yay me! I actually updated something for once instead of saying I will but then never actually doing it. This is more of an introduction to Lucas's character, and there should be another Riley/Maya chapter after this (coming soon!) before Lucas & Maya's storylines actually come face to face. Has everyone heard On Purpose? So good! And those peybrina pictures that peyton's mom posted on twitter slayed me but also gave me life. Idk. I hope you enjoy this!
"You look like a piece of shit."
"You're too kind to me mom" Lucas retorted, but he'd have to take her word as gospel as he hadn't actually looked in the mirror today yet. Or the day before that. Shit. He rubbed his eyes to try and shrug the fatigue off and ran his fingers through his matted hair, his fingers getting stuck in knots while trying to smooth it down…or something at least slightly presentable.
He didn't get why his mother was so obsessed with his current state, she knew his circumstances regarding work and yet refused to believe any differently from what she thought to be true. He probably shouldn't have let his hair air-dry when he got out of the shower yesterday afternoon.
"Lucas, I'm being serious here, it's one o'clock in the afternoon and what have you done with the day? Slept until now!"
He gave an exasperated sigh and gave a defeated look deflected at his mother's annoyed one.
"Mom, you know I don't get out of work until two am"
I mean, really? Was he just supposed to be some kind of superhuman being that never needed sleep. And besides…he did things when he woke up. Watched TV, went for walks...once every few weeks.
She frowned at him, her creased brow overcoming her features but didn't say anything more on the matter. She handed him a wooden spoon and pointed towards the stewing pot currently on the stove, "Stir those runner beans." She turned to her latest baking project and turns on the electric mixer and half shouts over the whirring noise," Lucas you can't be annoyed at me for being worried about you, you're barely doing anything these days, you're more like a slug on my leaf chewing away at my bills without saying sorry or doing something about it." She continued, looking more and more weary as she slumped her shoulders.
Lucas felt bad, he hadn't wanted to upset his mom even further, he was just frustrated with her lack of support in his recent endeavors and had taken most of the brunt out on her. He looked up at her and saw her eyes catch in the sunlight reflecting off of the glass window in front of her, her skin looked so youthful and he had a sudden itch to go up and hug her, after all she did provide for him and care for him very much. He moved to speak and opened his mouth, but his mother glanced at him and gave him a saddened look, and that shut him up without another word. He stood up from the old leather chair with stuffing falling out of it at the seams and crept his way up the staircase into his bedroom, into solidarity. He heard his mother downstairs string profound curse words into a sentence and a few minutes later smelt the wafting scenting of burnt, caramelized beans and he felt what his mother had felt towards him.
A bitter taste on the tip of his tongue.
When Lucas had previously worked in the local McDonald's when he was in college, the oil from the fries, the Big Macs, the chicken burgers, whatever, would get everywhere. It would get in every single crevice and pore on Lucas's body and it took forever to get the smell out from scrubbing at his skin in the shower and getting the tiny amounts of tomato sauce out from under his fingernails. The stench never truly got off of his skin however, he was just left with a thin film of grease that he would later sweat into his clothes at school. He hated the job all throughout the entire time he had it, but it was a way to help pay off the bills that his mom struggled with. This job was none so different, but rather instead of oil on his fingertips, it was ink. Black ink. Because he was the first switchover from the day shift to the night, Lucas had to carry the new copies of The Courier straight from the Printing department and carry them to the night log department where they would check for any errors before the copies were shipped out for the following morning. It wasn't a bad thing, as Lucas was more than big enough to carry them and he was almost certain that nobody in either sections of the workplace recognized him.
As he sat down at Anne's desk, the one he was occupying for the night (she had asked him to stop leaving Danish pastry crumbs on her seat and he'd forgotten once again) he remembered the first time he had spoken to Ben, his boss about the job opening. He'd sluggishly sat down at the table in their small square kitchen and was eating the homemade frittata his mom made the night before. She handed him that day's newspaper and looked through her recipe books meticulously, he had skipped the sports and politics section as neither subjects were topics he was particularly interested in and reached the advertisement section, and right there in the middle of the page in big bold print; 'The Courier, full time opportunity for Internet security officer. $40k+ per annum, health and dental covered'
Least to say, his mother was not pleased when he applied for the job.
"I don't understand what you can do in that place that can't be done in daylight! It's not right Lucas, how can people express themselves in a place where they know you'll just be reading it anyway? It's like someone's lurking in their thoughts." She said, a clear look of dread and disappointment in the glint of her eyes.
"Mom, the point is I'm not in their thoughts, I'm in their computers, rather in the company's computers, it's like I'm not supposed to be there and besides everyone….everyone knows it's happening." He gave a disgruntled sigh and gave up, it was useless trying to explain it to her, she had never actually used a computer in the first place.
She looked up from her book and snapped it closed with finality, "Remember when we had that mailman, Mr. Roe? Remember how he'd always read our mail and postcards? And he'd always had that holier-than-thou attitude whenever he came by the house and made those knowing comments like; 'So I see your daughter is having a great time in South Carolina' or 'I've always wanted to see the Grand Canyon myself.'I understand being a mailman is a very repetitive job, but he was always proud of it and he gloated whenever he walked by, I'm pretty sure Mrs. Laude down the street doesn't speak to us because he told her I subscribe to Me magazine."
He frowned to himself, "It's not like that, I only ever read their messages if they're flagged for something, I don't just creep around on people's messages for my own enjoyment."
His mother wasn't listening.
Lucas actually liked being called up to the newsroom, be it for a repair or to take something heavy to the break room. It had long sleek windows side by side for a wall where you could see the skyline in the distance and the stars shining brightly above it, the room was never completely empty either, with the late night editors usually in a clump in the corner of the room, although some of them dispersed throughout the room. There were two young and pretty girls sitting on Lucas's left as he got the fresh prints, and he decided that yes, you could be young and model-like in real life. As he turned back to the room where Anne's desk was, he wondered if the people working night shifts with him went on dates during the day.