Chapter 82 | Date preps

Isabella:

On Sunday morning I wake up bright and early. Light streams in through the windows and the curtains flutter from the slight breeze outside as I prise my eyes open. Rubbing them, I sit up in bed and flit my eyes over to my clock.

The clock plastered on my wall reads 9am which means I've had a nice little lie in from my typical 6am wake up. Lucas hasn't woken me up this morning, per Grace and Mia's orders so I'm sure he's having his own little lie in too.

I stretch my limbs and smile, throwing the covers off my body and slipping my feet into the slippers beside my bed.

Today is the day of Mia and Grace's date and excitement for what's in store begins to thrum in my chest as the thought flickers in my mind.

During our facetime call on Friday evening, Grace and Mia had only provided us the very general base line of what the date they had planned consisted of. Therefore, for the most part, Lucas and I have been left in the dark for the plan of today and the unknown only heightens my anticipation.

From that huge binder and the 10 chapters it consisted of, plus with Mia's OTP nature -  I have high hopes for whatever it is we're doing on our date this afternoon.

Yesterday at the party we had all attended, Lucas and I had remained sober so that we wouldn't be hung over for today but the two of us had slept at 5am because we spent the whole night talking on the phone and playing some dumb online pictionary game so although there isn't a single drop of alcohol in my body and I'm only clouded with fatigue, I feel drunk with excitement and the most awake I've ever felt in ages.

I walk over to the window and tug my curtains open to further let more light and air flow into my room. Coincidentally, Lucas is doing the same thing also and I watch as his face lights up as he spots me. His eyes flicker down my tank top and shorts clad body and I do the same to him. Lucas is sporting only a pair of navy blue boxers, (yummy) and his hair is sticking up adorably in all different directions.

There's no motivational poster plastered on his window today but in replacement there's a piece of paper that says 'I'm excited for our date.'

The grin on my face widens as I quickly turn to the side to pull out a paper and scrawl a messy 'me too!' to show Lucas.

He reads the note, his lips curling up to mirror my smile before we both move away from the window to go about doing the rest of our morning routines.

Once I'm showered and have pulled on a pair of leggings and a cropped white t-shirt, I return back to my room. I catch Lucas through the window again and this time he motions with his hand for me to pull my window open.

His hair is damp and droplets of water run down his bare chest as he presses his hands against the window edge of his open window and leans forward.

I prise open my window like he had told me to do and mirror his stance. I raise a questioning eyebrow.

"I'm coming in," is the only thing he says in explanation before he steps up on the ledge and behind clambering out the window.

"Lucas, oh my God you're gonna fall!" My eyes widen in alarm as he attempts to climb through his window and into mine. The gap between our two houses is fairly lengthy and although it probably is possible to jump the distance, it's still dangerous.

My exclamation draws the attention of an elderly woman whose walking by on the pavement below and my cheeks tinge with heat as she stares up at Lucas shirtless, basically splitting in between both our houses and my lame grip I have on one of his arms like that's going to protect him if he does wobble and fall to his death 2 stories below.

Lucas merely pauses and waves at the woman before continuing to climb through again, stretching his long legs to reach my side. When he finally steps onto my ledge, I grip both of his arms to steady him but my unexpected drip only seems to teeter Lucas instead.

"Oh shit-"

He wobbles slightly forwards and is unable to regain balance so ends up plummeting forward into my room and essentially bringing me down with him.

"Eumprgfh."

All the air gushes out of my body as my back collides with the floor and Lucas ends up flat on top of me. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch.

I writhe in pain during the leisurely beat that passes before Lucas presses up off of me and I stare up at Lucas with a scowl as I'm finally allowed to intake a large inhale of breath.

"Hey," he grins at my reaction, a dimple indenting his left cheek as he stares down at me, only a slither of space between our bodies.

"Hey." My nose scrunches up as droplets of water from his hair fall onto my face. My scowl immediately wilts away as my eyes zone in on Lucas' lips barely inches away from mine. "Why didn't you just use the door like a normal person?" I ask although it is clear I don't really care for an answer to that question when I'm pulling Lucas down by his silver chain to press a kiss onto his lips before the words even properly leave my mouth.

Lucas unfortunately decides that he wants to answer my question. He pulls away after a moment and cocks an eyebrow. "What's the fun in that? Plus I wanted to try something new."

"Please don't make this a habit. I don't want you to fall to your death."

"The drop isn't that much. If I fall, it won't be to my death...I might just break a leg or two though."

"Wowie, that makes it all the more reassuring," sarcasm laces my voice as I snort. I wiggle underneath Lucas and he sits up before standing, grabbing my arm to haul me up along with him.

"I'll be fine," he teases.

"Also what are you doing here?" I tilt my head to the side, unable to hide my smile as I look up at Lucas as he wraps his arms around my waist and pulls me into his chest, his right hand laying flat against my lower back and inching slowly down towards my ass. "We're not allowed to see each other before the big date according to Mia and Grace."

"Please," he snorts. "This isn't our wedding, it's not bad luck to see you before."

I jab a finger to his chest. "Don't jinx it. You never know what can happen."

"Mm okay." His eyes are concentrated on my mouth and I know I've lost him but I too forget about whatever conversation we were just when his thumb brushes my bottom lip and I see his intention of kissing me again flare in his eyes.

