To say the least, Luc was not, by any stretch of the imagination, the best company in the car. Half the time, he was either texting away on his phone (he was much more popular than I was) or commenting on my driving skills (which were, according to him, "very dubious", like my French skills). The other half, we sat in an awkward silence.

Honestly, I was still really confused about what had happened with Olivia a couple days ago when we last met. Maybe it was because of me and my glasses-less state, but something else was going on. I needed to get my act together—either that, or Olivia had something to tell me. But I had no desire to push at either of the two (I was already tired enough with all the coursework), so I left it to them.

Thus, there was no reason for me to break the silence. It would be rude for me to disrupt his social plans.

As we neared our destination, the local preschool where I volunteered for my community service hours, I finally said to Luc, who was staring moodily out of the window as he sat shotgun in my humble BMW (like he was in some sort of emo music video), "Maybe we need to call this reading project off; wait for the summer or something."

He shook his head. "Remember? It was part of our agreement to keep you from giving up." He smirked. "Audrey, we've had four reading sessions. You seriously can't already be losing hope."

"Bro, listen to me." I turned sharply to enter the preschool's parking lot with a screech. Beside me, Luc let out a barely audible squeak, eyes wide open. "I've been staying up to two am every night because of homework and whatnot, and I have no idea if I can handle another activity."

Still holding onto the handle by his seat with a pinched expression on his face, Luc pointed out, "I do sports, you know. You're not the busiest person in the world."

Smartass. I was being so merciful by clamping my mouth shut in lieu of pointing out how terrified he was of my driving—poor little Audrey's driving.

I had to save face somehow, so I resorted to rolling my eyes. "Whatever."

To that, Luc smirked—he knew he'd won our discussion. "See?" Then, a little more nicely, he continued, "It was a smart idea to combine two of your obligations into one time slot, you know."

The corners of my mouth twitched a little. Imperceptibly, of course. It was cute that he thought that our meetings were part of my "obligations" now?

Sneaking a glance at his bright eyes and almost adorable smirk, I bit my lip. Although I'd always wished for dimples, this time wasn't the case. Luc always played the flattery card, and honestly, I didn't even know if I was more peeved that he was right or that he knew exactly how to mess with me.

Probably the latter.

"Thanks, I guess." I pulled into a parking spot while accidentally stepping on the gas, and I almost crashed into the curb before stomping down on the brakes. Everything and everyone in the car jerked forward, and I could feel my books slamming into the front of the trunk from where they were.

Letting out a breath, I removed my seatbelt and glanced at my rear mirror. Not a bad parking job by any means. After all, I'd only missed the parking spot by about a foot.

"Ow!" Luc complained, rubbing his head. "How the hell did you pass your driving test?"

"Pure luck," I responded flatly and turned off the engine. "C'mon."

"Touchy," he muttered under his breath as he unlocked the car door and hopped out of the passenger's side. Damn, why were his legs so long?

I could only roll my eyes before grabbing my phone from the side of the door and getting out myself. Luc and I walked together to the entrance of the preschool building, not before I locked the car.

With his hands in his pockets, Luc strode up to the sidewalk. He looked like the stereotypical private school jock—with his loosened tie, dress shirt, rolled up sleeves, crumpled hair, and confidence (as well as borderline arrogance), he looked completely out of place next to the mundane preschool.

To be fair, I probably wasn't any better. My school skirt, white blouse, and stockings didn't look any more normal than his uniform. But he was going to have a chance to prove that he wasn't just a rich jerk now, and I was going to see if he was going to take it or not.

Once we made it to the front door of the preschool, Luc opened the door and waited for me, just like a proper gentleman. "After you," he mumbled, eyes staring off somewhere above my head. I nodded and entered without saying anything.

At the front desk was Ms. Hisey, the attendant who took care of all the volunteer sign-ins. I was pretty close to her since I'd been volunteering at this center since freshman year, so I hopped up to the desk, putting on my best smile. "Hey, Ms. Hisey."

"Hi, Audrey." Ms. Hisey smiled evenly up at me. I always thought it was so strange how she never got angry or aggravated, especially after dealing with toddlers, practically, throwing tantrums almost every day. Patience was a virtue, I guessed, of which I did not possess much.

Anyhow, I couldn't dawdle with pleasantries for too long. My AP English Lit homework was going to be a killer to do tonight.

"Can I sign in for an hour or two today? I'm okay with anything." At that moment, Luc strode up next to me, raising his eyebrows expectantly. I glanced at him and added to Ms. Hisey, "Oh, and this is Luc, a friend. Is it okay if he volunteers with me, just for the day?"

