Elskendes Feud – 12
x.x.x.x.
Lukas woke up at 4:30 in the morning that day. He had done to bed at about 5 though so he really wasn't tired at all. Looking at his clock, he stumbled out of bed and to his en-suite bathroom. He quickly tore off his clothes and set the shower to high. He liked to clear his head in the shower, making it hot only helped for some reason. He stepped in, sighing as the hot liquid steamed against his skin. The air was thick and his body was numb. He rested his hands on the wall, feeling the tiles beneath his sensitive fingertips; he hung his head low, his hair covering his face and causing the water to drip in front of him from the ends of his hairs. Lukas sighed, looking down at the floor. It was a large walk in shower, a fancy decorated room only up to the highest standards. He was so rich it wouldn't be surprising if he had a solid gold toilet (one year he had joked about getting one, his parents thought he was serious and it wasn't until he explained three days before his birthday that it was a joke did they understand). He thought to himself. Why had he gotten so worked up over the day before? He groaned, wanting to punch the wall in frustration. He wasn't like those girls you see on T.V getting all worked up over someone and denying everything. He couldn't feel the water on him any more, but it still poured, he could see it.
"Love at first sight doesn't exist. But it wasn't at first. Didn't we try to kill each other before? But why does it feel like such short time? Because you were having fun, Lukas" he sighed loudly, curling his hands into tight balls. Was he talking to himself? Yes. "Lukas, you idiot. You like her." He gave up and slammed his fist into the wall, it only produced a small sound, but it still hurt enough to cause him to jump back and cradle his hand. Dammit, why did he pick his hand he writes with? He could see his reflection barely in the tiles. "You're getting so worked up over this. It must be love. But I'm not the type of guy to fall in love. How do you know that? I don't..." He felt weird talking to himself, it obviously couldn't be normal, could it? If he had someone to talk to then he would have. He lifted his head up, Lukas knew he would have to say it or else he would never feel good about any of this. "I love Mathine." He said quietly, "I love Mathine" he said a bit louder. He was looking forward, a blank expression on his face. He was shakily slightly, he still couldn't feel the drops of water hit him from the heat. "Should I tell her? No, you could get your heart broken. But what if she feels the same? You should wait a bit, Lukas." he still couldn't get it in his head that he was worrying about getting heartbroken by her. It was fairly obvious that he felt something, why would be have been so worked up, the painting thing, walking in on her, heck, even when he saw her get angry over him and Laura. He felt slightly smug that she was that affected, but he felt anger boil up when she took the pen from Yong Soo. Was he acting like one of those jealous boyfriends. "Calm down Lukas...you love her. It doesn't mean that you're together...yet". He took that as his time to stop and turned off the water, stepping out and wrapping a towel tightly around himself. When he walked back into his room he looked at his clock. 5:54...he was in there a long time. He shrugged and started to dry himself off, preparing himself for the strange day he knew he would have with his new-found knowledge of his own emotions.
Lukas was up and dressed and fed before 6:30am. Not long after putting his dishes in the dishwasher did he notice his younger sister walk down the stairs, looking half dead. It was a trait that ran in their family, they lived on coffee. He almost chuckled at her appearance and set the coffee maker up for the both of them to be able to have a nice warm drink of their favourite beverage.
"You went to bed really early, Luk"
"I know"
"What time did you wake up?"
He shrugged, "Four thirty?"
Eyríður gaped at him for a few seconds before barging past to pour herself a coffee, "I was going to make you one, lillesøster"
The younger Nordic grunted and took a step back, "Fine, Luk. Make me my coffee." No one in their family was polite in the morning.
Lukas shrugged and complied to her demand, pouring the bitter liquid and making it just the way his younger sister liked it. He handed her the drink right as soon as he heard his mother walk down the stairs.
"Lukas? Ah, good, you're awake. You slept really early."
"I know Mor, I was tired."
"Is everything alright? You've been hanging around your friends a lot."
"Ja, it's fine. They are good people."
"What are their names? You never talk about them, you seem to be becoming distant with us."
There was enough coffee that Lukas could make himself and his mother a drink as well, and handed his mother her morning drink, he knew how to make it perfectly. In their house they all knew how to make coffee for each other, it was their basic rule.
Eyríður finished off her coffee and looked up at her older brother, "Tell us, Luk."
"Fine. There's two of them. Berwald and Tiina, Berwald is from Sweden, Tiina is from Finland."
Eyríður immediately noticed how he didn't mention Mathine, she smirked knowingly. So these must've been the other two who she saw with him the other week. She made a mental note to write down that information. Lukas's mother's eyebrows raised immediately at the mention of Tiina.
"A girl? Tii-"
"Tiina and Berwald are dating, no, I do not like her" Lukas sighed. He would've mentioned Mathine if he thought that he would be allowed to be friends with her, and now he apparently wanted to be something more.
"Oh, oh well. Are they nice?"
"Of course. They're great." Lukas didn't really like mentioning his friends and having to leave out Mathine, so he just shrugged and drank his coffee quietly before putting the empty mug in the dishwasher and going over to the living room to watch T.V while the rest of the house woke up.
Eyríður went back to her room to change and scribble down the two names while she remembered them. So they were a couple, then it seemed natural that Lukas and Mathine would get together.
Lukas didn't really do much the rest of that morning, his mother and sister occasionally came in to chat with him, but not much happened. They talked about his birthday, which was in around two weeks. He hadn't even thought about what he wanted, they all knew there would be no party or anything. Eventually when the time came for him to be able to escape their house and walk to school, he did. He put on his jacket and quickly left, waving goodbye to his mother and sister before leaving out the door and heading the short walk back to his school. When he got there there was still a few minutes before the bell, and he decided to walk to his class early. First lesson was Chemistry with none other than of course, Mr. Braginski. He saw the similar slightly creepy grin of the Russian when he entered and set up his stuff on his desk. He decided he wanted to ask him something after thinking about everything that morning.
