Twice The Trouble

Chapter 21: Falling For Lucas

Sophia

Nuts.

I did it again.

I let my stomach control my emotions.

Just as luck would have it, the one time I skipped lunch was the same time Stacy journeyed half the university to look for me.

Shoot. I wonder why she was searching for me? Did she have troubles of her own to cope with?

Subconsciously, my right hand flew to my jagged, half-heart pendant, my fingers tracing over the cursive writings while I pushed myself off the library floor and walked out the glass door.

Thank God for my biscuit stash.

"You keep biscuits in your bag?" a voice intoned in my mind.

"It's my metabolism!" I muttered to myself as I chewed on a sphere-shaped biscuit.

"Now you're talking to yourself."

I instantly responded: "There's nothing wrong with---"

Hold it. That wasn't my voice nor my brain who spoke to me. It was a real voice.

My brown eyes raked around the vicinity. I spotted a tall guy with black hair and brown eyes, and he was sitting across a long,narrow step of a staircase, his back leaned against the blue wall.

"---With..?" he laughingly prompted me, waving his hand in a "go on" manner.

I immediately approached him and reprimanded him: "You're not allowed to loiter on the staircase! It's part of the student handbook!"

He stared at the dark blue wall opposite him, and rested his arms over his knees.

"A professor saw me here a while ago and said it was fine."

"A female professor?" I inquired, squinting at his tranquil face.

"Yeah, why?"

I looked the other way and rolled my eyes. "Nothing."

"Did you just roll your eyes at me?"

"No. That was a mirage."

"What does it matter if the prof was a female?"

I sent him a buoyant smile. "You used your charms, didn't you?"

"My what?" He gaped at me.

"Your charms!" I gestured wildly to the air above him.

Lucas chuckled. "Now who's paying me a compliment?"

I hugged my bag of biscuits in a possessive and protective way.

"No snacks for you. I skipped lunch today, so I'm famished."

"What? You ditched lunch? How come?" he asked me as he sat up.

I examined him from head to foot. "You're one to talk."

"Did you just check me out?"

"The fudge? No! I meant, you're just lurking in the shadows like a creep so it means you're also playing hooky on break time," I explained in a rush.

"I already ate a sandwich," he told me.

I threw him a dubious frown. "A sandwich? Singular?"

"Yes, yes. The sandwich has no partner or friend. Must you insult inanimate objects?"

"It wouldn't be enough to last you the rest of the afternoon," I told him.

He put a hand over his mouth and dilated his brown eyes at me. "Gasp! Is this concern I feel?"

"Are you always this annoying?"

"You mean, am I always this endearing?"

"There is a very fine line between those two."

"May I have a biscuit?"

I lifted an eyebrow at him. "What did I just say?"

"Come on. Friends starve together," he wheedled.

"What kind of motto is that? Did you sew it on a pillow?"

"Would you be surprised if I could?"

Carefully, I sat on one end of the long narrow step he was relaxing on.

"Mildly," I answered as I held out the biscuit bag towards him. He grabbed a piece.

"This is really unhealthy for us," Lucas chuckled, biting down on his biscuit.

"Yeah, we should eat rice and real food next time," I said without thinking.

My cheeks flamed. I could feel Lucas staring heavily at me as he chewed his snack.

"You want to eat..together?" he asked me.

"If it's okay with you," I hastily told him, widening my eyes. "But won't your girlfriend be upset that you're not spending lunchtime with her?"

"My who now?"

"Aria, the petite girl with black hair?"

Lucas shook his head, looking bemused. "She's not my girlfriend."

"Then why..?"

His brown eyes sparkled with humor. "She was just being very friendly."

Yeah, right. She was glued to him like a limpet for hours.

"Do you enjoy it?" I heard myself asking him.

"Enjoy what?"

"When girls are very friendly with you," I clarified.

He picked up another biscuit from my stash and mulled over the query.

"No, I don't."

"Maybe you should tell them that?" I suggested casually.

He swallowed a bite of bread and turned to me. "I don't want to hurt their feelings."

His dialogue way too familiar. He sounded exactly like me.

"Perhaps you should assert yourself? You have to learn to say no sometimes."

You're a hypocrite, Sophia. You're a walking doormat yourself.

He seemed to meditate on my advice for a pregnant moment.

I mentally pumped my first when he nodded his head. "I'll think it over."

We both checked our watches in unison. And again, simultaneously, we stood up.

"A quarter to one," I stated. "We should return to class soon."

As if our thoughts were synchronized, our brown eyes lowered to the small plastic bag of round biscuits sitting on Lucas' open palm.

"Here," he said, thrusting the stash to me.

My right forefinger tapped on my lips as I concocted a small heist.

I looked at Lucas and asked him: "Do you have a plastic bag? Anything small."

His expression was one of regret and apology. "Sorry. None."

"I was hoping you'd say that," I said with an impish smile.

"What---Sophia, what are you doing??"

A bubble of laughter rose from my throat as Lucas watched me take a handful of biscuits from my stash and slide them inside my gray vest's pockets like casino coins into a thin slot.

"You're crazy!"

"I prefer weird or unique, but thanks," I said and curled his fingers over the bag in his palm.

"You didn't have to do this," Lucas told me in an awkward tone.

"I'll be fine. I'll try not to get arrested," I joked as I pulled my green backpack behind me.

He eyed me apprehensively. "How will I know you won't be caught?"

"I'll text you!" I called out as I turned away and walked to the Humanities building.