Three days in a row. I'm feeling so generous oh my-

Dedicated to ashley_mariex for the cover at the top!Thank you💜

Also, thank you to @jackelyn_gal () and @uppercutskidd on Twitter for helping me out💌

Chapter Forty-Seven: "Manzana."

"WHERE DO YOU think we're going to go?" Eduardo asked me, rubbing his hands together, excitement shining in his eyes.

"I hope we go to Paris. I want to meet French girls." Ravi said.

I rolled my eyes, leaning back on my hands. 'I thought you and Madison were now a thing?" We all look over at the same girl on our dance team, talking vividly to Matilda by the side.

"Not really," Ravi shrugged. "We made out once. She didn't want to go any further than that and neither did I. We're good."

"You made out? Only once?" Eduardo enquired, the both of us clearly not believing that.

"Okay, like five times or something but that's it. We're not going beyond that."

"Really? Because with the way you're looking at her right now, I'm going to ask you that question again tomorrow." Eduardo declared.

"I might not answer it like I did today." Ravi said, his eyes on Madison.

"We kind of figured." I articulated.

"What if we went somewhere tropical?"

"What about England?"

"Stop being so Europe based," Eduardo told Ravi. "There's more countries out there than the ones in the smallest continent. What if we went to Singapore or something? Or even Australia?"

"What if we go to Miami?" I thought, happy that spring was coming but wanting to get away from the cold nevertheless. Even though the competition was months away.

Eduardo groaned. "No please. We always go somewhere in North America."

"Maybe because we, oh I don't know, live in North America?"

Eduardo reached over to pinch me but missed his chance when Mrs. Yousiff's heels clicked against the floors of the room when she entered it. My attention like everyone else's diverted to hear and Daisy, our choreographer right behind her.

"Where are we going?" Isaac asked before she even had the chance to speak.

"Patience Mr. Crow," The faintest of smiles appeared on Mrs. Yousiff's lips as she faced all of us. "Congratulations to Hailey, Andrea and Ravi for their trio at the competition this weekend."

Applause went around the room and Eduardo and I dragged Ravi down when he exaggeratively stood up and took multiple bows.

"I will be announcing the different dance routines you will be all part of in a moment. As you recall now that we're made it to Worlds, our entire studio will be travelling to our detention as a part of the productions number that was originally supposed to be Nationals. If we win production overall, we will have a five point advantage. Practice for that will start right away as soon as I call everyone in this room. Now, since you are the Elite team, our destination is..."

I could the pause of this scene in a movie. The camera would probably close on everyone's expression as they eagerly waited to see where we would go. Then because Daisy was holding the poster, no music would play in the backdrop as she dropped it and everyone took in where we would go.

"We're going to Argentina?" Matilda asked.

"YES!" Eduardo gave me a high five, a string of excited Spanish spilling from his mouth.

"That's so cool." I could hear out entire team gushing over the fact that we were going to a whole different place together. Holy, I couldn't wait to tell Wesley and Lucas.

"Where in?" Eduardo asked. 

"Buenos Aires." Mrs. Yousiff answered.

"My family lives there." He rubbed his hands together and I couldn't help but laugh at his excitement. 

"Now," Mrs. Yousiff looked down at her clipboard. "We have many different routines planned out. No one knows what could happen at Worlds and we must be prepared. Now first I have two small groups planned for now. The first one is Kaitlin, Nikolai, Rita, and Matilda. The second is Sydney, Hailey, Madison and Andrea."

I could her different concepts already in my mind. She had placed two groups each with three girl and one guy.

"For duets I am deciding between Eduardo and Isaac or Sydney and Eduardo. Both will be made either way just in case."

Eduardo held his hand out towards me and I hit it, amused by his excitement. His dancing was improving beyond measure and I could see why Mrs. Yousiff is putting him in dances where he would be able to get more exposure. He honestly deserved it.

"My male soloist will be Eduardo." She announced.

Eddie' eyes widened and Ravi shook him eagerly. "You got the solo man. Congrats!"