"Hey... ?" he asked, the teacher turned to him.
"Da, Lukas?"
.x.x.x.x.
Mathine was a bit late to school that morning. The traffic on the road had been terrible, since she was in the same lesson as Tiina and Berwald first it didn't feel all too bad though. The three of them rushed in, they were only three minutes or so late, and hoped that maybe the Russian teacher was feeling nice. Mathine jumped in first, immediately apologising and going to her seat, but stopped when she noticed Laura was sat there.
"Uhm...where do I-"
"I moved you back next to Mr. Bondevik."
Mathine glanced at the empty seat next to Lukas and nodded, a bit surprised at the action. "Oh, okay. Ja, sure." She took the spare seat next to Lukas, which was the one on the end, on the outside. Mr. Braginski didn't seem to bat an eyelid about them being late, so Mathine saw it as a win-win situation.
"I got you moved here. Isn't that great?" Lukas asked, fiddling in his pencil case and grabbing a spare pen. "I didn't know if you got a replacement". Mathine sensed that something was off but took it anyway, giving him a wide smile.
"Thanks. I'm clumsy so I kinda forgot," she gave him a light laugh before starting off on the book work they needed to do. Lukas occasionally looked at her from the corner of his eyes, he looked at people for a few seconds at a time usually, he liked studying their faces. He found it strange that he suddenly felt his face heat up just because it was Mathine. He assumed he had liked her for at least a week, maybe, he wasn't sure, but it was as if until admitting it that these weird...blushes and weird feeling stayed dormant. Is this what it's like to have a crush on someone? He thought, sighing as he flicked the page in the book, occasionally flicking it back so Mathine could see the questions (she was a few behind him because she was late).
As soon as the lesson ended they walked to their next lesson together, "So, why'd you do that?" Mathine asked, heading towards the I.C.T room.
"It was more fun sitting by you" he replied, shrugging "Laura was boring."
Mathine smiled, poking at his chest, "You like hanging out with me~" she teased,
"Did I ever deny that?"
Mathine had to think about that for a few seconds, not sure exactly how to answer.
As what had become usual, Mathine and Lukas exited the I.C.T room together and went to meet with Berwald and Tiina in the hall for break time. Tiina waved them over, happily munching into her sandwich.
"Hey you two, how was I.C.T?"
"Boring" Lukas replied, and sat next to the Mathine, opposite the Finn. "Mathine drew a rabbit on her computer."
Tiina laughed at that, "really? Mr. Von Bock doesn't ever yell at anyone even if they do nothing, does he?"
"Nei, he's awesome like that" Lukas opened up his lunch and took out a slice of leftover pizza from the day before. He fell asleep before he could have dinner, but he didn't need to tell the others that, especially Mathine.
Then Berwald asked the killer question, "How was practice yesterday?"
Both Mathine and Lukas's faces shot up, both blushing ferociously (Lukas's face being a shade or two darker than Mathine's, it seemed). "Er..." Mathine muttered, "Great. It was great, right Lukas?"
"Ja, it was good. We tried on more outfits."
Tiina looked at their blush, she wanted to ask them what had really happened, but she thought that it would just make them mad at her, so made sure to make a note to ask Mathine in private when she would be more likely to answer. They conversed all break, mostly about what they were going to do that week and how their lessons were, how practice was going. The bell went, signalling the start of the next lesson, and they split off into their different places (Lukas and Mathine going to History, Tiina and Berwald going to Cooking).
And again, as usual they all met up at lunch time in the hall. After finishing off the rest of the food, the quartet went over to the library (which they had grown accustomed to going to, it wasn't full of nerds reading like the popular people liked to say it was). They were all sat together, talking about what they were going to do that day.
"You guys don't have practice today, do you?" Tiina asked, looking at Mathine and Lukas.
Lukas shook his head and replied, "Nei. No practice, why?"
"I was thinking we should all go to my house" the Finn cheered, "I went shopping yesterday, bought some munchies and drinks, we can all just hang out at my house until late. My parents won't mind."
Mathine didn't need to think for a minute before nodding quickly, "Ja! I'd love to go, it sounds great. We can watch movies and play games and stuff. What do you say, Lukas?"
He nodded slowly, "I'll go too."
"Yay! It'll be awesome, won't it Ber? Shall we drive there straight after school?" Tiina asked, to which the others all nodded.
"I should text my mother first and tell her..." Lukas muttered, whipping out his phone and quickly spending no time in tapping the letters, texting his mother where he would be. He had no doubt that she would be curious the next day, but at least he's now told her about Tiina and Berwald, so that she knows who his friends are now.
Mathine shrugged and texted her parents, she knew they wouldn't really mind though. "What shall we do tomorrow? We have to do something every day, I think" she laughed,
"Maybe we'll think about that tonight~"
Mathine nodded, putting her phone back in her pocket as they continued to talk about what they would do at Tiina's house that night. If they didn't have school the next day, they probably would've all stayed the night (Tiina's family had enough spare rooms to accommodate). They all had the same lesson last (Physics) so that made it easier for them to all leave together and go straight to Tiina's house at the end of the school day.
Almost immediately at the end of the lesson, Tiina practically dragged the other three to Berwald's car, "Oh! This will be so fun, won't it?" she cheered, watching her boyfriend get into the driver's seat and Mathine and Lukas slip into the back seats.
"I can't wait. You said there'd be drinks, right?" Mathine asked, leaning on the seat in front of her, which was Berwald's.
"Please don't get wasted again." Lukas cut in, looking blankly at her,
Mathine went slightly red at remembering (she had called Lukas sexy, and asked him to carry her!) and nodded, "Don't worry. I'll watch myself tonight, if not then Tiina will probably hit me on the head with a vodka bottle".
