Sorry for the rather long wait, but I'm writing 3 other projects parallel to this project and I'm also working a lot on my new job x)
40 hour weeks are no joke, kids!
From my first income, I bought some baby socks, by the way! No particular reason, just that they're adorable and round and soft and the most random thing I could find xD
Anyway!
Have a chapter of awkward babies bonding and have fun reading! xD
The following two days, Amity hadn't dared to go to the construction site. One, because she had to care for a few university things such as her apartment that her parents had organized for her, and filling out a bit of confirmation stuff as well as working out some scholarship things with the administration.
Two, because she was scared of seeing Luz again. Well, not scared. But she hadn't found the courage to go back, even if her parents had scolded her for not checking in on construction in person for longer than twenty-four hours.
She had called Lilith who had assured her everything was going great and Amity had chosen to take a day or two off the construction site, to get her mind right again.
She wasn't starting to crush on Luz. She wasn't.
That wasn't even possible after having her head hit by the boards and briefly watching her cut more boards. This wasn't possible. Grumbling, Amity went back to her research about some of her classes, to be prepared accordingly.
It wasn't possible, she decided.
However, when she went back to the construction site the next day, she found herself looking out for the Latina, ready to drool a bit more. Even if that was totally unacceptable.
Lilith was droning on and on about some structural engineering calculation that Amity couldn't exactly follow, but she didn't mind that. Her thoughts were far away from the conversation and somewhere in this house, with a certain young worker.
She had no idea why she was thinking about Luz that often. Like, fine, thinking about attractive people was common, but Amity had never caught herself thinking about such a person for more than a few hours. And she had been around famous people, movie stars, singers, everyone with a name that was invited. She had been around attractive people, objectively and subjectively, and she sure had had one or two infatuations with some, but she had never been so caught up on anyone.
Walking through the mansion, she saw some familiar faces again, for example, the brown boy with short hair and a mischievous grin, and the curvy girl Luz had been working with. She didn't know their names yet, but she hoped she could also get in contact with them.
After all, she didn't have many friends, and since the company, her parents had hired was from the city she would be attending college at, she was hoping to make some friends of her age, some normal people in contrary to the stuck-up rich kids her parents had put her together with from an early age on.
She supposed she was a stuck-up rich kid for these workers as well, but boy, she would put in every effort to not be that, if just to spite her parents.
Obediently, she followed Lilith around and sometimes threw in some questions to seem interested, but she couldn't care less about structural problems in a house that she wouldn't ever set foot in after it's finished. Additionally to it not really having any structural problems, as Lilith had reassured her most times, just that she wasn't too happy with how the construction crew had messed up some walls and how her team had to work to straighten those out and work with measurement differences, basically that her company was currently calculating how much more money they wanted from the Blights.
Sighing, Amity trotted after her and listened to every single little complaint she was having and that her company would have to ask for compensation for additional material and working hours and that blah blah blah.
It wasn't Amity's money and she didn't have the authority to really decide anything in this conversation, so she wasn't entirely in it with her head.
She supposed Lilith just wanted her to know all about those problems so her parents wouldn't claim Lilith had just made them up, that there was a record from before that Amity could be witness to.
Humming, she clasped her hands behind her back and sighed again, then she looked around before suddenly seeing Luz, drilling some holes into the boards she had seen her carrying up here, the boards with which she had hit her on the helmet.
Smiling, Amity waved to her, but she was so focused on her work that she didn't even look up. Lilith had already taken a few more steps and was ahead of her, waiting for her to catch up, so Amity did. And thus continued the lecture.
The second time Amity saw Luz that day was after lunch when she came back from sharing a meal with her siblings and was parking her car.
Luz was outside, soaking in the sunshine and having her eyes closed. Apparently, she was either still on a lunch break or just taking a short moment for herself, when Amity got up and locked her car, watching her over the roof.
