THE PAST - 8 years ago

Jen

I have never been this comfortable being near someone or having them touch me. My foster parents aren't ones for physical affection. So I'm not used to it. But from what I can tell I like Lucas's hand in mine.

I don't know where he is taking me but it's hallways upon hallways. I wouldn't be able to find my way out if I had to. He stops in front of a door opens and holds it for me. Upon entering there are tons of presents, stuffed animals, flowers, gift bags, and some boxes. There's candy and tons of food all over the place covering the counters. As well as a mini fridge stocked with all sorts of drinks.

I can feel my eyebrows raise as I walk inside. All this food and sometimes there wasn't any at my house. I hope it doesn't all go to waste. There's a sofa and a game system set up on a humongous TV. Along the back wall is a bunch of clothes on a lined rack. Further walking inside there is a bathroom on the right with a walk-in shower.

Feeling his eyes on me I turn to him. He's been watching me this whole time. "I need to shower and get ready for rehearsals," Lucas says to me.

"Alright," I smile and start to head out of the room.

"Wait, wait. Where are you going?" He asks alarmed.

I turn around confused. "Back outside." Not understanding I feel my eyebrows pinch in the middle.

"What?" He says sounding offended. "I meant you can stay in here. Just that I'm going in the bathroom to get ready."

"Oh," I feel my face blush in embarrassment.

"Stan, you can stay outside ---" Lucas starts to say but Stan interrupts him.

"No, I'm staying in here." Stan says as he side-eyes me.

"It's fine just wait outside," Lucas says in what I can tell is an irritated tone.

Stan brushes by me and sits on the couch and puts his feet up on the table. Lucas goes to say something but I cut him off. "It's okay, I could use the company while you're getting ready."

I sit down close next to Stan and turn on the tv and the game console. "Do you know how to play this game?" I point to it on the screen.

"Of course I do. I'm a pro." Stan grabs a controller for me. "I play on pc though so let me get on Lucas's laptop.

Lucas is just watching us the whole time. I look up into his gorgeous gray eyes and raise my hands like I'm shooing him away. His mouth drops open in shock. Stan starts cracking up laughing. Shooters are the only games I'm good at because it's the only kind of game I play with my foster dad. He is the only one I consider the closest to a father figure. Playing this game with him is the only time I felt fractionally wanted.

I get the information and invite him. "Let's do solos instead of groups." I tap down on the stick and press the solos button.

"You're going to regret this," Stan says cockily. I choose the sniper character. He looks up at my screen.

"Cheater!" I say annoyed. He picks the character that is counter to mine. "Turn the other way while we play!" He rolls his eyes and turns anyway.

Lucas turns so he can face the TV he hasn't left to get ready. Feeling nervous that he is watching my hands get a tad sweaty.

The buzzer happens and we are both left out of the gate. I run into the back streets and instantly see him running by. I line up shoot and he's dead. "What just happened?" He says confused but then the replay happens. "That was a lucky shot." I press ready to play him again. He accepts and we start again. The doors open and I start climbing up the highest building and then crouch. I can see him on the bottom floor. I aim and shoot and he is dead again. "Again? This is bullshit!" Stan says agitated.

"I thought you said you were a pro," I say as if it's a jab. Lucas starts chortling. Stan growls in frustration. I press the button to replay and he accepts. As soon as the map comes up I know exactly where he is. So I instantly fall to the bottom of the floor. I aligned my sights onto where he would run to and shoot. He dies again.

"What the fuck how are you getting a head shot every time, play someone else." He mumbles loudly about me using hacks. Now Lucas is full-on giggling. He sounds so cute it's distracting. "Shut up, Lucas. Aren't you supposed to be getting ready?"

"No, I'm exactly where I want to be." I can see him out of my periphery and he's looking at my face as he says it. I don't know how to take what he said or if it even meant anything. It still made me blush anyway. I turn my head to look at him and he is staring at me directly in my eyes. His unique gray eyes captured mine and held them hostage.

"Hurry, up. I want to play again." As if having cold water poured on me I turn my head back to the screen. "Play the shotgun guy, he's awful."

"Oookay, If you really want that..." I say like he is doomed. "I'm the best with him."

