Lucas

Ever heard the phrase fuck around and find out?

That's precisely what I'm doing with Allie, even if that's not the real meaning. I'm changing it because I can't wait to find out what happens when... okay, I'm not fucking around on her, but with her. But fuck with and find out doesn't sound as good.

Overall, this new chapter for us is a good feeling. She's bringing out something else entirely in me. I can't wait to find out where it takes us.

But one of the best feelings I've had in my entire life happened when I got to wake Jadon up before Allie's alarm went off.

We figured out breakfast and brought her some weird mushy stuff she likes to eat. I forgot she was naked so she wore that bedsheet under her stiff arms like her life depended on it.

But we got to tell him we're together. We will be a family. His excitement was the best damn thing I've seen—apart from certain other things last night but that's the adult version of my life.

And so, we had our first morning together as a family.

I love her. I love them both and will do anything for them, but I'm in love with her.

I've been able to walk around all day with what Tom keeps pointing out as a stupid look on my face. Yeah, well, it's not like I'm going to tell him his daughter brings out some inner beast in me and that I was tempted to bend her over on his kitchen counter this morning.

All I could do is manage to bite down the kinds of things I would have said before I reconnected with his daughter. Tom is an easy man, and we had some dirty guy talk in the beginning, and then Allie and Jadon happened. No more talking about randos in college or Tom's wild days before he met his wife.

I don't want to make things awkward by explaining whatever look is on my face and telling him it's from what I did to his daughter. In his house. Two doors down from where he slept.

I need her to move out of his house and in with me. I should probably just leave my wallet with her so she can just buy whatever she wants so I can get this moving.

Allie doesn't know this, but I'm meeting with John today which is why I already know he's going to be gone before I'm supposed to show up.

She gave me a side-eye all morning while she tried to figure out what to wear. She went for pants until I gave her a subtle grunt.

"I will have to shave my legs," she said.

"Your legs are fine."

I would know.

She rolled her eyes and found something else to wear.

To be honest, I've not really been spontaneous like this with anyone else before. I can be myself with most people, but I feel like more of myself with her.

I don't even know if that makes complete sense.

God, it feels good to be on the inside now. Not worrying about her being mad at me. Not pushing me away. Not with an asshole that was with her probably just for money. Just together.

Girl...friend...?

No, that seems too non-committal. Just Allie and Lucas, then.

But that's the point of today's meeting. I'm telling John. She's the mortified type so I'll let him know and talk to him long enough that he will be fine with us as an item. I'll sign a paper or whatever and call it good. At some point, she will be comfortable telling him, and I'll let her do it on her own time.

She's in the office alone, as I expected. John is at a math department thing and I've got time. She's focused on her computer squinting with one eye shut. "You need glasses."

"Shit!" She jumps in her seat. "How do you do that?"

"Do what?" She has a jar of skittles that I pick through. I only like the green part of the rainbow.

"Get into places and scare me." She's reading celebrity gossip on her computer.

There's a clear space on her desk I take up and try to read the article she's looking at. "Do you think she's really pregnant or faking it just for attention?" Some no-name actress I can't even remember the name of is claiming she was another actor's mistress. It's the big "thing" right now. Guess those people don't have anything better to do but fake pregnancies and make everything into a scandal.

"I don't know, that's why I'm reading it."

I'll bet she was trying to see a baby bump, if anything. That's why she was squinting. "What makes you think that," I have to lean over to read the name, "Scarlet Te...bul...e," the author's name has thirty-eight letters and I'm losing the point. "What makes you think they know the truth?"

"I don't know but they say they have sources on the inside. I just wanted to read the gossip."

"Don't you have to answer phones or something?"

I mean, she's cute sitting here with her desk neat and tidy and there's a picture of Allie with Jadon next to her monitor. Also, I thought the weeks leading up to school starting would be busy for her.

"Do you hear the phone—"

She stops to pick up the phone that starts ringing.

"Hello, you've reached—"

"Wanna fuck?"

She flinches hearing my voice on the other end and hangs up. "You're so weird."

"Come on," she takes my hand and doesn't question it at all. "If you get any calls they'll go to voicemail. Something to do later."

"Sure, it's not like I have to be here in case someone comes to the office."

"For what? There aren't any kids here to get in trouble yet. You're fine for a little while."

We are down the hall and on our way to the classes I know are for History and English. "Which one was your favorite class?"

It's empty here so there's no one around to see this. Not that I seriously care.

"Easy," she says. We pass a row of lockers on our way and she stops. "This used to be mine."

432.

It's a dark blue metal with a faded squirting dick drawn on it. "Nice."

"Charity," she scoffs.

"Ah, this would have been mine." I bang on 433. "Right next to the girl I would have loved to rile up in all of her classes and would have sat behind in every single one of them."

The subtle torture would have been more torturous for me than her. Pencil pokes to the back. Breathing down her neck and whispering things into her ear.

