Brittany
I packed my books which I displayed on the center table to deceive my mother and started walking towards Lucas on the stairs. "At least, I cover my body"
He laughed then "You are free to come here without clothes. I wouldn't say no."
At the end of the stairs, he helped me with my bag and gestured for me to walk in front of him.
"Jesus, Brittany. Are you sure you don't have a boyfriend? This as-"
I stopped walking and he fell beside me with his hands raised in surrender.
"You are such a perv, Pretty face. Remind me never to walk in front of you."
"Denying a man access to your sexy body. Now, that's mean even for you, Brittany."
My feet carried me to his room as if it was the most natural thing in the world. His bed was made "Hmm, you didn't sleep on your bed?"
He led me to the couches. A bedroom with couches is a sign that the owner is filthy rich. "I was working"
No more explanation.
Working meant that he audited financial reports. And by the neatness in his room, working also meant that he didn't sleep throughout the night. I guessed he was not so lonely after all, he had financial reports to keep him company.
In his corner, he was contributing to his father's business. I didn't know the full details of what kind of business or what they deal in because he never told me but I know it was a big deal. His father must trust his skills to assign such an important task to him.
But seriously, if his father could assign an important task to him, why can't he allow him to study Business Administration? Why Law?
"I have three assignments; two essays and one mathematics. Which one are we starting with?"
He wanted nothing to do with the essays and everything to do with the mathematics assignment. We settled to work in silence after he cooked breakfast. I knew most ingredients but I don't cook at home so I just allowed him to do what he could do in the kitchen.
The food turned out well. We ate and cleaned the plates then resumed back to his room. Periodically, we checked on my mum. We could not risk her coming to the living room and finding me gone.
After a few attempts to explain the mathematics assignment to me with failure, Lucas finally gave up. "I am not helping you if I just do the assignment for you. How would you do in the exam?"
"I would read it before exam time. Not everyone enjoys solving complicated equations"
He said something along the lines of dumbass before continuing with the work.
"Can you play Grand Theft Auto?"
I couldn't play because girls don't play video games and my brothers don't play any video games. Lucas decided that no friend of his would not know how to play video games. So, after we finished my assignments, he brought out his X-box and set it up.
He taught me the basic commands and I tried to listen but he was sitting too close to me. My body was fully aware of where our bodies met. I felt ashamed that I had such dirty thoughts about 'my friend' and I concluded that it was a bad idea not to date anyone in my school.
Seventeen years without a boyfriend made me want some nasty stuff with my only male friend.
According to him, the game was simple and I just had to follow objectives and complete missions. He taught me how to customise my character and gain money from completing tasks. Overall, I thought it was just a stupid game but Lucas thought otherwise so we started to play.
I thought the storyline was good but I had a hard time learning how to use the keypad. Lucas was having the time of his life teaching me and making funny comments. We were having so much fun that we didn't hear the gate open.
If we had checked on my mother, we would have seen the visitor in Lucas's living room. I was trying to collect the console from Lucas but he held it high. A stranger would see us hurdled together dragging a console, laughing and cozy.
We looked cosy. And in love.
And that was what Lucas' father walked in on.
My crop top had ridden to just under my navel and Lucas was shirtless. My hair was everywhere as if someone ran their hands through it, I did that but Lucas's father couldn't have known. All he could see was that one of Lucas's hands was on my waist trying to hold me down and both of my hands were occupied with pushing Lucas down so I could climb on him to get the console.
We were just having a good day, nothing more.
"What the fuck is going on here? Who is she?"
Both of us were dumbfounded. I was back to sitting down but I couldn't move my mouth to answer Lucas' father.
They have the same colour of eyes and almost the same build. I didn't know his age but he was very attractive thanks to his hair, eyes and build.
Where Lucas's face could be all smiles, his father's had a permanent shape of a frown. I had never witnessed that sort of anger before. We were not doing anything bad but I wondered if Lucas was allowed to bring a girl home.
Perhaps if I had thought it through in my head, I would have allowed Lucas to speak first. It was his father and he would know how to best deal with him. Instead, I blurted out the next thing in my head "Hi, I am Brittany. Lucas's friend. Hmmm…hmmm my mum is just downstairs."
He turned his eyes to me. Cold deep-blue eyes on blue. I was scared and stood up immediately. That seemed to snap Lucas out of his trance because he stood by my side and put his arms over my shoulders.
Cozy indeed.
He looked between the two of us and gaped at me up and down, I had never felt so small and insignificant than in that moment.
"And what is your mother doing downstairs, Brittany?"
Lucas spoke in my stead, I thought he did that to divert his father's attention away from me.
"I am done with the audit. I sent it to your iCloud."
"Lucas, I am speaking to your companion. We can discuss the audit later."
"Cleaning," I blurted out.
And he snickered. Lucas' father laughed in mocking. It was worse than my classmates' giggles at Tessy's mother's profession. The difference in our living status dawned on me at that moment.
I squared my shoulder and pushed Lucas's arms off my shoulder. He swirled his head to look at him but I didn't meet his eyes, I wanted to leave his father's mocking gaze. "If you wanted someone to have fun with, you could have chosen better than the cleaner's daughter. She's beautiful though"
He told Lucas to see him after he was 'done' with me and then left like he hadn't just planted the seed of hatred in his son's friendship.
I do not remember much after Lucas's father left. Everything was blurring through my tears. I remembered that Lucas apologized though and I said it was okay. I returned to the living room and waited until my mother was done for the day.
"Did you see Mr Carlisle?" She asked. I remembered that my mother babbled about how handsome he was and that he paid better than any of her other clients. "If I had more clients like him, Brand wouldn't have to work so hard," she said.
The memory of that day was fuzzy but I remembered clearly that Lucas didn't tell me goodbye and he didn't answer the phone when I called him that night.