Roommates

Chapter 3

Nathan hears Lucas in the kitchen and finally decides to get up from the couch. He sees Lucas eating a bowl of cereal on the breakfast bar. Nathan takes the moment to stretch his body to help get him up. He sees Lucas trying to concentrate on his breakfast and Nathan just smiles to himself, feeling satisfied. He heads to the bathroom and a few minutes later comes out and joins Lucas.

Lucas wonders if the reason why Nathan walks around half naked all the time is to save on laundry because he doesn't know why he has so much clothes in the closet. Nathan pours himself a glass of orange juice and instead of sitting down, leans against the counter. He still has a little bit of bed hair but the way he was leaning against the counter, drink in his hand and the sun shining through the room, Lucas swears this is a page out of an underwear ad you find in magazines.

They start making casual talk until Lucas realizes the he has to leave for class.

"Don't forget, you're ticket is here on the counter!" Nathan points it out, reminding Lucas of tonight's game.

. . . . .

Lucas rushes to the Duke campus and is glad that he's not as late as he thought he would be. The last thing he wanted to do was be late to tonight's game. It was the first one Lucas was going to attend and Nathan was able to get him pretty good seats. All the other times, he only caught it on tv. As Lucas walks down the stairs to his seat, he's glad that he's on the isle, it'll make it a lot easier for him to step out to get a snack or go to the bathroom. The game is set to start any minute now and Lucas spots Nathan huddled up with the rest of the team.

Lucas takes his seat next to the throngs of screaming Duke fans. He expected nothing less. Lucas removes his jacket to reveal the Duke basketball jersey underneath. He gladly supports his brother despite being from a rival school. Although the jacket helps, just in case he runs into anyone from UNC.

"Oh shit, where'd you get that?"

Lucas is confused and turns to a Duke student sitting next to him. His friend also joins in.

"Yeah man, you broke into the locker room or something?"

"I'm sorry." Lucas doesn't know what they're talking about.

"Your jersey."

Lucas looks down at the number 12 on his jersey.

"What about it?" Lucas asks.

"That's an official Duke jersey.. like the actual jersey the players wear. They don't sell that at the campus store."

"Yeah." The other friend replies, "The players only get only get 4 jerseys, two home and two away. It's a tradition at Duke that only someone important gets it… like girlfriends or family."

"Oh." Lucas blushes slightly and he tilts his body around so they could see the word SCOTT firmly imprinted on his back. "I'm his brother." Lucas tries not to sound too happy.

. . . . . . .

"You okay?" Quentin asks Nathan.

"Huh?"

"What's up with you, you've totally been spacing out."

"I'm fine." Nathan replies as he walks with Quentin back to the bleachers for one last team huddle before the game starts. As he walks his eyes scan back into the crowd. And then there finally, he sees Lucas and his Duke jersey that's he's wearing. The two make eye contact, they offer each other a smile and a nod.

"You sure, cuz we got a game to win."

"Don't worry, I got this." Nathan replies with confidence and gives Lucas another smile before getting into the team huddle.

. . . . .

"We don't have to go." Lucas says as he walks alongside Nathan. "I mean your teammates seem cool." Lucas was hesitant about attending the after party for Duke's triumphant victory tonight, mainly because he was from a rival school and didn't know anyone there except Nathan. Luckily, they didn't give him too much grief about it. He had a nagging feeling that Nathan may have said something to them before hand, either way he had a much better time than he expected.

"And you guys had a good game.. you had a great game. You should stay and celebrate." Nathan was one of the leading scorers tonight. During the game, there were plenty of times after a big play, Nathan would glance up at Lucas and the two would smile and nod at each other. The guys sitting next to Lucas got a kick from it and thought it was so cool to have Nathan's brother sitting next to them.

Nathan smiles. "I told you Luke it's okay. Besides, one of the downside of having a great game is being wiped. Most of the guys were going to leave soon anyways." Nathan was glad to celebrate but the party was getting a little too loud. He normally wouldn't have minded but he was really beat.

"I'm glad you enjoyed." Nathan says after a few minutes of silence.

"Are you kidding me? I almost forgot how it was."

"You miss it? The game?"

"Yeah." Lucas says with a touch of sadness. "But I'm glad at least one of us is still playing. You totally killed it tonight." Lucas smiles proudly, no trace of regret or bitterness in his voice.

"Thanks, it meant a lot you came." Nathan smiles warmly as he pats Lucas' shoulder and keeps his one arm around Lucas. Lucas smiles back, knowing full well how much it meant to Nathan for Lucas to be there. Nathan had constantly reminded Lucas all week. "Thank you for the seats and the jersey.. you should've seen these guys next to me. They freaked out when they saw I had an official jersey on and even more so when I told him who I was."

"Yeah? Well you better not have stain it." Nathan quips. The two quickly start bantering, all the while, Nathan's strong arms remained around Lucas shoulder until they reached the car in a nearby parking deck.

TBC