Dedicated to skyfly27 for the cover at the top, thanks💖💖

And now I can try to write 68D&C...I hope : )

Chapter Thirty Nine: "Keep It PG."

"OCT, HOW THE hell did you get into this dance?" Zen asked.

Her body twisted to face him, almost making me fall since my arm was hooked with hers. "I have my ways."

"Lying?"

Octavia shrugged. "Sure. If you want to go with that option. All these people need to think is that I still go to Hamilton Academy of the Arts. Sydney, c'mon on."

She ushered me over to the floor where people from HAA and other schools were already crowding, some people shy and just moving side to side, some laughing with their friends but I slipped my arm off hers. "In a second. I have to find Lucas first."

I moved away from my friends, pushing through the crowded people just when I saw Jane in the middle of a crowd, dancing her tiny body all out. I couldn't help but laugh to myself when she noticed me and instantly grabbed my hands, trying to make me dance with her. "Dance with me."

"Later," I laughed out. "Do you know where Lucas is?"

"He's over at the tables." Jane pointed at a distance and I thanked her, moving through people and trying not to laugh at how some people tried to dance to the mainstream pop song.

I found Lucas where Jane said he was. He wore blue jeans and a longsleeve black shirt which probably wasn't the best idea since it was getting hot in this room but I wasn't complaining.

He wasn't wearing a beanie tonight nor something plaid. His fingers were laced and pressing against his mouth, his brown eyes attentive under his glasses as he stared at the person opposite to him on the small high table.

Joey took a sip of his drink, looking different than his identical twin. He looked stressed, playing with his short sleeve of his shirt before wiping it on his pants. He was wearing a hat backwards that from my view said his name on the front of it.

I slowly walked over to them, hearing what Joey was saying. "...she showed up at my room, knocking like crazy. I don't even know how she got to our side without one of the people patrolling catching her. But anyway, she knocks on the door and it wakes up all of us in the room, yeah? And she bursts her way through practically begging-"

"What did you do?" Lucas asked, spotting me and gently pulling me to his side.

Joey glanced at me but didn't give it much of a thought, looking back at his brother. "What do you think? I made her get out obviously. I just wanted to sleep, not have an obnoxious ex-girlfriend behind my back."

"Not to mention she thinks that you and I are starting to have something." I muttered, taking one of the chips from the bowl Lucas was eating out of.

I thought over all the music blaring Joey or Lucas wouldn't have heard me but they both did since Joey stared at me like I just told him the most absurd thing in the entire world. I kind of just did. "What? She thinks that something is going on with you and me?"

I nodded, stuffing my mouth with another chip. Lucas scratched the back of his head. "Does she not know that we're together or something?"

"No offense but she barely knows you exist Lucas, don't take it to heart," Joey started laughing, pointing at himself than me. "And you and me? You're not my type."

"That's a compliment considering my type isn't under Grade A Assholes." I shot back.

"Keep your girlfriend in check would you?" Joey said to Lucas, standing up from his stool. "I'm going to go find the DJ. His playlist is shit."

Joey walked away, through the crowd of teenagers and I looked at Lucas. His eyes were wandering around the place, looking at the dim lighting and possibly the architecture of the inside of the room. When one would look up, they would see the night sky and the moon looming over us.

"You look great." I heard Lucas mumble beside me.

I turned to face him, and noticed that with those eyes of his, he could make it feel like we were the only two people in a room, loud music and all. "You're going to die of heat in here but you look great too."

Correction. He looked sexy but I held back, feeling more open due to the energy around us.

"Where's Devin?" I asked, changing the subject and moving my gaze off him and grabbing the water in front of him.

"He didn't want to come so he went on the other trip with a couple other people."

I hummed, turning him to face me and stepping between his legs. I put my hands on his shoulders after pushing my thick mane of curly hair over my shoulder. "Dance with me."

Lucas barked out a laugh, his hand curling hesitantly on my waist. "You're funny."

"I'm not kidding," I told him. "What's the point of even coming here if you don't bother dancing Turtle?"

"And we're back to the nicknames. I'm not a dancer. You know this."

