Head Over Heels ✓

25 / friday night

june, age 18

Mira dropped down onto the seat opposite Lucas with a tall glass of iced coffee in her hand, her speciality that she had introduced Lucas to and she had taken it as a personal offence when he had disliked it, even though he had warned her that he didn't like coffee. While she sipped the cold, milky coffee, he cupped his hands around a mug of tea. It had taken him a while to appreciate his mother's favourite brew, which she drank at least five times a day, but now he started and ended every single day with a comforting cup of chai.

"Crazy," Mira murmured, shaking her head.

"What is?"

"That freshman year's over."

Lucas had had to get used to her language as much as she'd had to get used to his, each frequently baffled by the words they assigned to things that seemed to make no sense. "Yeah, it's pretty weird," he said. "Very weird, actually. Are we the only ones left now?"

"And Carey," Mira said. "His last one was today. He finished at five, I think." She pushed back her sleeve to check her watch, almost knocking over her drink. "Oh, he should be back any minute."

Over the past couple of weeks, Hermione, Ned and Xavier had slowly drifted back to their homes once their exams had finished and they had packed up their bedrooms. The flat felt so empty, half of the kitchen cupboards totally bare, and it would be deserted by the end of the weekend. The first Wednesday of June had marked Lucas's last exam: now Friday, he only had one more night before his father would drive down to help him move out for the summer.

It was more than summer, really. After a lifetime of six weeks off as a summer holiday, Lucas wasn't sure what he was going to do with himself now that he was off for four whole months, a sixteen week break before his second year would begin. The majority of the vague plan in his head centred around spending time with Asher, the two of them enjoying each other's simple company as much as they could before university pulled them in separate directions once more.

"How d'you feel?" Mira asked. She stirred her coffee, the ice clinking against the glass before she took a mammoth gulp.

"Good," Lucas said, nodding to himself as he thought about the question. "I think everything went ok and I'm excited to be home for the summer." He sipped his tea, taking the bag out when it was just the right strength. "I love it here but I miss Asher."

"I bet," she said with a sigh. "I'm looking forward to seeing Mar."

Lucas smiled. After the sudden night on New Year's Eve when they had gone from zero to sixty in the blink of an eye, the two had been inseparable. Any time Lucas passed Mira's room, he heard her video chatting with Mawar and as many weekends as possible, she headed up to Manchester or the two reunited in Farnleigh. Every break had been spent together, which had been made much easier by Mawar's parents' acceptance of their daughter's girlfriend.

They had barely batted an eye when Mawar had announced that she was bisexual and she was dating a woman: her mother had merely asked when she would get to meet Mira while her father had expressed his relief that he wouldn't need to worry about her getting pregnant and ruining her studies. Her parents were young, both only eighteen when she was born: all they cared about was making sure she got as much out of life as possible before she was responsible for someone else's.

"Is Mar coming down?" Lucas asked. Mira nodded.

"She finished on Monday," she said. "She moves back home today and she's coming down tomorrow to move me out. Not that there's much to move - I literally have two suitcases and that's it. I could get the train, really."