Lucky's Real Life Romance Novel

Chapter 3

The guy I met accidentally while trying to eat a burrito in peace. He was clearly healing from getting beaten up. And from the looks of his ear, he fought a lot. My plan was to eat in silence, but yet here I was, face to face with a handsome stranger with a clearly complicated background.

"Should I be worried about the other guy?" I joked after staring at him for way too long. He rolled his eyes and scoffed before pulling his hood back up.

"Yeah, he looks way worse," he muttered. "I lay low... when I'm like this. It's hard to explain, especially to a new kid. But... wait, why am I explaining myself to you?" He stopped himself. I only shrugged as I took another bite of my burrito and leaning back again to face forward.

"Maybe because I don't matter, and you know I never will. I'm about as noticeable as a fly on the wall," I said after swallowing. "I'm Lucky, by the way. My name. First name Lucky, last name Lee," I introduced myself.

"River North," he said, facing forward himself.

"So getting beat up is like... your hobby or something?" I asked, for the sake of filling the silence.

"Something like that. Since you managed to catch me in a state I don't normally get caught in, this stays between us, deal? We cross paths and don't pry into each other's business, good?" He said. I couldn't held but chuckle. All I wanted to do was pry now. I wanted to know what sort of character arc he had behind him to be the way he was now. What type of person was he in front of other people without the cuts and bruises. I couldn't help myself. I wrapped my burrito back up and pulled my journal out to start writing.

River North. Secret fighter? Hides when he's healing. Doesn't show that side to people at school. But why?

"What are you writing?" He asked.

"No prying, remember?" I reminded him before closing my journal and putting it back up. I finished my burrito before sighing.

"So do you always hide here when you're injured? I feel like that's not too much prying right?" I asked. He hesitated before nodding.

"Mostly," he answered.

"Trying to keep the image that everything is fine when it's clearly not. You're clearly not a simple person," I thought out loud.

"No prying, remember?" He said, sounding exhausted. I chuckled before standing and stretching my limbs.

"Well, River North, I will let you get back to your brooding in silence. I will get a head start on trying to find the next classroom," I said as I pulled out my schedule. River snatched the paper from me and looked it over.

"Dr. Wilcox, room 804. Down this hall, make a right, all the way down," he answered before handing the paper back to me.

"Until we pass ships again," I smirked at him as I took my schedule back just as the bell rang. I followed his directions and found myself completely lost. I wasn't at my classroom at all. But I really don't know what I was expecting. I ended up late to my next class. The rest of my classes were pretty mundane. Everything was normal. Nothing really stood out to me until the end of school. I was putting my things away in my locker when make lead archetype number three entered. Anyone could see it from a mile away.

The jock.

He was tall with caramel skin, toned muscles. He walked down the hallway in a letterman with a couple other jocks around him. And to top it all off, the icing on the cake, he was holding a football in his hand.

So typical.

My personal favorite of all the stereotyped character arcs. I wanted to know about this male lead most of all. I saw my chance. I gathered a bunch of loose papers and prepared myself. I purposely ducked my head and held my papers loosely as I walked right in his path. Right on cue, with too many people in the hallway to move out of the way, we ran right into each other. I purposely dropped my papers, but I wasn't expecting my glasses to fall off my face as well. I underestimated his strength; it was like walking into a wall.

"Sorry!" I said, as I bent to pick up my, now broken, glasses, and papers. The jock I was aiming for also started to help.

"That was my bad. I didn't see you. Actually I don't think I've ever seen you before. I'm Trevor," he introduced himself as he handed my papers back to me.

"I just moved here. My name is Lucky," I introduced myself, as I tried to put my glasses back on. They were cracked badly.

"Sorry about your glasses. Here, hand me your phone," he said. I pulled my phone out of my back pocket curiously before handing it to him. He typed in his number and texted himself before handing it back to me.

"There, we have each other's numbers now. Text me and I'll cover a new pair for you," he offered.

"Thanks," I smiled awkwardly before leaving the school building. I sighed as I began my walk home. I would definitely be driving my car from now on. I pulled out my journal again and added Trevor to the list of male archetypes. What a freaking day. If felt like a lot and nothing happened all at the same time. It was kind of funny actually, the only person who seemed anything like the stereotype was Trevor off of first impressions only. Maybe I should try to be friends with Melanie too to get a wider range of female characters as well. I was just glad I was finally getting some character and dialogue examples to work with. Originally, I was going to rework Lilac Moon, but now I was inspired to start completely over from square one. I was itching to go home and storyboard out a brand new romance novel. And I already had a name for it: The Youth of Us.