boy he hadn't wanted to talk to on a good day. "Yeah, okay, great. I'm really too tired to do this right now, so I'm just going to take a real quick nap now before Econ kicks my ass in twenty minutes. Can whatever you wanted to say wait until Ceramics?" 

"I guess." 

"Great, I'll see you then." Lucas muttered, putting a prompt end to the conversation.

He let his head fall back onto the table and his eyes close. 

Nick wasn't really sure what to do, so he sat uncomfortably drumming his fingers against his arm. 

"Are you seriously still there?" Lucas's muffled voice asked less than a minute later.

"Yeah." Nick admitted a bit sheepishly.

Lucas sighed deeply, but didn't lift his head. "Go away please, Nick."

"Yup, I'm gone." Nick nodded as he bounced up off his chair, banging his knee on the bottom of the table as he did. He cursed under his breath and then wandered off to go find another friend to sit with.

Lucas smiled as he heard him walk away.

After the half-nap at lunch, all Lucas's classes leading up to Ceramics last period passed by smoothly. At times when he got bored of work, he found his thoughts drifting back to Nick, and he wasn't sure he liked it. He couldn't help but wonder why Mick had come back to talk, but he couldn't figure it out. When he realized he was actually looking forward to seeing him at the end of the day, even if it was only to find out what his deal was, Lucas was more than a bit affronted., 

Nick wasn't wildly popular, but he definitely had other friends he could be hanging around during their lunch break, and Lucas wasn't sure why he had wanted to be with him. He certainly hadn't given him a good reason to, unless telling someone to leave you alone was the newly accepted hello.

Whatever the reason was though, he was intrigued. But intrigue or not, he was determined not to waste too much time on him or any other boy that year. 

Whether or not he would succeed was something entirely different.