Chapter 10 | Mr Bellucas

Isabella:

Unsaved number

Lucas: Hey, it's Lucas
are you okay?

Read at 4:50 pm

Lucas: Bella don't air me,
I want to make sure you're okay.

Me: I'm fine

Lucas: Are you sure?

Read at 5:00 pm

Lucas: Meet me
outside in 10 mins

Me: No

Lucas: Please.

Me: No, sorry,
I'm busy.

Lucas: C'mon
please. It's important.

Read at 5:04 pm

Lucas: Bella

Lucas: Bella, look
through your window.

Lucas: Bella

Me: No

Lucas: Fine I'm coming
over to ur house.

Me: Lucas, stop.

Lucas: Come outside then.

Me: No.

Lucas: I'm gonna keep
annoying you until you do.

Lucas: Hello

Lucas: Hi Hi Hi

Lucas: Belllllaaaa

Read at 5:15 pm

Lucas: Hiiiiiiiii

Lucas: I'm outside
your houseeeee

Lucas: Heeeyy

Me: Fine stop
messaging me and
I'll come outside.

Lucas: Yay

Me: I said stop
messaging me

Lucas: Sorry

Lucas: Okay that was
the last one sorry.

I throw my phone onto the bed and roll my eyes at Lucas' persistence. Walking out of the house, the sound of the neighbours chattering and the gentle rustle of the leaves fill the air and I tug at the sleeves of the hoodie I had thrown on top of my clothes before I left the house, even though it is about 90 degrees outside.

I spot Lucas leaning against the large oak tree that's planted right in between both houses. Maybe because I've calmed down, maybe it's the exhaustion I'm feeling or maybe it's the overwhelming amount of feelings tugging at my heart but I longer feel the urge to slap Lucas across the face when I see him.

He throws me a small, pitiful smile and I immediately know what he wants to talk to me about.

"Lets go to the treehouse," I tell him, nodding towards the backdoor leading to my garden.

He merely nods and trails after me, not saying anything just yet. After we clamber into the treehouse, I pull my knees up to my chest and Lucas sits directly opposite me, his legs crossed.

"What did you see?" I ask him quietly, avoiding his worried gaze.

"You crying," he replies softly.

"Did..did you see anything else?"

"No," he says and I breathe a sigh of relief. "I just saw you sitting on the floor of your bedroom in tears."

I nod, resting my chin on the top of my knees.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asks me and I look up to see him staring down at me, his eyebrows furrowed and his mouth pulled into a frown, concern flaring in his eyes.

I shake my head. "Not yet."

He nods slowly. "Okay, well until then I have something for you that might cheer you up," he grins and pulls something out of his pocket. "Open your hand."

I stare at him with a quizzical eyebrow raised.

"Open out your hand," he repeats. "And close you eyes."

I shut my eyes and extend my palm. I feel something soft in my hand only a moment later.

"You can look now."

I pry my eyes open and they immediately widen the moment I recognize what's resting in my palm.

"Mr Bellucas!" I exclaim, a smile finding its way onto my lips. "I haven't seen him in years!"

I look back up to see Lucas flashing me a dimply smirk. "I think it's your turn to have Mr Bellucas don't you think?"

Mr Bellucas was a small teddy bear, no bigger than my palm, that Lucas and I had won at the lucky claw machine at the arcade when we were 7 years old. My father had taken us all to the arcade by the beach one summer evening. Whilst the rest of the gang were with my dad, trying to win the coconut shy game, Lucas and I had snuck off to the lucky claw in attempts to win the big stuffed zebra toy but after many attempts and several quarters lost later, we still had yet to win anything.

I had found one last quarter in my pocket and we had used that in a last attempt to win the zebra. In the end we didn't actually win the toy we wanted, but Lucas had managed to snag the tiny teddy bear instead.

We had argued over who was going to keep the teddy seeing as it was my quarter that we used but Lucas was actually the one who picked it up with the claw. After bickering for quite some time and a couple of tears shed later, we had come to the decision that we would share the teddy and every couple of weeks we would swap owners of the little toy.

