~ Blaire ~

Who was Lucas Brighton? After everything that had gone down on the roof, I desperately needed to know. Our school ran on a block schedule, which meant there were four 90 minute periods in a day. The first two crawled by at a maddeningly slow pace. I couldn't really focus on my teachers as they went over their expectations for the class. My brain was a captured satellite indefinitely set to orbit the subject of Lucas Brighton.

He wants me to call him Luca.

I tried to tell myself that this was not such a big deal. He has probably asked loads of people in the past to use that nickname. It was a much better fit for him. With the pink hair, piercings, and throw-back punk rock look – yeah, he was definitely a Luca over a Lucas.

When the lunch bell rang, I experienced a moment of both celebration and panic. Half of my brain was in celebration mode. Yay! I get to eat lunch with Luca!

The other half of me was wondering what the hell we were going to talk about.

There was the obvious answer: we could talk about Luca's schedule, what he thought about his classes. Stuff like that.

Or we could talk about . . .

"So, no piercings today?" Yep. Those were the first words I said to him when he sat down.

Luca gave a slight, but undeniably sly smile.

"Oh. You noticed?"

I unpacked my sandwich without looking at him. "Are you going to answer the question?"

He was quiet for a moment before saying, "I didn't want to scare anyone off on the first day."

Oh, but walking off of the roof. That won't scare people.

As much as I wanted to say that, I demonstrated better self control.

"Despite my academy award-winning performance at the cafe yesterday," I could feel my face heat up at that cringe-worthy memory, "you don't scare me."

The cafeteria was cacophonous and crowded, but when Luca propped an elbow on the table and leaned in my direction, it made me feel like he and I were the only souls in the whole school.

"Now I'm dying to know – " Hold on. Was that an accent I detected? " – why did you run away from me yesterday?"

Don't you see, Blaire? This is what you get for trying to deviate from the script. You should have just stuck to asking him about his classes!

"I – I um. So, you see –"

Luca arched an expectant eyebrow.

I forced myself to stop and take a breath. "You were doing that and it kind of caught me off guard."

He tilted his head in innocence. "Doing what?"

I took another breath. "Staring at me. You were staring."

Luca blinked and I saw something pass over his expression. Impatience? Self criticism? It was hard to tell.

"I . . . I didn't know that made you uncomfortable. I'm sorry. Really." He sounded like he genuinely meant it.

I took a bite of my sandwich and shook my head. "It's not a big deal." I glanced over at his hands and noticed that he wasn't getting out a packed lunch. It also didn't look like he had any intentions of going to the lunch line.

I slid the plastic bag with the rest of my pbj in his direction.

"You can have the rest if you're hungry."

I forgot to take my hand away. An unfamiliar warmth spread over my knuckles as Luca's hand came to rest on mine.

"Thank you."

He held my gaze.

"Hey, Blush!"

We both kind of jumped. I finally got my hand back. And it was just in time because Kat Kalloway took a seat across from us. Thankfully, she didn't have the rest of her vile court with her, but that wouldn't hinder her from going Godzilla on my life if she wanted to.

"Hi, Kat," I greeted in my fakest, friendliest voice. I tried not to smile too hard. I didn't want her to catch wind that I was actually OK with my assignment to Luca. Otherwise she would find a way to break us up and put me with someone else.

She winked at me like we were sleepover bffs before turning to Luca and saying, "Hi, Lucas. I don't think we've met yet. Kat Kalloway." I have no idea how she managed to sound cool, friendly, sexy and professional all at once.

But that was Kat.

"Hey." His mouth hinted at a smile. She asked him how his classes were so far, gave him the tea on all of his teachers, and then asked how he liked having me as a peer mentor.

I held my breath and pretended to be more interested in my sandwich while he formed a response.

"Well, Blaire was–"

Chasing me all the way up to the roof. God, please don't say that.

Kat interrupted, "Oh, she goes by Blush."

I suppressed the urge to shoot a murderous glare in Kat's direction. Instead, I just held it in, knowing that my emotions were no doubt streaking deep reddish tones all across my face.

"Can you tell why?" Kat added with a giggle.

"Yeah, I can," Luca said, his tone carrying the same awe as yesterday.

Whoa. You're glowing.

I wanted to shrink down to the size of an ant and hide inside of my sandwich.

"Blush, what do you think of Lucas?" Kat turned to me. It was pretty clear that she didn't really care what either of us thought of each other. She just wanted to watch me squirm.

But you know what? I was done squirming for the day.

"I think," I glanced at the new guy, "Luca is going to fit in here just fine."

Between us, we shared a brief smile that I hoped Kat hadn't seen. But it became clear that she was too focused on what she had just heard.

"Did you say Luca?"

Luca spoke up. "Yeah, that's the name I go by around the fam. And that's what I want Blush to call me." Once again, the faintest hint of an accent. I still couldn't place it.

He stood up for you, I thought warmly. Then I frowned. But he called you Blush.

I didn't know what to feel in that moment. Kat was clearly pissed, which was awesome, but I could see her thinking, trying to invent new brutal ways to put me in my place. On the other hand, it felt good to see her squirm for the first time ever.

I was conflicted.

I didn't want to be Blush anymore. If the new guy adopted that nickname, then I had no chance of completely breaking free from the stigma of my past. But Luca didn't know my past. So when he called me Blush, it didn't have the same effect as when the rest of my peers said it.

In that moment, when Luca called me Blush, it sounded a lot like:

Whoa. You're glowing.