Early July

By the beginning of July, about two and a half months after he’d moved in, Sarah is pretty sure that she and Lucas qualify as friends. She’s now met one of his friends, Hamil, and they’ve all hung out a couple of times. Her best friend Marcia has been around to the apartment and met Lucas as well, and in general it feels like they’ve become regular parts of each other’s lives.

Despite that, she is definitely not expecting it when he invites her to Portsmouth to celebrate and enjoy the brief holidays.

She usually goes to her parents’ house in Oxford for the holiday’s, but this year her parents are in France, her sister has other plans, and there’s something about being in the empty house up there by herself that seems less than ideal. She has tentative replacement plans to do something with Marcia, but they haven’t actually settled on anything specific. Sarah assumes they’ll be drinking wine and light cocktails in her apartment all night, which sounds just fine to her. Lucas’s invite comes while she’s making dinner on the second, right after he asks her when she’s leaving for Oxford.

“Oh Sarah, if you aren’t going up to Oxford, you have to come to Portsmouth with us!”

It’s kind of a pity invite and they both know it. So obviously, she declines.

“Oh no, it’s okay.” Sarah spills a container of grape tomatoes onto the counter and begins slicing them in half for easier addition into the salad she’s building.

Lucas stands up and moves beside her, resting his elbows on the countertop to her right. He pops a stray tomato in his mouth. “It’ll be a lot of fun. We’re going to have a barbecue at Hamil’s friend, then there’s a carnival and shit at night too. Plus drinks all day, obviously. Just celebrating the good ol’ summer holiday! You can’t stay here by yourself, Sarah.”

It does sound like fun, but it also sounds like a long day of social interaction for somebody who considers herself to be a pretty heavy introvert. “I won’t be alone, Lucas, don’t worry. I’m supposed to be doing something with Marcia.”

“Something other than Netflix? Is it the end of the world?”

Sarah glares at him. “Maybe HBO”

Lucas laughs easily, his whole body contracting and releasing, mirth in his blue eyes. “Come on Sarah. Bring Marcia. She’ll have a great time. You both will! I promise. At least ask her!”

Sarah hesitates. “I’ll check with her,” she relents. “But if she’s not into the idea -”

“She will be,” he cuts in confidently. “Who wouldn’t want to spend summer close to the sea? It is gods gift to us.”

Sarah laughs as she brings up Marcia’s contact information in her phone. “Is that what we’re calling Portsmouth now? God’s gift?”

“Hey, I won’t settle for none of that slander, Dalton. I’ll let you know I’ve lived there for a whole 3 months!” Lucas stands up straight and knocks his hip into hers. “Move over, Sarah, I’ll finish chopping.”

Her eyes fall to his hands as he begins slicing tomatoes. They move quickly, almost expertly; Sarah wonders where he learned to handle a knife that well. She bets that he’s killed things in the woods and then cooked them over a fire, or something.

Marcia answers on the second ring. “Sarah!”

“Hey Marcia. I was just calling about - hang on.” Lucas is nudging her with his elbow. “What?”

“Put it on speaker!” he suggests happily.

He’s got a big smile on his face that’s really hard to say no to, so Sarah obliges. “Okay Marcia, you’re on speaker because Lucas -”

“Hi Marcia!” Lucas calls out loudly.

“Jesus, Lucas, she’s on the phone, not in Timbuktu.”

“Sorry, sorry. Hi, Marcia,” he repeats, his voice softer.

A laugh comes over the line. “Hi Lucas.”

“Lucas has decided that our summer plans of hanging out at the apartment are a little sad, so he’s invited us to go to Portsmouth to spend the holiday with his friends. If we’re interested. I said no, that that was alright, but he bullied me into phoning you to ask.”

“There was no bullying,” Lucas insists, setting the knife down. He slides the chopped tomatoes into a dish and wipes his hands on his jeans. “I merely suggested.”

“Hmm.” Sarah smiles down at her phone, glad it’s not FaceTime. Marcia already has some ludicrous ideas about her having some kind of non-platonic feelings for her roommate - ideas that Sarah doesn’t want to encourage. Even if it were true, nothing good can come from acknowledging it; she’s one hundred percent not Lucas’s type. She’s sure of it. There’s no point in setting herself up for failure. Plus, they seem to make good friends.

“Portsmouth, huh?”

Lucas claps his hands. “Marcia, it’s going to be so fun, we’ll have a barbecue and maybe fireworks and drinks, the whole nine yards. I am not going to force you, but I think you and Sarah should come and have a good time with us.”

“Hm.” Sarah can hear the amusement in Marcia’s voice and knows immediately what her response is going to be. She also knows that Marcia’s going to make Lucas work for it a little. Marcia’s met Lucas a few times now, but Sarah’s pretty certain that Lucas has no idea what he’s in for with Marcia coming along.

“Hmm yes, or hmm no thanks, Lucas?” Lucas presses.

“Few follow up questions. When’s the last train out of London to Portsmouth? Or do you have a place for us to sleep? Sarah and I are ladies accustomed to a certain lifestyle, you know.”

Lucas laughs. “Trainline stops running around nine on holidays, I think, but you can get downtown from Victoria Station until about 11:30. But all of us usually crash at my buddy’s Hamil’s friends’ house - they’ve got a pretty big place and they’re normally out of town for the summer, so they let us have the run of it. If you’re alright sharing, you guys definitely will be sleeping in a bed.” Lucas catches Sarah’s eye and winks at her. She bites her lip but smiles back. “That meet your approval, Miss Marcia?”

“I suppose,” Marcia says slowly. “One more question: will there be beer pong, and if so, will there be anyone there who’s up to the challenge of playing me?”