Monroe Estate

Lucas reeled in nothing yet again. To the left of him, his two deviant cousins were catching fish left and right. What was up with that? His pole and lures were even better! He ground his teeth together, staying silent despite a huge frustration growing. He tossed the line out again into the river that separated the mainland from the ocean.
"You going to catch a fish any time soon, Luke?" The younger cousin, Phillip, teased him. He was 15, and unhooking a fish he'd just caught. It was too small to be eaten, and frankly either of their families would skin them alive if they brought fish in a bucket into the house. Phillip was the only one allowed to call him "Luke". By everyone else, he was Lucas. He should be called by the name he was given...at least that's what he was told over and over until he just never got used to hearing "Luke".
His older cousin, Will, stepped in. "We won't be catchin' fish much longer." His eyes, hidden behind a pair of sunglasses, looked up at the sky. It was sunset. The world would be growing dark soon, and Lucas would sadly have to call it a night and head home. He needed a shower; he still had the smell of oil and sweat smeared onto his skin. His hands were covered in black marks, but no matter how many times he washed his hands they wouldn't come off. He sighed, knowing that he'd be back at the garage tomorrow anyway, and for a moment wondered what the point of taking a shower would be.
"Oh, right. That bonfire's tonight, isn't it?" Phillip asked.
"What bonfire?" Lucas hadn't heard of any bonfire. It was strange that he hadn't heard of something going on in a strip of land this small.
"Yeah, it's tonight. Someone's throwing a bonfire party tonight on the beach. Supposed to be pretty crowded, I think. Phil and I were gonna crash it, see if there's anyone interesting there. Wanna go?"
At this point, Will and Phillip were packing up their fishing gear, and Lucas decided to go ahead and pack his stuff too. Lucas knew he should go home and shower, but he supposed he'd just jump in the ocean to subdue the smell of the garage until he got home later that night. The warm early summer weather made even the night time comfortable for something like that. Lucas shrugged, carrying his tackle box and pole in one hand and started to walk away from the riverside. "I guess so. Where on the beach is it? I'll meet you both up there."
"Right on the end of your street, actually. Just walk down to the beach, you won't miss it." As they started to part ways, Phillip called, "See ya later, Luke!"
"See you," he simply said. His house came up fast, seeing as he wasn't very far from the river or the beach. He put his tackle-box and fishing pole in the shed in his backyard, knowing he'd get yelled at if he just left it on the ground. He went inside after taking off his sandy shoes, and went upstairs to change into swim trunks and a black tanktop. Usually he'd just go shirtless, but he didn't know what the attire of the party would be. He could (and would) always take off his shirt once he got there, anyway. While he was changing and attempting to get the black off of his hands again, he wondered who on his street would throw a party like that.

((OOC: Sorry, this ended up being a bit long. xD I tend to get carried away haha.))

Moved post to Caelum Estate!

It wasn't long before Lucas was walking down his long driveway in the same sandy flip flops that he'd just gone fishin' in. There was a salty breeze that'd carry the air and make it seem a little less humid for a minute before returning back to the same wet heat. The sun had already gone down, and stars flecked the sky. At least, they did where clouds didn't cover them.

Reaching the end of the driveway, he paused for a short second when a flicker of movement from the house across the street caught his eye. The curtain was wide open, and he could see quick movements across the window. He suddenly tore his eyes away, and looked back to his house. Checking all of his windows, no one had seen him eyeing the "other house". He left the mailbox and continued down the street.

The sound of the waves could already be heard, crashing against the shore of the beach. He could almost smell the saltwater. He got closer, and it hit him like a wave in itself. That familiar smell he barely acknowledged after being around it for so long. He slapped a mosquito off of his arm without thinking, and hoped that he could hi-jack some bug spray off of somebody.

When he'd crossed the last street that divided his street and the beach, he was stepping on sand. The flip flops had to go. He picked them up and held them in one hand. A little ways down the beach, there was already the supplies for a bonfire set up. He was far enough down the beach that he couldn't tell who the one figure was, but that could be a good thing. It could mean that he was also unrecognized. Phillip and Will arrived shortly thereafter.

They gave a long, exaggerated "Hey," and made their way down to sit with him on the sand. He wondered if they'd already started drinking. Will was carrying one six-pack, and Phillip had two. Why didn't that surprise him? He shook his head and smiled. "Neither of you said anything about getting drunk."
"Drunk? No!" Phillip exclaimed, shaking away any thoughts of such out of the air. "We're just gonna loosen up a bit."
"Phil, you and I both know you can't control your drinking. You should watch how Will does it. Much smoother talk with girls, but he's not falling on his face."
Will's pride showed in his smile while he passed one to Lucas. "It's an art, brothers. Learn it."

