Jesus of Suburbia: Scene II
Title: Jesus of Suburbia, Chapter I: There's Something About Mary, Scene II.
Author: sistergrimmel and blueinkedlines (Neko Kuroban). Rough draft, meaning she hasn't gone over it yet.
Pairing: Eventual Thalia/Luke. Starts out with Luke/Jack of IF YOU GO CHASING RABBITS and Luke/Silena.
Rating/Warnings: PG-13. Nothing worse than your average teen flick.
Summary: "No one ever died for my sins in hell, as far as I can tell-- at least the ones I got away with."
Notes: Rough draft. Again, CC!
Luke drove to the apartment that was about half of a home as though he were possessed. He got into the hallway easily enough. With a shaking hand, he took out his keys. After the door clicked open, he collapsed onto the couch.
It was a godawful sofa. The print was an ugly brown with obnoxiously green and mustard yellow flowers that may have been intended to be daisies when it was new. Why was he only noticing this now?
As it was, there were countless coffee spills, three gaping tears in the upholstery where fluff stuck out, and countless cigarette burns from Jack. At least, Luke thought exasperatedly to himself, he said they were cigarette burns. Like we didn't both know exactly what he'd been doing on my couch.
The cynical mental complaint was a sign of how rattled he really was. Luke wondered idly how he could love Silena- not in love, but love- but was able to get her out of his head as soon as he met a girl he didn't know and might not like. He leaned further backward into the couch. Jack would laugh his ass off.
As though the thought had summoned him, a boy with gelled brown hair and tanned skin entered. He was smoking a joint and wore nothing but a pair of pajama pants emblazoned with beer logos.
"Hey, Lyndon. Don't even try to pay the rent with drug money. I'm not enabling your pyramid scheme." Luke's words rang false to his own ears. His friendship with Jack was based entirely on one of them feeding off of the other. It was a little late to stop enabling the other boy.
Jack missed the nuance. "Are you still in a funk about Mary? She may have been hot, but did you see her eyes? She looked like the frigging Snow Queen. I'm staying away, and so should you. She was wound tighter than a rubber band anyway."
Luke Castellan thought of Thalia Grace pressing him against the car door, hands in his back pockets, the firm lines of her body pressed against his, and tried valiantly to slow his breathing. "She kissed me today," he said aloud.
Jack looked half-jealous and half-impressed. "How the hell did that happen?" he asked, trying to remain neutral. "The way she looked at you, it was like she wanted to cut your balls off."
Luke smirked. "I think she wants to save the plantation."
Jack smacked his hand against his palm, ignoring the point of the statement. "Aren't Silena and I enough for you? I paint the walls, I give you free drugs-,"
"You're a real house husband," Luke drawled. Jack sat himself down in the metal office chair with a pout.
"She must be a really good kisser." Jack shrugged his bare shoulders and turned away to conceal the irritability that had settled over him.
"She is, but it's not just that," Luke said thoughtfully.
"So what is it about this girl?" asked an exasperated Jack. "And do you want pizza or Pop-Tarts for dinner?"
"She made me lose a bet," Luke said. Finally getting up, he examined Jack's ragged pupils. "Pizza and soda. You'll scarf down the entire box of chocolate fudge if we do that."
"You lost a bet?" said Jack as he began to speed dial the pizza place. "I know that's a rare occurrence, but you'd think that wouldn't endear her to you."
"She intrigues me," Luke said.
Jack ignored him. "One large cheese, one personal chicken and pineapple. We want it delivered this time. Luke needs to have sense talked into him." There was a pause, and then a chuckle. "Well, I try, Maria. See you later." Jack slammed the phone down and gave Luke a glare.
"Only you would want to chase a Snow Queen."
Luke sighed. "Let's eat pizza. Call up Sandra. She'll make it all better."
"She's a bitch and a half," Jack protested with a hint of whine in his voice.
"It's the first Thursday of the month. Time for you guys to do your makeup sex thing," Luke replied. "You were painting her on the canvas anyway."
Jack flushed. "I was just painting a brown-eyed redhead, okay? I saw a really sweet one across the hall-,"
"With amber eyes, not honey-brown. Get yourself together. I've got a paper."
Jack rubbed his temple. "Fine, you bastard. See if you ever get to borrow the My So-Called Life DVDs again.”
Luke busied himself with tossing a blueberry Pop-Tart into the toaster. “You only get jealous when you have the munchies. Eat that, scarf the pizza, or I’ll call Lee to cook us some real food.”
“God, you really like this girl,” Jack said suspiciously.
Luke rolled his eyes. “I give you artificial vitamin-infused toaster pastry and we still want to talk about me? Shut up, Jack.”