Chapter 14
Fourteen
Denise
The clashing of plates hitting tables as orders are being served and the conversations of people sitting nearby become background noise. A world outside of the booth Lucas and I are sitting at in Lou Lou’s, one of the best pizza places in the city.
Garlic and pizza dough quickly made me realize how hungry I actually was after dancing for almost two hours.
“Hey.” Lucas gently swats my hand away from his plate. “What happened to not being that hungry?”
He stares down at my now empty plate that once consisted of a personal-sized margherita pizza. I rest my elbows on the table, batting my eyelashes as dramatically as I can get away with. “I lied, I’m famished.”
Lucas sighs, his attempt at hiding his smile failing. He sets another slice of pizza onto my plate regardless. “You’re lucky I’m nice.”
I quickly clap my hands before reaching for the slice and taking a bite, groaning when the warm sauce and extra cheese hit my tongue. I may have laughed at his order of apricot chicken pizza but after stealing a bite, I realized he might be onto something.
I happily enjoy my stolen pizza while Lucas takes another bite of his own slice, an amused smile on his face.
“Okay your turn.” He rips a piece of crust off and tosses it into his mouth. “Why ballet?”
“Does there have to be a reason?” I try to deflect even though I literally just asked him the same thing barely twenty minutes ago.
What can I say, I’m a hypocrite.
“Oh come on, Stryker. Throw me a bone.”
“Alright, fine.” I take another bite of the cheesy goodness purely to buy myself more time before revealing something only Amiyah knows. “I started dancing because of Gene Kelly.”
“Who?”
Of course he doesn’t know who that is. Most people my age don’t and it makes me want to educate them on the greatest man who has ever lived.
“He was a famous actor and dancer in the fifties.” I reach for the chili peppers, shaking more onto my pizza.
“He was the main character in my favorite movie, An American in Paris. I was obsessed with the seventeen-minute ballet sequence he does in that movie with Leslie Caron. So I started dancing because I wanted to be able to dance with him.”
A few little kids run by, laughing. Their parents call them over, scolding them for running around the restaurant.
I continue. “No one bothered to tell me that Gene died before I was even born.”
Lucas snorts, leaning back in his seat, his arm coming up to rest on the back of the booth. “Let me get this straight. You started dancing because you had a crush on a dead guy?”
“I was eight!”
“Well now I have to see what the man of the hour looks like.”
From under the table, I nudge his knee with my leg but pull out my phone anyway, grumbling about how Lucas isn’t cultured enough for my liking.
It doesn’t take me long to find a picture on the internet, and not because I still have some saved of the man.
I flip my phone around to show Lucas, who’s patiently waiting, but his eyes sparkle with a mix of amusement and disbelief when he takes my phone in his hands. Glitter pink case and all.
He laughs. “Him, Denise? That’s the guy you have the hots for?”
I gasp, plucking my phone from his hand and clutching it to my chest, so he can’t disrespect the love of my life anymore. “You know what, Callahan? I wouldn’t expect you to understand. You don’t know Gene like I do.”
“You don’t either!” He laughs. “Denise, Princess, the man is dead.”
I reach across the table, stealing a piece of chicken that fell onto his plate as if I don’t still have a half-eaten slice on my own. “Oh, like I’m sure your childhood crush was any better.”
“Yes, actually.” Lucas pushes his plate closer to me like I have every right to eat off it. “My first crush was on the original yellow ranger, like a normal child.”
I’m quick to flip him off and go to nudge his knee again. He catches my ankle this time and I struggle in his grip for a few seconds. Before I can argue with him to let me go, despite not really meaning it, two figures come walking up to our table.
Grace and Addison.
“Where’s Preston?” Grace thankfully doesn’t bother acting casual. Not that she usually does.
Lucas lets go of my ankle, his unamused gaze directed toward the two girls. “I don’t know, Grace. Probably somewhere trying to get the taste of you out of his mouth, I’m sure.”
I slap my hand over my mouth but it’s already too late. My laughter bubbles out and lands between the tension that now surrounds our table.
Grace crosses her arms and looks away from me, clearly unimpressed while Addison looks me up and down in disgust.
