Chapter Text
“FREEDOM!” Idriss had screamed as soon as the group rounded the corner and were safely out of earshot of any other students or teachers that were still lingering after exams.
Alexia had sighed, wrapped an arm around Imane’s shoulder as they watched the three new graduates cheering like maniacs at the front of the pack, “A year until that’s us.”
“Can’t wait,” Imane had chuckled as Sofiane tripped over his shoelace, sending Eliott and Idriss tumbling down with him.
Now, a few hours later, they’ve all landed at Emma’s for a party to celebrate the oldest three of their friend group finally being done with school. It’s really just an excuse to get drunk for most of them, but the details aren’t that important. Idriss, Eliott, and Sofiane are sitting on the couch bickering over which of them will get rich first after uni. Emma, Imane, Alexia, Manon, and Daphné are dancing in the living room. Yann, Arthur, Basile, and Lucas are sitting at the kitchen counter sharing a joint.
“It’s crazy that they’re already leaving,” Arthur says, looking through the kitchen doorway to the rest of their friends in the living room, “Feels like we all just met yesterday.”
“Yeah,” Yann nods in agreement, “I remember the first time we all hung out in middle school. Eliott spent the whole day trying to assign us all spirit animals.”
Lucas sighs at the memory, looking down at his feet. He had been the last one Eliott had decided on, his excuse being that he couldn’t get Lucas’ animal just right. Feeling particularly bold, Lucas had asked if Eliott wanted to come over to his house, just the two of them, to help him figure it out. They had been attached at the hip ever since.
The whole lot of them have been teasing Lucas and Eliott from the start. They’re the only ones that hang out one on one in the whole group besides the couples. The fact that neither of them are particularly shy about their sexualities doesn’t help the jokes about their “secret relationship.” Lucas thinks maybe it’s a good thing, though. The jokes will stop when Eliott leaves for school. That’s one tiny silver lining he can cling to when the only person he’s ever really felt at home with leaves him here with this bunch of idiots. When the boy who’s given him no choice but to fall in love moves on with his life before Lucas can ever open his stupid mouth and tell him how he feels.
At least the jokes will stop.
Lucas tunes back into the conversation, listens to a little more nostalgic banter about the good times they’ve all had together, about how weird it is that by this time next year, the rest of them will be going their separate ways, and they’ll never be all together like this. He doesn’t have any more energy for sentimentality, that one trip down memory lane had been plenty. Besides, the music is far too loud, Basile is far too drunk, and exams were far too exhausting to be moping around thinking any more about the friend group that has become his family slowly splintering and falling apart right before his eyes. He has the whole next week camping with these idiots, anyway, he can call it a night a little early.
Lucas nudges Yann, “Gonna pee,” He gestures in the general direction of the bathroom.
“Ok,” Yann nods, turning back to the conversation at hand.
Lucas makes his way through the living room as the girls dance around him. He walks between Daphné and Manon who spin him around before he stumbles out of their way. They giggle at his tired expression and turn to each other to kiss, back in their own little world. He smiles briefly, happy that they’re happy, before walking over to where he spots Eliott on the couch, in the middle of an animated debate with Idriss, Sofiane giggling as he watches on. He manages to catch Eliott’s eye and nods towards the door. Eliott gets it, they’re masters of nonverbal communication by now, and excuses himself to join Lucas.
“Sick of all these people?” Eliott nudges Lucas’ shoulder.
“Yeah, a little.”
“Me too,” Eliott grins, “let’s go.”
They manage, somehow, to sneak out of the house undetected. They find themselves wandering aimlessly, eventually ending up on a park bench somewhere near Lucas’ apartment with two McDonald’s meals in hand.
“Who’re you texting?” Eliott giggles as Lucas shoves his phone back into his pocket with a sigh.
“The boys,” Lucas rolls his eyes, shoveling some fries in his mouth, “They thought I got kidnapped. Apparently that’s the only logical explanation for abandoning them.”
“McDonald’s isn’t a valid reason?” Eliott scoffs.
“Not for drunk Baz, I guess.”
They share a laugh at that, each returning to their food. It’s silent for a while, and when Lucas glances over to Eliott dipping a chicken nugget in about ten different sauces at once, he finds himself with a strange feeling in his gut. Eliott’s really leaving. This is really happening. And so soon.
Eliott glances up to meet Lucas’ slightly teary gaze. “Something wrong?”
“No,” Lucas sniffles, wiping his nose, “No, it’s just… It’s weird how much I’m gonna miss dumb stuff like this when you’re gone. It sort of hit me just now, I guess.”
Eliott takes a deep breath, abandoning his nuggets. He smiles weakly at Lucas.
“I’ve been thinking about that too,” he sighs, “I’ll have no one to drag to pretentious film screenings with me anymore. And hey, I won’t even know if I passed my bac for a few days anyway. Maybe I’ll get to stick around after all.”
“Don’t say that. Of course you passed. And you’ll definitely find at least ten film snobs that are dying to be your best friend the moment you step off the plane in Oslo.”