"Oh, please no one plays him he sucks and his model is ugly."

"What?" I screech. "I play him because he's hot. Look at all those tattoos."

"Are you serious? The guy is like 300 pounds."

"You like tattoos huh?" Lucas says flatly.

I ignore him and I choose the shotgun guy and press-ready. Since he is playing the sniper I know he is going to try to get an advantage of the high ground. He will take one of two spots. Either the closest or the other one trying to trick me. So I run and lie in wait to see if he runs to the trick spot. I watch him run by and shoot. His character's head explodes. "One more time my mouse slipped." He says aggravated.

"Okay," I press the start button. I decide to let him get onto a building and into waiting for me. I'm giving him time.

"What are you waiting for?" He says frustrated.

"Oh, I'm giving you a chance." He growls. I go up the ladder that's behind him. Crouching down so my feet don't make a sound I come up behind just as he turns and yelps loudly. I shoot and his character's head explodes.

"What the hell?!" Stan starts pulling at his hair. Which causes Lucas to laugh loudly.

I hear a knock and a man comes inside. Lucas sighs. The man's attention goes directly to me and his eyes narrow. "You missed rehearsal." The man says while still staring me down.

"It will be fine, I wanted to be here." I look at Lucas and he's watching me. I put my attention back to the man and he is giving me a look like I'm an issue.

"It's not fine. I don't want this kind of thing to become a habit." He says while looking at me and then at Lucas. I turn my attention back to Lucas and he is glaring at the man.

"How old are you?" The man asks me.

"Seventeen. Eighteen, on June third. Why?"

The old man exasperatedly says "Fuck," then pinches the bridge of his nose.

"I don't see why it's a big deal. We're not doing anything sexual. We're playing a game. I say angrily.

"We share the same birthday," Lucas says happily. I look at him and his eyes shimmer with adoration.

"I know." I laugh and instantly even though the AC is on full blast it feels hotter than outside.

"She has to leave, if this gets out it will ruin your career." The manager says irritated. My eyes grow wide.

"I don't want that. I'll leave." Immediately I get up, open the door, and leave the room. I can hear the chatter of people from a distance. I run over and peek into the entryway and notice people are beginning to run in. I can hear my name being yelled from behind me but I ignore it. I'm closest so I run fast down the stairs and into the arena. I got lucky with my front-row center spot. I try to find my friends behind me and they are twenty rows back and further on the left side. I could tell it was them from their corny brightly colored posters.

It's only ten minutes and the intro music to one of Lucas's love songs comes on. It's my favorite song by him. The crowd erupts into cheers and screams. The band is trailing the music on while the crowd starts cheering his name. Lucas walks onto the stage and the crowd is screaming louder.

Lucas is scanning the audience looking like he is searching for something. There's no way he is looking for me. His attention is drawn to the posters and I turn to where he is looking. He notices Rita who is glaring at me and scowling. I turn my head back to him and his attention is directly on me. He leans down and says something to one of the bodyguards.

"I'm going to sing a duet with this lovely woman right here." He points to me. The bodyguard starts coming toward me to lift me up over the banister. I begin to shake my head no, feeling embarrassed at the attention.

The people around me start pushing me and saying, "Go, Go." Feeling panicked cause I'm stopping the show I reach over for the bodyguard to lift me up. The bodyguard lifts me towards Lucas and he pulls me up onto the stage.

"Bring her a mic!" Lucas says excitedly into his own. A man runs on stage and hands it to me then runs back off. "So lovely, tell the crowd your name."

I shyly look to Lucas bring the microphone to my face and barely say Jen. "Gotta speak a little louder than that." He smirks at me.

"My name is Jen!" I say more forcefully into the mic. He grabs his acoustic guitar from off the stand. "We're going to go acoustic for this hope you don't mind friends." The crowd cheers loudly.

Lucas starts playing the intro, "You first angel," I grin at him and roll my eyes. As soon as the point I need to sing I start belting out the song. His eyes grow wide in surprise.

"Doesn't she have the most beautiful voice you ever heard?" He interrupts asking the crowd. They just cheer even louder. I continue to sing but there's humor in my voice so it wobbles a bit.

