"Remind me why I'm here with you?" I said offhandedly as I flipped through my AP Government notes. "I mean, we literally share one class, and that's about it."

Luc looked up and shot me a puzzled look. "Because you're cool and I wanna hang with you, if that's okay?"

Ugh, it was literally an hour after lunch, and I was already hungry. And really, that was made worse because I was sitting in study hall with Luc Mercier, who never broke the rules and never brought food into the library, where we were studying right now. I'd totally exchange him for his sister, who had a perpetual supply of gummy worms in her backpack.

"This is hopeless," I complained, putting down my notebook. "I don't remember half the stuff I learned last week, let alone something from January." And I was super hungry, but I'd let my stomach announce it for me.

Growl. Oh, there it was.

Luc looked completely and extremely amused as he chewed on the eraser of his pencil (and somehow made it look sexy, but at the same time, I took note to not touch that pencil, ever). "I'd bring you snacks, but—"

"We're not allowed to, I get it," I said, rolling my eyes. "You know, you've got to live a little."

He snorted. "What are you talking about? And no, I'm definitely not a goody-goody, so don't pull that card on me."

I shook my head. Honestly, even I didn't know where I was going with that point. It was probably from the sleep deprivation. Yeah, that was it. After all, it was Wednesday afternoon, and my first exam was next Monday. I guessed I did somewhat have the right to be a bit loopy. "Just give me some food."

"You know I can't do that, Audrey." Luc's eyes were laughing at me as he calmly picked up my AP Government notes. "Ooh, how do you study from these? You know you're allowed to use your laptop to take notes, right?" His fingers had been drumming on his laptop keyboard ever since we'd started studying, which was about fifteen minutes ago.

I glanced around. All the other students in the library were discussing their notes too, and the librarian didn't seem too irked by it (pretty much everyone was tired during the week before exams, and that included everyone in the staff). I was allowed to talk, right? I rubbed my eyes. My contacts really were not helping the fact that I hadn't had enough sleep.

"I can read my own handwriting, thank you very much," I said, yanking my notebook back from him. He didn't need to know that I could only read my handwriting about half of the time—the rest of the time, I survived using a very complicated guess and check and decrypting method.

Luc ran a hand through his hair, which he did a lot when he was studying. It was cute, seriously, because his hair was like a rumpled field of grass (that was dark brown, of course, instead of green). "Mm, I doubt that."

We focused on our notes in silence for a while (five minutes, to be exact), before I got bored of trying to read my own scribbles. I tapped my pencil against my notebook.

"Stop that, would you?" Luc snapped, looking up from his statistics textbook. "I'm trying to focus here."

"Well, it's already hard to concentrate because everyone's talking right now," I pointed out. I looked around the library, which was full of juniors, mostly, talking. The chatter had turned into an ever present rumble in the background, which was pretty comforting. I didn't know how Luc felt about that though.

He ran his hand through his hair again, this time gripping a little more tightly. "Well, you all need to shut up."

It really wasn't my fault that I had a short attention span (and I couldn't sit still in one place for ten minutes or more and be expected to stay docile and silent). I poked Luc's shoulder with my pencil. "Talk to me, Luc," I whined.

"No, I'm not going to give you the answer to whatever question you have, and no, I'm never going to study with you again," Luc said flatly without looking up to me.

I popped a kiss on his cheek. "Come on, you know you love me."

"Get off me," Luc grumbled even though his ears were red now. He didn't really push me off though, so I knew he wasn't that annoyed. "And stop pulling lines out of my book."

I poked his shoulder harder. "But Luc, seriously! Look outside."

When he looked up from his notebook, I nodded toward the comic section, which was bordered by a window that took up the entire wall. The sky was so blue, just like Olivia's eyes (which were super pretty—she always turned tomato red whenever I complimented her), and I could tell the wind was blowing from the way the magnolia tree in the greens was waving. The sun was practically begging me to go outside...

And I definitely would not go without Luc, because who else would I annoy?

After a split second of indecision, Luc bit his lip and began to stuff his laptop into his backpack. I grabbed all of my books and stuffed them into mine (unlike Luc, I liked to go old school and avoid most forms of technology, except for my phone, of course). We walked easily out into the grounds of the school campus, stopping once we were underneath the shade of the magnolia tree.

It was nice out here, because there were other people here, but less of them. I sat down in the grass, folding my legs, and sighed happily. "Isn't it nice out here?"

I really did like how the wind blew through my long hair.

Luc was watching me carefully, like he had no idea how to react. Then, he decided to sit down too, gingerly positioning himself a respectable distance away from me. "Yeah, I guess," he responded.

"Don't be so stiff," I giggled, pushing his right shoulder with both of my hands. "If it makes you feel better, the tree is blocking anyone inside from seeing us—"

"You are so nasty," Luc said, his light brown eyes dancing in the dim green light that still managed to come through the canopy of leaves. The light breeze blew through his floppy hair, and I really wanted to pat it, for no reason in particular.

I fiddled with my backpack. This conversation was definitely getting a little too strange for my liking, so I switched topics. "Where do you want to go for college?"

"Dartmouth," he answered without hesitating. "They have a great economics program, and I could go there for graduate school."

I laughed. I couldn't lie—it was a bit forced. "You'll get there, you know."