“No one that will humor all my snack combos.”
“Well,” Lucas chuckles, wincing as Eliott picks his food back up to dip a nugget in mustard, barbecue, and ranch as if to emphasize his point, “Not everyone can be as perfect as me.”
“No one can,” Eliott grins, popping his last fry into his mouth and standing up, “Shall I walk you home good sir?”
“Alright prince charming, relax.”
“That is simply not possible my liege,” Eliott giggles, grabbing Lucas’ trash and bowing dramatically, “Allow me to dispose of your rubbish.”
“If you don’t cut it out right now.”
“Alright, alright, I’m done. Let’s go.”
Lucas rolls his eyes as they fall into step side by side. He finds himself focused on Eliott’s smile for the whole walk. He always does that without even realizing. He can’t help it, okay, Eliott just has the warmest smile on the planet. Lucas would write a song about it if he could do that sort of thing. And because he has a knack for causing himself unnecessary pain, he wonders how much brighter Eliott’s smile will be when he’s in love. He can’t imagine it’s physically possible, but if Eliott has a brighter smile than this, Lucas can’t decide if he needs to be on the receiving end of it or if it would kill him on the spot.
They’re at the front door to his building before he can come to a conclusion. That’s probably for the best.
“I never said congrats...” Lucas says, continuing after it’s clear Eliott is confused, “On your bac. I know you don’t have results yet, but you’ve worked so hard. I’m really proud of you.”
Eliott’s smile lights up his whole face and yes, Lucas decides, his in love smile would definitely be too much to handle.
“I’m not leaving yet, you know,” Eliott pulls him into a tight hug, “You’re still stuck with me all summer.”
Lucas laughs into his shoulder, “Can’t even let me be sappy for two seconds, can you?”
“Just trying to save your dignity,” Eliott chuckles as he pulls back, “I know you like to be the tough guy. Compensate for your height.”
“Oh my god,” Lucas shoves his shoulder, slowly backing up towards his building, “You know what, I take it back. I’m not proud of you. I won’t miss you at all.”
“You don’t mean that!” Eliott calls after him as he shuts the door.
“No, no I don’t,” Lucas mumbles to himself, glancing back as if he expects to be able to see Eliott one more time through the very much not transparent wall. He looks back to his group chat with the boys, at Baz’s pestering and Yann’s sad attempt at mediating the situation. Wouldn’t it be nice if Baz were right, if Lucas didn’t have to break down crying to Yann every few months over the feelings for Eliott that are eating him alive. If they were just… together. Too bad he’s doomed to suffer.
—
—
Now that everyone has officially passed their exams, this picnic feels much calmer than the chaotic celebration at Emma’s. Everything has worked out, and they can sit back and get excited for their week of camping to come.
They’re spread out in small patches of shade, a bunch of smaller conversations going on as they all occasionally get snacks and drinks from the spread of food at the center of the group. After chatting for a bit with Manon and Emma, Lucas gets up to grab a fresh beer and scans the group for Eliott. He walks over to where he’s leaned against a tree, talking to Arthur and Basile.
“... Dude you should have seen him, he got halfway through the song and started choking on his own spit,” Arthur laughs as Lucas settles down next to Eliott to join in the conversation, “Almost had to bring him to the hospital.”
“I’m sorry, what happened?” Lucas interjects, glancing at Baz with his eyebrows raised.
“Baz almost died trying to do shitty karaoke. He was choking for a solid two minutes.”
“Shit,” Lucas laughs, shaking his head, “when was this?”
“At Emma’s. After you two went to canoodle.” Baz pipes up, pointing between Lucas and Eliott and smirking suggestively.
“For fuck’s sake, Baz, we weren’t canoodling, we literally just got McDonald’s and went home,” Lucas says.
“Riiiiiight. You’re totally not secretly dating.”
“We’re not! ” Lucas glances around for Yann, but he's on the other side of the circle, out of earshot. Great.
“Sorry guys,” Basile shrugs, “I just don’t believe it.”
Lucas looks helplessly at Eliott. Please, god, make it stop.
Eliott wraps an arm around his shoulder, “And so what if we’re dating?”
WHAT?
Everyone in the group freezes, conversations stilling, all attention on them.
Shit, Lucas thinks, shit.
“Lucas? Are you and Eliott dating?” He vaguely hears Emma ask.
He thinks he catches Alexia whispering I knew it under her breath.
He is going to throw up. He is going to throw. Up. He looks at Eliott, absolutely panicked, but the fucker just nods, and ok what the hell does that mean, so he stammers a bit, fumbling over about a million things he wants to say about the situation Eliott just got them into.
“It’s ok, Lu, I don’t mind telling them,” Eliott assures, loud enough for the whole group to hear. He leans in, whispers just go with it, so Lucas nods because what else can he possibly do right now. He puts his head on Eliott’s shoulder with the most genuine smile he can manage.