Lucas scoffed, knowing he could hold his beer just fine. Hearing the sounds of more people arriving on the beach, he looked back at the path that led onto the sand. He hid the beer between his legs while he sat, thankful that he looked more like he was 20 than 17. There was a cop that lived on his street, and he wondered if he'd be out tonight. It wouldn't surprise him. Phillip and Will weren't very good with planning things like this, even if they were just crashing it.

Lucas had downed half of his beer when a young woman approached them. She was dressed very nicely compared to the outfit the boys had worn; swim trunks and tank tops. But she looked nice in the beach wear. As she approached, Phil broke out in a characteristic over-confidence. "Hello," he said, dragging out the 'o'.
"Quiet, loverboy," Will said before she was within hearing range.

"Hello," she'd said. She seemed friendly enough to have came all the way over to them. A brave, approaching a group of teenage boys she'd never met. "Are you here for the party? We're all over there if you want to come over."
It was Lucas who decided to reply from his spot where he sat on the sand. "We are, actually. We'll be heading over there shortly." Phillip and Will exchanged a look and a grin. Lucas didn't have to look away from the girl to know they were already eyeing the other female figures further down at the party. "What's your name?" He asked. As she went to answer, she was suddenly called back to the beach. He wanted to reach out and stop her from leaving so soon, but he let her go. He'd meet back up with her shortly, as promised.

She left earshot again, and Phillip looked at Lucas with a huge grin. "Smooth, as always. When are we heading down the beach?"
"Give it some time... we don't want to seem like desperate dogs. No, not as a part of the Monroe family. Never," Will mocked his own name.
Lucas snickered softly, in total agreement. "Wait for it to get a little darker, then we'll have our fun."

A half hour later, Lucas had finished his drink and half of another one. "Well, I'm going to go steal "T" and talk to her for a while. You two have your fun, I'll meet up with you later." Lucas stood from his sandy seat, which he'd turned into a sand throne in his boredom. Phil promptly took his spot while he made his way for the bonfire.

Upon getting close, he saw that "T" was chatting with another guy and someone who appeared to be a parent. Normally, Lucas would have respected this, but tonight, he wanted his fun. Forget respect for adults tonight. He'd given his parents enough respect to last the world's population of adults a lifetime. In a confident stride and a beer in hand, Lucas came up from behind "T" and linked his arm with hers, carrying her away from the group she'd been speaking to. Scoffs of disgust and exclamations of how rude he'd been filled the air, and made him smile.

"My name's Lucas," he said simply, having her trail along beside him to the other side of the huge bonfire. Heat radiated from the pit and gave him chills. He grabbed two marshmallow sticks and stuck a marshmallow on each of them before handing one to her. Across the bonfire where they'd been just a second before, he saw Will and Phillip chatting up two girls who looked similar in age to them.
"Name? Age? Any other personal information you'd like to share?" He looked at her and smiled. He took a seat on a log next to the fire and held the marshmallow close enough to roast.

Lucas grinned at her new nickname for him. "Mr. Confident." He liked it. It made him feel even more relaxed, though he supposed that the beer had the same effect. He wondered if it bother her that he was drinking, but didn't ask. If she really hated it, she wouldn't have stayed with him on the log near the fire. Lucas kept his marshmallow near the fire and looked up at the sky. The smoke and the light of the fire kept the stars from his view, but somehow it still looked pretty. He tore his eyes away and blinked away the light tears that the smoke had caused.

Once they were gone, he looked back to Tor. He wouldn't lie; he was hoping he looked as good to her as she did to him. She was a very attractive girl, and he found himself staring into her brown eyes. It was weird of Lucas. He never felt comfortable making eye contact with people he didn't know very well.

He never got her last name, which disappointed him a bit. He still didn't know who was throwing this party, but he was sure that they were on his street. He wondered if she was a guest, or related to the hosts. He let it go for a minute and gave her his information. "Lucas, also 17. I work with cars. And I happen to love frisbee as well," he smiled. "Maybe in a little bit, we could find one to toss back and forth.

"Uh-oh," he said suddenly. He brought the flaming marshmallow to his mouth to blow out the fire that had started. What was left was a burnt crust. He usually preferred a golden color to a black burned marshmallow, but this would have to do. Then again... He laughed. "Want a burnt marshmallow?" He offered. He knew some people preferred it. If she didn't want it, he'd simply have to be brave and man himself up to impress her by eating a food he'd made disgusting.