"Which class was your favorite?" We're getting sidetracked here.

I lost hold of her hand back at the locker but watch her walk in front of me. I can imagine they may have called her nervous or quiet here. No one could have called her anything but pretty, though. Because, damn.

"Mr. Hoover, World History." The doors are unlocked while they're getting ready for school to start. There's a board at the front, maps all over the walls, some motivational posters and a spinning globe on his desk in the back.

"Which desk was yours?"

She picks one off to the other side of the class in the last line of desks. Third row.

I take the seat behind her. "So this would have been mine."

She laughs and turns around. "Why do you say that?"

She doesn't see the hand that touches her hair on the side but her eyes dart to the side to watch. "So I could get under your skin. Annoy you. Cheat off your homework or tests. Poke you with my pencil. Make you react and embarrass yourself."

Allie scrunches up her face. "You could always just try asking a girl out, you know."

"Yeah, but what's the fun in that? It's all about the chase at first. Plus, you would have had an eye on someone else so I'd have to fight for your attention. I'd make sure we were group partners, maybe coerce you into a tutoring position. Before you knew it, you'd find it strange if I suddenly wasn't there one day."

She drops the smile she had while listening to me. "You would have played me."

"I would have to see if I really meant something to you." My fingers move from her hair to the back of her neck and down the center of her back. "I would have waited to see if it bothered you that I wasn't around one day. Maybe snuck into your room one night and see if you were bothered."

Allie rolls her eyes. "Why do boys sneak into girls' rooms? What's wrong with calling them?"

"Because I wouldn't get to catch you off guard or see you in your element. Also, there would be the off chance I caught you changing or something and—"

"Lucas."

"Fine. That's probably how it would have happened. You are so rigid and follow the rules and you make me want to break them with you. It's obvious you were off-limits and that every guy would have wanted a piece of you. I would have been the one to actually find my way into your good graces and make a damn move."

Not sleep around and claim to have had feelings for you.

"Your dad would have caught me sticking a note in your back pocket or something, maybe touching your ass at our neighboring lockers. He would have given me hell and then told me to have you home by whatever ridiculous curfew he set. He would have threatened me silently with the idiotic no sex rule, and I would have broken that rule with you probably on the third date. Or before he found out about us."

She laughs and it's like believing she and I are never growing older, just existing together.

"You have it all figured out." She shakes her head and looks to the other end of the classroom but I'm just watching her. "You're an odd one, Lucas Kennedy."

"Mr. Hoover... what's his name?"

"Mr. Hoover," she says. "That's it. No first name. He's an older gentleman that wore a suit and tie every day. Carries a briefcase and never uses a computer."

"Why the hell was this your favorite class?"

I definitely would have cheated off of her in this class then.

"He told history like a story and made it interesting. He also was very funny and gave us interesting assignments rather than just reading the textbook. We had partner projects all the time and had to present. It was fun."

"Who was your partner?"

"His name was—"

"I'll kill him."

"Shut up, Lucas," she slaps my arm. "Victor was very nice to me and did his part."

Oh, I bet he was. Probably getting close to her, looking down her damn shirt.

"Before that mess of jealous thoughts in your head turn you into a caveman, you should probably think about your own partner projects and whatever you did with other girls."

"It's different." I didn't sleep with any of them because they were the least bit interesting to me. Allie is the most interesting person on the planet, and whatever chance Victor may have thought he had, is grounds for a late ass kicking.

"It's not different, Lucas. You don't get to be jealous over a guy when you've been with however many people you've been with all while knowing you're the only one that's been there with me. You don't get to be that person."

"You know what?" She squeals when I throw her over my shoulder and head for this Hoover guy's desk in the back. If he's the cool old teacher, he'll probably be cool with this if he happens to walk in. Or not, but what a way to meet the guy if it happens.

His desk is empty on the top, and before I set her down... there it is.

Every teacher has one, even if they don't need it. Tom has three.

"Lucas, what are you doing?"

Her ass is right here next to me and her red flowery dress isn't too tight. I flip the skirt part up and kiss the side of her hip closest to me. She's so soft.

"What are you—ah!" She kicks at me. "What the hell is that for?"

"You can't tell me not to feel jealous, Allie, because I'm jealous as hell right now." Not entirely, but this is fun. She kicks at me again when the ruler comes down on her once more before I drop it. "Now," I set her feet to the ground and bend her over the desk.

"Lucas, we can't do this in here."

"Sure we can." I kneel behind her and rub the spot it landed on and follow with a kiss. "Just be quiet and no one will hear."

She tenses up. "Someone will—"

"Not if you're quiet." I bite my lip staring straight ahead. "You knew this would happen. Care to explain?" Apart from me telling her since she needs to mentally prepare for everything. But I want to know why she made a certain decision.

"You weren't exactly subtle about it, so I decided against panties to see what you would do."

There's a certain shiver running down my spine at that. I was going to taste her, but fuck it.