When I glanced sideways at Luc, he looked so alarmed—all the blood had drained from his face and his arm was stiff when I poked it with my pinky finger—that I had to resist the urge to burst out laughing hysterically. As Ms. Hisey nodded and started to pull out the check-in binder, I snickered and whispered out of the side of my mouth to Luc, "Scared of little kids, Mercier?"

A corner of his mouth twitched, and not in the good way. "I can't play with kids," he said with eyes so full of pure terror that I actually did let out a laugh.

"What did you think you'd be doing today anyway?

"You'll see," he muttered out of the corner of his mouth.

Luc's disgruntled expression did not change as Ms. Hisey let the two of us sign in and explained our jobs to us. "I hope you won't mind distributing snacks to a couple of children who are staying a little late. Then after that, you two can go into the office and help us alphabetize and sort out some files."

I nodded, and, offering my arm to Luc jokingly, headed toward the classroom Ms. Hisey had mentioned to me. "Hey, these are just a couple snacks. Just grab some juice boxes and crackers and you're good to go."

"Why are these kids staying so late? Doesn't preschool let out at noon?" Luc's face was completely straight as he pushed my arm away. I struggled to keep my expression even even though it stung inside—only a little though.

I responded to take my mind off the stupid things with which it occupied itself, "Some of the kids have parents who work late, so the preschool is kind of a day care in the afternoon. Anyway, if I'm really bothering you, I guess you could leave." I rolled my eyes at him. "Just please don't scare off the kids."

Luc tightened his lips. "Who said I would?"

"You're so..." I started, sending him a derisive look, "negative. We shouldn't be passing down that sort of thing to innocent, impressionable children."

Snorting, Luc rolled his eyes to the ceiling. We stopped by the staffroom, where there were already trays of snacks set out. As I forced a tray on him, he grumbled, "And who said you were a good role model? You get so distracted that I'm surprised you even committed to volunteering here."

I pretended to wince. "I feel the burn."

How was Luc so straight-faced? I put on a smile and grabbed another tray of snacks for myself. "Yo, don't stress. You'll be fine."

"Fuck you," he muttered, turning around and heading out of the staffroom. "I think you meant to grab Lila for this job, not me."

Even though Luc couldn't see me, I rolled my eyes at his back. Since when did he get so salty?

↔

True to his word, Luc definitely was not a child charmer like his sister. The second he walked into the classroom after me, his face dropped after he noticed that there were five little girls sitting at a table with a teacher. (Five little kids! They could be potentially contagious in such a concentrated space.)

Then, when I sent him to help me pass the snacks around since he followed me around like a wooden puppet while I was saying hi (since a smile and outstretched arms could go a long way to a three-year-old's heart), he managed to drop the entire box of snacks and therefore prompt all the little girls, me, and the teacher to help him.

"What the hell, Mercier," I grumbled to him as I picked up two juice boxes and a cracker pack pathetically. "I thought you had great hand-eye coordination."

Luc said nothing and only rolled his eyes in response. It was like he didn't dare speak in fear of inciting a tiny child rebellion.

"Don't pass your attitude over to the kids." I smirked at him. He sent me a glare as if he actually thought I meant what I said, so I elbowed him and said a little more gently, "You know I didn't mean that, right?" His expression didn't change. "Just go along with it, 'kay? You're so stiff."

I chuckled to myself as I plopped the snacks on my tray. Luc was so fun to tease.

Luc, the teacher, and I let each little girl pick her choice of juice boxes and types of graham crackers. Luc and I stuck around for about twenty minutes to help them with opening the packages and cleaning up after themselves. I thought it was just precious how the little girls dragged me around the room, showing me what they had done in the last two hours (some paintings that reminded me of the abstract art I was studying in school, actually—the standards of coloring were still the same).

It had been a while since I felt Luc hovering behind me, so I grinned at the little girls I was supervising and scanned the room for the rugby player in particular.

It wasn't hard to find him, considering the fact that Luc was hilariously oversized in this room made for small people.

Squatting in the most awkward position I'd ever seen him in, Luc genuinely tried to keep a conversation with a little girl with her dark hair in the cutest pigtails I'd seen in my life, who was spewing out gibberish about her baby brother, but after a while, the girl stopped talking when she noticed he was just staring at her blankly. "Do you have a brother?" she asked him.

I shifted my full attention from the most current piece of artwork from an up-and-coming four-year-old who really, really liked disfigured ponies to the two of them. As if he felt my eyes on him, Luc reddened dramatically and stuttered, "Eh, um, uh—no, actually."

It was during times like these when I couldn't help but feel a swell of warmth in my chest. Luc never realized it—and I hoped he never would—but he was adorable when he tried so hard just to make someone happy. Sometimes, it was okay to head out of one's comfort zone, especially if it was for a person as fantastic as I.

There was an awkward pause between the two. Luc scratched the back of his head when he saw that the little girl was starting to turn back to her snacks instead of focusing on him.

