Midnight Pretenders (BL)

Chapter 1

"I think your question's been finally answered now, Carson," I heard Sofia say this to me across the table, but my attention was still glued on the person who was now walking his way through the sea of curious audience. They were all probably just as shocked as I was to really see him here... And then he finally stopped right in front of our table.

Lucas rested a palm in front of me, next to my iced coffee, and smiled at us. I could not bring myself to look away from him as I gawked at his presence. He was wearing dark sunglasses over his eyes and took his time to push them over his head. As soon as those deep blue eyes appeared, he grinned wider and greeted us in a low husky voice.

"Hey," he looked at Sofia first before his eyes briefly landed on mine, "I'm sorry I was late."

I gulped nervously, trying to smile back at him, but somehow, I just got stuck staring intently at those deep dimples showing near the corners of his mouth.

"We're already starting to wonder if you're going to ditch us, Luke," I heard Sofia nagged at him and Lucas simply laughed at her words as he gave her an apologetic stare and a wink.

"I'll treat you both to make up for it. Just tell me what you want then," Lucas said smoothly and I started to feel even more self-conscious when he suddenly leaned closer to my side.

He's totally unreal. But I knew that he is real. Hell, he was totally standing right next to me. Then I jolted when I felt a slight tap on my shoulder, instinctively turning my head to look up. It was Lucas nudging me to move further down the other end of the long seat to give him some space. I quickly did so, feeling my nerves shaking as I became more aware of his presence close to mine. His strong perfume instantly overwhelmed my senses as he invaded the space beside me and I started freezing on my own spot. I felt the heat crawling up to my neck and I could no longer dare to look at him again as I chose to face Sofia's direction and kept a blank look on my face instead.

"Well..." I hear Lucas sigh out loud as soon as he settled himself on the seat. And trying to break the surrounding awkwardness, he finally asked, "Is this the friend you're talking about, Sofia?"

For a few seconds, I was too occupied with my own thoughts to even hear what Sofia had told him after that. I knew right then, that it was totally impossible to get over my nervousness. He hasn't even talked to me yet... but I was already in a total mess.

"Carson?"

I was then immediately pulled back to the present after hearing Sofia's charming voice calling my name, and only then, I did realize that I had been zoning out for quite some time. I felt overwhelmingly embarrassed. But Sofia just gave me a comforting smile across the table as she nicely bring me back to their conversation.

"I was talking to Lucas about you," she told me and upon the mention of his name, I felt Lucas's gaze forwarded on me. This was only the very first time that we have actually interacted with each other but I found myself already too aware and familiar with his movements and actions.

"I told him that you used to take up Engineering before but you shifted recently and transferred here to take Fine Arts," Sofia explained as she flitted her eyes from me to Lucas. That was about right. I did use to take Engineering for four years but soon realized that I wasn't really happy about it. I could no longer feel the passion. And by the time I had figured what I really wanted, I found myself looking for a new place to restart my entire career.

That's how I ended up attending this university. Although it did cost me more this time, I still risked the chance because I knew I would definitely regret it if I didn't. And after all... I also wanted to move forward from my depression. Being in a new place, even if it was totally foreign to me and it scared me terribly, still helped me in coping up with my previous fallout.

"I'm not really proud of it but yeah," I finally found my voice as I looked down on my iced coffee and played the straw with my fingers, "It's my second degree this time, although I didn't really finish my first choice."

"Why did you shift?" I heard Lucas asked me this after I spoke and I turned and met his intense stare beside me. It surprised me that he suddenly went serious after hearing what I shared. I felt my mouth freezing. For some reason, I could not find my voice anymore and I ended up just opening and closing my mouth like a fool.

When it took me a while to say anything, for the lack of courage to reply to his words, Sofia finally filled me in as she took the initiative to say something from her end.

"Don't take that in a wrong way, Cars. I don't know if you already know this, but Luke here is also a shifter like you," Sofia revealed and that surprised me as I shot her a look of disbelief. I was dumbstruck.

Seeing the total bewilderment on my face, Sofia grinned and added, "He's been shifting so many times, I don't even think he has any plans of ever finishing college anytime soon."

As she said those words, I heard Lucas laughing beside me as he took what Sofia told about him too lightly. I found it quite amusing and incredulous at the same time that he was not even bothered about this certain truth that most people could have been embarrassed about to confess.

"It's not like I'm already too old for college. I only shifted every two months. But I guess, it might really take me quite some time before finding my way out of this loophole," Lucas even confirmed as he crinkled his eyes and casually glanced at me with a playful smile curving in his lips, "But if I still don't end up graduating before I turn twenty-seven, I'd most probably just be spending my entire inheritance to a hilt until I ran out of it and die miserably."

"Well, at least you still got that hefty bank account waiting for you in the end, whether you get out of here or not," Sofia pointed out, mockingly teasing Lucas as she said, "Unlike for most of us here, we all need to work hard to earn and survive."

"How old are you then?" Driven by my dire curiosity, I suddenly blurted that question out of the blue as I gave Lucas a questioning look from where I sat. I didn't even realize how intently I was staring at him this time. And Lucas, who seemed to have not expected that question coming from me, eventually flicked his eyes back at me and raised a brow.

"Twenty," he said in a boastful manner, smiling shamelessly as he added, "And here I am, still stuck at freshmen year for the past two years now. I have to admit, it still makes me feel like I never aged at all."

I found myself chortling at that, releasing a little tension from my body. And I eventually realized that I was no longer nervous around him as the conversation slowly become more natural between us. I guess, learning that we both share something in common helped me a lot to calm down.

"Well, I'm older than you. I'm twenty-three years old now and I'm still here so I'm practically an expert about college life," I told him as if that was something to be proud of. Lucas then laughed at my words and supportively patted me on the back.