He wasn't expecting that I could sing. My foster parents got me lessons when I was twelve but they adopted more kids to get more checks. So my lessons stopped. I continued training by watching videos online.

I turn my head and sing to the crowd because it's awkward to stare at him in front of all these people. Lucas though he continues to watch me. We begin singing the chorus together and our voices sound like they are made to sing together. He sings the second verse and he sounds perfect which is amazing because he didn't warm up. We sing the chorus and then the song ends.

"That was so beautiful how about one more, Jen?" He starts to play the song that's about love at first sight. I look into his eyes and they have me captivated. He begins to sing the first verse while he is gazing into my eyes. There's no way I can stop myself from watching him. He is just too beautiful.

This is just part of the act he looks like this at everyone he invites on stage. Even still I can't look away even if it's fake. We sing the chorus and smile at each other because it's lighthearted. He nods his head for me to sing and I do. Believing that love at first sight just might be a reality while staring into those intensely gray eyes. It's then I can feel my heart become owned. A heartbeat of a song that only sounds for him. My heart hammers in my chest as we continue to sing to each other.

The last chorus comes on and I sing it continuing to sound happy when Lucas sings it a bit sadly. I go to the bodyguard but Lucas gathers me by the waist and then walks me backstage. He mouths the words "Stay," for me.

Stan is standing next to me looking down on me warily as well as grumpily. He must still be upset because I kicked his ass. I give him a knowing smirk and the corner of his lip tips up into an almost smile.

Stan takes his hand and ruffles my hair. I look back onto the stage and Lucas is giving him a dirty look. Stan lifts his arm and jets his thumb out and waves it to the right as if to say 'Look that way.'

Lucas narrows his eyes at him but then turns back to the crowd. The next song comes on and it's about making love all night. It's more rock than pop which I usually prefer. The crowd is going wild and screaming the lyrics.

The lude chorus comes on and Lucas turns his head to me and sings it to me. My face instantly becomes beet red. I don't think he can see it from there. Our eyes hold each other again it's like we're battling to see who will look away first but neither one wants to lose.

The show continues and more often than not our eyes are attached to each other. It's as if an invisible binding connects our eyes forcefully together. The connection is not only in my eyes I can feel him everywhere in every aspect that is me. It came on so strong and so suddenly but now it's like a damaged dam there's no stopping it from blasting out.

Time has stopped for me. I don't know how long we have been watching each other or how many songs he has left. He walks off the stage towards me and drapes his body over me hugging me closely to him. I hug him back and breathe him in. His scent was like the fresh smell of summer rain. I inhale a lung full and wait for him to release me but he doesn't. The drummer is playing a beat in rhythm for him to go back out to the finale. "You got to go back on," I say into his chest.

"They can wait." He hugs me even tighter to him. Could he possibly be feeling what I am?

The man from before walks up. "Get on stage," He says forcefully.

Lucas hugs me even tighter if that is even possible. "Go on." I push him from me. "I'll be here."

He pulls back and I can see worry in his eyes. I nod my head towards the stage. He grabs my hand as if to pull me back on stage with him but I fight him. His forehead pinches in the middle and he drops my hand. Turning his back to me he goes back on stage and the crowd screams louder than it has all night.

The man grabs my wrist and tugs on me roughly. "What the hell, don't touch me." I try to rear back but he is stronger than me.

"Brian, what do you think you're doing?" Stan says coming over to us.

"She needs to leave, she is trouble," Brian says while glaring down at me in disgust. His eyes are extremely bloodshot and he keeps sniffling.

The song stops suddenly and we all turn around. Lucas is running towards us with fire in his eyes. "Let go of her right now!" Lucas says heatedly.

"Lucas he is right I should go I don't want to cause problems for you," I rip my hand from Brian's and turn and start walking in the direction he was heading.

"No, No, No," I feel him hug my stomach from behind and pull me to him. "Wait, just wait, it will all work out I promise. Just don't leave," I turn my head and look up at him and his eyes are full of sadness.

I don't like that I'm causing him some sort of pain. It makes his gorgeous eyes start to look dull and lifeless. It worries me. "Okay, as long as you promise, I'll stay." The life slowly comes back to his eyes as he realizes what I said.

