Chapter2: Thirty Days

He arrived at the gates at seven fifty-two, thirty minutes earlier than usual, Cassian appeared at his shoulder with coffee and said nothing, which made Lucien more uneasy.

There were a few athletes, some first years, and a thin morning crowd that was totally normal.

Then he saw him.

Eli Thorne was leaning against the stone pillar just inside the entrance, like he’d been there a while and he didn’t mind. He wore a track jacket, with his hair still damp and a white pastry box tied with a pale pink ribbon in his hands. 

He looked up when Lucien came through the gate and his whole face did something Lucien wasn’t prepared for, that wide, unguarded grin, full of expression, like Lucien walking through that gate at seven fifty-two was the best thing that had happened to him all week.

Beside Lucien, Cassian made a sound that was not quite a laugh.

“Good morning,” Eli said, as if this were normal. He held out the box.

“Strawberry mille-feuille, It takes longer than a tart so I started at four, but I think it came out right.” he said.

Lucien looked at Eli, for more than a few moments then at the box. Some students were already slowing near the gate, their phones in hand, maybe hoping a scene would form.

He thought about walking past, then he remembered the card in his blazer pocket, and Cassian’s voice in his head, ‘First person you see, you’ll date for thirty days’ or it was something he couldn’t quite explain yet.

“You started baking at four in the morning,” Lucien said flatly.

“Four fifteen,” Eli corrected.

Lucien rubbed the back of his neck, “You don’t have to say anything, yet," Eli spoke up, and that word ‘yet’ still had the same effect on Lucien as it did the previous day.

Lucien stared for a moment, then he said without thinking about it too much;

“Fine,” he said, “I’ll date you.” 

Eli blinked in confusion. “Sorry?”

“You heard what I said” he replied, and he felt Cassian go very still behind him.

Eli searched Lucien’s face for something that would give away why he was doing this, but didn’t find any.

“Okay,” Eli said. “Yeah. Okay.”

The audience doubled, someone had already posted, Lucien was sure about that, but he kept his eyes on Eli.

“My rules are simple, no clinginess, no questions about things that aren’t your business, no real expectations, and no drama, if you agree to all this, we will have no problems dating.” He said, finding it almost appalling to voice the last word.

Instead, Eli tilted his head, actually thinking about it.

“Okay,” Eli said. “But I want one thing.”

Lucien waited for him to say something unpredictable, he had been doing a lot of that since they met, which was yesterday.

“Honesty, that’s all I ask”

Lucien was indeed taken by surprise, he looked at Eli’s face, he had no idea that he was already lying to him.

“Agreed,” Lucien said, without hesitating. Eli stuck out his hand, and Lucien shook it with a dangerous smirk on his face, as they had just closed a business deal.

“He started baking at four in the morning,” Cassian said, as they both saw Eli walk away in the opposite direction.

“Don’t,” Lucien said shortly.

Cassian smiled into his coffee and mumbled;

“Thirty days, this should be very interesting.”

Lucien opened the pastry box, looked at the mille-feuille, and closed it again, then he walked to his council meeting trying not to think about any of it.

By ten, Saint Aurelius knew, by eleven, @saintaurelius_confessions had posted a slightly blurred photo of the gate with the caption: 

‘Lucien Vale just agreed to DATE someone, a scholarship freshman with a pastry box. I was there and I have never been more awake in my life’

Noah found Eli between lectures and grabbed his arm, with a sense of urgency.

“Word for word,” Noah said. “What did he say?”

“He just looked me straight in the face and said, fine, I’ll date you.”

Noah stared. “He said fine?”

“Yeah.”

“Like it was an inconvenience?”

“Kind of.”

“And you said yes?” Noah asked, trying to figure it out.

“Yeah, I did” Eli adjusted his bag strap, and Noah was now giving him a disapproving look.

“It’s fine, Noah.”

“He gave you conditions, didn’t he?” he asked

Eli was quiet for a moment. “The kind that makes sense,” he said. “For now.”

Noah gave him a worried look for a while before he dismissed it

“You’re going to be the most talked about person on campus by dinner.”

Eli smiled, “Good. Maybe he’ll notice.”

After his last lecture, Eli intentionally took the long way back to his dormitory, he sat on the third step of the east stairwell and pulled out a folded envelope, inside it were some loose bills and his student card.

He counted the bills slowly, smoothing each one flat on his knee. His phone lit up and the name popped up, ‘Mom: missed call (4)’

He looked at it for a moment, then pressed decline, opened the call log, and deleted all four notifications one by one.

He didn’t hear the footsteps that had stopped a few paces away from him.

Lucien had taken the east corridor because it was faster, he almost walked past the stairwell when something made him glance in that direction.

Eli was sitting on the third step, bills across his knee and his phone in his hand, and his expression wasn’t the usual bright, genuine smile Lucien knew, it looked tired. He stood there for a while before Eli looked up.

For one unguarded second, they looked at each other, and Eli reached automatically for the smile, then stopped, he’d caught himself and decided it was too much effort.

“Hey,” Eli said, with a normal voice.

Lucien stood in the doorway and said nothing for a moment, then he said; 

“You’re in my way.”

The cruelest thing he could have said and he knew it, but he said it anyway because it was easier than the alternative.

Eli blinked, and quickly gathered the bills, folded the envelope while he stood up, and stepped aside without a word. 

When he passed Lucien in the doorway he didn’t look at him, he just walked away. 

Day one of thirty.

Twenty-nine to go.