Eduardo looked awestruck making me laugh and I snapped my fingers in his face. He slowly turned his head towards me. "Did she just say what I think she did?"

"Yes. You got the solo Eddie. You completely deserve this."

Eduardo still looking shocked as ever, put a hand over his mouth, lying on his back. Everyone laughed at him before Mrs. Yousiff announced something else. "As for the female soloist...I have decided to give it to..."

There was a huge pause and Eduardo even grabbed my hand, squeezing hard.

"Matilda."

My lips parted in shock and I could hear even Eduardo gasp. I didn't bother reacting, I clapped nevertheless, spotting the smile that grew on Matilda's face. If Mrs. Yousiff thought that Matilda deserved the solo than she did.

You win some, you lose some anyways.

"I honestly thought Sydney would get it." I heard Ravi tell Eduardo when he sat back up.

"Same."

"Guys, it's fine. Matilda deserves it the same way you do Eddie. Let's think about it positively. Like, she's a great dancer."

"Yeah, she's great. She's amazing. Whatever. But you're Sydney Acosta, you realize this, yes?"

"I think I know who I am."

"You're insanely talented. You work hard all the time, just as much if not more as she does. You won the Regional and National solos with top scores in both because your performances were excellent. It doesn't make sense why-"

"Eddie. It's okay. Matilda got this. We can't turn back, alright?" He wasn't convinced. I rolled my eyes and stared at him again. "Alright?"

He sighed. "Fine. I still think you should've got it."

"Imagine what Mary Anne is going to say when she finds out that you got your chance in spotlight at Worlds?"

Eduardo's eyes widened and he quickly took his phone out of his pocket messaging his girlfriend. I glanced at Ravi who was looking at Madison as Mrs. Yousiff kept talking.

"So after this practice, I'm guessing you're going to be kissing Madison again?"

"I'm hoping." He mumbled and I laughed, feeling light disappointment but pushing it away anyway.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"No, sound it out again. Yo soy un artista." I told him, fixing the beanie on my head. The light hanging above us was broken, leaving a dim shadow around where Lucas and I were seated.

He repeated what I said, jumbling over the words like a cute idiot as he said in Spanish that he was an artist.

"Did I even say it right? Nah, I don't think I did." He said in English, pouting a little. He was really trying, I thought, taking a sip of my water.

"Okay try saying 'yo soy una tortuga."

Lucas repeated what I said with some difficultly and I laughed at this, hitting him lightly on the shoulder. "I just told you to call yourself a turtle and I've said this to you a million times at least in Spanish. Stick to English."

"No, no, I want to learn." He whined.

We were sitting down against one of the graffitied walls in the art tunnel. I could hear the voices of people laughing and yelling meters away. Lucas and I had isolated ourselves the entire time, grabbing spray cans and writing different words and spraying different things on an empty wall.

Then he decided he wanted to take a break and try to learn Spanish.

I wasn't really working out but it was kind of endearing that he was trying. "Lucas, it's Saturday. Not much people want to learn on a Saturday."

"I do. You really know your stuff huh?"

"It's kind of engraved into my brain, Turtle."

"I like it when you speak it. It sounds..." He trailed off, thinking for a moment then I noticed his cheeks turn red at whatever he was about to say.

"What? What are you thinking?" I urged him to speak, my hand on his arm.

"Nothing. It just doesn't sound like anything I would say." A half-smile appeared on his face and he turned away in embarrassment.

"Lucas, just say it."

"When you speak Spanish it-it sounds sexy, okay?"

Well, then.

I stared at him. That really didn't sound like something he would say in a regular conversation. I cleared my throat, looking at him. "Thanks."

"Thanks? I think I just made our relationship a thousand times more awkward then we usually make it."

"If I said my thoughts around you then by now this would have become a norm." I said to him.

"Oh, yeah. What are some things you think about me?"

I rolled my eyes, realizing that this guy was asking for a confidence booster when another person came over to us just when I was going to tell him. "Lucas, I heard you were here!"

Potato guy himself stood over us., a grin on his face. He glanced at me and if even possibly his smile grew wider. "And you brought your girl!"