Luz was leaning back and smiling to herself. Amity's gaze followed down the dirty shirt and towards her hands, of which one was suspiciously shaped like… Was she smoking?
Furrowing her eyebrows, Amity watched as Luz lifted the thing she was holding like a cigarette before sticking it in her mouth and beginning to chew on one end.
Furrowing her eyebrows, the girl observed as Luz finally took the thing from her mouth again and broke it through the middle, before turning and throwing it into the nearest trashcan.
Curious, she followed her towards the entrance area where Luz stopped again, and Amity finally got close enough to see she was fiddling with something that looked like a little box of toothpicks.
An incredulous smile spread on her lips as she came closer, fully ready to make light conversation, but when Luz saw her, she already stepped inside.
Was she running away from her?
Amity stopped in confusion, but before she could go after Luz, someone else exited the building. It was that younger brown boy, with the bright smile, who immediately picked up Amity's confusion no matter how hard she had tried to mask it up once she had realized someone was coming.
"Hey, you okay?", he asked with a grin and Amity gave a sigh of relief that he wasn't bowing or anything, before nodding.
"Yeah, I'm okay."
He eyed her for a second before Amity pushed her car keys into her back pocket and held out her hand for him to shake.
"Hi, I'm Amity.", she finally said and he took her hand, not minding that his hands were dusty and dirty, shaking it.
"Gus, short for Augustus. Pleasure to meet you.", he gave a smirk, "You weren't here yesterday. How comes?"
Her eyebrows pulled up at his perception before she nodded.
"Yeah, I had university stuff to do.", they parted hands and Gus leaned against a beam holding up the little roof over the main entrance.
"Cool, you'll go to university?", he asked and wistfully stared ahead, "I wish I could go to university. Maybe someday, I can."
Amity tilted her head and looked up to him since he was not only taller but still standing on the patio.
"Maybe someday?", she questioned and he shrugged.
"Ya know, leaving after middle school, low income. I couldn't hold up a student's life. All the costs are way too much. But maybe I can strike a deal with Eda and Lilith to work half time and attend evening classes, that'd be cool."
Furrowing her eyebrows, Amity shifted her weight from one foot to the other and looked down to the dusty ground. She had never thought about that. Gus seemed one or two years younger than her, and yet he was so much more mature, ready to juggle work and university just to attend evening classes.
She had never thought about students maybe having to be employed to even be able to carry university if the support from their parents was not a given.
Another thing that made her less normal, she supposed.
Huffing, she nodded, then she looked back up and smiled at him.
"I bet you can.", she finally offered and he gave a bright grin.
"So you were going for Luz instead of me, am I right?", he cheekily asked and Amity immediately felt a blush rising, puffing her cheeks.
"N-No-…", she began but his smirk told her he already knew.
"So I was right.", he announced and Amity realized she had just sold herself out, "I am wondering, though, why did you look as confused when I came out here?", he said out loud and she looked to the side, embarrassed. That little shit, he had seen too much.
"I-… I thought she was smoking.", she muttered and he laughed, shaking his head.
"She's got that thing, to pretend she's smoking but she's actually just chewing on toothpicks. Claims that makes her smarter, but I know it's just to take the same breaks as smokers.", he chuckled and Amity couldn't help but giggle as well.
"Oh, well, if she gets some additional breathing breaks from that?", she hummed and Gus shrugged.
"Ya, well, she's not very subtle with it. I don't think she wants to be, I just think she wants to humor Eda and annoy Lilith since she can't say anything about smoking breaks and thus, if Luz wants to take a chewing break, she can't say no to that.", he explained and Amity shook her head at the cheekiness of his colleague.
"She's got a point with that.", she slowly mumbled and Gus laughed.
"She does, weirdly enough. Wanna see what I'm working on? Might be more interesting than to listen to Lilith's dry lectures.", he offered.
She nearly jumped at that offer, her eyes blown wide when she stepped closer to him, clasping her hands together to beg.