We had named the teddy Mr Bellucas as it was a mix of both our names conjoined together. As the years went on, we made it a tradition to give each other the bear whenever one of us was upset. But when I had left for London, I guess Lucas had kept him.

I toyed with the teddy and grinned back up at Lucas. "I can't believe you kept him after all this time."

He leans across and nudges me. "He sat on my dresser for 6 years, waiting for you."

We sit in comfortable silence for a while as I play with the little teddy in my hand, making it dance across the floor until Lucas clears his throat.

"Bella, I'm really sorry about Ivy, I didn't think you would be so upset over that."

"It's okay," I sigh. "I know it might be a bit weird to you why I got so mad over it...but I promise there's a valid reason why I got so triggered."

He cocks his head quizzically. "What is it?"

I stiffen and shake my head slowly. "I don't think I'm ready to share the reason with you just yet, it's sort of personal."

He nods and drops the subject seeing as it's making me uncomfortable. "Okay but...you know you can come talk to me if your upset and whatever right?"

"I know." I send him a small smile and twiddle with my fingers. "Also," I begin clearing my throat. "I was extra riled up because I didn't get enough sleep last night which made me cranky."

Lucas shut his eyes and winces, a sheepish expression making his way up his face. "Sorry about that."

I snort. "It's okay but if there are any more loud parties I'm gonna kill you." I nag a finger in his direction and he laughs.

"Don't worry there won't be, my house got trashed yesterday," he shakes his head. "It's still so messy, I'm still cleaning it."

"You know you were saying the weirdest stuff yesterday."

He raises an eyebrow. "I was?"

"Yup," I nod my head vigorously. "You kept saying random shit about bunnies and how they stole my chubby cheeks and then you were slapping the air."

He blinks slowly. "Oh my."

I giggle. "Yeah it was super weird."

Silence settles over us once more and I look up to gaze at Lucas. He's staring out of the treehouse and I take time to admire his side profile. The gentle breeze ruffles his dark hair and his mouth is slightly parted as he stares intently at the view outside, seemingly lost in thought. A pink blush taints his cheek and I swear my heart flutters the more I continue to look. I clear my throat to gain his attention and drop my gaze back to my lap, fiddling with my hands.

"You know Ivy," I begin and I see Lucas shuffle in his seat awkwardly from my peripheral vision. "Is she...passive aggressive with everyone?"

Lucas sighs softly and runs a hand through his hair. "Yes." He pauses for a moment and turns back to gaze outside the treehouse before continuing. "She gets jealous by other girls a lot, that's why she doesn't have many girl friends."

"Oh," I say mildly shocked. "I thought she was popular though."

"She's popular with the guys because they think she's hot," he exhales. "Most of the girls just stay clear of her because they don't want to get on Ivy's bad side."

"That's..kind of sad," I say frowning. "Doesn't she trust you?"

"She does," he sighs. "Ivy doesn't tell me much about her home life but from what I've heard she has quite a bit of family problems so she has really bad trust issues."

I feel a pang of sorrow for Ivy. Her issues don't excuse her behaviour or the fact she is generally rude but it does put her actions into perspective and I feel sorry that she can't trust others without feeling this insecure.

"She's different with me," Lucas continues at my silence. "I wish everyone could see how she really is when she puts down her guard. She walks around with this facade but in reality she can be really sweet."

I'm about to open my mouth to say something else when Lucas jumps up from his seat and claps his hand. "Can we go inside, I want to say hi to abuela."

Before I can answer he's already shot out of the tree house and I follow him suit, trailing after him with Mr Bellucas clutched in my hand as he strolls into my house as if it's his own.

***

Lucas:

"Oh my god," Isabella squeals, pointing at the screen enthusiastically, her mouth filled with popcorn. "I completely forgot we did that!"

"Look at you in your little princess dress," abuela coos, leaning across and squeezing my cheeks. "Princess Lucasiana was the cutest."

I flush pink and laugh at the video playing on the screen. Isabella's grandmother had found old video tapes of us as children in the attic and we are all cozied up in the living room watching them.

