Claudia silently listened to his story about his brother. His words saddened her. She could not imagine losing one of her brothers -- any of her brothers. She loved them all with all of her heart, and if she were to lose any of them ... it would destroy her.
Maybe that was why Lucas was so different. Maybe the loss of his brother had caused him to separate himself from the rest of the student body, and his antisocial behaviours had fed fire to the rumours that he was batshit crazy. Claudia wouldn't put it past her 'friends' to take someone's misfortune and blow it out of proportion. But, of course, she would not mention this to Lucas. She didn't want to hurt him further.
They reached the nurse's office and Lucas hurried through the door. "See you later," said Claudia quietly just before Lucas disappeared into the office. Claudia stood there for a moment, wondering whether she should go inside, but decided against it and left.
After school, Tate picked up the rest of the Lightwood siblings in his faded Toyota. Claudia sat in the back seat with Brogen, staring out of the window as Tate drove through Charmaine.
"How come you weren't on the oval with the rest of us?" Brogen asked.
Tate and Quentin shot Claudia looks in the rearvision mirror. Claudia felt a lot of pressure to protect both herself and Lucas; she knew her brothers would lose it if they knew she was hanging out with the town psycho.
"I ... I felt sick, so I just stayed in the girls' room for the rest of lunch," she lied smoothly.
The short time he spent with Claudia actually impacted him. Yes, it wasn't long at all, but it was a little weird continuing school without having anyone to talk to. He supposed after the awkward moment of explaining his brother she decided it was time to go.
He easily slipped back into his usually routine. Attend school and try to avoid any trouble. The rest of the day seemed increasingly long, he kept thinking back to the blonde girl. Would she talk to him tomorrow? Or ignore him?
Lucas saw her later, leaving, with all three of her brothers. Must be nice. He thought to himself. His eyes drifted off and he caught Rowan, his younger cousin. They went to the same school but didn't talk to each other unless at home, and even then they didn't really talk. It was for the best he supposed.
Standing at the curve, waiting for his mother, he watched as his uncle pulled up to pick up his son. As they drove past him, he received a sideways glance. His uncle didn't particularly like him very much, but the feeling was mutual.
As he thought that, he received a text from his mother.
I can't get you today. I'm working late. Catch a ride with your uncle, have dinner with them.
Lucas whipped his head around in the direction of which the car passed by. So, in other words, he was walking, either that or...well there was no other option. He sighed. It wasn't the first time this happened.
He started walking and decided he stop by the pizza joint for dinner.
The next day, Claudia was tired. It was entirely her own fault, of course; she had stayed up until eleven p.m. playing Trivial Pursuit with Quentin and then spent the next four hours binge-watching American Horror Story; she had only had three hours of sleep. She had scraped through her morning honours classes with ease, however. Schoolwork was never difficult for Claudia.
However, this morning, she had little patience for her friends' shit.
Crystal was going on and on about how much she hated some girl from cheerleading and how said girl had probably slept with half of the football team. Claudia silently ate her ravioli, trying to drown out Crystal with Panic! At the Disco. Then, she started ragging on Lucas.
"Such a fucking loser. Honestly, why is he even at this school? He's a freaking psychopath, he might as well just kill himself and do society a fav --"
"Oh, for fuck's sake, SHUT UP, CRYSTAL!"
Silence. Nothing but silence at the popular table. Every single eye was fixated on Claudia; some were shocked, some were angry, most were confused. Crystal was livid; Claudia stared her down.
"What?" Crystal's voice was deadly.
"He has literally never done anything to you," hissed Claudia. She started packing up her lunch and grabbed her bag. "You're just a fucking bitch. You're the psycho."
And with that, she stormed over to Lucas's table.
Lucas would be lying if he said that he wasn't one of the many pairs of eyes staring straight at their table. He had never heard Claudia yell in his entirety of the time he spent here. And she didn't seem like the type to get mad so easily. So, whatever Crystal had said, must have been enough to push her over the edge. Somehow, he was sure it had to do with him, hearing her last words to the Crystal.