"Desperately!", she exclaimed and he laughed louder, waving her to follow him inside, "Nothing against her, but what she talks about is just interesting to people who have already finished a complete bachelor's and master's degree and worked in the field for ten years…"
Gus laughed heartily at that and shook his head.
"Oh, I know what you're talking about. She's really good at her stuff and everyone's been improving in understanding projects, but hearing her talking about it is just plain unbearable.", he nodded at that and led her in, taking care that she would put on her helmet as soon as she was inside.
"So, what are you working on?", Amity asked, a little dumbstruck that he was not concerned in the slightest about Lilith lingering around somewhere and listening to him talking about her like that. Apparently, they had a lot more friendly relationships than Amity had thought before.
Humming, she followed him to the bathrooms, where he put on some heavy-looking rubber pants that looked like they had seen better days. Tilting her head, Amity followed him as far as he waved her and stopped at his sign.
"We're just raising the level around the shower a little bit so no water will run out of it. Unfortunately, the construction crew forgot about that little step, so we're going to build that onto the existing stone slab and make sure the bathroom stays dry while the shower will be safe."
Humming, she examined the little wooden board by the door where she was standing, tilting her head at it, then Gus began explaining.
"We talked about it with the architect and they said we could just leave the little step as it is. That's why the board is there, to prevent the concrete from running into the hallway. See, and here are another few boards.", he pointed to the far end of the room where Amity faintly remembered one of the showerheads to be planned. This mansion had a lot of bathrooms, so she wasn't entirely sure she had the right plans in mind.
"Ah, that's where the shower goes.", she nodded and he gave her a little grin.
"Exactly. We actually wanted to just cut the shower in, but that would have been too much work and would have become too rough. So we just decided to put a few inches on top and have a little step at the door.", grinning, he turned to her, "I would ask you to help, but unfortunately, you can't keep up with my impeccable fashion sense."
Giggling, she watched him readjust the rubber pants with attached boots that seemed a little worn at the belt area where another heavier worker must have strained it, then she shrugged at him.
"Well, but you can still demonstrate what you do?", she asked and Gus gave a broad grin, nodding.
"Yes, that was what I was counting on. You know, it's always easier to work with some company and honestly, since everyone else here is busy, currently, it'd be nice to have you around."
This spread warmth in Amity's chest that she hadn't known she had missed.
Smiling, she leaned against the doorframe, or rather, what of it was built already, and watched Gus preparing a sack of concrete to pour it and mix it with water, humming. Him saying her company was desired made her feel warm and cozy and overall happy with herself. There hadn't been a lot of instances where people wanted her to be around and she had found that to have negative side effects on her self-esteem.
People like her maids, she could understand that they wouldn't want to stick around. After all, they were working for her, and even if she had made some friends among her parents' employees, more or less, they had never really wanted to be there for her.
Well, they were working there and had their own lives. And probably better things to do than listen to a whiney rich kid…
Breathing through, Amity looked up again while Gus prepared the mixture, smiling to herself.
She had never thought that she would find someone close to friends here, at all places, but he had said it was nice to have her around despite not knowing her. Wasn't there a saying about the first impression shaping how one sees a person for the rest of their lives?
And immediately recognizing each other's personality?
Well, she had found out from her first meeting with Luz that she was a joyful spirit and a little careless, but nonetheless charming.
Gus, so far, had been cheeky and likable, approachable. He seemed to always be up for jokes and opened up quickly to people. Maybe that was exactly what she needed.
"Hey Gus?", she asked and he looked up with a grin.
"How long have you been doing this stuff now?", she asked and he responded with a hum, leaning back after adding water to the mix.
"Five years, like Luz and Willow. I was going for graduation from high school but that was too easy, so I ended up doing an apprenticeship and landing a job in this company.", he explained and Amity tilted her head.
"Graduation was too easy?", she asked and he laughed, his shoulders and chest shaking.