All I do is smile and give her a half-assed wave, making her scoff and turn her attention to Lucas.
“You know, you always seem a little too heated at the fact that Preston and I are together,” Grace says. “Something you want to share with the class, Lucas?”
Lucas smiles. Not his usual boyish grin, but the one that lets me and everyone around us know that he’s now just simply doing it to get on Grace and Addison’s nerves.
And I appreciate him for that.
“I’m more than happy to be the one to break this to you, Grace, so believe when I tell you that there’s no way that you and Nole are official.”
Addison scoffs on behalf of Grace. “Like you know anything.”
“You’d be genuinely surprised by the things I know.”
Grace clicks her tongue. “I’m surprised you’re able to retain any information in that head of yours.”
I finally snap, not because I think Lucas can’t handle himself, but because something inside me hates the way that comment makes his grin falter ever so slightly. If I hadn’t been looking at him, I would’ve missed it.
People assume they already know what I can and can’t do before they ever really know me.
Yeah, I’m not letting that shit slide. Especially not from Grace Monroe.
“Hey, Grace?”
She turns her attention back to me, lips pulled back in disgust like she’s the one that should be annoyed. “What?”
I stand up. Addison is quick to take a step back—clearly the smarter one here—but Grace, seemingly being one for punishment, remains where she stands.
I reach for my glass of water, making direct eye contact with Grace as I pour it down the front of her white shirt, revealing the purple lace of her bra.
She gasps, flinching away from the cold liquid. She pulls her shirt away from her body, darkened eyes flicking up at me.
The restaurant isn’t too busy but the people that are scattered around turn their attention toward us. Luckily the workers are busy taking, making, and running orders out to care about what a group of college students are doing.
“Why don’t you go fuck off before I tell everyone what your dad did to get you into Kingswell?” I sneer.
Her eyes widen and Addison’s breath hitches, knowing full well what I’m talking about but she can’t stop me without basically telling on herself.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Grace shifts on her feet, clearing her throat and reaching for napkins from a nearby table.
“Really?” I arch my eyebrow. “’Cause I’ve known Addison to be a bit of a talker when she’s drunk but not a liar.”
Grace’s entire face goes pale before she whips her head toward Addison.
Addison stumbles over her words, shaking her head. “I didn’t mean to. I mean—I just—I was talking to Kaleb and I didn’t know—”
“You told Kaleb?” she seethes, completely forgetting about me and Lucas.
Good, I’m tired of dealing with her ass.
One day she really is going to piss off the wrong person to the point of no return.
Grace storms off, Addison quickly following in suit but not before glaring at me.
The bell above the entrance chimes as Grace swings the door open. Everyone else steals quick glances at our booth before going back to minding their own business, whispering about what happened.
Feeling like my work is done, I slam the cup back onto the table and sit down to go back to eating, but apparently Lucas has other ideas.
“Well come on now.” He shifts in his seat, food forgotten. “I want in on the gossip.”
My chewing slows and I study Lucas just long enough to see that his smile has fallen back into place, no longer being weighed down by Grace.
“Alright, fine.” I swallow. “But I’m only half of a bitch so your mouth stays shut, got it?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
So I spend the next fifteen minutes telling Lucas how Grace’s dad paid an obscene amount of money just to get her into Kingswell and the reason I only found out was because Addison got plastered at a party and rambled on about how Grace always thinks she’s better than everybody.
Kaleb, Addison’s brother, wasn’t even listening due to being high out of his mind. He just nodded when he deemed it appropriate.
All of this wouldn’t even be a big deal. I’m sure half the students at Kingswell are only able to attend this school because of family wealth—myself included—but Grace thinks the world revolves around her.
Lucas seems to think so too because he can’t help but laugh as I tell him about how Addison begged me not to tell Grace when she realized I heard everything that night.
I genuinely never intended on telling Grace because I didn’t give a shit but if they’re going to bark then I’m not afraid to bite.
Thankfully, this hasn’t made Lucas leave yet.
He remains sitting across from me, a smile on his lips and a lightness in his shoulders I’m quickly becoming addicted to.
Whether I deserve it or not.