Next thing he knew, she was coming his way, with the other kids watching, with the popular watching. He was as shocked as he was the yesterday, but this time, he quickly recovered. He even smiled. How could he not? Yesterday, she acknowledged him, befriended him. Today, it felt as if she was making everyone else see that as well. It made him so...happy!
"Hi there," Lucas said to her instinctively, almost naturally. His smile was almost a full blown grin."I didn't know if you were going talk to me today."
Which was true. Lucas had been watching her the whole day when she was around. He didn't know if he should say 'hi' or pretend like yesterday never happened. The latter put him down, but he obviously went with that choice.
The further away from the popular table she was, the faster the anger seeped out of Claudia. By the time she was sitting beside Lucas, her back to her brother and his friends, she had regained composure and was slightly embarrassed at her explosion. She didn't regret it, though. Crystal needed someone to put her in her place.
"Hi," she said warmly, smiling at Lucas. "Yeah, I wasn't sure if you, um, wanted to talk to me again. I was going to sit with you in class again, though." She started biting her nails. Claudia could feel the eyes of the popular kids burning into her back, her head, Lucas. She tried to ignore them. "But then Crystal started ragging on you again, and I, um, well, you know."
Part of Claudia knew that she was going to be punished for this later. This nagging itch in her brain told her that Crystal was going to do everything in her power to socially destroy Claudia after this event. She had done it before, to people who had insulted her. And Claudia had no doubted that she would do it again.
But she didn't care. The knowledge of the cruel, torturous actions of her so-called best friend had been stacking themselves up on Claudia for months. She had seen the way Crystal's victims had slowly deteriorated from the constant bullying. She had seen the way Crystal's social influence had caused these poor people to become isolated entirely.
Claudia couldn't take it any more. And she couldn't handle Crystal terrorising Lucas.
"I'm not going to talk to her," she said aloud, mostly to herself, but also to Lucas. It was nice to have someone she could speak her true feelings to. "I don't care what she does to me. I can't stand her anymore. She can go fuck herself."
So, it was about him! For a moment, the mere thought of someone speaking up for him made him so...so happy and warm inside. And he hadn't felt this good in a while. It wasn't a small thing either, it was a big deal, especially considering the person who was the victim of her yelling was Crystal! Ugh, he hated her...
Crystal. It dawned on him as soon as he thought her name. His smile lessened,and he started to frown a little. "I'm sorry." He told her. Claudia would most definitely be a target of the witch. He was sure of it.
That girl could never let anything go unless she came out on top and the other person at the bottom. Claudia surely knew that though, she had been her 'friend' for so long.
Lucas was used to being at the bottom of the food chain, even if it was unfair. Claudia? He wasn't so sure if she could handle the abuse, and he didn't want her to either. She didn't deserve it. He could care less of what happened to him, it was her he was concerned about.
It wouldn't matter if Crystal wasn't such a bitch. Sometimes, he'd wish she'd just die. No, no, he didn't wish that on anyone no matter how cruel they were.
"Your brother,Brogen, he won't let that happen. Right?" Lucas asked hopefully."You guys are family."
Claudia sighed and shook her head, tracing the rim of her orange juice bottle with her index finger. "My brother has this insatiable need to make people like him," she explained. "He'll probably try his best to make them leave me alone, but if it gets in the way of his popularity ..." She trailed off and shrugged. She didn't care. Brogen could go fuck himself for all she cared. He had never stood up to Crystal and she wasn't going to stop just because her brother was a pussy.
"Claudia." Claudia turned to find her oldest brother Tate standing behind her, pointedly not looking at Lucas. "What're you doing?"
"Sitting."
"Why are you sitting here?"
"Because Crystal is a bitch."
Tate's eyes flicked to Lucas before he squatted down so his eyes were level with Claudia's. "I don't care about that. Come sit with me and my friends."
"Why?" Claudia hissed. She was so angry at everyone right now. Why did everyone in this school hate Lucas so much? "Because you think Lucas will stab me in the neck or something? No, Tate, I'm not going with you."