"Jane's not a dancer either but look she's having the time of her life right out there. C'mon." I urged him, grabbing him by the arm.

Lucas resisted. "In case you haven't noticed. I can't dance."

"Everyone can dance. We're all just different in dancing."

Lucas stared at me. "What does that even mean?"

"I don't know. I'm trying to be fake deep like you are," I laughed and clearly he didn't find it as funny as me but he cracked a smile anyway.

"How about we go on the dance floor and find out?" I told him, grabbing him by the arm again.

He wouldn't budge. "No."

"You know what? I think maybe I can find Octavia and she can help me drag you-"

"Okay, okay, okay but if I step on your feet, it's your fault not mine."

"C'mon." I laughed, finally able to pull him out of that chair.

We moved into the crowd of people and I managed to find where my friends are, ignoring the lingering eyes on Lucas. "I'm only following you because I'm a little scared of Octavia."

"I know." I told him just as the song changed into something people could actually dance to without just moving side to side.

Octavia being Octavia and was practically the inner me just more expressive was already dancing with some guy from a different school. Mary Anne and Eduardo were in their own little world, murmuring words and holding onto one another. I glanced at Lucas who was watching people with his skeptic eyes.

"Okay what do I do?"

I sighed. "You're like Zen."

"Zen's coordinated. I'm not in case you haven't noticed." I took his hands tried moving the guy but he looked so out of place. I sighed, intertwining our fingers together. "Just get out of your comfort zone."

"Easier said than done." He said quietly.

"I'm doing it."

"Not really. You can dance to anything and make it look amazing. Don't bother comparing." He said, fixing his glasses on his face.

"Lucas, move your body," Octavia demanded.

"I can't move like that!" Lucas grumbled. 

"Well try." She said before making her way further into the crowd of teenagers. 

"She has to stop hoping,"  Lucas said. 

I shrugged, pulling him closer to me. "It's Octavia, she's not going to stop hoping." The music changed and I'm pretty sure I heard Octavia scream with excitement at the song change. Also, I'm pretty sure Joey had found his way to the DJ and told him to change his songs.

"Isn't this one of your favourites?" Lucas asked me, raising a questioning eyebrow.

"Yeah...so dance with me."

"I'm going to end up stepping on your feet and I could possibly end up breaking your foot meaning that you won't be able to dance and it'll be my fault and-"

I grabbed the back of his head and with the confidence I had that usually came up whenever Lucas was around, I kissed him long and hard.

Lucas responded back a second later, his hands finding their way to my waist. It wasn't even proper dancing considering the position we were in but I took it slow with Lucas and didn't go full out like I'm pretty sure Octavia was doing to a guy as if she was at a club meant for 21 and over.

His hands slid lower through the kiss, pulling me closer to him. I took his hands and tried to get him to move and when I realized he could only go side to side, I took it as a start. "That's a little bit better." I mumbled against his lips.

"I'm giving it my all, shut up." He said and I laughed, kissing him again.

And I spent a couple minutes trying to make Lucas move more than that and I found it adorable that he was trying. He looked frustrated, trying to go along with the song I was mumbling under my breath. "Okay how do you do this to this type of beat? Isn't there that type of dancing where the girl like turns around and..."

He trailed off when I turned around, my eyes catching Octavia's as she passed by us and gave me knowing smile. I laughed a little, not preparing myself when I felt my hair brushed to the side and a pair of lips press themselves against my neck.

Shit. Didn't think he had it in him.

"Where do I put my hands?" He whispered against my neck, making me inhale sharply. I took his hands, placing them on my waist.

"Here." I said, finding movement to the beat of the song. I leaned against his body and could feel him tense against me. And as he kissed his way down my neck a way I never knew he could do, I felt like I was going crazy.

And why haven't we done something like this before?

Oh yeah, because we never really have time to be alone.

With all the self restraint I had, I turned around again in his arms, my arms around his neck. "Like that." I said hoarsely, feeling light headed from the kisses and the atmosphere of the room. Although the lighting in the room was very dim, I was able to see Lucas' face and how flushed he looked. "You okay?" I asked him when his head found its way back to the crook of my neck.

