Good Luck Charm (Completed)

Romance and Late Romantic Literature

    Despite Vincent's pleas, Lucas sat down next to him the next time he had English. It was as insufferable as the library, with Lucas attempting to get under his skin the entire class. He was always either touching his arm or flicking his leg or taking his pens, whatever he could do that Vincent wouldn't like.

The teacher droned on and Vincent felt something under the desk. He looked down to see Lucas' hand hovering just above his thigh. He looked up at Lucas strangely, as this was a more intimate annoyance than the other things he'd tried, and found Lucas looking ahead as of nothing was happening, his eyes trained on the boring professor whom he suddenly found very entertaining.

"Stop that Lucas." Vincent whispered, but there was no answer. "Really Lucas. Stop it." Again nothing. There was nothing he could really do, as Lucas wasn't actually touching his leg, just threatening to, so he couldn't even really get him to move.

Lucas' index finger touched the top part of Vincent's thigh, and he sucked in air nervously, still Lucas was cool after a cucumber. Slowly Lucas wound up his finger, then flicked Vincent's thigh, which jumped up at the response, banging into the desk. Lucas covered the matter by raising his hand to ask a question to the teacher, pretending it didn't happen.

       "Lucas, seriously." Vinny whispered after Lucas finished asking his question. Slowly Lucas' thumb dipped down and began running callings circles on the lower part of Vincent's thigh. The fact that it so instantly calmed him, and that Lucas knew it would bothered Vincent. "Lucas just stop."

        "What's the magic word?" Lucas engaged for the first time.

        "The magic word is 'stop or I'll tell the professor." Lucas thumb dug deeper in response.

       "No."

       "Lucas." Vincent whined.

       "The magic word is please."

        "I'm not going to say please." Vincent crossed his arms, but Lucas's thumb again dug deeper.

       "Just say it," Lucas whispered.

        "No."

        "Do it." Lucas dug deeper again.

         "Please!" Vincent yelped a bit too loud, and Lucas feigned as much surprise as the rest of the class had.

       "Please what, Mr. Chance?" The professor asked.

       "I... I..." Vinny stuttered, his face glowing red with embarrassment.

         "We don't need any further disruptions, Mr. Chance, please see me after class."

      "Yes professor." Vincent mumbled hopelessly. The triumphant grin on Lucas' face didn't help matters much either. "You're the worst."

      Lucas didn't bother to respond. Once class was over Lucas walked out without another word to Vincent, and Hailey shot him a sympathetic glance before exiting the crowded room. Vincent made his way down and stop by the professors desk.

       Once the man has finished ushering the students out of the room, he made his way back over to his desk and sat down before acknowledging Vincent.

       "Mr. Chance," The dull man began. "I can't have any disruptions like that in the future. Knowing your scores I can't imagine I need to remind you of the importance of education. I'm not going to punish you for your outburst, as I'm sure you were just having a rough day, or there was some other reason."

        "Thank you." Vincent responded timidly.

       "I must admit I did have another reason for calling you down. I meant to offer you an opportunity, though after your actions today I'm less sure you'll be able to handle it. If you can keep back to your behavior prior to this incident we shouldn't have a problem though."

      "What kind of opportunity?"

       "I have a student who is very concerned about their scores in this class. He's two years above you, but he needs this course to graduate and he told me he doesn't know if he'll be able to pass it on his own. Seeing as you did very well on your first few assessments, and had some of the highest science grades last year, along with a near perfect score in high school Literature." He continued. "I think it's safe to assume this course should be a breeze for you. So I was wondering if you would like to take him on, he's a very nice boy, and you'll get paid for it as well."

     "Wouldn't... Wouldn't someone his own age be a better choice?" Vincent asked, with furrowed brows.

     "Your teachers have all raved about your diligence and perseverance." The teacher stated. "Now normally I wouldn't allow an upperclassman to be tutored by an underclass man, but you're such a serious student, I figured it wouldn't be a problem."

     "What's his name?" Vincent asked quietly.

      "I'm sure you know him, you sat next to him today. His name is Lucas Marshall," The professor stated as if that meant nothing at all.

"I don't know if it's such a good idea..." Vincent squeaked out, his nerves of upsetting the professor getting the better of him. .

     "Vincent. I'm asking you this as a formality. I need you to do this for me." Vincent nodded slowly, his breath caught sharply in his throat. He did all he could, which was mumble a quick goodbye, then shoot out of the building. When he passed through the front doors of the science building Lucas startled him by jumping out from next to the door where he'd been waiting.

"Hey," Lucas smiled.

"Hey yourself," Vinny shot back childishly. It wasn't a good comeback but he was frustrated and caught off guard. "Don't you have friends to hang out with, or have they all ditched you?"

"No need to be rude, I just wanted to say hello." Lucas shrugged.

"Okay, well you've said it, so just go." Vinny exclaimed in frustration.

"I'm going." Lucas conceded with a grin. "But I'll see you tomorrow, 7:30 in the library, I'll pick you up at your dorm, teach."

Vincent stood dumbfounded momentarily. Lucas was far too excited for a sophomore who just found out the were going yo have to be tutored by a freshman. It didn't make sense, Lucas had never struggled in English before, and it wouldn't make sense for the teacher to tell Lucas Vincent could tutor him before the boy agreed.

     "What'd he want?" Hailey popped up behind him, eyeing Lucas with mild suspicion.

     "To bother me."

      "Ah. And the professor didn't yell at you too bad, did he?" Hailey questioned, her voice laced with concern.

       "Nah," Vinny sighed. "He just wanted me to tutor somebody."

     "Cool. I'm tutoring a football player in General Math. His name is Ryan, he's sooo hot. Who'd you get?"

     "Lucas." Vinny gestured ashamedly, his face flushing red again. "That's why he was bothering me."

      "Oh."

      "Geez, it's like I can't even get away from him," Vinny complained.

     "Maybe.. and don't get upset with me for suggesting this, but maybe it'd be easier if you didn't want to so bad," Hailey suggested.

      "What do you mean?"

      "Maybe you could become friends and-" Hailey began, but Vinny interrupted her.

      "I will not be friends with him."

     "You're could be friends... or even just acquaintances with the school's best soccer player."

     "So?" Vincent chuckled.

     "We could get invited to all kinds of different parties and meet new people, there could be positives to this," She mused.

      "And you know the worst part? He was so happy about it. Like he was getting exactly what he wanted. It was sickening."

     "Maybe he wants to reconcile your friendship?" Hailey suggested. "Try to be receptive, you tend to shrug people off when they make you anxious."

     "What if I don't want to reconcile," Vinny mumbled.

      "Then be the bigger person."