He took a seat next to me and the smell of weed was strong on him. I felt like it he had one more hit, he would be standing in the middle of the subway tracks, staring at the ceiling with a lost look on his face and not even knowing what the hell he would be doing.

I wrinkled my nose at the smell but gave him an uplifting smile anyway. 'Um...hi."

"Did you think about the society? Do you now think it's like a potato or do I have to repeat everything again for you?"

"No, no, no, I know how it is. Society equals potato because of fries which have salt which leads to cholesterol which is bad for humans. I remember."

"Good. Good memory you have."

Lucas stifled his laughter beside me making me glare at him. "Puto." I told him and he stared at me in confusion as I told him to stop laughing. I leaned over to whisper in his ear. "Is it sexy that I just insulted you?"

His eyes cut to me quickly and he shook his head, twisting the spray can in his hand. "I think one day the Earth is going to be destroyed by aliens." I heard Potato guy say.

Because this was so amusing, I encouraged him to continue talking. For the next half an hour, he told me all about how he had this theory of how the governments were all a bunch of Martians who were taking our money and feeding it to their home planets.

Then he continued talking saying how the annual meetings of all the leaders in the countries that came together to talk about economic problems were just ways they were planning on killing off the humans.

"We don't know who could be aliens right now. You could be one. Lucas could be one," He suddenly gasped and there was actual terror in his red rimmed eyes as he whispered out the last sentence. "I could be one."

"Well, if you're an alien, don't eat me okay?" I asked him quietly.

"As long as you promise not to eat me. Deal?"

"Deal." I agreed.

"Cool. Cool. I'm going to find more aliens." He suddenly got up and unsteadily walked down the path, laughing under his breath.

"He's weird but I like him.' I told Lucas who was playing some weird game on his phone.

He didn't look up from the screen when he answered. "You don't like him in the way you like me, do you?"

"I think you would know."

"You sure?"

"I'm pretty sure you of all people would know I only like you, idiota." I told him.

"Did you just call me an idiot?"

"Maybe."

Lucas shrugged. "I'll take it." But not before grabbing his beanie off my hair and pushing it against my face.

I swatted his hand away when he started laughing, putting his phone in his pocket. "Odio que puedas ser lindo pero molesto." I told him.

"What does that mean?"

"I just called you cute and annoying."

"You call me that a thousand times a day, I swear." Among other things but let's keep that to myself and for whenever he needed a huge ego boost. It's not like he minded, he either flushed, not taking the compliment properly or called me it back. Sometimes I wished Lucas knew how good looking he was on the outside and how amazing his personality is on the inside.

"What do you say when you want to call someone attractive?"

"If it's a girl then I would say 'Ella es attractiva'. If it's a guy I would say 'El es attractivo'."

"I see. I know a couple words that you haven't taught me."

"Oh yeah," I hugged my knees to my chest, leaning my head against his shoulder. He put an arm around me and I noticed how his sweater smelled a lot like him. It smelled like his cologne but I could detect that faintest whiff of my perfume on it. Probably because I like wearing this specific sweater whenever I was around him, the black one that had his name on the back in white bold letters and the white question mark at the front. "What kind of words?"

"I know that an apple is manzana. A pencil is lápiz."

"Basic Spanish. You're getting there." I clapped, turning my head so that my head was between his chest and his arm, the dust of the wall getting into my hair but at the same time didn't care.

"You really think so?"

"Oh definitely."

"You don't think I can learn Spanish."

"It's not that." I defended, trying not to laugh at how whiny he was sounding.

"Yes, it is."

"No! It's just that I figured you would be better sticking to English but if you want to learn it I'm not stopping you at all."

"You totally deserve the girlfriend of the year award, you know that?" He asked me sarcastically.

I smiled widely, looking up at him. "I know."

"Hey Canada girl?" I hummed in acknowledgement and he shifted lower to press his lips against the shell of my ear. That he whispered the words I didn't think he would say before I would. "Te amo."

