Trapped in School (Watty Awards 2012 Nominee)

Chapter Seventeen: A Stolen Cell Phone

I have developed a hypothesis about the other short and skinny girls at my school. I believe they had a conference in which they voted on which type of clothing would end up in the lost and found, and they ended up passing (in a Congressional style basis with a 2/3 majority vote) clothing that was either a.) falling apart or b.) extremely slutty.

Which is why my clothing options stood at a lace black cami, two pairs of grey short-shorts, a brown sweater with frayed ends, three pairs of striped socks, or paint covered jeans with a hole on the butt. I ended up selecting the grey shorts, cami, and brown sweater. My appearance gave off the impression I was the lovechild of the owner of Goodwill and a floozy.

With a sigh, I trudged up the stairs, tugging down my shorts for fifth time since I put them on.

Once I reached the top of the staircase, I decided to take a moment to face the fact I was ninja enough to trip up the stairs, and examine the battle scars the caused me to cuss out the first deity I could think of as I almost fell flat on my face. I poked at the little nick on my shin, rubbing away the blood with the cuff of my sweater.

That was when I heard a voice down the hallway; Lucas, obviously, I mean who else could it be, Creeper-Ghost Girl?

“….Kate, stop crying sweetie. Please, it’s going to be…. I know. I’m sorry for not calling you sooner. My cell phone died and I thought Daddy would be there….. He did? That’s good….. Yeah, they’re all yours. They’ll be stale by the time I get back. Okay. Alright. You too, bye,” I heard Lucas sigh along with the beeping sound of my phone being turned off. I stepped into the hallway.

“Lucas? Is everything okay?” I asked. He was pacing down the hallway, rubbing his temples, but at the sound of my voice he spun around. His eyes widened.

“Uh, yeah, fine. I was just…. How much did you hear of that?” he asked. I stepped foreword and he met me halfway, holding out my phone wearily like I would bite his arm off. Under normal circumstances, that may have been true, considering he didn’t ask for permission to borrow my phone, but the guy already looked like he was about to cry. Or, whatever the male equivalency for crying is since guys think they are too “manly” to cry.

Focus Nat!

“Enough. Is Kate your sister or something?” I asked. I reached out and took my phone from him, refraining from bringing it up to my face so I could double check there weren’t any smudge marks. Curse my inner neat freak. Lucas looked down, rubbing away a scuff mark on the floor with the tip of his shoe.

“Yeah, she’s ten. I didn’t bother calling home yesterday, didn’t think it was necessary. She was home sick the day of the storm and my dad was taking care of her, but apparently my father is more of an imbecile than I assumed,” said Lucas. Now he was back to pacing, looking up at the ceiling and grinding his teeth. His face was red and he seemed more upset than the moment I told him we were stuck. I stayed silent for a moment, but eventually found the voice to ask:

“What did he do?”

“He was at a bar, fell asleep there actually, and left Kate home alone for four hours. The storm hit. Now he’s stuck there, I’m stuck here, and Kate’s all alone,” said Lucas. His voice faded like someone pointed a remote on him and lowered the volume; it still held all the anger, but got quieter as he stared straight ahead. It was so alarming to see Lucas like this. He was angry, yes, but there was something different about his demeanor.

Lucas was scared.

And I didn’t know how to fix it. Sure, I could solve algebraic equations, or find a grammatical error in a sentence but people weren’t that simple, there wasn’t a “given” I could simply enter in a formula and no proofs to tell me what to do. I’d never had a sibling, or even a true friend for that matter. So I stood there awkwardly biting my nails with my stomach in knots.

Some time passed and Lucas calmed down. He looked at the awkward mess that was me and sighed.

“Well, we might as well get going, I’m sure you want some breakfast and--”

I lurched foreword, wrapping my arms around Lucas’s midsection and nearly knocking him to his feet. I buried my head in his chest.

“I’m sorry,” I mumbled. There was a long moment of silence before Lucas wrapped his arms around me, smothering me in a warm caress. I became oddly aware of how tall he was, how he seemed so strong holding me like this, as if I was the once who needed comforting.
“It’s okay. It’s not your fault,” he whispered. I pulled back, but his arms held me. Glancing up, I found Lucas’s ocean blue eyes watching me, and I swear, breathing was a physical impossibility. It was like the laws of nature had been rewritten. Or like, a commandment or something: “Thou shalt not breath.”

Focus Nat!

“I… uh, gah. Yeah,” I muttered.

How eloquent of me.

Lucas chuckled and lifted a hand, brushing some of my blonde hair out of my face. I swallowed hard.

“You’re so awkward Nat. It’s cute,” he said. He leaned towards me. This was that moment, the one in the movies that--

Ohcrapohcrapohcrapohcrap.

Lucas was going to kiss me.

 A/N-- Aaaaaand cliffhanger. Don't kill me! Whoa, Lucas has a family too? Who knew! Thanks for all of the support guys, seriously, I have never had fans this sweet before. <3 Don't forget to vote, next chapter up ASAP.

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