I'm right because his lips meet mine a moment later. A breathy sigh escapes from Lucas as our bodies press against each other, something I've noticed always happens when we kiss. My arms tighten around his neck as a result and I get up on my tiptoes and push myself even closer to him, my chest crushing against his. His lips glide smoothly against mine and his tongue caresses my tongue as he cheekily slips it inside my mouth. Lucas' right hand slides up to cup my face as his left moves down to cup my ass and give it a firm squeeze.

I knit my hand into his hair at the nape of his neck just as he decides to retract his tongue and press one last firm, closed mouth kiss onto my mouth before pulling apart from me. I frown, my eyebrows knitting together in dismay after we stop kissing but understanding floods through me a second later when I hear the patter of footsteps across the landing.

I take a step away from Lucas before my mom or grandma can catch us making out and just as I do so, there's a knock on my door before abuela pops her head around the corner.

"Hi mija, mijo," she grins, the various rings on her fingers clinking as she flutters a wave at the two of us.

"Hey abuela," Lucas mirrors her grin, rubbing his thumb against his bottom lip as if he's trying to hold onto remnants of our kiss. The motion sends a flutter through me.

Abuela's smile turns mischievous as her eyes dart between the two of us. "Lucas, why did I just get a complaint from Mrs Denver saying you're climbing in through Isabella's window?"

Lucas chuckles sheepishly and scratches the back of his neck. "Ah, because I did."

"We have a door, you know that right?" She quirks an eyebrow.

Lucas merely shrugs. "I know."

"Well be careful next time, if she sees you do it again she'll probably tell the whole neighbourhood that my granddaughter is a whore and I really don't want to get kicked out of bingo for shouting at her again."

Lucas immediately winces. "Shit. Sorry. I forgot that witch doesn't know how to mind her own business."

"Yeah," abuela shakes her head as I grimace.

She leans against the doorframe before perking up and clapping her hands together. "Right," she begins enthusiastically. "I came up here to tell you two that I made waffles if you two want to come down."

"Blueberry waffles?" Lucas asks, leaning forward eagerly.

"Yep cariño. Your favorite."

"Fuck yes." Lucas is out the door, his arm wrapped around abuela shoulders and dragging her down the stairs before either one of us can blink. "Abeula, have I told you how much I love you?"

Abuela's girlish giggle echoes all the way to my room as I shake my head amusedly and shut the door behind me, beginning to follow them downstairs.

"Yes," she returns, "but please, tell me again."

***

The rest of the morning passes with Lucas and I just hanging out in the kitchen with my mom and grandmother. Lucas spends half of the time playing hide and seek or some variation of the game with Sofia who has seemed to grow even more attached to Lucas ever since the two of us have been dating. His entire face is pink from exertion after chasing her around the whole house and throws me panicked looks every time Sofia begins to cry whenever he even attempts to sit down and take a break.

At around 12pm however, Lucas heads back home to change his clothes when we both get a text from Grace and Mia informing us that they'll be arriving at my house at around 1:30 and a reminder of the 'dress code' they want us to wear: "super casual" so we both separate to get ready.

I thought 'super casual' was a bit odd for a dress code for a date but when I send the two of them a picture of my blue sweat shirt and black leggings outfit, they agree that what I'm wearing is perfect.

When Lucas returns back to my house he's dressed similarly; in a white t-shirt and black sweats.

"This feels entirely too basic for a date." He quirks an eyebrow, voicing my thoughts as he takes note of the simple outfit I have on too.

"For real," I agree. "It feels like I'm about to go to sleep." I shake my head. "What do you think we're gonna spend the day doing? I've been trying to correlate date activities with our choice of clothing and everything I've thought of doesn't seem all that extravagant to have a whole ass binder about."

"Yeah I honestly don't know," Lucas cocks his head to the side. "But I hope it's fun-"

"IT WILL BE BITCHES!" Mia's loud voice suddenly booms and both Lucas and I physically jump in shock. We both look over our shoulders to see her throwing the door to my bedroom open as her lips curl into a mischievous smirk.

"Where the fuck did you come from?" Lucas holds a hand over his heart. "Shit, you gave me a heart attack."

Grace stumbles into the room a moment later, huffing and puffing, completely out of breath as she lugs the hot pink folder into the room with her. She drops it to the ground with a huge thud and bends over, holding her knees as she wheezes and tries to catch her breath like she's just run a marathon.

"Mia, I...I can't believe you...you made me carry that huge thing by myself. Jeez, I'm out of breath."

Mia waves her hand dismissively as both Lucas and I stare pointedly at the ginormous folder just sitting on my floor, still trying to calm ourselves from our initial shock. The thickness of the binder and it looking like it's about to explode and create a paper tornado across my room any second only taunts the two of us the more we stare at it.

Eventually, Mia's voice pulls our attention back onto her as she rushes over to Lucas and I and swings her arms around the two of us, embracing us very, very tightly.

"YOU GUYS ARE GONNA HAVE THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE SQUEEEEE!!" She squeals before releasing us when I smack her boob to let go. Lucas clutches his throat, taking large gulps of breath when he's finally able to get air and Mia smacks both of our asses to urge us forward. "Now get your shoes on!!! It's time for Chapter 0.5 to commence!"

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AUTHORS NOTE:

when writing this chapter i felt like how i felt when i first started writing this book last year and i frickin love that feeling, i'm glad it's back and i'm hoping it stays eee

what you think they're gonna do on the date hehe? (i'll be stealing ideas if i love what you're commenting)

love you all so much - mai x