Lukas chucked lightly at the mental image, he didn't think Tiina was the type of person to like getting drunk, how wrong he was. It wasn't long until they were all huddled up in Tiina's bedroom. Berwald was in the armchair in the corner, Lukas was on the floor by the bed, and Mathine and Tiina were sat on the edge of the bed. When they were all settled Tiina went into the kitchen and set up the popcorn in the microwave.
"What movie shall we see?" she asked, looking at each of the people with her.
"I like the Troll Hunter" Lukas said,
"Perfect! I have it over there!" she pointed to a large bookcase full of DVDs, games, books, anything you could think of. Berwald slowly stood up and briefly looked through before pulling out the DVD with the holographic cover. Lukas had seen this movie many times, so wasn't as bothered as the others were in seeing it; he would just relax during the whole thing, he thought.
Tiina came back in with the three bowls of popcorn, she handed one to Berwald , who took it without saying anything, she had the next one for herself , and then handed Lukas the third one (and largest as it was for both him and Mathine). She sad back on the bed and patted the space in between her and Mathine. "Come join us."
He thought about it for a second and made his place between the two girls, they were a bit squished, but he could survive. The movie then started and Lukas remembered something, he was being squished in between two girls, one of whom was Mathine. He looked at her when he remembered this, she was staring at the T.V, she had probably never seen this movie before. Suddenly, she looked at him, and Lukas felt his face heat up slightly at her seeing him stare at her. "Can I have some popcorn?" she asked. Lukas immediately nodded, holding up the bowl slightly,
"...Sure"
She nodded, "Thanks." and took a handful, shovelling it into her mouth and continuing to watch the movie. Lukas looked at her again, occasionally reaching his hand in to eat some popcorn himself. He loved the Troll Hunter, even if it was like hundredth time watching it. After about an hour, he reached in again for more popcorn, and again felt Mathine's hand in there too. Only this time, he was blushing a lot darker at realising this. Mathine gave out a small laugh, but her face was also slightly pink. "It's like when we went to the movies."
He forced himself to laugh a little, nodding and continuing to feed himself. "Ja, it is. Do you like this movie?"
"I love it. Although I've seen it before"
Oh, he thought, so she has seen it. It shouldn't have surprised him, but it did. He nodded again, "So have I. It's great though."
"It is~"
When the movie ended the popcorn was long gone, Tiina called to Mathine, telling her to remove the disk and but it back. She did so happily, knowing that now they'd play video games, and that meant that Tiina was going to break out the alcohol. The Finn returned a few minutes later with a large tray, filled with bags and bowls of crisps, cookies, cakes, sandwiches, and all the munchies you could think of. "Berwald, can you get the alcohol please?" she asked her boyfriend, sitting on the floor and placing the tray on the table which was pretty much in between where everyone was sat. Berwald went to her cupboard and came out with a box, inside was a box full of beers, some bottles of wine and some bottles of vodka. There were also some other random assorted alcohols, enough so that there was more than enough for everybody.
"Okay, the rules are that we can drink whatever we want, just try not to get wasted. My mom is okay with me drinking and having friends over, but she'd rather you not end up piss drunk." She looked at everyone for their nods of approval, which were soon granted. Tiina then set up the game Call of duty and handed everyone a controller.
"Isn't this a boys' game?" Lukas asked, taking his controller and staring at it. He hadn't played the game before, but he often heard the boys in their school go on about it, and he had the game, but just chose never to play it.
"Have you seen Tiina? She's obsessed with guns, it's awesome" Mathine commented, happily taking her controller, "Hey, Tiina, can you pass me a beer?"
Tiina, smiled up at them, Mathine and Lukas were now on the bed and Tiina was on the floor. "Sure, Lukas would you want one too?"
He was a bit taken aback from the comment about Tiina loving guns. She seemed so innocent, why were all the girls he knew weird? Mathine was just...Mathine, Eyríður was strange enough, and now Tiina? Although she's friends with Mathine, what did he expect? "Sure. Guns, really?"
Tiina handed two beers to Mathine and nodded, "I have a sniper under my bed."
"Is that even legal?" Lukas asked, taking the beer that Mathine handed him and opening it.
"I don't know"
"Like, for minors..."
"Lukas, I'm not a minor. I turned 18 in December~"
"Oh, really?" he took a sip of his beer. It couldn't be any worse than him and Mathine drinking in the pub, since that was definitely illegal. Although he didn't know how long Tiina had had her gun for.
"How do you think I got all the alcohol?"
"Good point. Can we start the game now?" He put down his drink and looked at them all. Tiina nodded enthusiastically and grabbed a bottle of vodka, while setting up the game she took off the lid and took a sip. Lukas stared, she sipped vodka, without mixing it with anything. What the hell was wrong with her?!
So that's how the four teens ended up...drunk and sat around Tiina's bedroom playing call of duty. Mathine and Lukas hadn't counted what number bottles they were on, but they were getting tipsy and giggling together. Tiina was getting way too worked up into the game. Berwald slowly sipped at his bottle of wine and concentrated, he wasn't getting killed easily, he was hiding around the sidelines and shooting people whenever they came nearby. It wasn't the most 'out there' tactic, but at least he never died. Mathine was running around, shooting people randomly and getting killed a lot, it's not like she cared. They were playing a group game and all four of them were on the same side. Since Mathine kept getting killed Lukas decided that he would follow her, but he was being even more careful, but he sucked at the game. Lukas was killed even more times than Mathine, but like her he didn't care, it was only some stupid little shooting game. Tiina...now Tiina was a killing machine. She was sat up on her knees right in front of the T.V, the controller in one hand (and somehow being able to kill these people one handed, the others couldn't help but wonder how) and her bottle of vodka in the other. Lukas had never seen her drink before and was almost horrified at how little there was left of the dangerously strong drink, somehow Tiina was still in working order. She had only been killed once, somehow she was skilled enough to be out in the open, killing everyone she could without being killed. She took another sip of her vodka then put it down, now working faster now that she had both hands on her remote; the Finn stared at her screen, seeing the one player who had killed her before. Firing her gun at them over and over again, she leant up and screamed at her T.V,
"TAKE THAT YOU COCKSUCKER!"