The one currently playing on the tv is of me dressed up in a pink princess gown, balancing a silver crown on my wild curls. Isabella strolls into the frame twirling her little wand around and hitting me on the head with it.

Valeria laughs and Sofia bounces up and down in my lap, screaming at the tv.

"I remember that hurting so bad," I state, narrowing my eyes and throwing popcorn in Isabella's direction. She flinches and chucks popcorn right back at me.

The next clip is a close up of me speaking into the camera pulling a silly face. I'm missing two of my front teeth and my hair is so long, you can barely see my eyes. Mia comes into the frame alongside Dylan and I swing my arms across them both.

"You were so cute," Isabella gapes before turning back to me and scrunching up her nose in distaste. "What happened?"

"Shutup," I tease kicking her with my feet. "I'm still cute as hell."

I turn to Sofia in my lap and tickle her belly. "You think I'm cute don't you baby?"

She's in the midst of stuffing popcorn into her mouth and she spins around to look at me, little kernels plastered in her hair. She nods her head though and I smile in glee.

"See the baby agrees!" I exclaim and Isabella rolls her eyes.

"Sofia eats paper because she thinks it's food, I don't trust her input," she huffs, crossing her arms across her chest.

"Oh shutup Belly."

At that moment the oven dings, signalling that whatever is cooking in there has finished.

Abuela pauses the tv and follows Valeria into the kitchen to check on the meal and I stand up from off the floor, propping Sofia on her feet and bending down to pick up popcorn that has been scattered across the ground from mine and Isabella's popcorn fight.

I look up to see Isabella doing the same, she then goes to pick up the popcorn bowl and brings it with her to the kitchen.

I trail after her and quicken my pace so that I'm walking beside her before bumping my hip against hers causing her to go flying to the other side of the living room.

"Lucas!" She shrieks, clutching onto the popcorn bowl with all her might so that it doesn't drop to the ground and spill its contents everywhere.

I see the evil glimmer in her eyes and I run towards the kitchen. I hide behind abuela as she charges towards me, when she gets closer she throws the entire bowl of popcorn at me and the kernels go flying in the air and scatter across the floor and the bowl hits me on the head.

"Ouch," I groan, rubbing my skull as abuela turns around with her hands on her hips and a stern expression on her face.

Isabella raises her palms up in surrender. "I promise I'll clean it up."

Abuela narrows her eyes and continues bringing cutlery to the table. "You better mija, now help me set the table!"

Isabella scurries away you help her grandma and I chuckle sticking my tongue out at her immaturely.

"You help too Lucas!" Abuela scolds after me and I stop in my tracks.

"Haha loser," Isabella teases, sticking her tongue out back at me.

After the table is set we all take a seat.
Abuela sits at the head, Valeria on the opposite end, Sofia on her high chair and Isabella and I sitting opposite each other.

"Ooh this looks amazing," I compliment, licking my lips as I look at the glorious serving of pasta on my plate.

"Thank you love," Valeria smiles, before signalling with her hand for me to tuck in.

I'm stuffing another fork full of pasta into my mouth when I spot that Isabella hasn't yet touched her food. She's staring down at her plate intently, twiddling with the fork in her hand. I look towards both Valeria and abuela who both have worried expressions on their faces.

Isabella does however take a bite of the pasta shortly after and Valeria turns back to me.

"So how is school going love? Do you and Bella in any classes?"

I nod my head as I chew. "Schools okay, training is going to start soon so I'm going to be very busy and I only have one class with Isabella." I pause for a beat. "Well two of you count homeroom."

Valeria nods in response just as abuela clears her throat before speaking.

"So how many women are after you Lucas?" She asks and I drop my fork on my plate abruptly.

Isabella chokes on her water and her mom reaches over to pat her back. Once she stops coughing I reply.

"Um only the one."

Abuela nods knowingly. "Ah so only our Isabella is after you."

I splutter out in laughter just as Isabella gasps. "Abuela he's talking about his girlfriend."

Abuela's mouth opens into a 'O' shape and she quickly mumbles an apology before taking a sip of her drink, avoiding her granddaughters murderous gaze.