I think I processed what he said way to fast because I got out of his hold and stood up, staring at him because I wasn't even sure if he was serious. I gazed at him in shock, not believing that I mean that much to him but I did. I did think I meant that much to him.

"You-you." I coughed, feeling my words get metaphorically stuck in my throat.

God, ever since Lucas and I started dating I have barely ever stuttered around him. Why the hell am I starting now?

Maybe because he just told you he loved you.

"Did you just...did you just say what I think you said?"

"I didn't say it wrong did I?" Lucas stood up, looking nervous as hell. "I-uh-I hope I didn't. I even went to Eduardo yesterday asking how to say it properly and it sounded pretty basic to me so I kind of figured that-"

I stopped him, grabbing his hand to press my lips against his. He responded almost immediately, his hands on my neck and his thumbs brushing against my jaw. Every possibly thought evaporated the second I touched him except for one.

That Lucas Cahill just told me he loved me.

And by the certainty in his voice when he said it with more confidence than I have ever heard him use, I knew he wasn't lying. I knew that he was sure. That he was positive about this.

Like always, he tasted like the juicy fruit gum he was always chewing and I felt him consume my entire being when he coaxed his tongue into my mouth. I want to pull him closer to me in any way, my hands reaching under his thick sweater to feel the fabric of his shirt and I could feel his skin heating against my touch. The kiss itself was surreal and full of every emotion he was trying to express to me. I felt that emotion in a way I wanted to feel every day.

"Lucas!" Some guy hollered, walking by on the tracks with a bunch of other people. "If you're going to mack on your girlfriend, there's a darker part of the tunnels all the way down!"

I pulled away first as hiding my face on his shoulder. Lucas sounded breathless when he talked and his hand smoothed down my hair that they were entangled in seconds before. "Um-we're good. Thanks."

The people walked along and out of sight asking me pull my head back. I looked up at Lucas and he stared down at me in slight confusion. "Um...what did that kiss mean?"

"It means that I'm surprised that you said it before I did."

"Wait," Lucas tightened his hold on me. As if I would ever let go. "You-you were going to say it? You were going to tell me that you loved me?"

"Lucas I could tell you a lot of things. Trust me when I say that there is so much to say about you. Telling you I love you is definitely one of the things I've been wanting to tell you. A lot."

I've never seen Lucas Cahill smile so brightly, I felt like he could light up an entire room if he wanted to. "Really?"

"Yeah."

He enveloped me in his arms, embracing me tightly. I could feel his heart beating fast in his chest like mine and I smiled against him, loving the way I could affect him. "I really want to hear you say it if you mean it." He mumbled against my hair.

I breathed him in, holding him against me and I never wanted to detach myself. "I love you Lucas Cahill."

I could feel him smiling against my head and he pulled back to kiss me briefly against my lips. "I love you too."

"Usually this is the part of a movie when the music happens and everything cuts to the happy ending."

"I want a happy ending," Lucas said. "Can we pretend that instead of music playing the background of this scene called life, I say something and then we go get food?"

"What are you going to say?" I smiled not just from the mention of food that we skipped before we came here.

"That I love you because the universe conspired to help me find you."

"That was the cheesiest thing I have ever heard you say in my life."

"That's because Paulo Coelho from the book The Alchemist which you know is-"

"One of your favorites. Yes, I know. I pay attention."

"He said that and when I was reading it again last week and saw that line, I thought of you. I remember the first time we met back in September and how anxious you were around me. You wouldn't even meet my eyes."

"Maybe because I was I was wondering who the attractive guy was that came into the dance room and when you said my name I felt like I wanted to faint."

"I have that much of an affect on you?" He questioned like he didn't already know and I slapped him lightly on chest, looking up at him. He loved me and that's all I wanted from him. For him to love me as much as I knew I loved him.

"Shut up. Let's go get food."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"He dropped the L bomb? Lucas? The same guy I met like a month ago?"

"Yes," I explained to my best friend, watching him eating from the seaweed packet in his hand. "The same Lucas."

Wesley clearly wasn't getting it because he looked the most confused than I've ever seen him. "Are you sure? I know I've asked you this so many