Lucy pov

I woke up with a giant smile on my face. Even though we did nothing last night, this past week has just been perfect. 

I was in his arms and I turned to face him. 

"Morning monkey," he said in a deep sleepy voice that would've made my knees weak if I had been standing. 

"Hmm, morning." There was only a few days left of the holidays and I just wanted to spend each in bed with him. Then we had to go back to school. School.

"Oh no. Oh no no no no no." I repeated and I stood up, ignoring that I was only in underwear, and I went to my back and grabbed my books. 

"What's wrong?" Cohen asked, sitting up. I took a moment to admire his torso and fluffy hair, then I snapped back to reality. 

"I have to write a creative piece of at least 500 words using the themes and writing techniques of Yoko Ogawa's The Memory Police for my creative writing class, then I have to annotate my copy of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Notes From Underground for my literature class, then I have to write my analysis of Anne Frank's A Diary of A Young Girl for my composition class and then I have to look at a list of sentences and draw their syntactic tree structure for my linguistics class." 

During my rant I had put on one of his tops and grabbed all my books and my laptop. 

"I have homework too, but I didn't forget about it I just wasn't planning on doing it." He stood up and came over to me, cupping my face, smiling. 

"Co, you have to do it."

"Well, what else am I meant to do today while you're busy?" He said and I chuckled. He placed a kiss on my forehead and then turned to get his things. 

"Good. Maybe you'll learn something."

"Learning Leslie Matrices isn't a top priority of mine," he added as we made our way downstairs to study on the dining table.

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After several cups of black coffee and a few mental breakdowns I completed almost everything. I just had to annotate my book for my lit class, which was fine, because I had already read it years ago and have my own notes scattered. It'd take me less than an hour. 

Cohen was face down on the table, his calculator filled with things I didn't understand and his exercise book looking like it was completed on a laptop with how perfectly written it was. Even the symbols and working out was perfectly recorded on the pages. 

"Is your workbook like that because you like it that way or because of your teachers?" I asked, and he sat up and faced me, glancing at his work. 

"That's just how I study I guess. I've never taken much notice." I almost wanted to laugh but instead I trailed my fingers through his soft hair. "I will fall asleep if you keep doing that."

"It's dinner time, and then you can sleep." As soon as I said that Eleanor had come downstairs, a yawn escaping her. 

"Hey guys. So I guess we all suddenly remembered that we attended school and had homework," she laughed.

"Have you been doing the same?"

"Yep. I had Ray popping into my room and asking me about the development of acting and musicals in society for one of his stupid classes." 

I took notice of her nickname and it suddenly occurred to me that I'd been spending every waking moment with Cohen, which left Len to have only my brother to interact with. I was about to feel bad when I realised it wasn't a bad thing by how unbothered she seemed to be.

She took out the leftovers and began filling three plates and I cleared the table of our studying materials to help her. Cohen then got napkins and whatnot. 

"What'd he ask?" I wondered, as I knew what he was studying at the moment as he needed help reading something because he was struggling to read the 'unnecessarily long' words as he put it. 

"It was about when musicals came about I think and what was happening around the time. I just told him how the first musical was performed in 1866, which I think was only useful thing I said because I started rambling about how the opera and burlesque were involved in that time."

"You know he is studying the atomic bomb in Hiroshima right now in his history class. And I know that he doesn't study those sorts of things in his sociology or his anthropology class, and obviously not his art history class."

"Really? He sat there for almost an hour hearing me talk about it."

"I wonder why?" Cohen mused and I looked at him with a smile. 

"Oh god, you guys see it too? That reminds I need to tell you something Luce. It's kind of on the same wavelength, I guess I'll just explain it now seen as how you'll just tell him anyway."

I laughed, but did not deny as she was right. 

"Explain what?" My brother asked, coming down in just his joggers. Cohen was too shirtless as I was wearing his shirt, but it didn't seem as significant in comparison. 

"Um, well, I was talking about how men used to play women in plays in ancient greece because of how their society worked."

"How wild is that," he said, instantly believing her. He had put himself a plate and joined us. "It was like that in england too when they performed shakespeare plays. It was called cross-gender acting."

Cohen laughed and I held mine in. 

"Um, El, I wanted to talk to you about something, you mind eating outside with me." I had said. 

"Not at all."

Cohen kissed me quickly before I stood up with my plate to go outside. 