That sent Lukas and Mathine into hysterics, almost in tears they both laughed loudly, lying on the bed and getting killed in the process. Mathine thought she even saw Berwald crack a smile, that was rare. When the game had ended even Tiina started laughing with them, and soon the air was filled with happiness.
"Hey, want to play another game now?" Tiina asked, taking out the Call of duty game and putting it back in the case. "I saw we play guitar hero" she made sure that she got the version of the game that allowed drums and karaoke as well, she couldn't wait to hear Berwald sing.
Mathine laughed, "Sure, sounds great. I call drums!"
"I'll be bass" Tiina said, "Berwald can sing and Lukas can play guitar".
But just like Call of duty (and most other video games) Lukas had never played it before, which of course meant that he wasn't very good. Horrific would be a better word actually, the group were on the verge of getting booed off. Mathine was happily banging along to the drums, she enjoyed it a lot, she got to make lots of loud noise without getting told off. Tiina happily jumped about, of course still sipping her vodka after each song. And poor Berwald, he thought it was terrible singing, everyone had to giggle at him during it. He seemed so out of place. Even worse was that Mathine got to pick their last song to play of the game, and she picked Dancing Queen by ABBA.
"You're doing this on purpose because I'm Swedish, aren't you?" he asked, grumbling and looking at the screen as the loading screen came up.
"Why what would make you think that?" Mathine laughed, twirling her drumsticks before starting up, their last game starting. They got booed off, which was no surprise since none of them could concentrate while laughing to hearing Berwald's deep voice sing the popular tune.
After that they agreed to play Mario Kart, although for once it seemed that Lukas was good at a game. He was delighted when he realised that you didn't need to have practice to be good at racing (he was playing as Boo) and was at that point in the lead. Mathine was cheering, from behind him she was Princess Daisy, just to match, Tiina decided to be Princess Peach, who was behind Mathine. And near the very end was Berwald, who was playing as Bowser. The four of them were all having lots of fun, drinking and cheering on as they went round the track over and over. The occasional swearing (even from Lukas) would erupt as they would get hit by shells and bombs (Mathine threw a blue shell at Lukas, which was quite funny) and they were all laughing, the food was gone. Everything was great until they heard a knock at the door.
"Come in?" Tiina asked, pausing the game, her voice was slurring by now.
A young woman with short blonde hair came in, she looked a lot like Tiina and was no doubt her mother. She looked around, knew didn't know Lukas so immediately raised an eyebrow at who the new boy was. But that wasn't the most concerning subject. "What did I tell you about getting drunk?"
"I'm sorry mom-"
"It's ten PM, I suggest Mathine, Berwald and..."
Tiina realised that she hadn't introduced Lukas and stood up, nodding. "Oh! This is Lukas. He's also our friend."
Lukas gave a small wave, he wouldn't if sober, but now he was tipsy and didn't really care.
Tiina's mother thought she recognised the boy but decided to pay no notice (what she didn't know what that she recognised him from being from the Bondevik family, if she had known then she would've been extremely surprised, as she knew what family Mathine was from) she simply ushered the other three teens out of her house and decided they could all call taxis to take them home.
Berwald immediately turned left and started walking away from the other two, "I can walk home from here. See you tomorrow." Mathine and Lukas looked at each other before agreeing to call a taxi and be taken home. They said their goodbyes and went back, both of them thinking about the great night they had just had with their friends.
.x.x.x.x.
"So, I have another awesome idea we can do to all hang out again!" Tiina yelped at the library table. It was Thursday lunchtime and the four of them had already spent most of the day discussing what they can do that night. "I say we go on a road trip. Call your parents, Berwald's car is big enough and we can stop off for food on the way. We can just spend a few hours driving around, his car has a built in GPS, we won't get lost. What do you say?"
Lukas thought about it for a moment. He had lots of fun the day before, but his mother had scolded him for the alcohol and told him to be more careful. "I'll go, but we shouldn't drink this time, especially if we're in a car. Although as far as I know only Mathine and Berwald can drive."
Mathine nodded, "I'll stay sober if everyone else does. We can still have fun without alcohol, right?"
"Of course!" Tiina cheered, "So is that it, we'll go? We'll be out until late, so I'd say we should all call our parents now."
They nodded and all four of them pulled out their phones. Mathine decided that texting would be enough, and Berwald wasn't much for calling so he also texted, Tiina and Lukas both called their parents though, and with a bit of convincing were both allowed to go. When she hung up, Tiina clapped her hands together, "This will be great, won't it?"
At the end of the day they found themselves yet again being dragged out to Berwald's car at the hands of the small Finnish girl, not that any of them minded though. Once all seated, Tiina turned on the GPS and simply told Berwald to drive in a random direction. So that's how they were driving around Norway for God knows how long, just chatting and having fun, they played I-spy for a bit, truth or dare, anything you could think of. After a while they got hungry and stopped off at a McDonald's and ate their meals in the car park of the fast food restaurant.
"This is great, getting off on a road trip, having no idea where we are. This is what teenagers should do~" Mathine chimed from her place next to Lukas, she continued munching her burger.
He nodded, "This has been the best year of my life so far."