His mouth wasn't against my pulse and I was sure he could feel how fast it was going. "Sydney?"

"Yeah?"

"You're killing me." He whispered and I strained my ears to hear those words.

"In a good way or a bad way?" I asked him, feeling him pepper kisses down my throat.

"Good way. Really good way." He said quickly, gripping my hips with some kind of confidence that surprised me every now and then. He pressed me closer to his body, my arms linking around his neck. His everything was consuming me; his lips, his breath against my neck, his cologne, his everything.

I felt a tap on my shoulder and I turned trying to break out of my Lucas haze. I kept my arms around him to glance at Mary Anne. "Y-Yeah?"

"I know you guys are having a good time and everything but you might want to keep it PG because some teachers are starting to stare."

Lucas pulled his mouth away from my neck quickly, shooting Mary Anne a small embarrassed smile that showed how he got carried away. "Got it. Thanks for the heads up."

Silently wishing that there weren't any teachers in this room, I groaned under my breath, letting go of Lucas by the neck.

I almost forgot where we were to be honest. All I had thought of for the past minutes as the songs went by was him and only him as if everyone in the room had suddenly disappeared. He probably didn't even know he could affect me like this.

He chuckled, looking down at me. "Wish we weren't interrupted?"

"Kinda." I muttered, my hands playing with the bottom of his shirt. I took a deep breath, coming back to earth and collecting myself. "But it brought back my sanity."

Lucas tongue poked out of his mouth to lick his lips and he stepped back just a little to give ourselves a respective distance. "You make me a little insane too."

"Really?"

"All the fucking time. Believe it."

And with that unbelievable smile on his face, I got him to dance a little or at least move his body with a bit of my friends help. Octavia couldn't stop taunting him or Zen. I'm still surprised no teacher has caught her inside a building she wasn't supposed to be in for our dance.

I laughed, feeling my hair sticking to the back of my neck as we all moved to the side. I held Lucas' hand in mine. "That wasn't so bad was it?"

"Better than I thought." I heard him mumble over the loud music.

"Zen man, that girl is staring at you." Eduardo said.

Zen rolled his eyes, handing the water he had gotten to Kim. "Good for her."

Kim sat down on a stool, managing to find a way to lean against Zen's arm. "I don't want to leave then go back to school. Oct you're so lucky."

"I'm lucky?" Octavia asked, staring at Kim like she was crazy. "Where I am right now I would consider it to be a product of hard work but I'm still being homeschooled."

Kim sighed. "Still. I wanna move to LA."

"That's where you want to go?" Sarah asked, taking the other chair and pulling her phone out of her pocket.

"To be a professional singer? Definitely."

Zen shifted so Kim could take her head off of him. "I'm going to go talk to that girl."

"Atta boy." Eduardo grinned at him as Zen maneuvered his way over.

"Uh-oh." I heard Octavia say.

"What?" I asked her as everyone else started up their own conversations.

"I don't think he likes the idea of him and Kim going different ways." She said to me.

I watched Zen for a couple of minutes. I watched him talk to the girl, possibly fake a laugh and try to listen to her. Even when they danced, I watched him do all those things without actually being there. I knew he was thinking about Kim going to LA. I knew it.

So when I watched him back away from the girl and move towards the exit of the room, I saw it coming.

"Where is he going?" Kim asked, her eyes following him.

"Let him cool off." Octavia said.

Kim being Kim obviously didn't listen because she rushed after him, leading the rest of us to follow her trail. When we were outside the room where some other people were talking and lounging on couches, Kim had no idea where Zen went.

"Just let him be. You know how Zen gets. Usually he likes being alone." Octavia assured Kim.

"Sydney and I will find him." Lucas said. "I need to take a breather anyway. You guys should go back inside. Have a good time."

After some persuasion, Octavia had led the rest of them back into the dance and I looked at Lucas. "'Sydney and I will find him'?"

Lucas shrugged. "Zen will come back. Besides I really needed a breather. That place was boiling."