"Yeah! I skipped two grades and was in the same class as Willow and Luz. But, you know, my father always wanted me to graduate and go to college. That was too boring and easy for me, I like the challenge. So I left school instead. But, you know, after working for so long I do want to go to college."
Nothing he said sounded arrogant, Amity found. He was genuine about himself and made it all the easier for her to understand that there were different characters around here, so diverse and deep that she was sometimes wondering where all of that had been in her school years. She had never before met a person so genuine and honest, not in school at parties or from her parents' meetings.
Humming, she nodded at his little explanation, then he lifted his eyebrows at her.
"And you? How did you end up on the projection management board for this?"
Amity resisted rolling her eyes at the embarrassment she felt welling up inside her, dusting her cheeks red.
"Well… I graduated this summer and my parents decided my résumé had to look better than it did until now. So, here I am."
He tilted his head at that, before going back to work, but he didn't laugh. For some reason, Amity was incredibly thankful he didn't, since he always seemed to have a smirk on his lips.
"Your parents decided that you spend your entire summer, the last one of your life, that's gonna be this free, on a construction site?", he asked incredulously and she miserably hung her head, "Just to add a line on your résumé and not to have any holes in it?"
Sighing, she nodded.
"I would've liked to be somewhere else right now.", she began, and Gus looked up at her having stopped, even if her voice had been going up towards the end of her sentence.
"But?", he inquired her implication and she shrugged, a slight blush creeping back onto her cheeks.
"But I think I might enjoy it here a little more now.", she admitted and he grinned at that.
"I hope that's the company?", he tried and waggled his eyebrows, making Amity smirk.
"It's definitely the company. You guys set the average down to around twenty-seven. Before it was, like, fifty-nine.", she rolled her eyes, "I'm so glad to have a few younger faces around here now."
Gus laughed at that and Amity found his laugh so infectious she had to join in. Shaking his head, Gus put away the mixer and began shoveling the concrete mass on the floor, humming.
"Well, good for you, I guess. Lilith and Eda took in a whole new crew a few years ago, never asked why.", he said and Amity helpfully chimed in, leaning against the doorframe so she could look inside without stepping over the board.
"Lilith actually told me it's because a few of the older workers retired and they wanted to support younger generations in getting a foundation for a career.", she recited from memory and Gus grinned.
"Yes, but, if you ask me, this company has a curse.", he conspiratorially leaned in and smirked, "Every few years they mysteriously have a big slump that causes them to restructure entirely. I say something is going on."
Tilting her head, Amity leaned in further, to be closer to him as he got quieter.
"I don't know for sure, but it can't be bad luck. Not just bad luck, after all. It's too regular, for a company to have such a bad project every few years. No, I think something is going on. It's a curse, I tell you."
Before Amity could ask more, she heard a familiar voice from down the hall and looked up to see Lilith making her way towards her, waving.
"Miss Blight! I didn't know you were still here."
Amity suppressed a groan.
"Ah, uhm, I was just checking by. I'll be leaving shortly. Do you need anything else from me?"
Lilith looked almost relieved at that, and Amity supposed that was the stress of a customer still walking around on the construction site.
"No, for today I believe that will be enough. I won't be on the site for a few days if you decide to come by, but I'm sure my sister will do her best to care for you.", she promised and Amity gave her a warm smile, hoping to take some of the pedestals Lilith was most likely putting customers on.
"That sounds great. I will be seeing you around, then?", she asked and the older woman nodded, before offering to walk her to her car. Amity couldn't shake her off and left, but not without sending a longing gaze back to Gus who was conspiratorially waggling his eyebrows, before waving goodbye. She gave a small wave back and smiled.
The next day, Luz wasn't around either.
She wondered if the girl was avoiding her actively, or if it was just bad luck, but she supposed Lilith had held her back to do some errands or finish up some things in their workshop. That's at least what Gus had sneakily slipped her when he had passed her.
