Head Over Heels ✓

24 / the first time

march, age eighteen

The holidays always passed too fast. After eleven weeks of his second semester at university, Lucas had been excited for the four-week break over Easter but it had passed in the blink of an eye when he had never really stayed in one place long enough to feel the time slipping through his fingers. He was used to bouncing between his mother and father and he had also spent a couple of nights in the poky spare bedroom in Audrie's little flat, the place she and Cooper had rented for almost two years now, but the majority of his free time had been spent with Asher.

After such a long wait, he didn't want to waste a moment. There was so much he felt they had missed out on, the years for which he had been in love while Asher had been clueless, and when university broke up for the holidays, they had spent almost every moment together. When Lucas had had a week off between the two halves of the semester, Asher spent a few days with him in Cambridge before he and his family had gone on holiday. The five weeks after that had been torture, the lead-up to exam season when he had spent his hours turning in assignments. The break had been heaven.

But now it was over. Four whole weeks had passed by in a flash, his first year of university almost done. All that was left now were his exams, which he had been working towards since the start of the year so he didn't have to cram over the holidays. That was time that he would much rather have spent with his boyfriend, after all.

The word still felt foreign in his mouth. For four months, Lucas had called Asher his boyfriend and the word still brought a smile to his lips each time he said it. It was like some kind of cruel dream world in which everything he had ever wanted had come true and he was terrified that any moment now, he would wake up. He had been living in a daze recently and he didn't want to change a thing.

Tonight, Asher would drive him down to Cambridge and stay for the weekend. No-one else was back yet: Mira had gone up to Manchester with Mawar for a few days, promising to be back by Monday, while the others had various commitments that would keep them away for the weekend. They would have the flat to themselves, something that Lucas was simultaneously excited for and a little terrified about. It would be the first time they would have any privacy, something that was impossible to come by with a family the size of Lucas's or as nosy as Asher's.

Before that, though, one last drink with his sister. His things were ready back home, waiting to be packed into Asher's car, but he had a couple of hours before he needed to get home. It was still weird being apart from Audrie, who had been such a huge part of his growing up: he hadn't quite been five when he had moved in with her almost fourteen years ago, and now she had her own place. She had her own life, she and Cooper a family of their own, and Lucas struggled to appreciate the extra space at home when it meant he'd have to give up his big sister.

He got the bus into town, taking up as little space as possible as he sat on one of the hard seats with his ticket clasped in his hand the whole way. His earbuds were jammed into his ears, his music playing a little louder than he liked to have it in an effort to drown out the racket of the old bus. The seats juddered even on the smoothest stretches of road, the windows rattling as though they were trying to jump free. He distracted himself by counting the number of cars that passed in each direction, totting up two tallies in his head until he reached his stop and tripped to the front. Thanking the driver, he swung out of the doors and took a moment to orient himself.

Audrie's flat was pretty ideal, located right in the middle of town. Although it wasn't very big, Cooper's and her room only just large enough to warrant the name of master bedroom, the location couldn't be faulted and the rent was a steal. Two storeys above a little convenience store, it could get a tad loud sometimes but Audrie was used to noise from her family and Cooper had never minded.