Brian growls enraged and storms off. "Go back on stage, and finish." I turn in his arms and push him. He glances at me hesitantly. I laugh to try and ease the situation. "Just go," I take his hand in mine and squeeze to give some sort of reassurance. Our eyes locked to each other once again with mine not able to look away. We stand here for a few minutes just hypnotized by each other.

"Lucas!" Stan yells and pulls him towards the stage roughly by his shirt. Lucas doesn't budge at first but then goes.

"Sorry someone was hurt backstage so I needed to go help them," Lucas says to the crowd and they scream in happiness because he came back. He sings his most famous song and the crowd is going insane.

The song is over and he is finished and he walks over to me with determination. He grabs my hand and leads me towards the back room. I go to open the door for myself but he rushes to hold it for me.

He all but pushes me inside. "Stay in here and help yourself to anything inside. I'll be back in a while." As soon as he shuts the door behind me I hear a bunch of screams from outside the room. Holy crap. I hope Stan and him will be okay out there. I gather a bunch of food onto a plate and a drink from the fridge and sit down on the couch.

I'm starving because I haven't eaten in two days so I eat it quickly. I could have eaten at home but there was so little food there I decided to leave it for the younger kids. I had no money so I couldn't get food at the store nearby. My job pays so little but what I do get my foster parents take most of it from me.

I decide to pursue the candy situation. There's a ton of my favorite candy so I grab a bunch. I begin mowing down it's so good I have three of them. I turn on the console and begin to play a popular game that just came out.

An hour later the door opens and Lucas walks in looking tired. Stan is right behind him. I smile up at him but then look back at the TV and continue playing my game. I don't want to get caught up in a staring contest again.

He doesn't say anything to me he just walks past and goes into the bathroom. I can hear the shower turn on. My stomach turns into a bunch of butterflies knowing he is so close and naked. I start to feel pleasurable feelings from deep inside me. Which I'm not really used to so it's a bit awkward. He comes out of the bathroom and he's in disguise again. "Oh look, Mitch is back," I say jokingly.

"What? Who's Mitch?" Lucas asks confused and his voice sounds drained.

"Your disguise, I decided to name him Mitch, he looks like a Mitch." I shrug my shoulder and smile at him.

Stan laughs loudly and Lucas looks at me with a huge smile and his eyes look rejuvenated.

Lucas makes his way over to me and sits down close. He puts his arm around my shoulders and pulls me into him. I can feel my cheeks heat up and my body inflame.

Lucas takes the controller out of my hands and puts it down on the table. He grips my chin and turns me towards him. Our eyes lock again it just feels so right, like it's the only place I need to look upon for the rest of my life. Somehow I don't know how he is doing it but he makes me feel truly wanted. Like I'm needed in some way. Like there's someone who wants to be around me.

"I'm going to be staying here for a week," Lucas says while his eyes hold mine.

"We're only here two days," Stan says confused.

"No, we are here for a week." Lucas's eyes leave mine to turn to Stan's. Instantly I feel the loss of them. Already observing Lucas's face I can see him looking at Stan in anger. "I want to spend our birthday together. I want you to stay with me." Gray penetrating eyes capture mine in a vice grip. Stay with him? What does he even mean by that? I say nothing and he seems to get impatient.

"I want you to come back to the hotel with me and stay with me for the week." He grabs my hand and holds it.

"I don't have any clothes or money. I have a job. It won't work." I say taking my hand from his.

"I can take care of all that. Trust me." He takes my hand back.

"I don't feel right you using your money on me. Just take me home."

"I'll barely spend any, it won't be a problem." I purse my lips and look angrily into his eyes.

"Why do you want me here so bad?" I can't seem to understand his logic.

Many emotions cross his face. Shock. Hurt. Anger. "I want to get to know you. I've enjoyed what I've seen so far and I want more." My heart is bursting in my chest. Am I dreaming? This has to be a dream. I want to get to know him more as well.

"Fine, but whatever you spend on me I pay you back. I'll get the money somehow." I narrow my eyes at him.

"Deal," He says and he smiles so huge it causes me to smile back just as big.