"Also, Gray, you are such a nerd." I said and he shook his head with a smirk.

"Whatever." I smiled, liking that he seemed happier. 

"Okay, spill it. What the hell is going on with Graham?" I asked.

"It so weird to me that you're okay with this."

"It is just the weirdest thing to possible happen but of course I'm okay with it. The only person who seems to not be okay with it is you."

"It's just so different."

"What is? Because it seems to me that your feelings have been the same, you're just feeling them differently."

"We can talk about my feelings after I tell you this," she said and she finished chewing before setting the picture.

"So it was christmas night when you went off with Cohen to bump uglies, and you're mum had left us, when we finished packing up after dinner. We had finished, right, and then we just stood there. I don't think either of us were ready to get to bed just yet. 

"So I made us coffee or whatever and we sat down. We were quiet for a minute or so and then we just started talking. At first it was hesitant, you know, because we weren't teasing each other or arguing. But then we just started talking about our childhoods. Luce," she said with a stern look, "I told him almost everything about my childhood and my mother and father. 

I told him how I was always alone because after their divorce my dad nicked off with only 100 euros every birthday in his absence. How my mother's always travelling for work. It just spilled out of me and he just sat there, listening?!" 

Her mother was a big-time fashion designer and was always traveling around europe, even sometimes new york for fashion week and whatnot. Eleanor spent most of her time in their apartment that had been their home. When we became friends, however, I then sent her letters during breaks so she wouldn't feel lonely.

"Well, in this situation it may be surprising, but that's usually how conversations work."

"Luce, we talked until morning. That's unheard of. I have never spoken with a guy for that long, nevermind actually wanting to talk with one for so long."

"So you're finally admitting you like him?"

"I don't know," she said but a smile creeped up on her lips. 

"I can't believe my brother could talk for that long to be honest. The next time he complains he doesn't feel like talking I'll remind him of this." She laughed, seeming to feel a little better.

"How are you going with Cohen, have you finally..."

"Yes we have, a few times now. I love him so much, I never thought I could. I always thought it was a luxury I could only read about in books but never be able to experience."

"I'm so happy for you, you seem so much more carefree and glowy. I don't know if it's because of the sex or because you eat so much more." I managed to laugh so she wouldn't notice my uncomfortability. No one but Gray and Cohen knew of my eating problems, so I always have to remind myself around Eleanor and Dillon. 

"Hadn't noticed," I said. "Also, what is this 'Ray' business?" I asked, wanting to change the subject. 

"Oh, um, I just called him that one day and he didn't tell me off so it stuck."

We had finished eating and made our way back inside to find the boys laughing at something I assume was stupid. 

"Don't you own shirts?" Eleanor asked them.

"Hey, I don't mind that Cohen is shirtless."I added. 

"Well obviously."

"Am I distracting you Nora?" And now 'Nora'. I smiled as their relationship grew. 

"No, quite the opposite. It's just cold, so I was making sure you noticed because you can be a daft dimbo." He laughed. 

I was standing while they all sat and Co noticed and mouthed 'are you okay?'. I nodded and my brother now looked up at me. I nodded my head away, gesturing for him to come with me. He got up straight away, knowing I wanted to talk. It was so easy for us to know what the other was feeling. 

"What is it? Is everything okay?" We went to his room and I had jumped back on his bed, while he sat on his desk chair. 

It was bigger than mine and seemed to be the only interesting thing in his room. He only had his desk and a wardrobe, and just one frame of him and my mother and I. It was too boring for me. 

"Everything is fine," I yawned, tired from studying. "I just wanted to get some things straight about Eleanor." He stopped swivelling on the chair and faced me.

"What about her?"

"Hm, I'm surprised you didn't refer to her as 'Nora'."

"It's a nickname."

"Oh just shush, you guys are smitten with one another. I just wanted to say that if you're going to pursue something, do it right. Don't mess it up. 

"I'm not saying get married, but when your feelings are sorted out and you know what you want, that's when you should make a move. Because if you don't you'll just ruin for yourself. You both have a tendency to solve problems by getting yourself distracted with strangers. So basically, don't break her heart and trust that she won't break yours."

I didn't want him to respond, I just got up and kissed his head, giving his arm a reassuring squeeze. 

"I love you Gray."

"I love you too Posey." I giggled and he smiled, as I left him alone with his thoughts.