Who Knew - Byler

29

Lucas ended up going to the mall by himself. He knew that Max and Jane were there, but he had ignored the idea of looking for them since he thought that of course, he would be the one who was gonna get ignored all the time. Being alone seemed like a better option.

He had been walking around here and there, going into shops and buying nothing because he didn't have much money. Finally, he went into Scoops Ahoy and since he didn't find Steve behind the counter, he ate an ice cream by himself. He sighed at how depressing this entire situation was.

Suddenly, he felt someone sit next to him. He looked up and saw a group of three girls sitting in the table next to him, two to his left and one to his right. He swallowed nervously. He wasn't really good with girls. Like, at all. He was completely unable to talk to them unless they were Max or Jane, or toddlers. And these girls were definetly not toddlers. They actually looked a little bit older than him, maybe.

He quickly went back to staring at his ice cream because he wasn't sure if he had to greet the girls or what he was supposed to do.

"So, are you not even gonna say hi?" the girl to his right said. "Rude." Okay, so he definitely was supposed to say hi. Well, that was a start. At least now he knew this.

"Hi," he said, shooting a shy smile. One of the girls to his left smiled at him. "Well, the guy can speak. Hi, I'm Lucy, that's Stacy," she said, pointing to the other girl to his left, and then pointing to the one to the right, "and that's Emma." 

Lucas just smiled again and nodded, and then went back to staring at his ice cream uncomfortably. He had no idea what to do or to say. But apparently, he didn't need to worry about what to say or do, because the girls were doing all the work for him-

"So, what's your name?" Stacy asked. He looked up again. "Uh, I'm Lucas," he replied. "May I, uh, ask why you sat down next to me?"

"Why, do you want us to leave? Emma asked, raising an eyebrow. "No, no," Lucas was fast to explain, and Lucy smirked. "I was just wondering... because I don't know you and you just sat by my side."

"Well, actually we go to the same school," Emma pointed out. "And we just saw you by yourself and decided to sit with you. You seem nice." 

"Ah, yes, I thought you looked familiar," Lucas lied. He was very bad at remembering people, and he couldn't recall seeing those girls around school. "So, you just decided to sit next to me because I was alone."

"Exactly," Lucy said. Huh, Lucas thought. That's pretty nice of them. 

"So, Lucas," Lucy continued. "What do you like to do?"

"Um... well I really like sci-fi movies and hanging out with my friends, i guess."

"Sci-fi movies?" Emma said, and snorted, which made Lucas feel like shit, because was a girl that he seriously just met making fun of him for liking sci-fi movies? "That's actually so unexpected," the girl continued. "WE love sci-fi movies."

So she wasn't making fun of him, she actually loved them too. Huh. He seriously needed to stop overthinking. "That's so cool! I never really met any girls who like sci-fi movies," Lucas answered, suddenly feeling much more at ease with the girls.

"Well, we love them," Emma continued. "At least I do. Those two only kind of stand them," she said, rolling her eyes, as the two other girls giggled to each other. 

"So, what's your favorite movie?" Lucas asked, and him and Emma quickly started conversating, and much to his surprise, he found that he was actually very comfortable in her presence and enjoyed talking to her.

-

Max and Jane were walking around the mall, laughing and talking. Jane was pretty sure she'd never had this much fun in her entire life, not even with Mike. Suddenly she felt like all that time she'd spent with him, closed in her bedroom, just kissing and not doing  anything else, was time she'd lost. And she felt so lucky she had Max by her side to help her get over him and be happy.

"Hey, wanna go get an ice cream?" Max asked, after they'd already tried on all the clothes in pretty much all of the shops there were in the mall. Jane smiled and nodded. Ice cream sounded amazing.

As they approached Scoops Ahoy, Max saw a familiar face sitting in one of the benches. Who the hell was that? And just one second later, she stopped walking. What the hell? What was Lucas doing here? And why was he sitting in a table with three super hot girls and laughing so much? What the hell? Just- what the actual hell?

Jane stopped walking too, and turned around to look at Max. "Max? What's wrong?" she asked, and then followed her eyes to see where she was looking at. "Hey, that's Lucas! Should we go say hi to him?" she asked, visibly excited. Of course, she didn't understand that Max was upset.

"No, Jane. Let's just go home. It's getting late," Max simply replied, and started walking in the opposite direction of the ice cream shop.

"What? What do you mean it's late?" Jane asked, following her hurriedly. "It's still so early! Let's get an ice cream and go sit with Lucas and his friends!"

"Jane, no!" Max snapped, turning around. "You clearly don't understand this situation. Imagine if Mike was sitting with a bunch of girls who are like, super pretty and hot, and just laughing with them. How would that feel?"

"Well, I guess it would feel kind of bad."

"No, not kind of. Really bad. He clearly doesn't need me to have fun." She turned around and kept walking, Jane following her again.

When they got on the bus, Max sighed. "You know what, no. Fuck it. I'm not gonna be down because of him." And after that she just started being all giggly and cheerful again, and genuinely seemed okay. Just maybe she wasn't.

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Before any of you complain, I know there's nothing wrong with a guy hanging out with girls. Just think that even though Max knows how relationships work and stuff, this is her first one and she's feeling insecure. She thinks that Lucas doesn't want her anymore or something. 

Also, I literally haven't updated since august and it's december, which is basically like almost half a year, and I must say I don't understand how y'all bare with me like lmao I would be so tired of myself by now. But I honestly have found that I am having trouble with the ending of this story (I'm gonna try to end it as soon as I can because I feel like it's too long ksjdfks) and so I found it hard to write (hence why this chapter actually sucks.)

Anyway, thanks for reading dis shit :) love y'all