This made Tiina and Mathine go aww, "Mathine, you should hug him since I can't"
"Don-"
Lukas was cut off by Mathine's strong arms wrapping around him in a tight hug. Both of them were blushing. "There~". Mathine probably held onto him longer than needed, but for some reason she liked the contact. Realising this though, she suddenly let go and continued eating her Big Mac, looking away from Lukas out of embarrassment.
They then all finished and Berwald continued driving, they passed some beautiful places. It was nothing like they were used to, they passed a small village where the houses were tiny and weak looking. This was a different world to them, they had been driving a few hours though, so they were quite far out. Then Berwald did something he would later regret, he turned down a small road. It looked pretty, so why not, right? Well, after a few minutes of driving the GPS died. Tiina poked at it, pouting. "Work, dammit...Berwald! The GPS has died!"
"What?" he stopped the car after finishing the drive down another side road. They were in the middle of no where now and were on the edge by a large field. He checked it, looking around the GPS and turning it off/on and everything. It had just..died. He had no idea what had happened but whatever it was it couldn't be good because it meant that they had no idea how to get back home. He spent another hour or so trying to fix it and noticed that the sun was setting, it was around nine pm at this time. "Maybe you should try and contact your parents to tell them where you are?" he asked, "we might be here a while...I'll have to keep driving."
Mathine got out her phone and looked at the screen, it was black. She frowned, tapping at it a few times (even hitting it on the seat in front of her) and nothing worked, she then remembered the battery low warning sign earlier when she texted her mother. Her phone must've died, she cursed to herself, looking at Lukas. "Can I use your phone?". He was also tapping at his phone,
"No signal..."
"Tiina?"
"Nope, nothing here, Berwald?"
"Nej..."
Lukas sighed, "I can't contact my mom. She'll freak."
Mathine shrugged, she doubted her parents would care much, but she was used to it. "How about you keep driving for a bit, when you get tied we'll swap and I'll drive?"
He nodded, starting up the car again and driving in a random direction. "We'll stop to sleep after a few hours actually, it sounds better."
After another four hours of driving through nowhere, Berwald decided that it was better to stop for the night, he parked in a field and pulled his jacket over his head and snuggling into his seat. "I'll sleep here the night. Are you all okay sleeping in your seats?" When he got an approval from everyone he started to fall asleep.
Mathine, however, was still awake, and after everyone else was asleep she slowly crept out of the car. What she didn't know was that Lukas was also awake and he had watched her through half lidded eyes getting out of the car and sitting on the bonnet. She looked up at the stars, smiling widely. The cool air felt nice and even though they were lost and had no idea where they were going, there was something nice and peaceful about it. Did she really like being away from home that much? Her thought were interrupted when she jumped, feeling another presence on the bonnet.
"The night sky is pretty" Lukas noted from next to her. She nodded, going a bit red. The moment felt...romantic, almost. Dammit Mathine, she told herself, don't mention Lukas and romance in the same sentence! She felt her face heat up even more and continued on,
"Ja, very. It's nice out here" she said, just to distract herself from her thoughts.
"It's nice to be away from home. It's suffocating there." Mathine looked at Lukas...his face was nice in the moonlight, when had she noticed that- Mathine. Stop! She sighed, but nodded, and remembered how Lukas's life seemed very similar to hers, being trapped by a family they didn't want to be a part of. She was bright red, why, she still wasn't sure.
Lukas raised an eyebrow, his heart started beating faster at noticing how red Mathine was...was she blushing? He tried to push the thought from his head, he didn't want to bring his hopes up that she could like him. "Are you okay? You look a bit red." so instead he decided to play dumb.
Mathine felt her face heat up even more at that comment, she nodded quickly and looked away. "I'm fine, Lukas. Don't worry about me." she told him, if Lukas was the type of person to smile he would now, at the sight of Mathine going more red. He found it adorable (he still felt it weird to accept such feelings though, it felt to say to himself "That's adorable!" ).
Lukas pulled out his phone again, it said no signal still, he sighed. "I'm worried. My mother's freaking out right now, I just know it."
"My mom won't care" Mathine replied, giving Lukas a slightly sad smile.
"I'm sure that's not true-"
"It seems that our families work differently."
He nodded, "I guess. Our family's really close."
"Mine isn't at all, but they're equal, you know that right? We were probably taught biased thoughts about each other's family."
"That's true. Even if our families have this weird rivalry, it's not going to stop me from liking to hang our with you"
That statement made Mathine's face crack into a wide grin, she felt elated at hearing that and nodded in agreement, "Ja, I feel that way too. To some degree I hate my family."
"I love them as people, but the idea they have... almost like royalty, how we have to take over the companies when we're older."
"Yeah..." Mathine covered her mouth and yawned. They chatted for a bit longer, mostly about their families, and it left the both of them feeling almost..warm inside, despite the chilly temperature of the middle of the night. Eventually they decided to get a rest and retreated to the back of the car and laid down to rest.
Dear Diary,
Okay, this is probably one of my more serious issues. Lukas didn't come home tonight. It's about two am and my mom is freaking out, she's called him about a million times and now she's called the police. They're downstairs talking with her right now. I'm scared. I hope that he's just around with that Mathine girl, but it's not like him to leave his phone off, or maybe it's dead. Yeah, that's got to be it, it's got to be dead. I know he went out with his friends, of course he told us that it was Berwald and Tiina, but I know that means Mathine too. Or maybe he's around her house and they got caught! Maybe her parents are trying to kill him or something, oh God! There are so many things that could have happened, hopefully the police will find him safe and sound, I wonder if Mathine's family are freaking out as well...although we don't even know if she's missing too, I bet she is. I don't think I can fall asleep, I'm going to go downstairs and listen to the policemen for a bit, and then maybe write a bit too, hopefully tomorrow Lukas will show up. I really hope he's okay...
.x.x.x.x.