She had had to suppress rolling her eyes at the boy trying so awkwardly to push them together. Or at least, inform her of Luz's whereabouts. She supposed that somewhat counted as playing wingman.
Even if she wasn't that far. She would say she was infatuated by Luz, yes, but not that she was actively crushing on her. She didn't feel butterflies in her stomach, did she?
And she wasn't fawning over her at night and she wasn't being all lovey-dovey and only talking about her anymore.
She wasn't doing all that.
It had to be a simple infatuation and that would be it. After all, there could be a very real possibility that Luz was straight. Maybe she even had a boyfriend. Or maybe, she was married and had a husband.
That thought sent a pang through her heart and she had to stop at that, to regain her breath. Huh.
Her infatuation was apparently stronger than she had thought.
Shaking her head, she waved that off and tried not to think about that. Luz in a wedding dress, with a man on her side, celebrating a straight wedding.
That was definitely not something Amity wanted to imagine.
As Lilith had promised, though, she was absent and Eda was there alone with their team to supervise the progress and instruct the workers, as well as helping wherever she could.
That made the explaining times a lot shorter, Amity had learned because Eda wasn't that much of a planner or manager as her sister was. She was the crafty sister of the two, and she definitely had the expertise to show for it.
Just as Amity had entered the mansion that morning, she had immediately been pulled aside by Eda to help out instructing some workers to install a built-in drawer that Lilith had explained to her the day before, with the help of the plans they had been left with.
"You're much better at the theoretical stuff than me.", Eda had just claimed and Amity had been offended at first, but Eda was right. As much as she loved exercising and helping out around here, she definitely had the necessary abstract skills to comprehend plans and translate them into actions.
Even if she hadn't known that about herself, either.
Eda had just thrown her into that task and Amity had done what had been asked of her, which she had found to be much easier than she had anticipated.
Now, she was standing around with Willow, watching some of the apprentices assembling the built-in drawer after her instructions.
"So, where will you go to for college?", Willow suddenly asked and Amity's head flew around, eyeing her suspiciously as she laughed, "Gus told me you're going to college. Couldn't stop gushing, that ridiculous boy."
Amity giggled as she shrugged, then she turned back to the apprentices again and began talking.
"Well, my parents wanted to send me abroad but I wasn't interested. Since I could get a scholarship anywhere, I got one close to where I live, that's more comfortable for me and I won't feel as pressured.", she shrugged, then she continued, "I'll be going to Bonesborough, it just seems like a very good college and I guess I don't like being too far away from my siblings, as annoying as they are. They also go there."
Willow excitedly bumped her shoulder, then she pointed to herself.
"Hey, our company comes from Bonesborough! Maybe you can come by some time and say hello!", she said and Amity listened up.
"Wait, you guys are from Bonesborough? Not Latissa? I thought you were from the next city from here.", she exclaimed and Willow laughed.
"Not many companies produce what we offer. That's probably why your parents tasked us with the interior design. We actually do a lot of projects farther away, and we travel a lot, too. Our stuff is widely known and a lot of rich people pay good money for us to fly a few thousand miles to build their interior.", she explained, making Amity nod understandingly.
"So, you're all from around Bonesborough?", she asked and Willow nodded, grinning.
"Yup! All local youths. And whoever wasn't local moved closer. Luz, Gus, and I are in a shared apartment together, and as far as I know, Viney, Jerbo, and Barcus share one as well. Oh, and Luz was living close to Eda first, babysat her son a lot when he was younger. We're all a big family, you know?"
That brought a smile to Amity's lips and she nodded again, this time a little solemnly.
"That sounds amazing, honestly…", she mumbled and Willow grinned.
"You know… If you're from around Bonesborough, I'm sure we wouldn't mind if you came over for game night sometime. Or we could go out, enjoy the very quiet Bonesborough nightlife.", she winked and Amity had to laugh at that.
"The Bonesborough nightlife, yeah right.", she sarcastically said while Willow shrugged.
