In Too Deep. Klance AU

Chapter 20

"Keith!" Lance yelled, hugging his piece of paper against his chest as if it was his most prized possession. To anyone else, it would have looked ridiculous but I knew what it meant to him. His face was glowing with more energy than the sun and I could tell he was mentally jumping up and down. A couple of others in the class groaned loudly, slamming their papers down onto the table. Lance turned his test around for me to see and I could proudly say that he had gotten a B. Admittedly, the test was centred around derivatives and we had just gone over it the other day but that didn't matter. It was the highest grade he had gotten that year.

"Well done! I knew you could do it." I did. I had every faith in him.

"Thank you so much. You're the bestest boyfriend ever, I swear."

"Bestest isn't a word; we've been over this. Maybe we should start revising for English next."

"Shut up! I don't care. I did it. I got a B!"

He grabbed my hands, pulling me up onto my feet. "Right..." I mumbled as he started to jump up and down, not caring that the entire class were watching. My teacher just laughed at us and, to be honest, it was surprising that he even bothered to look up for once. I thought Lance may have started crying but it was sort of hard to tell. My head was bouncing up and down with my body so his face was a bit blurred.

When we stopped jumping, it was only because we were out of breath. Lance was breathing heavily and, yep, he was crying. His face was bright red and his eyes were bloodshot but he was happy. I could tell. And I loved it. I wrapped my arms around him and I found that I couldn't stop smiling either. If he was happy, I was happy.

We were about to leave class but the teacher called Lance back. I lingered in the room but I wasn't exactly listening (or maybe I was... just in secret). The teacher personally went out of his way to congratulate Lance on his progress, especially since he had gone up an entire grade in around a month. He sounded just as proud of Lance as I felt. Afterwards, I sent him a grand smile to let him know how much I loved him.

When no one was looking, I snuck him a small kiss on his cheek.

-

"Hey, Keith," Lance was in the middle of a question when he spoke up. He dropped his pen down onto the table and turned to look at me. "Is it too late to start thinking about university?"

My mouth fell open ever so slightly because I most definitely had not seen that coming. Noticing my surprise, he shifted in his chair and broke our eye contact. "It isn't too late. It might be a bit tough getting your application done in time but you can do it. What changed your mind?" I replied with a smile tugging at my lips.

"I don't know. I've just been thinking about it a lot. I want to become a psychologist or something." His voice was so small. I reached out and grabbed his hand, squeezing it ever so slightly to encourage him to be more confident with what he was saying.

"Sounds good. Do you have any unis in mind?"

"No," Lance started to play with his hands in his lap. "I was thinking... maybe you could help me look?"

My face lit up. "Of course!"

-

Months passed and exams approached fast. Then, before I knew it, I was sat in the exam hall, filling out my first exam. It was maths and I knew Lance was a couple of rows back. I had no idea if he was writing or not but I was sure he was. I had tutored him once a week right up until the exams so, hopefully, he was going to do decently. I tried to stop thinking about him. This was a time to think about maths, not my boyfriend.

'Standard deviation, standard deviation' I repeated in my head, over and over again so that I could stop thinking about Lance for long enough to answer the questions in my test. I read the first question for what felt like the millionth time. Then I sat back, took a deep breath and started to write like my life depended on it.

Once I had walked out of the exam, Lance approached me with a wide grin on his face. "That went so much better than I thought!" He yelled, punching the air. I responded with a nod and an equally wide smile. I thought the exam had been reasonably tough compared to the mock ones we had done but, still, it hadn't been too hard.

"Good! Any other exams today?"

"Psychology. I can do this."

"Yes," I reached out and squeezed his hand. He squeezed back. "You can do this." We both knew he could.

-

A couple of hours later, Lance walked out of his psychology exam. He looked noticeably less happy compared to when he walked out of the maths exam but still reasonably happy. He immediately engulfed me into a long hug. I think he might have started to cry but it was hard to tell.

That night, we didn't revise for our other exams. We ordered pizzas to Lance's house and played stupid multiplayer games on his Xbox until we were screaming at each other. We always ended up in stitches on his bed, laughing so hard that it sounded like we were sobbing. His mum even checked in on us once, thinking one of us was actually crying.

We reassured her and she was on her way, stealing a slice of our chicken pizza with her. That night I ate so much pizza I felt nauseated but I didn't regret it. I went home with a stomach ache but I had an absolutely amazing time. The next day, I had physics.