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“So that’s the short version,” Gilly finishes. “What d’you reckon?”
Finally, Lucas breaks eye contact and looks down at his water bottle. He spins it between his large hands. “To be honest…” he begins.
“Yeah?” Gilly asks eagerly, leaning forward.
“…I really don’t give a shit. Can we talk about something else?”
The table is silent for a moment. I feel…a little insulted. Though I should be grateful. I’d rather him be uninterested than hear him talk about how much Cleo gives him a bad vibe again.
“No,” Gilly eventually says, slamming both hands on the table. “This is important! Our boy’s about to get his first girlfriend, and as his mates, it’s our duty to provide him with emotional support. Don’t you agree, Hugo?”
“Yes,” he says. “This is one of the rare instances I actually agree with you.”
“Well then, I’m leaving. I’ve got better things to do.” Lucas stands up. “Catch you guys later.”
Hugo and Gilly raise their hands in goodbye before focusing on me.
“What are you going to do the next time you see her?” Hugo asks as Lucas packs his bag.
“I’m going to ask her to be my girlfriend,” I reply.
There’s a loud bang as Lucas pushes his chair into the table. The rest of us flinch, and when I look at Lucas, now walking away, his shoulders are stiff and his jaw clenched.
“Jeez,” Gilly says. “What’s his problem?”
I shrug. “Sometimes he gets moody like that. Just ignore him.”
*
On Friday, Cleo and I walk around the botanical gardens. It’s a beautiful place — manicured lawns, majestic trees, native flowers providing bursts of orange and purple amongst the greenery.
Nearby the lake, where ducks glide across the still surface, I ask Cleo to be my girlfriend. She says yes. We kiss again, this time with tongue. I feel a little anxious about it — obviously I don’t have much practice — but Cleo runs her hands up and down my neck and arm, so I think I’m doing an okay job.
That evening, I hum to myself as I enter the apartment. Since it’s late on a Friday night, I expect Lucas to be out with friends or picking up girls at a club, but to my surprise, he’s sitting on the couch, watching the news on the TV.
“What’s got you looking so happy?” he asks.
“Guess who’s got a girlfriend?”
He doesn’t return my smile. “Don’t tell me you’re official with that Clementine chick.”
“Cleo,” I correct, smiling at the ceiling. “Wow. Life is wonderful. How have I never noticed how amazing life is before?” I walk over to him and shake his shoulders. He’s heavy, so he doesn’t move much, but that doesn’t dampen my excitement. “I have a girlfriend! And she’s perfect. Nice and interesting and cute and perfect. I can’t believe she said yes. I’m so lucky.”
CHAPTER FOUR
Then
The first time Lucas visited my house, we lay on our stomachs in the living room. Between us was a piece of A3 paper, stained brown and yellow and stiff under our fingers. Earlier that day, we’d brewed coffee and spilled it over the paper, then dried it on the porch.
I uncapped my mum’s fountain pen, which I’d taken from the study. Black ink stained my fingertips as I explained that we were drawing a map of our own world, where we could do anything we wanted. I drew a palace made of pavlova for Lucas, since that was his favourite food.
He drew a mountain of blueberries for me.
“It’s perfect!” I exclaimed, before remembering we couldn’t have a world without pirate ships. I started to draw one, and unlike my other drawings, you could actually tell what it was, because I’d practiced drawing them a lot.
“Do you want to draw one too?” I asked Lucas, handing him the pen.
He shook his head. “I’d rather stay on your pirate ship.”
