WILD (✓)

~ four ~

I finally get around to taking all my bags out of the back of my car on the last day of break. I learned early on that it's best to move out a little bit at a time, and Thanksgiving break is the perfect time to start clearing out all of the fall clothes I have that I won't be able to wear again before Christmas break. Thanksgiving was quite late this year, though, so I have much more to bring home than usual. I huff, dropping a heavy bin to the ground before locking my trunk back up.

"Hey, Kat!" I hear my neighbors voice from his own yard. I look up to see Lucas Johnson's large frame taking up most of his front door. His dirty blond hair is cropped short, the same way he has always kept it.

"Lucas, hey!" I wave back, a polite smile on my face. Truth be told, Lucas and I have a complicated history. Growing up as neighbors, we were practically best friends in elementary school. Middle school even. But high school came and as we matured, Lucas became popular and dated a lot, while I mainly focused on studying and getting into a good college. We still had to hang out sometimes when our parents had cookouts and things like that; but Lucas usually found an excuse to leave part way through, not that I could even really blame him. Even when he was there, though, it was hard for us to act like friends, since we were practically strangers at that point. We put up with it for awhile to keep our parents off our backs, but when they invited each of us to the other's graduation party, Lucas had cornered me by my locker and said he couldn't come to mine. "Sorry," he'd said, "But you understand, don't you?" The words ring loud in my mind as I watch him trot over to edge of my driveway.

"Whatcha up to?" Lucas asks, hands on his hips. His big, brown eyes examine the bin of sweaters on the ground.

"Just getting some of my stuff home, so there isn't as much to take home for winter break." I explain, struggling to lift the heavy bin off the ground. His brows come together, and I'm sure it never occurs to Lucas, and probably most other boys, to lighten the load of final move out by switching out attire according to the season. Men.

"Here, let me," Lucas offers, extending a hand. I step back to make room for him, watching his muscles move under his thin thermal top. Lucas has really filled out since we've gone to college, but as he is a varsity football player, I guess that was to be expected. "Where do you want it?" He turns over his shoulder, his cropped dirty blond hair looks so soft that I want to reach out and trail my hand over it.

"Just inside the door there is fine," I point ahead to the door connecting the garage to the house. He takes the bin over with ease. "Thanks, I appreciate it." I smile gratefully, imaging how much longer I would have taken had I moved it myself. I groan at the thought of fully moving out at the end of May next semester. The moving in and out is definitely one of the worst things about college. That and the stress, I sigh.

"No problem," he wipes his hands on his blue jeans. He looks around the old garage, "If you ever need help cleaning anything out, let me know." His hand touches my shoulder lightly and I know he's being sincere. It was weird, but once we went off to college it's like Lucas grew up more than I would've expected. He asked me to come over his first Thanksgiving home and he apologized for how he had treated me. I wasn't sure what brought on the change, but I didn't question it. We didn't go back to being best friends, but we started being friendly to each other again. I'd rather be friendly enough to chit chat than hold a grudge and still have to see him home every holiday.

"How's Sarah?" I ask about his younger sister, who is only a year below us.

"Really great," he beams. "She's on the swim team and she's got this awesome internship already." I miss Sarah. Despite her brother exiling me, Sarah was always more of the book-ish type, too. We got along, although she was never seen as an outcast like me, because she was related to Lucas.