Lucy and Grace // on hold

five

Lucy was practically vibrating with nerves by the time 1pm rolled around. She had spent far too long stressing in front of the mirror that morning, trying to choose the perfect outfit. She didn't want to seem like she was trying to hard - it was just lunch with Grace and her friend – but at the same time Lucy didn't want to seem like she didn't care at all. Eventually she settled on a striped t-shirt and a denim skirt. As it was April, it was still pretty cold out, so at the last minute she decided to shrug on her bright yellow jacket as she left her room, waving to Sabrina who was still eating breakfast (it was closer to being brunch by now) in the kitchen while Jay was stress typing on his laptop, headphones in and a large mug of coffee next to him. Lucy was pretty sure he hadn't moved from that spot since the night before.

The university campus was a lot quieter than Lucy was used to seeing it. It seemed like there were fewer lectures happening as it was a Friday, and any students (Lucy included) who didn't have lectures steered clear of the campus in preparation for the weekend. As Lucy neared the campus café, she spotted Grace stood outside, looking at her phone. Next to her tall frame was someone much shorter, with short and wild blue hair. They were dressed as what Lucy could only describe as "weird art teacher chic". Grace was a lot more toned down, wearing a red and white bomber jacket and cropped jeans. When she looked up and spotted Lucy, she raised a hand and waved, which Lucy returned. The blue haired person also waved, but with a lot more vigour than Grace had, making Lucy giggle. Grace greeted Lucy as she drew closer and gestured for them to go into the small café, which was already starting to fill up with students as lunch drew closer.

As they sat down in a little booth, Grace introduced her shorter, blue-haired friend as Jasper, Wells, who stuck out their hand for Lucy to shake and explained that they were both on the same course, except Jasper was also majoring in fine art with a focus on sculpture. Lucy's ears perked up at that.

"Ooh, could you show me any of your sculptures?" she asked, which made Jasper's eyes light up.

"Of course! I have some pictures of my progress on my phone, but I would recommend that you come and see them in real life at some stage though, they look so much better." Jasper enthused and handed Lucy their phone. Lucy scrolled through the photos and couldn't help but be impressed. The sculptures seemed to range in size and shape, but they all seemed to be different woodland creatures: birds, deer, rabbits and fish. There were even some vaguely humanoid figures, but they seemed to be more animal than human.

"These are amazing Jasper; I can't believe you made all of those yourself." Jasper grinned.

"Thanks Luce." They turned to Grace. "I like this one, can we keep her?" Grace snorted into the drink she had just picked up and glared at Jasper as she wiped her face with a nearby napkin, while Jasper just laughed.

"Don't compliment them too much or their ego will get so big they won't be able to go through doorways." Grace warned. Jasper scoffed at that and elbowed Grace in the ribs. She barely seemed to register it and continued to look at Lucy, purposefully ignoring Jasper. "So, Lucy, what are you studying again?"

"I'm studying physics, but I'm pretty sure I want to specialise in either astrophysics or quantum physics, I'm still undecided." Jasper looked impressed at that.

"Damn Grace, you didn't tell me your new friend was smart. Now we're both gonna look like a pair of dumbasses." Jasper whined, and Grace gave them a pointed look.

"Don't flatter yourself Jasper, we both already look like dumbasses." Grace ignored Jasper's indignant "hey!" and gestured to the menu. "What does everyone want to eat? My treat."

After arguing over who would pay for a few minutes, Jasper won and bounced off to order their food, leaving Lucy and Grace alone. Grace scratched the back of her neck and looked embarrassed.