Midnight Pretenders (BL)

Chapter 2

"How nice," Lucas beamed and he flitted his eyes to Sofia to share a smile with her across the table, "It now suddenly feels as if we're brothers, don't you think?"

Brothers? Lucas grinned at his own words and he suddenly slung his arm across my shoulders, startling me at how he easily burst my personal bubble. The feeling of his warm hand touching me immediately sent a chill down my spine. I honestly didn't know how to properly react to that. I blamed the hormones as I felt myself blushing. Then I immediately looked down on the table and tried to conceal my startled state, distracting myself by sipping from my iced coffee again. Breathe, Carson. Breathe.

"Don't put him in the same spot with you, Luke," I then heard Sofia butting in as Lucas slowly removed his arm around me, "My best friend might be older than us but he's way more responsible."

"Your best friend, huh?" Lucas smugly replied and he just quickly brushed Sofia's words off as he said, "Well, I'm his brother now, so that makes me more important than you to him, am I?"

"Oh, get over yourself," Sofia sneered back, "I met him first. So finders keepers, Luke."

"Not so fast, Sofia," Lucas immediately retorted, "I can still snatch him away from you."

I heard Sofia laughing loudly after what Lucas had said while I kept my eyes glued to the table. This was all suddenly getting weird. But then, maybe this was just how they normally talk to each other. But seriously though... Steal me away? Am I supposed to feel delighted about that? I can't really tell what they're trying to prove here. But why the hell was I suddenly feeling thrilled after hearing Lucas say that? This was totally weird. I should stop.

"You guys sound like kids," I finally voiced out, clearing my throat as I composed myself before adding, "I'm not some kind of possession that you can just easily pass onto each other, you know."

"I don't think of you that way, Cars," Sofia quickly told me with a soft smile as she reached for my hand that I had been resting on the table and placed her palm on top of it, "If anything else, you should be more careful around Luke. He might be charming and rich but that's only on the surface. Make sure not to spoil him rotten 'cause he can be insufferably annoying sometimes."

"Hey, that's still one of my good qualities there," Lucas snidely interjected but just as he was about to say something again, he was quickly interrupted by a loud beeping sound coming from his phone, prompting an incoming message. He paused, briefly giving us an apologetic look, and swiftly fished it out from the front pocket of his jeans, peering on the screen. He swiped to open it and his face immediately changed.

"Sh**," he suddenly cursed out loud, reacting to the message he just read. Both Sofia and I looked at him in total surprise as we got curious about what made him react that way.

"What's wrong?" Sofia was the one who raised the question to him.

"I forgot about my deadline this week," Lucas immediately answered as he sighed out loud and muttered another curse again. "I thought it was due by next week Friday but it was actually this coming Friday. Sh**. That's just three days from now. Aw f***... I haven't even started anything yet. F*** me."

Realizing that he had been cursing way too much, Lucas glanced my way and shyly smiled as he said, "Sorry about that. Bad habits."

"The cursing or not remembering your deadlines?" I suddenly joked back, choosing to humor him instead so that he won't beat himself too much about it because I totally understood how that felt. 

"Both," he then said. Sofia and I laughed at him.

"But seriously, guys... I'm in literal agony here," Lucas worriedly whined as he slouched down on his seat and leaned back his head over the cushion behind him, "I may not look like I'm serious about studying but I never failed in any kind of paperwork before. This is really depressing."

"Then just find someone who can do it for you," Sofia bluntly suggested across the table, not even showing any hint of sympathy for the poor Lucas. "You have money, just pay for it."

"I can't believe you would even think I would pay someone to do my paper for me, Sofia," Lucas lifted his head up and sneered at her, but it did not really seem like he was seriously offended by it. "I still have some honor, you know. I take pride in my own works as a student."

"I'm just giving you an option since you'll be running out of time. Unless you want to fail," Sofia coldly refuted, still unfazed by Lucas's words. She can be really cold and too frank sometimes but I still find it funny because she still has a point. 

"Aw... F***."

"I'll help you," Without even thinking about it, I suddenly found myself volunteering for it before I could even stop. And as soon as I said that, Lucas's face immediately lightened up and he quickly pulled me towards him with his arms grabbing me on my shoulders. 

"Are you sure?!" he asked me excitedly, and even though I almost told him that I was joking, I still ended up nodding because it would be really bad to take it all back now. Seeing that hopeful look in his eyes made me weak. This was bad.

"You see, Sofia?" Lucas then turned his eyes at her as he bragged with the sparkling glint in his eyes, adding, "I told you we're brothers. He cares for me."

Sofia just shook her head at us and snorted, but a smile appeared on her face as she looked at the both of us. While on the other hand, I was starting to feel intensely affected inside. I could only hear the loud pounding in my chest while I try not to focus too much on the way Lucas was holding me too close. This was bad... Yet for some reason, I found myself looking forward to seeing more of him after this.

Is this for real?