"Thanks," he said slowly, raising an eyebrow at me. "What's up, Audrey?"

"You know, everything just comes so easily to you." I pointed at my textbook. "Even fucking Calculus. It's kind of not fair, you know?"

No, he wouldn't know. After all, he'd been going to private school all of his life, and he lived in an exclusive neighborhood that probably made more money than a small African country. He was the rugby star (and managed to play two other sports during his off season), and somehow, he managed to basically master everything that he tried to learn.

Luc smiled at me, this time a little bitterly, just like how I felt. He pushed my shoulder and leaned down to pop a kiss on my left cheek. "You can't be jealous, A."

"You and your sister," I murmured, "have it way too easy."

And it wasn't like I wasn't better off than most people. My parents were able to afford this private school, and I couldn't lie about how I lived in a gated community. But honestly, Luc and Lila were on a completely different level.

"I did mention this to you one time, didn't I?" he mused, slipping an arm around my waist. "My life is a mess of expectations that I don't know how to fulfill."

I leaned my head against his shoulder. His warmth and smell of shampoo surrounded me, and I closed my eyes. Ugh, I really needed to sleep more. "I'm very sure you meet them all at one point or another."

I felt him shrug. "Not really. I try my best though."

"You get tired though, right?" He was human—that was what got me every time. He seldomly looked tired, and somehow, he always found the energy to be polite to the right people (meaning the adults—mere mortals who were his age, such as I, did not deserve such effort, as he liked to remind me with a teasing smile every time he saw me).

"Yeah. But unlike you, I try to go to bed before 2am."

"Pfft, only geeks do that these days." I was definitely a night person and not an afternoon or morning person. Hmm, if only I could have some coffee right now...

There was silence as Luc kept his arm around me. I heard him flip the pages of some book (it sounded a lot like his statistics textbook, which had to weigh at least ten pounds). It felt comforting to sit like that, just listening to the wind and the chatter of some people in the distance and his breathing. Next thing I knew, I was going to fall asleep...

"Wake up, nerd," I heard Luc say after a while. "You know I need to focus without a dead weight on my shoulder."

I blinked a couple times. Oh no, I'd actually fallen asleep on his shoulder. My eyes were itching like crazy—I really should have known better than to let them dry out by actually falling asleep. This was so stupid. And I made it worse by rubbing my eyes with my fists.

Sure enough, my contacts fell out. There went one pair. I'd probably find time to put them back in later—I was too lazy to actually put them back in, so I stuffed them into my contacts case, which I slipped into my skirt pocket. Sighing, I reached for my glasses case, which was in my backpack.

Luc looked invariably amused as he watched me. "Damn, you look so different with glasses on," he said, bumping my shoulder with his.

"Don't poke fun at me," I grumbled, poking my glasses up my nose. Ah, it felt so good to do that after so long. "I'm tired."

"And whose fault is that?" Luc muttered, neatly dodging my notebook, with which I tried to whack him.

I held up my copy of The Iliad. "Well, you need to help me review this shit. You know I forgot all this stuff the moment we finished our last test."

"Fuck, Audrey, don't expect me to remember everything," Luc grumbled, taking my notebook from me.

I blinked innocently at him. (The effect probably ruined by my glasses. I really did love my contacts, even if they gave me so much grief at times.) "But you're my tutor."

"Not even. I'm your French reading buddy," he retorted, taking The Iliad from me. "Well, I do hope that you remember this book basically recounts a segment of an epic war between the Greeks and Trojan."

"I can tell you all about how Achilles drags Hector's body all around the Greek camp," I offered somewhat helpfully. "I can even add some extra details that Virgil didn't mention—"

Luc lightly tapped me on the head with my book. "That's enough, Audrey."

"If you're not willing to study with me, then let's talk." I looked at him with expectant raised eyebrows. "You do tell me that I distract you way too much. That's really not my fault since that's just who I am, you know? If you wanna be stuck with me for the next three months and school year, then—" I swallowed my words.

Was I seriously hinting at a relationship between us for the rest of the year and maybe even beyond? Uh uh. Stupid Audrey, stupid Audrey. I felt my entire body warm with embarrassment, and I tried not to meet Luc's eyes, which were so golden and warm that they would probably make me say other stupid things.

"Cute, A." He elbowed me, and involuntarily, I looked up. His eyes danced. "I don't know if that's your subtle way of asking, but I don't mind."

Maybe Luc did know girl speak. After all, he was very close to his twin sister, who probably told him all of her best friends' dirty secrets. But right now, did I care? Not really.

"Damn, I was kind of hoping for a more enthusiastic response than that," I joked, looking up into his eyes.

His dimples showed themselves as his grin grew wider. "Really, Audrey?"

Sensing his drift, I put down my notebook and fiddled with my glasses, which would surely get in the way—but Luc caught my hand and held it, intertwining his fingers with mine. I whispered back to him, "Yeah, Luc."

And then, he kissed me, glasses and all, as if that was his way of saying that he was accepting me, even with my absentmindedness and visual impairment and impatience and judgment and everything else that really shouldn't have been desirable in a person.

I kissed him back, that jackass I'd known since I was just starting out in this high school.

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Double update coming up today, so I'm gonna give you all my love soon!

Anne