Sighing, Lucas began clearing the table of his things. He knew when to leave and when to stay. And at the moment, he was sure it was time to go seeing the hostility aimed at him, not only from populars, but from a senior, who was also Claudia's brother. Older brother, older brother's happened to be a bit more protective he knew from experience.
"Maybe you should sit with him." Lucas swung his backpack over his shoulder."It'd be better for you."
Wouldn't it? If her other brother couldn't defend her, then perhaps Tate could. The idea that a person would let their beloved sibling get hurt for their own selfish wishes was utterly ridiculous and angering, especially since it was Claudia. In one day and a half, he had grown to like her and semi-trust her.
"We don't have to walk to class together either. I'm not going."
Claudia didn't want to sit with her brother. She didn't want to sit with anyone who had a prejudice against Lucas. He had never done anything wrong, and she didn't care if that crossed the entire school -- and her brothers -- from her friends' list.
She paused for a second when Lucas stood up, then stood to follow him. She gathered up her things. "You're ditching." She jogged to follow him out of the cafeteria. It was a physical relief to not have eyes watching her anymore. "Can I come too, please?"
She didn't want to go to class and deal with everyone's stares. Claudia had no interest in having spitballs launched at her from Crystal in the back row of PE. She wanted to leave and never come back, but she knew that was impossible. She wanted to have this little moment of bliss, of freedom.
"Please?" she asked again, quieter and more desperate this time. "If you don't want me to -- if I'm annoying you, tell me, I'll go away."
"No, no, you don't have to." Lucas waved his hand frantically to stop her."I don't even find you annoying. I never once thought that. Persistent maybe, but not annoying." His mouth moved quickly, the words coming out almost too fast to understand. He was a sensitive soul, easily giving in. It wasn't as if he didn't want her to come with him. Like he said before, he'd thought that if she sat with someone else, it would be better for her. Maybe leaving for a while was the best option them both. Ditching classes when he was too much of a bad mood or emotional state always helped him feel better. He could control himself better when no one was watching him. Cracking a smile, he added."You can come. Though, I warn you. The things I do are very, very... " He paused, dramatically."Boring." He nodded his head and continued on his away, expecting her to follow.
"Is anyone going o come looking for you? They might think it strange for me you and disappear at the same time. Probably worry about you." Another thing he knew from experience.
"I don't care if you're boring. Anything is better than class right now, in my opinion, and missing a couple of lessons won't affect my grades." She was receiving solid A's across all subjects, after all. And she could always get the work from her teachers later. "And ... I like spending time with you," she admitted. Why was that so hard so say? It was true. "You're just really nice to me. And interesting."
She stopped herself from saying anything embarrassing. Claudia followed him out of the school, looking around warily in case they encountered a teacher, or worse, one of her brothers. She had never ditched before, and this frightening new experience was giving her anxiety, but she powered through it. Her parents had been telling her for a while to live a little more, right? She was just kind of doing what they had told her to do, right? Right?
"Um, no one's going to look for me." All her brothers cared about other things too much to ditch. Brogen cared about his friends, Quentin cared about his grades. The only one likely to ditch and look for her was Tate, but he was walking on eggshells, edging on being cut from the football team for ditching, so she doubted he'd risk it. "I might get berated at home for a bit, but, who cares. I'll deal with that when I get to it, right?" She laughed weakly. "Anyway, where're we going?"
"Uh, the great outdoors," Lucas answered a little detached. He was too busy thinking about her previous comment. The one about her liking his company. It was so foreign for anyone to say that to him and actually mean it unless it was his mom. But parents don't count.
He found himself feeling easier and less self-conscious around her now."We're heading into the woods." Lucas added. "Pun intended." He grinned sincerely, and it was easy to tell because it not only reached his eyes but lighted up all his features. Making him look not as a gloomy, psycho outcast. But a kind boy, and that was exactly what he was.
"And just in case you're concerned, I don't plan on murdering you out there." He said sarcastically."I like to do my killing in a more controlled environment."