“Yeah, uh– yeah, we’re dating,” he manages to say. He’s also about to pass out but they don’t need to know that.
“Shit guys,” Baz stumbles to apologize, “I’m really sorry, I was just joking around. I didn’t mean anything by it, I swear I didn’t know! That’s really great, uh, I’m happy for you guys.”
“I’m happy for us too,” Eliott smiles, looking fondly at Lucas. Like this is easy. Like everything is normal. Like he didn’t just tell a complete lie to all of their friends to get Baz off their backs. Like he means it. Lucas lets his mushy love brain think for the smallest of moments before he can pull himself together.
“Cheers to that,” Manon giggles from two blankets over, raising her soda can. She’s trying to take the heat off of them, which Lucas really appreciates because what is happening.
Everyone raises their cups of juice or beer bottles, and that seems to sufficiently diffuse the situation. They all drift back into their small conversations and leave the pair alone besides Yann shooting Lucas a confused look.
“I’ll explain later,” Lucas mouths to his best friend. Yann nods, and that’s the end of it for now, thank god.
Before anyone else can say anything stupid, Lucas speaks up, “If you’ll excuse us Baz, I have to talk to my… erm, boyfriend.” And of course this is how he would call Eliott his boyfriend for the first time. Sounds about right.
“Oh, uh, ok…” Baz mumbles, “Sorry, did I make it weird?”
“As a matter of fact, you did,” Lucas grins sarcastically as he drags Eliott away from the group, “Shocker!”
Alexia wolf whistles at them as they walk away, and he can hear Imane hissing at her to leave them alone, but he can’t even entertain any of that at this point. He stomps away, pulling Eliott along until they reach a shed out of earshot and Lucas sharply turns to stand behind it.
“WHAT the hell just happened???” He practically screams, flailing his arms in the air.
“I’m sorry, Lu,” Eliott giggles, quickly dropping the smile at Lucas’ harsh glare, “I was just trying to get Baz to shut up. It was the first thing that popped in my head.”
“The first thing? That was the very first thing that popped into your little pea brain? Really? That dumbass hasn’t got a single brain cell in his head. You could have literally said anything to distract him from the topic but you chose THIS?”
“Wow, you’re just so kind and understanding in times of stress,” Eliott teases, “I’m so lucky to be your boyfriend.” He’s trying to piss Lucas off and it’s working.
“I can’t believe you right now. This is insane.” Lucas is fighting to calm down, struggling to take deep breaths.
“Got Baz to leave us alone, though, didn't I?” Eliott offers, very unhelpfully.
“Shut up!” Lucas snaps, “You have to get serious now, what the hell are we gonna do?”
It’s Eliott’s turn to take a deep, steadying breath, “Ok, ok, I’m sorry,” He sighs, “Honestly, I don’t know what we’re gonna do. I wasn’t thinking that far ahead.”
“That was pretty obvious, thanks.” Lucas deadpans, “Shit, I think we’re gonna have to pretend to be dating. I mean think about it, they all tease us constantly about it anyway. If we tell them we were kidding they won’t believe it. Even if they do, the jokes will just get worse. We can pretend in front of them right?”
“Right, yeah. We can do that. And then…. We say we broke up after camping?”
“You are so, so stupid. We’ve been best friends for years. No way in hell they’d buy it that one week after they find out we’re together we’re already breaking up.”
“Shit, you’re right.” Eliott chews on his lip like he always does when he’s thinking. Or nervous. Or both.
“Ok, ok, how about this. We stick it out until the end of summer. We tell them that we haven’t told our parents or anything. We want to stay pretty lowkey. That way we only have to pretend with them. Then when you leave for school we can say long distance wasn’t for us but we want to stay good friends. Just a few months. That’s manageable.”
“Yeah, that’s really smart.” Eliott nods, still worrying at his lip, “Makes sense.”
They stare awkwardly for a moment. Lucas sees how tense Eliott’s shoulders are, sees the stress on his face. Lucas did that to him. God, he’s the worst.
“Come here,” He pulls Eliott into a hug, “Sorry I snapped at you. You were trying to help. It was really shitty of me to get so angry.”
“It’s ok,” Eliott smiles as they step back. Lucas can see his calm returning, “I deserved it. I mean now you’re forced to pretend you’re in love with me for months because I’m stupid and blurt out whatever comes to my brain.”
You have no idea how little I’ll have to pretend.
“You are stupid, I’ll give you that, but it’s fine. Really. I’m a great actor, anyway.”
I’ve been acting like I only see you as a friend for as long as I can remember.
“We better get back,” Eliott sighs, “Don’t want them thinking we’re groping each other behind a bush or something.”
And just when Lucas’ temper had simmered down. “You really need to learn when to shut the fuck up,” he rolls his eyes and turns back towards their friends. Eliott jogs the few steps to catch up, giggling a bit.
“We should…” He reaches out his hand, a bit unsure.
“Oh… Um, yeah. Ok,” Lucas nods, smiling.
They walk back to the group holding hands.
