Breaking Her Rules

Chapter 25

Lucas takes a deep breath and kicks some of the bark at his feet. 'Our friendship was toxic,' he says, refusing to look at me.

I nod, but he's still staring at his shoes.

'It was alright before Watson got involved, because at least when it was just you and me we had this stupid dynamic but we knew exactly how it worked. We were best friends and we knew where we stood with one another. We knew how to taunt each other and annoy the crap out of each other but we knew where the line was and we never crossed it. Then Watson came along and suddenly both of us were over the line, constantly. Something just changed. It was always supposed to be just you and me, but then suddenly it was you and me and him.'

He looks up at me and I swallow. 'You and Watson were best friends.'

Lucas shrugs. 'Yeah, when he came to Hilverton in grade eight he seemed nice, and fuck, he latched onto us fast.'

'What, so that was wrong?' I say sharply. 'It's all Watson's fault? He should never have made friends with us?'

Lucas sighs. 'Shut up, Em, I'm trying to talk.'

I roll my eyes and hunch closer into my jumper, frustrated.

'Maybe he just should have recognised who we were,' Lucas says spitefully. 'I guess because everyone else came from Hilverton primary school. Watson came from some other school so he didn't understand we were Em and Luke, like Batman and Robin.'

I decide not to ask him who he thinks Batman was in our dynamic duo.

'Well so what? You wanted to be his friend,' I say.

'Yeah, he was okay,' Lucas says. 'But I could see you liked him, so I let it happen. He was a good friend to you, mostly because he fell in love with you as soon as he laid eyes on you.'

I roll my eyes. 'Well he's over that now, and he's still a good friend to me.'

Lucas scoffs. 'He's not.'

'He was madly in love with Taylor and he ditched me for her.'

'She is basically just a blonde version of you, so he was probably thinking if he couldn't get the real deal he'd settle for second best.'

'Excuse me.'

'I'm not kidding,' Lucas says. 'Taylor and you are so alike it's not funny. You'd be best friends if you didn't hate each other's guts.'

'I would never drag someone along like that and cheat on them at a party in front of everyone,' I say.

'Yeah, not wilfully,' Lucas says. 'But say if someone was holding a gun to your head, you might.'

'Well Taylor did it wilfully,' I snap.

Lucas shrugs. 'Not really.'

'You are really fucking cryptic, do you know that?' I say.

Lucas actually smiles, and runs a hand through his messy blonde hair. 'So are you, Emily Maisonwood. Sometimes I think I'll never understand you.' He looks almost earnest, with his head bent down so that he's looking up at me through his eyelashes. Something physically hurts inside of me, but I try to repress the feeling. Lucas has hurt me and will hurt me again. I give him a look and nod for him to continue.

'We're off topic,' he says. 'I was talking about Watson and his plan to steal you away from me.'

I groan and make to stand up. 'If you're just going to tell me that this is all Watson's fault I'm leaving,' I say.

'Okay, stop,' he says, leaning forward and grabbing my hand. I falter, looking down at our hands. His hands are so warm despite the cold night.

I pull out of his grip, annoyed by my fluttering heart.