Inseparable

“No, Tilly. You are no bother. In fact, I had been meaning to call you.”

"Sure you were," I smirked. "It's okay, Lucas. I'm a big girl and I don't; regret anything. In fact, I had a great time with you and at the party so I can't be mad at anything or anyone."

“No, it’s true. Let me tell you what happened.”

Lucas gave me a blow-by-blow account of what happened after I left. He had passed out and

when he woke up the only people he knew in the house were henry, some guy named Matt and a half a dozen strangers.

“I hit the shower immediately forgetting your phone number was on my hand until it was too late. My father has a continual subscription to PeopleFinders so I was just going to look you up but I hadn’t gotten to it due to the massive cleanup I had. Sorry.”

“No, don’t worry about it.” I gushed. “So, do you have big plans for the summer?”

“My dad is coming home on a special two day layover before he and Jenna head off to wherever it is they are going. That’s his idea of spending quality time with his son.”

“Do you wish you could see him more often?” I gently prodded.

“Sometimes. I just wish I could see him without her. I know for a fact that she’s already whispering in his ear about my leaving for college. She probably wants to turn my room into her hobby room or something and put a stripper pole right in the middle of everything.”

I started to laugh.

"She can't really be all that bad," I asked carefully.

“She’s worse.” Lucas chortled. It was weird how we seemed to pick up right where we had left off the other night. Again, I was comfortable talking with Lucas and listening to his problems although they weren’t really problems to me. Keeping grades up in order to get a full ride scholarship that was a problem. Trying to figure out how to make $128 dollars cover $216 dollars worth of bills, that was a problem. Making a 2001 Dodge Neon last one more year, that was a problem.

Trying to figure out a way to chase your dad’s girlfriend of a couple years out of the house wasn’t a problem. It was a quest that Lucas chose to go on. But I didn’t want to say that to him. I didn’t kick people when they were down.

“Well, other than Jenna everything else sound good. I’m glad.”

“Yeah. Uhm…”

“What is it?”

“Don’t you want to talk about what happened the other night?”

I felt my cheeks burst into flames. I held my breath for a minute and tried to think of something witty, something smart to say but my mouth went dry and so did the font of wit that normally overflowed.

“What do you want to talk about?” I sounded so stupid.

“You were really something. You must have done that quite a few times to be so good at it.”

“What did you say?” I had to have heard him wrong.”

“Hey, I’m not judging. I thought you were amazing. A little loud but I didn’t mind. Just remind me to never sneak you in my dad’s house if he’s ever home. You’ll give us away for sure.”

I stared at the floor while I listened to Lucas chuckle.

“Why are you talking like this?” I hated how the words came out so meekly.

“Well, I didn’t want you to get any ideas. I know where you live and where you come from. We’re from two different worlds.”

“You’ve got that right.” I snapped. But he just laughed at me.

“Okay, you can go ahead and play the role like you don’t care about my money if you want to.”

“Do you think I had sex with you for your money?” I gasped.

“Why else?”