Mathine, in her sleep, had somehow ended up on top of Lukas. His arms were wrapped around her (which he knew about, when he felt the Dane snuggle up to him you should've seen the look of shock on his face) and he was in a deep sleep. When Mathine finally awoke she had to stop herself from jumping. Who was holding her? She could hear someone's heart beat from under her head, she could see that Tiina and Berwald weren't in the car, and instead saw their asses taking up most of the room of the front window, of course meaning that they were sat upon on the bonnet. Eventually Mathine got the nerve to look up, of course she knew Lukas must be the one holding her, but it was still something that she was a bit scared to see. Her face flushed even darker when she saw the Norwegian's sleeping form, he was quite handsome, even Mathine thought she could admit that. But she had to get off of him, and fast, Mathine slipped herself away from Lukas's grip and quickly ran out of the car. She needed to clear her head. Mathine could almost feel the burning of Tiina's cocky grin in the back of her head, she didn't even need to turn around to know that the Finn was standing there smiling at her. She wouldn't hear the last from Tiina about the cuddling with Lukas, would she?
"Don't even say anything..." Mathine muttered, she wanted to walk over to the nearby lake and dunk her head in it, but she knew she'd get weird looks. She was probably blushing, she could feel her face still feel a little bit warm.
"What would I have to say~? You and Lukas look so cute together, by the way." Mathine eventually got the nerve to turn around and look at her best friend. The massive grin on her face was horrifying.
"Shut up! We d-do not!" To say Mathine was embarrassed was a bit of an understatement. Tiina continued to tell Mathine about how cute they are, how they should be together, until Mathine looked behind Tiina and saw the familiar face of the Norwegian they were just talking about. His hair was messy and he was scratching his stomach.
"I need coffee" he grumbled, not paying much attention to the girls. "And my phone is dead, this sucks."
Tiina let out a little laugh, "Now that you're awake we'll start driving again, see if we can find somewhere to buy coffee, and we'll see if we can get service to call for help!"
Lukas nodded, still glaring slightly. He needed coffee in his system, and he needed it now. He couldn't even feel happy about the situation with Mathine until he had coffee. Luckily it didn't take long to inform Berwald and all of them to set off for the second day of driving around aimlessly. After another few hours of driving (only Tiina's phone hadn't run out of battery by then, and she was keeping a track of the time) she suddenly gained a signal again, she screamed loudly (which made Lukas even more grumpy, he was still without coffee).
"I HAVE SIGNAL! You guys, I have signal! Internet, I can see where we are!" Tiina started screaming, this triggered Berwald to stop the car and the others all looked at her. She set up the map and showed Berwald where they were. Now that they knew where they were, they could go get breakfast somewhere. Lukas would've asked Tiina to use the phone to call his mother, but then he remembered that his phone died and he didn't know her number. Tiina called up her mother and Berwald's, Mathine told her not to bother calling her mother. (also she didn't want Lukas's mother to somehow find out that Mathine had gotten lost too, and she didn't want Tiina's mother to tell her own about Lukas). When the parents were informed they carried on driving, and it was about half an hour until they reached a local town about an hour and a half away from where they lived. There were shops there, and once they were all parked they went into the local Starbucks to have breakfast and more importantly, coffee.
When they were all fed and coffee'd, Lukas could finally interpret what had happened on their trip. I cuddled with Mathine, he thought, he had heard her talking with Tiina that morning, and wondered if they were talking about him. Probably, he thought again, taking a sip of his bitter drink, the warm liquid warming him up and waking him. He couldn't survive without coffee, he was anxious as to how his mother would reaction to him coming home late. She probably went crazy, he sighed and rested his head on the table. Mathine was sat next to him, and she raised an eyebrow at this,
"You okay, Lukas?" she asked, he noticed how now her face was a light shade of pink. He could only count that as a good thing,
"Ja, I'm worried about how my mom will kill me when I get home~"
"She better not" Tiina butted in, nibbling at her small cake she bought, "Because we should hang out tomorrow too."
Lukas sat up suddenly, looking over at the others, "It's Friday! That means school! We're missing school."
"Shit..." Berwald muttered, downing the rest of his coffee and standing up, "Is there any point in going back?"
Tiina shook her head, "It's about eleven am, by the time we get home it'll be at least one, not much worth it going back."
So then they concluded they would buy some munchies and head off on the trip back home.
After some breaks and almost getting lost a few times, it was about two pm when the group got home. First Berwald drove near Lukas's house and dropped him off, he waved to them and then started walking home. His heart was in his throat, he was nervous, his mom would've been worried sick about him, and Lukas knew that he would be getting yelled at. He turned the corner and walked slowly up the drive before opening the door, Lukas heart the distinct click of the door opening, and was immediately met with the eyes of three policemen.
"Shit..." he muttered, one of them called in Lukas's mom and she stared at him for a few seconds before tackling him and hugging him tightly.
"Lukas! Where were you?! You had us worried sick!" as she spoke one of the policemen got out a walkie-talkie and told the others that Lukas was found. Not long after his mom started hugging him Lukas heard some light footsteps come down the stairs.
"Lukas!" It was Eyríður, she ran towards him and watched before joining in the hug.
Then after the cuddles, the shouting started. The policemen left and Lukas was sat on the sofa, having his mother scream at him for how stupid he was and how he shouldn't be allowed to go out with friends again (he was certain she would drop that ban though, as he knew that she liked him having friends for once). He was punished and told to stay in the house for a week apart from school and studying (which of course, was really practice, but what she didn't know wouldn't hurt her). He was sentenced to his room (to which he immediately went to his computer to chat to the others). That night they spent their time talking on instant messenger, Tiina was also grounded but neither Berwald or Mathine were punished. Tiina set up that they should try and escape the house the next day at around nine am so that they can meet up and go swimming. Lukas wondered what her sudden obsession with them all hanging out was but hey, he wouldn't doubt it, he's been having great fun with them. He agreed to meet up and they continued to talk until the early hours of the morning.