I looked back to my first object of occupation in chagrin, shaking my head even though I had a little smile on my mouth. Luc really was too amusing sometimes.

↔

"Dear God," Luc sighed as he collapsed into the swiveling office chair next to a heavy bureau in the preschool office. "I thought that was never going to end."

It was dark inside the little room, and I would have felt claustrophobic if it weren't for Luc's presence. There was something about him, something bigger than life that made everything seem better. I couldn't even put it in words, even as I sat on the floor musing about nothing in particular.

"Luc, we spent half an hour in there. That's only a fourth of the time we're supposed to spend here. Plus, I'm helping you with your community service hours, so quit complaining," I responded to him absent-mindedly as I sorted through a toppling pile of files on my lap. "Hm, we're supposed to throw out the files dating back ten years, right?"

"Something like that." Luc swiveled around in the chair with his hands behind his head. "So how are we supposed to squish in a session now?"

"Talk to me, then." I pulled out a file from twelve years ago and tossed it on the floor. "So chapter four from the last time we met up was definitely lively."

"Yeah, talk about a wedding." Luc abruptly stopped turning around in the chair and stood up, taking half of the files from me without asking. I paused in my file sorting task, biting my lip as I watched him begin to flip through the files as well in his chair. What was this warm feeling in my chest? "The Madames Bovary up to this point are definitely amusing."

I brushed it all off. I was getting pretty delusional. It was probably because of the contacts. They'd practically ruined my life.

"Flaubert definitely did choose a pretty good title." I looked back down at my files, feeling a little guilty now. "Hey, Luc?"

He raised his eyebrows at me.

"Am I really bothering you?"

He shrugged. A lock of light brown hair fell onto his forehead, and I resisted the urge to push it back to where it used to be. "Nah. You're cool to hang around."

I bit my lip and raised an eyebrow. "You know we're accomplishing nothing together right now. We've already discussed the chapters last time. And you probably have homework."

"Is that bothering you?" He tilted his head to one side like a puppy, smiling teasingly. Yeah, he thought he was amusing sometimes, and he was right those times. His eyes, though not quite golden yet as they were in the light, twinkled as he lifted an eyebrow at me.

I sucked in a breath. "No. But I'm sure that you have a lot of better things to do with your life."

Shaking his head as he threw a file into the "older than 10 years" pile, Luc smiled. His one dimple on the side of his face called for my attention, and I flushed. It was a great thing, being in a place with less-than-great lighting. I was so screwed anyway. "What, there are better things that hanging out with Audrey Burke, who's the coolest person ever?"

If it was possible, my cheeks felt even warmer. "I can't tell if you're being sarcastic."

"I'm not sure either," he responded. He glanced at me. "Let's say I'm being sincere."

I couldn't help smiling as well. "Aw, Luc has a sweet side. I didn't know that you did anything but obsess over old French books in your free time."

"Piss off."

"Whatever."

"Anyhow, you look totally different nowadays." Luc offhandedly threw a file on top of the one I had already thrown out. I gingerly adjusted the pile afterwards so it would topple over. "Where are the glasses?"

Maybe he needed to get his eyes checked. "Away, as you can see."

"Well, you're like Charles Bovary—changing your life completely by replacing your company." Luc paused to appraise me, and I felt a little hot inside as his eyes moved over me smoothly. "It suits you."

"Thanks." I tucked a stray lock of hair behind my ear self-consciously. Clearing my throat, I pushed on, "So I'm guessing we're heading back to discussing Madame Bovary."

Luc let out a laugh that left my heart skipping a beat. "Why else do you think we're here?"

"Didn't you say that it was because of my awesome persona earlier?" I tilted my head to the side, watching him as he spun himself around on his chair once more. "Oh, and you can't take that back. I think your intentions then were purer than they are now."

"Well, fuck," Luc said. "Then I guess I'm bound to my previous statement."

"Why do you sound so sad about that?"

"You get under my skin so easily it's not even funny," he said, lips twitching as he ran his hand through his hair. "We're a fucking mess, A."

Yeah, I didn't want to argue with that. With everything with Olivia going on, I didn't really know what to do with myself. But now I was sitting here with Luc Mercier, actually enjoying his company—and I had absolutely no objections.

So I leaned back against the desk, balancing the files on top of my legs, and laughed.

→

Hey guys! Here's today's chapter. I'm actually not running too late right now, yay! I'm pretty proud of myself right now, haha.

So, we get to hang out with Luc more in this chapter, don't we? He's just like me, lol—very awkward with children. Any thoughts on that? He's still pretty much a jerk though. We'll see where he goes...

Thanks for reading and being awesome, and don't forget to catch the chapter tomorrow!

Anne