Claudia groaned at his awful pun but laughed at his next joke. He was very uplifting to be around. Maybe if everyone took a little time to get to know Lucas, they'd realise how nice he was. Or maybe she was a special case because she had taken the time to get to know him.
"Oh, I understand completely," she said nonchalantly. "Basements, abandoned warehouses -- no way for the victims to run, and there's little chance of anyone hearing their screams. Much more control. I like ice picks, myself." She paused for a few moments, before laughing and lightly punching his arm. "I'm joking, of course. I watch a lot of Criminal Minds. Reid is hot." It was true. Most girls like one of the Salvatores from Vampire Diaries or one of the many hotties from Teen Wolf. Claudia's crush was the super genius from Criminal Minds.
They reached the woods that bordered the school and Claudia followed Lucas in without complaint. Once she had escaped into the confines of the trees, it was another world. There was nothing but nature, the canopy of leaves above sapping the light almost entirely, so the trees and logs before them were only dimly illuminated. She imagined the woods would be pitch black at night time. The only sounds she could hear were the chirping of the birds and their footsteps, crunching pine needles and leaves under their shoes.
"Well, I come here, sit down, stare into space and ponder the meaning of life," Lucas answered, pulling his bag off of his back and unzipping it. "That is what I'd do if I didn't have better things to do."
He opened his bag and reached his hand inside, pulling out a camera. Not a cheap camera. A professional camera that to anyone else, looked much to diffult to use. "I like to explore a bit and take pictures." he told her, bashfully."Sometimes I film, but I left my filming camera at home."
She already knew that it was his talent, but in a way, it was also his consolation. For him, filming and photography was more than just for enjoyment. It was proof. Proof that those things he saw were just an illusion, and what was on the video, the photo was real. It was reassuring, and comforting.
The woods were also comfting for him, his safe place. The safe place where there were no eyes on him, watching him, waiting for him to freak. So, it was new, once again, to have someone with him here. Not that he minded, he liked this change very much.
Claudia sat down on a log and patted it, motioning for him to join her. She looked at his camera and unintentionally posed; she was used to her friends taking Snapchats of her, so she usually tried to make herself look as photogenic as possible. It had become a reflex action over the years. She sat her elbow on her knee and leaned her chin on her hand. She wondered if he would take the photo. She doubted it.
"What do you do with the pictures? Besides put them in the yearbooks ... but I doubt you put these ones in." He had so much talent, so much potential, but because Lucas was a social outcast no one noticed it. Even though evidence of his art was right there in everyone's yearbooks, it all just flew over people's heads. No one cared about Lucas. No one cared about his pictures.
Except for her. Claudia had grown very fond of Lucas over the course of this one day. That was strange for her; it usually took her a long time to warm up to people, but because she didn't need to pretend to be someone around Lucas it all just felt natural to her. He was warm and kind and funny and not what anyone said he was. And she loved spending time with him.
Lucas made a sound that was somewhere between a snort and laugh at her posing. Though he didn't hesitate to take the shot, it only took a moment for him to adjust the settings of his camera. As he did so, he continued to speak with her. "A lot of things actually." He sighed with contentment after finding his medium."Cheese."He called out and took the photo. It was an old thing to say, but he still said it.
After looking at his shot, Luas looked over it again, not feeling completely satisfied, he took another one and nodded in approval. "So, where was I?" he asked, more to himself than her, to gather his thoughts, that so often wandered off.
"What I do with my pictures, right?" Lucas found his seat beside her and sat."A lot of things." He repeated himself. "I have this book, a photo book. And I put all my works in there." He kicked up some died dried leaves on the forest floor. This was another one of the many things he's never told a person. Mainly, because no one asked.
"If I like the picture enough, I have it framed or maybe turned into a poster. Because I do a lot of editing too. I give some of it away as a gift. I just do it for fun..." He blushed a little at his next words."I thought about starting a little instagram, but that's a social site. So, unless I went anonymous, who'd follow, right?"
