Lucas ✔️

Forty

"Are you sure they're open?" Cole asked Janie and me as he leant forward over his steering wheel, eyeing the building.

"Hey, as someone once told me, 'they're always open!'" I said cheerily, feeling confident we would find someone who knew where they were.

"Who said that to you?" Janie asked me as she poked her head forward from the backseat.

"Shax." I shrugged, opening the door and stepping out.

"Why would you be listening to him?" Cole muttered as he shuffled out, slamming his door behind him.

Janie jumped out and followed us, looking awkwardly over-dressed for a visit to this particular grungy bar. She was sporting a pair of three-quarter white capri pants and a pink cashmere sweater, her hair curled to perfection. As usual, she looked amazing, all prim-and-proper right down to her cuticles.

"Why're you so dressed up?" Cole asked with slight apprehension, looking down at his own attire. As usual, Cole was in running shorts and a plain shirt – a set I had seen so often I assumed it was his uniform.

"I don't know," Janie said with a laugh as she wrapped some hair around her finger. "I just felt like I had to be presentable, you know?"

"No, I don't know," Cole grumbled as I rolled my eyes at them and pushed on the door. They weren't even an official couple yet and they were already at odds.

The bar was eerily empty and silent, and I briefly wondered if the bar actually was closed. The bartender drying a glass and sending me a raised eyebrow told me it wasn't, so I shuffled in, Cole and Janie following me quickly. We looked horribly out-of-place, like three teens barely old enough to drink who weren't supposed to be here. I mean, we were three teens barely old enough to drink and we probably weren't supposed to be here, but it didn't help that Cole looked like he was dressed for the gym, Janie looked like she was dressed for church, and I looked like I had just thrown on whatever. Which I had.

"He's in the back," the bartender said to me with a small smile, sending me a nod of recognition as he jerked his head towards a door.

"W-what?" I stuttered, turning to look at Janie and Cole with my eyes bugging out of my head. It couldn't be that easy... could it?

"What?" the bartender asked, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion. "You're here for the meeting, right?"

"Oh, yes," Janie said quickly, stepping forward and nodding. "The meeting! Just through that door?" She pointed to the wooden door at the back and the bartender nodded, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Thank you." She sent him a keen smile, hooking her arm into mine and dragging me towards the door.

There's no way it could be this easy. No way. There's absolutely no way Lucas was sitting in this room waiting for me. I knew that the possibility was practically zero, but I still couldn't stop my heartbeat increasing with each step we took closer to the door. 

"Do you think he's really in there?" Cole asked as we stopped in front of it and I shook my head in disbelief.

"Only one way to find out," Janie said quickly as she turned the door knob and pulled me inside.

And, for a minute, I really thought it was Lucas.

He was the same height, same build, same facial structure. He even had the same long hair, albeit his was a gold so bright I felt I needed sunglasses. He turned and caught my eye, a bright smile gracing his face, and if I didn't know before, I definitely knew he wasn't Lucas now. His eyes were a similar colour to Lucas' when they were light – a bright, gleaming gold – but they weren't the same. Lucas' eyes were filled with turmoil, hurt, pain; but the man across from us had eyes that told me he found breathing easy.