"What's she like?" Valeria asks, smiling.

"Um well her name is Ivy and she's very...nice." I clear my throat. "She's very beautiful and very smart."

"Ah she sounds lovely." Val replies with a nod, to which Isabella begins to choke again.

Once she composes herself it doesn't last very long as when she turns to look at her baby sister, she begins to splutter out in laughter.

Sofia has sauce smeared all over her face and bits of pasta sprinkled in her hair. She's chattering loudly in her own made up language and is mushing up her food with her hands.

Valeria groans at the state of her child and takes away her pot of pasta to which Sofia begins to cry at.

"No you're just making a mess mija," Val scolds her daughter, ignoring her loud detests. She tries to spoon some of the food into Sofia's mouth but the baby wriggles around.

Isabella gets up from her seat after Sofia continues to refuse to eat after quite some time and plucks the spoon out of her mother's hands and tries to feed her too but fails just like her mother had.

Abuela then pulls Sofia into her lap from the high chair and coos at her, trying to calm her down before trying to put the pasta into her mouth but Sofia clamps her mouth shut stubbornly.

"Here let me try," I say, dropping my fork onto my empty plate and hauling Sofia into my arms. I begin blubbering nonsense to her and as she stares at me intently I quickly shove the fork into her mouth whilst she's distracted. The three women let out a whoops of success and I turn to look at Isabella who gapes at me with shock.

She points a finger at me accusingly. "How did you do that so fast, it takes us three, a tablet playing baby shark and and entire hour to successfully get one bite of food into Sofia's mouth."

I shrug my shoulders and gleam at her. "What can I say babies love me."

She narrows her eyes and sits back down in her chair, dramatically shoving a forkful of food into her mouth. "I'm jealous," she says after she finishes chewing. "Babies hate me."

"I'm a man of many talents," I wiggle my eyebrows playfully and begin to list a handful of my many of my skills. "I am great with children, I'm exceptionally great with women." She rolls her eyes at this and I send her a cheeky smile before continuing. "I'm great at football, I'm smart and I'm great in be-" I stop short realising that there are two adults and a baby in the room and clear my throat. "To make my point, I'm phenomenal at a lot of things."

Isabella scoffs and takes a sip of her drink but not before I see the smile playing on her lips. "The one thing you're not phenomenal at is being humble."

I quirk an eyebrow. "I didn't say I was perfect Bella."

She rolls her eyes and I laugh. "Admit it Belly, you admire me and my handful of talents."

"No."

"C'mon," I persist.

"No."

"Look I'll help you," I smirk, not giving up. "Just repeat after me: Lucas Miller is incredibly hot and a man of several talents."

"I will do no such thing."

I get up and grab my plate and head over to the sink to begin washing it. Abuela comes over and smacks my hand for trying to clean the dishes when I am a 'guest' and I finally give in to her protests and step away from the plates.

"Please." I continue to annoy Bella as she dries her hand on a paper towel.

She ignores me and grabs my phone from the kitchen table and shoves it in my hand before spinning me around and steering me in the direction of the front door.

"Goodbye," she says, pointing at the door with her eyes narrowed.

"I'm not going until you say it."

She unlocks the door and keeps it open with her hip and with her arms and a mighty push, forces me out of the door.

"Bye everyone, thank you for dinner!" I yell over Isabella's head and the two women wave at me from behind.

She attempts to close the door in my face but I wedge my foot between the door to stop her from doing so.

"Just say it and I'll be out of your hair."

"No, now move your foot before I crush it."

"Nope." I smile annoyingly and she takes a deep breath.

"Goodbye Lucas," she pushes my foot out and briskly slams the door shut as I chuckle and begin to retreat down the driveway.

I'm halfway down the porch steps when Isabella's front door cracks open ever so slightly and her head peeks out.

In a small voice with a smile playing on her lips she says: "Lucas Miller is incredibly hot and a man of several talents."

━

AUTHORS NOTE:

Hey everyone :). Oooo look at me
on a roll with these chapters. Anyways I don't have much to say except I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!

Love you all - Mai x