"You're the one that decided to wear a long sleeve."

"It's cold outside."

"There's a rack for jackets near the front. Did you just come in that?" I practically scolded him.

"Whatever." Lucas mumbled and I kissed his cheek, rolling my eyes at his stubbornness. I looked around and noticed a staircase at the far end of the giant room. "I think I know where Zen went."

"The roof of this place?" Lucas asked.

"Yeah," I said absentmindedly, eyeing the door. "He doesn't have any right to leave because all teachers are practically guarding the door so his only exit to go outside is up there."

I grabbed Lucas by the arm and making sure no one was watching, made sure we were able to slip out of the front room. We walked up three flights of stairs until we reached the top and I was about to open the grey door leading to the roof when Lucas stopped me.

"I'm going to head downstairs. I'll see you down there when you're done talking to him."

"Wait. Why do I have to talk to him?"

"You're friends, are you not?"

"I guess so. Its just-it's Zen. Out of everyone in that group of friends I talk to him the least. He doesn't seem like the easiest person to converse with."

"Neither was I and fast forward five months later, we're dating." Lucas made a point and I narrowed my eyes at him.

"Shut up. That's different. I'm not attracted to Zen."

"I'm grateful you just implied you're only attracted to me but you're both similar and in case you haven't noticed and you both scream sarcasm so go. Maybe he can talk things out with you."

"Lucas."

He kissed me on the cheek and opened the door, the gust of cold wind not having an impact on my body because of the heat still radiating from the inside. "Go."

He closed the door, pushing me outside. I looked up at the sky, hearing the sound of cars moving and honking and some mild chatter echoing around me. From my view I could already see Zen and I walked towards him.

"Zen?" I softly question, seeing him sitting on the ledge of the building. His legs were swung over the other side, a blunt in between his lips. His back was against the ground and I watched his cheek hollow as he inhaled then let out expert rings of smoke from his mouth.

He leaned his head further back to see my feet. "Hey Sydney. I wasn't expecting you."

"Hey." I said slowly, joining him by following his position, laying down next to him. "Why'd you leave the dance? Kim's kind of worried about you."

"It was a little... clustered for my liking."

"You seemed to be enjoying it." I told him, implying what I had seen by that girl dancing with him.

Zen understood what I was talking about because I could see the lazy smile appear on his face. "I saw you dancing with Lucas. I'm pretty sure you left the guy red in the face and very happy."

I looked up at the sky, losing the confidence I had and feeling embarrassed that people had watched that. Zen laughed at me. "Forget the girl, that was interesting. You make yourself so in the background when in reality you're so...outgoing."

"Surprise?" I blurted out. I've been told this so many times. Whenever I did dance. Whenever Wesley and I got older and made new friends in high school. From Lucas. it was the same thing.

"You sure are shocking Sydney."

"Why are you up here?" I asked him, quietly, watching him take another hit from the joint.

He blew out the smoke, this time managing to blow it out through his nose, shocking me this time. He saw my expression and laughed loudly. "Don't be surprised. I've been doing this for a while."

I sat up, turning by body to face him. "So...why are you up here?"

"Why aren't you with your boyfriend?" Zen asked, his finger playing with his lip ring.

"Because we wanted to find you after you left."

Zen sat up, his gaze on the view of tall building, of New York City. "I always dreamed of coming here you know? Do you think I'm stoned enough to talk about my future with you?"

"Honestly...I don't think you are." I admitted and Zen laughed loudly. It was a laugh that was so boisterous, completely not him but I didn't comment on it.

He inhaled the blunt again, exhaling quickly. "Alright, I told you I want to move here right?"

I realized that I've really gotten a chance to talk to Zen like I am right now. I talk to everyone else in our group because I had classes with them like Mary Anne and Sarah or do something else like dance with Eduardo, Cahill parties with Kim or bonding over anything and everything with Octavia. I never got the chance to really talk to Zen.

I nodded, recalling how he's said it at least once when we were walking the streets. "You've mentioned it once or twice."

"Yeah. Right after high school. I've saved up money over the years switching foster homes and getting jobs at different places and I've managed