.x.x.x.x.
Lukas woke up fairly early and was dressed and full of coffee and ready to go. He was wearing his swimming shorts under his trousers and shirt and was awaiting the call that meant that the guys were waiting for him. Luckily his room had a balcony and it was fairly easy to climb down, so Lukas knew that he would use that route to get out of his room. Shortly enough he got the confirmation call and he escaped, making sure to bring money and his bag, and sneaked out of his house to go meet up. He had no problems getting out, and he made sure to leave a note just in case his mother found it, but he hoped that she wouldn't look in his room, which would mean he would get away with it. She might think he was sulking or something, he made sure to lock the door. He ran to the car as soon as he got it and jumped in the back seat, again, next to Mathine as usual.
"Hey there" Mathine greeted him, she was holding onto a bag that had her swimwear in it. Berwald was wearing his swimming trunks and a shirt, and Tiina was wearing her dress over her bakini.
"Hey, I've never been to this swimming pool before, is it good?" he asked, clutching his bag in his hands tightly.
"It's awesome, there are slides and a whirlpool and rapids and everything! It's brilliant, I'll have to take you to every part of it!" Mathine cheered, "Berwald and Tiina will probably chill in the jacuzzi for most of the time because they're boring like that"
"Hey we're not boring, we just like cuddling in there" Tiina said, looking back behind at the other two. Mathine and Lukas both had amused looks on their face.
"Remind me not to let her in our jacuzzi I'm afraid she might try to fuck Berwald in it" Lukas said and almost grinned at her -almost-.
The drive wasn't too long, the group mostly talked about what had happened when they got home, their parents' reactions to them being out. Lukas told them how his mother grounded them, Tiina said her mother didn't hug her, she just yelled, but she probably deserved it. Berwald said his parents were worried and just happy to have him back, so they didn't punish him. Mathine said her mother assumed she was safe and with Tiina so she knew not to worry. Lukas raised an eyebrow at that but didn't really say anything.
When they got there the group split up to go get changed, well, Mathine was the only one changing, the others were all just taking off the rest of their clothes. Since Mathine and Tiina were best friends they didn't mind changing in front of each other and went to a private cubicle. Tiina took off the rest of her clothes, leaving her in a light blue bikini with a small skirt attached to the bottom piece. Mathine took off her clothes and got on her own swimsuit, also a bikini, but without a skirt, and it was dark red.
"Ready to go out there? Think you'll be able to handle seeing Lukas topless~?" Tiina teased, putting their bags in a locker and walking past Mathine out to the main swimming pool area.
Mathine spluttered, her face now bright red, "N-Yes! I mean, yes! I can handle that, I don't like him!" she barged in front of Tiina and walked out first, just so she could prove to Tiina how wrong the Finn was.
It turned out Mathine was the one who was wrong. She looked at Berwald and Lukas and her eyes immediately widened. She had a thing for guys' chests, okay? And Lukas had a pretty nice chest, she was staring, well, trying not to, but she still was. Tiina giggled from behind her and walked over to Berwald. "We're going on the slides first, you coming with us or are you two going to be imagining the other naked? Not that that's hard."
Both of them glared through red face and follow them to the slides, Mathine's the first one to talk, "Lukas hasn't been here before, I suggest we take him on the slides since the waves haven't started yet. It's always good to get a place on the slides.", she then leaned in closer to Lukas, "Sorry about that"
Lukas would be lying if he said he found it hard not to stare at Mathine too, and nodded, "It's okay."
The line wasn't long, thankfully, and when they got to the top there were the instruction and two slides. "How about Ber and I take the first one, you guys take the second, then we swap?" Tiina suggested, then gave Mathine a wink.
Mathine grumbled, but complied, pulling Lukas over to the green slide. "You go first, wait at the end for me, okay?" Lukas nodded and got up onto the little platform and waited for the green light, when it shone he waved back at Mathine and slid off. The slide weaved around in the pool area for a bit, there wasn't a roof to it so he could still see out, there were some fun turns and it felt like no time before there was a large splash and he was at the end. He looked up and a few seconds later he saw Mathine waving to him from the part of the ride and he waved back. He waited for her and gave her a ghost of a smile when she arrived at the bottom.
"That was awesome!" he exclaimed, watching her stand up and nod,
"The other ride is longer, so we should wait for Tiina and Berwald".
After a minute or so of waiting , they met up with the other two and they went on the opposite rides. Lukas went on first again, but this time the ride was different. It was closed in with a roof, but it was made of a see-through material, so he could see everything. He was about to wave when he felt himself swerve and noticed that the ride went outside, you could see the town while on the ride! But then he remembered that others could also see him, the slide then curved back into the building and down a bit more before a finale of a large splash of water again. Berwald was already done with his ride and was waiting for Tiina, "That ride's great!"
He only got a grunt as a reply and shrugged it off. Tiina then came down and after a few seconds of talking to Berwald she walked up to Lukas, "Did you like it?"
"It was awesome! Where are we going after this?"
"I'm going to the jacuzzi, but Mathine will probably take you to the rapids"
"Rapids? That sounds fu-" he was cut off by being splashed by a large amount of water and having a certain Dane almost crash into him, Mathine was laughing loudly.
"I love that one! Did you like it too?"
"Yeah, are we going on the rapids now?"
"You bet!" and with that Mathine grabbed Lukas's wrist, ignoring the tingly feeling it gave her, and almost dragged him over to the rapids.
Lukas grabbed onto the side of the railings, he was laughing and watching Mathine spin around, although it felt like he was in some sort of whirlpool or something, the speed at which the water was trying to pull him away from the railings.
