Alex was laughing so hard that Lucas could see the tears making his eyelashes glisten.

Grace meanwhile was trying with all of her might to hold on to her annoyed scowl but her lips were trembling.

Blake was looking at Lucas like he'd grown another head.

"Oh god," Alex gasped, wheezing. "Where do we apply to get you a reality show? You need cameras following you at all times!"

Grace's tough demeanor finally cracked and she burst into laughter.

"He totally does!"

Lucas watched the two of them laughing and questioned his choice in friends.

"I could have died," he reminded them but that only made them laugh harder.

Blake watched the display distastefully. Lucas was glad, at least, that he wasn't joining in on making fun of him, lord new he would have the ammo if he wanted to.

Instead, Blake crossed his arms and looked at Lucas like he was addressing a serious problem.

"You know, if you're going to go for an interview, you should plan out how to get there in advance. It's pretty easy.  Five minutes on google maps and you could have another job right now."

Ouch.

Lucas tried not to flinch.

"Instead, you were reckless as usual," Blake went on. "What if you seriously hurt that guy you fell on? You were lucky."

He said it like it was a warning. Much how Lucas' mom use to warn him back before she'd given up on having a properly behaved son.

Lucas only realized that the laughing had subsided when Alex dropped an arm around his shoulders.

"Go easy on him," he said to Blake, somewhat seriously. "He could have died, remember?"

"Instead he got a free meal," Blake retorted.

Grace smiled at Lucas then.

"It's pretty much the best excuse ever," she said. "I'll tell my sister. Maybe you can meet her at her house next time. I'll walk you?"

Touched, Lucas nodded.

That settled, they started to walk toward the school building but Lucas stopped in his tracks.

The figure stood out to him like a beacon, long, shining blond hair, broad shoulders and long legs, even from the back Lucas could tell it was the boy from before.

He was meticulously taping a paper to the message board. Done, he addressed it for a moment before reaching forward and adjusting the it.

"What are you staring at?" Alex asked, following his gaze.

Lucas realized he'd stopped walking and the others were staring at him.

He flushed.

"That's him," he said.

All three of them whipped around to look.

"Which one?" Grace asked.

"The tall one," Lucas said, "putting up the flyer."

"You don't mean the blond guy, do you?" Blake asked.

"No way!" Grace said. "You didn't mention how hot he is!"

"First of all, how can you tell if he's hot from here? And secondly, do you know the guy?" he asked, turning to Blake.

Blake shrugged.

"I had a class with him last semester," he said. "He was really rude. A total loner. He ignored everyone in class and just kept his head down, even when the professor was talking to him."

"Ooh," Grace said, intrigued. "He's a total bad boy."

"Hey, that's not the guy that Aimee was into, is it?" Alex suddenly asked.

Grace gasped, her large eyes widening even more.

"Is it?!"

The two of them squinted down at him as he entered the building, trying to make out his profile.

"What happened?" Lucas asked uneasily. Aimee was one of Grace's friends. He'd only met her a handful of times but she was always nice. And very pretty.

"Nothing big," Grace said. "He just kind of snubbed her."

Alex snorted.

"Bet she loved that."

Grace laughed.

"Yeah, she is not use to being ignored. He was actually really cold, if I remember correctly."

"You're wrong," Lucas suddenly said.

It just burst from his mouth of its own accord but he crossed his arms and went with it. It felt like they were bashing the other boy way too much for Lucas to just stand by silently.

The three of them looked at him blankly.

"What do you mean? He really did brush her off," Grace said.

"No," Lucas said. "I spoke to him and he was nice."

Grace looked taken aback but Lucas ignored her, turning to Blake.

"You shouldn't go spreading rumours," he said.

Blake flushed.

"I'm not spreading anything," he said. "I was sitting right there watching him ignore the prof."

Lucas shrugged.

"He probably didn't mean to," he said. "Maybe he was zoned out or had a lot on his mind or something."

Grace and Blake just stared at him like he'd grown another head but then Alex broke the silence with a chuckle.

"Is this because he fed you?" he asked.

Lucas flushed.

"Well, what kind of a stranger would feed someone if they were really 'cold' and 'rude'?"

His air quotes went unnoticed as the others sighed.

"Of course, this is about food again," Grace said.

"Lets go see what he put up!" Alex suggested.

Lucas followed the three despondently, feeling a little like he was snooping, even though it was clearly a public post.

The flyer made the other three fall instantly silent.

Lucas suddenly did feel like he was invading the other boy's privacy, cluing together all the details of his life that he could gather from a brief conversation, a few short stories and a single line written on the page.

Notes needed for hard of hearing student.

He gave Blake a look and the other boy looked away but of course, Lucas couldn't leave it alone.

"Do you think there's a chance he didn't hear anyone talking to him?" he asked. "I don't think that makes him a loner."

Blake flushed.

Still miffed with his friends, Lucas pulled out his phone and snapped a picture of the flyer.

"You going to go for this?" Blake asked incredulously.

"None of your business," Lucas huffed.

"I hate to agree with Blake," Grace said. "But I've been your notes."

Blake scoffed.

"He actually takes notes?"

"Yeah, I've seen them too," Alex said, grimacing. "Lucas, there's no way your notes would be helpful to anyone but you, they're illegible."

"Screw you!" he spat. "I seriously don't know why the hell I'm friends with you guys."

Alex frowned. It was a rare moment, all humour vanished from his friends face.

"I just don't think you could help a deaf kid with your note-taking."

"I can too!"

"Okay, calm down," Grace said soothingly, which was even more annoying. "Just apply and see what happens."

She said it encouragingly but Lucas couldn't help but feel that she was just humouring him.

With a sigh, he followed his friends into the building. No sooner had Grace and Alex parted ways for their class did Blake lean over to him.

"Good luck anyway," Blake said. "You definitely need it to get a job, let alone keep one."

Lucas swallowed. He couldn't exactly deny that as much as he wanted to.

"Whatever," he muttered.

"Seriously, have you even been applying anywhere else?"

"Why?" Lucas asked bitterly. "You want to write my recommendation?"

Blake chuckled and Lucas decided he actually hated the other boy.

They entered the hall along with a throng of other students and Lucas slid away from Blake as casually as he could, taking a seat as far away from him as he could.

That did little to better his mood though.

He pulled out his notebook and text book and did his best to take notes while he mostly ignored the professor. He was more preoccupied with the thought of his application. He was definitely going to go for it for a variety of reasons. One, he was already in these classes taking notes, might as well make some sort of compensation off of it. And more importantly, he wanted to talk to the other boy again. He hadn't said thank you and it was eating at him.

Also, he wanted to know more about him.

Maybe it was his shy smile and the way the others spoke about him in a way that seemed to contradict with what Lucas observed.

Plus, there was a glinting line at the bottom of the flyer that caught Lucas' eyes.

Pay to be decided.

~

AN: Thank you so much for reading! I would really appreciate a vote or comment if you are enjoying the story so far. Feed back is welcome. Thanks again!