Claudia smiled for him and sat up when he finished taking the photo. She listened to Lucas intently; she had never been one to only half pay attention to someone, but even if she had been, she would fully listen to Lucas. His voice was calm and captivating, and very different from the plastic, nasal drones of Crystal and her cronies.
"If you started an Instagram," she said, "other people would follow you. I mean, people not from here. People who don't know anything about you and haven't been corrupted by the lies Crystal's spread." She knew he would rack up followers better than she ever could; she would have to delete most of her photos now that she had detached herself from the popular crowd, anyway. She wouldn't be surprised if everyone unfriended her on Facebook.
"And there's always Tumblr," she added. "If you ignore all the social justice warriors and porn blogs, Tumblr's great. There's an entire sub-genre for photography and aesthetics." She pulled out her phone and loaded up one of her favourite blogs; one that posted only black-and-white photos of the landscape and old houses of the tiny Connecticut town they lived in. She handed the phone to Lucas. "If you don't want to try Instagram, try Tumblr. I'm pretty good friends online with the owner of that blog. She could give you a shoutout."
Claudia was so intent on getting Lucas famous on Tumblr because he had no one in real life. She hoped he would make some really good internet friends that could stand in place for the friends he lacked in real life. She would try to be the best friend she could to him, but ... he did need other people.
Lucas set down his camera onto his lap and took the phone gratefully, eyes glued to it. He listened to Claudia closely as he scrolled down the Tumblr page, admiring each and every image respectively. "Your friend, she or he is awesome." He scrolled back up to the top to check the following count. He wasn't at all surprised to see the thousands of follows. And Claudia thought he was talented enough to have that many? It was encouraging, to say the least.
"Tumblr. So, just avoid social warriors and porn blogs." Lucas counted the two off with his fingers, holding up his free hand. "Anything else I should know?" He asked, tilting his head to the side a bit, an innocent gesture.
Honestly, he wasn't on the computer much unless it was to edit his material. He was never on any social sites, no facebook, no snap chat, no Instagram, no tumblr, no twitter nothing. It would only be an embarrassment because he hadn't any friends. Meaning there was no reason to have one. He wouldn't even have an e-mail if it wasn't necessary for other things he wanted to do online.
"Yeah. If you somehow come across someone giving themself a gender or sexuality that looks made up, just don't question it." Claudia had seen people be destroyed on Tumblr because of it. "And the fandoms are brutal. Unless you wanna get wrecked, avoid pissing them off, too. Except the Harry Potter fandom. We're too busy dying of excitement because of Fantastic Beasts to care about anything else. Unless someone says all Slytherins are evil. I will punch that person in the face."
Claudia took back her phone, because it had lit up with a text. Her brother demanding to know where she was. She grimaced, ignored it and slipped it back into her pocket.
"Your mother publishes books, doesn't she?" Claudia only knew this because her mother and Lucas's knew each other. They were kind-of friends. "You must have an entire library at her house." Her eyes lit up at the thought. Claudia loves books more than anything. "What do you like to read?"
Lucas had seen a small glimpse of the text, only seeing who it was from, her brother Tate. He must have been wondering where she was, or more like why she was still with the Remington-Brooks kid.
This time, he ignored commenting on it because he was enjoying his time with her, it was more than just nice being abe to express his thoughts and just talk with someone. And he was pretty sure that Claudia wouldn't leave even if suggested her to which was just fine with him.
He just hoped he wouldn't be paying for it later. Tate scared him, being a senior and football player while he was just the artistic mental sophomore. Lucas would have to take extra care to not run into him.
"You have no idea how many books are in our house." Lucas groaned as if he was annoyed, but his smile said otherwise."We have this one room, it's bigger than my own, and that's the house library. But with even that one library, there are books all over the house, everywhere!" He shook his head at the picture in his head, even now he would have to return to that mess.
"Our house smells like books, old and new. And I made it my personal mission to read all of them. Most of them are non-fiction. Information literature, biography and autobiography."