"Ah! Lukas, help, take my haaaand!" Mathine yelled and laughed, she was spinning past him again, he held out his hand and replied in a fake dramatic voice,
"But Mathine! I can't reach, I think I can't save you. I'll have to leave you to die and...stuff, I don't know, but I can't save you."
Mathine laughed even louder and flew past him, "Noooooooo, Lukaaaaas~" she whined, and when she came again she grabbed a hold on his waist. The shock of her holding him made him let go and it caused the both of them to go around with the current.
"Ahhh! Mathine!" he yelled, they held onto each other and kept flying around, both still laughing loudly and generally enjoying themselves. Mathine then noticed all the people were going towards the main pool and got a good grip on the railings to stop them.
"Lukas, look! The waves are on, come on, let's go!" she then swam away a bit in the direction of the current and suddenly cut off, swimming away from the rapids. Lukas, however, wasn't so quick and it caused him to have to go round another time before Mathine grabbed his arm the second time and pulled him out.
They then both swam to the waves and Mathine immediately swam to the deep ends, where the waves went far over their heads and caused them to be swept back. Even Tiina and Berwald stopped their making out in the jacuzzi to come over to them and join in with the waves.
"I feel like I'm on a ship or stuck in the ocean!" Lukas laughed, it was a rare sight, but it was becoming more and more common when he hanged around with the other three.
"Have you never been to a water park like this before?" Mathine asked loudly, the waves sweeping her back again and filling her mouth with icky pool water, gross!
The water waves continued for a good 15 minutes before dying down so that some people can do some normal swimming. Mathine then took Lukas over to the jacuzzi and they all relaxed for a while. After that she took him to more rides and more play areas in the large swimming centre. It's as if they forgot everything else while they were together. Tiina and Berwald talked a bit about Mathine and Lukas, Tiina wondering how long it would take until one of them made a move on the other. Unfortunately all good days have to end though, and after a few hours were up they had to leave (the tickets they bought only got them pool access for three hours). They contemplated getting something to eat but then Lukas reminded them that he'd probably get killed for leaving. So they just split off to get changed and met up at the front, Berwald then sent them all home before going to that place, and as usual the four kept contact via their online messengers.
Lukas was relieved when he got home and noticed his room virtually untouched, he briefly thought about the great day he had had, then remembered when he and Mathine and accidentally brushed hands, or grabbed each other. His face flushed at the thought and he opened his bedroom door to be met with the face of his mother glaring at him.
"Shit...again" he said.
And with that he was given another lecture about not staying home, he was told that it was bad to run off and that anything could've happened. His mother, however, let him off nicely and said that she wouldn't further punish him, but that now he wasn't allowed in his room until night time. He knew though that he had his phone with internet so he could still contact their group whenever he wanted, in his head he grinned at the thought. She told him that he should make dinner that night as extra punishment, and he did so gladly, at least it gave him something to do. He was just surprised he wasn't punished more. When he told his mother he was going to bed later that day he crawled into his room and under the covers got out his phone and was texting Mathine long into the early hours of the next day.
.x.x.x.x.
The next day the group didn't get to hang out, as Tiina's mother had punished her worse and kept a close eye on her, it's not that Lukas really had the chance to escape either though. Mathine and Berwald tried hanging out but it ended up in them almost getting in a fight over a Playstation three game, so they determined it was probably better not to be around each other unless accompanied by other people to distract their attention away from each other.
At least on Monday they got to all talk about, Berwald and Mathine told the other two about their little...hanging out session that didn't go all too well. At lunch they went to the library as usual, and their lessons were fine, during lunch Lukas asked Mathine something,
"Hey, can we practice after school today? Or mostly talk or something." In reality he just wanted to spent time with her, luckily the practice came across as a good excuse for it. She nodded and asked if his mother would be okay with that, he assured her that if he said he was studying then he would be let off with it (and got a teacher's note. Before hand he had got Mr. Karpusi to sign a sheet of paper saying that he was indeed doing curricular activities after school).
They met up in the music practice rooms that they had used before, they had the same lesson (English) last so they got there at the same time. For a few minutes they just generally chatted, before Lukas suggested that they practice. By now they didn't need scripts anymore (although both Lukas and Mathine kept theirs) so they got straight down to it. Lukas looked at Mathine, and thought again about the events the other day, about how he felt about her. He was determined.
Lukas stood up, "Shall we go from when Romeo and Juliet first meet?" he asked, Mathine shrugged,
"Sure, I don't mind". She thought that they had gone over that quite a bit, but it was an important scene so they did really need to get it right. Lukas turned to Mathine and put on his best "Romeo face" that he could and started his lines,
"If I profane with my unworthiest hand this holy shrine, the gentle sin is this, my lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand to smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss."
Mathine's face blushed slightly, Lukas was saying the words differently to how he usually did. But she tried to ignore it and replied, "Good pilgrim, you do wrong with your hands too much, which mannerly devotion shows in this, for saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch, and palm to palm in holy palmer's kiss."
Mathine thought she saw Lukas take a step closer, maybe it was her imagination. "Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?"
"Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer"
"O then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do: They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair." No, he definitely took a step forward. Mathine told herself to breathe, why was she getting worked up, they were only practising, right?!
"Saints do not move, through grant for prayers' sake"
"Then move not while my prayer's effect I take. Thus from my lips, by thine, my sin is purg'd". Lukas remembered the action the play gives in the script. Kissing her. He looked at Mathine, he was now only inches away from her. She looked up at him, her eyes wide. Lukas closed his eyes and remembered that line, he wrapped an arm around Mathine and pressed his lips to hers. Kissing her.
(( Oh wow this was a long chapter! Over 10,000 words! I hope that I didn't bore you guys to death. This took a bit longer than I wanted, but it was a lot longer than any of my other chapters. ))