"Publicly there isn't a lot going on, but you know, if you know the right corners you might just find yourself a gem of a bar."
"Secret tips?", Amity lifted her eyebrows and Willow chuckled, "Don't let my siblings know that, they'll drag all their college buddies there and drunkenly trash the bar."
Laughing, Willow waved that off, then she put her hands back into her pockets to continue watching the apprentices, calling to help them out at a piece but generally letting them work alone. Amity thought it was great to have a customer's commission turn into a learning experience.
"Hey, Willow?", she asked suddenly and the girl next to her listened up, tilting her head.
"Yes?", she replied and suddenly, Amity found her throat to have dried out and her voice to have died. She had wanted Willow's attention for a very special question, but now that she had started it she found herself struggling to finish where she had wanted to go.
"You're-… You're close to Luz Noceda, right?", she slowly forced out and Willow sent her a quizzical look, almost amused, before nodding.
"Yeah, why?", she confirmed, making Amity fidget with her hands and stutter until she had finally formulated the question she had wanted to ask.
"Is she, uh… I noticed her, well, avoiding me. I-… I really don't wanna make enemies here, and uh, I was wondering if, you know… If that's about my last name?", she tentatively asked and Willow hummed as a response before speaking up, shaking her head.
"So, Luz was the one slamming the board on your head, right?", she asked and Amity nodded, slanting her lips.
"Yeah, and I told her it was okay, but-… I didn't speak to her since."
Willow once again nodded knowingly and shrugged, while Amity was rubbing her palms together before hiding her hands in her pockets like the girl standing next to her.
"You know, Lilith was not a fan of this whole situation of, you know, disrespecting the customer.", a wave of her hand cut off the reassurances Amity had been prepared to spew, "And kind of told Luz off about it. Actually, threw quite a tantrum. If it had been anyone else, they would've started bawling their eyes out. She also kinda threatened Luz with firing her."
Amity felt her heart sinking into her pants and squinted her eyes in embarrassment.
"But I said it was fine…", she mumbled and Willow placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"We know that. But, you know, Lilith basically throws this whole company. This commission here is worth a big sum of money, in the Million range. If, you know, Luz had slammed those boards on someone else's head, for example, your mother or some executive guy your parents hired, imagine what would've been the issue."
Grimacing, Amity allowed herself a very, very short imagination of her mother reacting to that, but soon interrupted the movie playing in her head not to spiral into trauma.
"Uh, well, you would've been off the job?", she asked and Willow bared her teeth, shaking her head.
"Not quite. We would've been forced to build everything for no money, we would've been broke and Lilith would've had to fire everyone, and, well, the company had probably been forced to sue Luz for the financial damage. And judging by how pricey this project is, Luz would've had to pay compensation for all her life.", she explained, making Amity sink into her shoulders further and further.
"Luz would've been forced to-… To pay for everything?", she asked and Willow nodded.
"And the possibility is still very real and very probable, should your parents learn of this little mishap.", she darkly added, while Amity started to vigorously shake her head.
"I wouldn't ever tell them!", she exclaimed, making some of the apprentices nearby jump, then she lowered her voice again and sighed, shaking her head, "The company will not be forced to sue Luz. I wouldn't let that happen."
Willow merely shrugged again at that and looked back to Amity, as if to say that it was out of her hands.
"Anyways, and that's why Luz has kinda been tiptoeing around you. Lilith made it very clear that if she dared to do so much as speak to you again, she'll make her regret it. And well, Luz is scared, that another mishap will happen and that you'll let the company go with no compensation. She's-… Kind of a klutz, especially around-", she cut herself off, thinking differently, "Well, around rich people, and she doesn't want any more mistakes happening."
Amity pouted at that but nodded nonetheless, giving into the very real possibility that she was a threat to Luz, not because she wanted to be but because they seemed to be on thin ice. She could probably forget all about connecting with Luz again.
Btw should I open suggestions/commissions for you guys?