Tor laughed at the burnt marshmallow on Lucas's stick. He offered it to her and she shook her head, scrunching up her face.

"You made it, so you have to eat it," she teased. "I hear that burnt marshmallow is good for the digestive system." Lucas was funny, she had to admit. And by the sounds of it, he wasn't like the people she expected to be at a party her parents were putting together. He seemed to not have a sense of entitlement, and was most certainly not afraid of upsetting the adults. He just seemed to be... well... normal.

She looked around at the other people attending the party, they also seemed to be enjoying themselves, and she could see that Jacob had found another person to bore with his talk of long dead French painters. Her mother must have been out of her mind when she thought that Tor would enjoy his company. It was like this more often than not, and sometimes, she didn't think that her parents knew her as well as parents should know their children.

"Thanks for earlier," she said, blushing slightly. "I didn't think I could stand another minute of talking about Degas. It's not what I expected to be chatting about at a beach party." She was glad that he had come; he was laid back and made her feel relaxed. The night was beautiful. Though she couldn't see them, she felt that the stars were especially bright that night. The fire was pleasantly warm and for the first time in a while, she was enjoying one of her parents parties.

(OOC: Sorry it took me so long to write a post today. I kinda had a crappy day and I'm just getting around to catching up on posting D: )

Lucas found an involuntary look of shock crossing his face. No way... he thought to himself. Then a wild smile grew on him. What a night! And he'd finally gotten a glimpse of the family across the street! Oh, jeez, he thought. If he hadn't been so wrapped up in Tor, he would have been looking everywhere for that girl his age from the Caelum family. "Yeah," he assured her quickly. He would have to bail in a minute. "Lucas Monroe," he said, though it was casual. Unlike the rest of his family, he didn't hold much pride in his last name.

Suddenly Tor was being called again, and he saw two people heading their way. Lucas quickly stood from the bench, ready to run. But he wanted to see her again! How could he keep in contact if--... but then he was promptly being handed a small, wrinkled piece of notebook paper. Perfect. The excited smile returned, and he stuffed the paper into the pocket of his shorts. "I'll call you sometime soon," he said as she began walking away towards the two younger boys.

The sand didn't provide him any leverage as him and his two cousins ran up the beach towards the narrow entryway, but they managed. Lucas was crashing from such a long day; work, fishing, this party, and now the beers were catching up to him and that always made him sleepy.

But Tor never left his mind. The little wrinkled piece of paper with 7 numbers on it never left his mind. Odd, seeing as he'd only ever wanted to meet the seventeen year old daughter from the Caelum family, and when he'd gotten the chance, had his mind wrapped around another girl. But he began to find that he liked how the night had played out, and looked forward to seeing her again.

Lucas found that the memories of the night on the beach kept replaying in his head while he laid in his bed and tried to sleep. The cool ocean breeze would blow in through his window and bring back the smell of Tor's perfume mixed with the ocean, but he knew it was in his head. He fell asleep happy, waiting on the next gentle gust of wind whenever the previous one had ended.

(Thanks! Everything is better now, I just wasn't having such a great day that day. :))

The next day, Lucas woke up with a new-found excitement to start his day. That said a lot, considering he was going to the garage again today. He knew that wasn't why he was looking forward to the day though. At the end of the day when he'd gone through his usual routine, the garage, a shower, maybe some fishing, he knew that he wouldn't be able to resist any longer and he would pick up the phone and call the number sitting on the end table beside his bed and talk to the girl he couldn't get out of his mind.

The early morning sun was vaguely hidden on the horizon by the colorful pink, orange, and pale purple clouds. The second story of Lucas's house, where his room was in the front of the house, gave a slight view of the ocean in the distance. Throwing on shorts and a tee shirt, he decided that would be a good way to start the morning was a walk along the beach to his job. The garage was only across the street that divided the two.

It wasn't long before he found himself walking along the patch of compacted sand; still wet from where the waves had drenched it, but too high for the waves to reach it again until the next tide. Instead of the powdery sand he would sink in, the sand near the water gave him a firm ground to walk on. The sun had gotten a little higher since he left his house, and he couldn't look out onto the ocean without the strip of reflected light bothering his eyes.

Lucas watched a crab skitter along up the sand to the hole it had dug out, and it made Lucas smile. For some reason, he always thought the way crabs walked and acted was simply hilarious. Seagulls above him called out to one another, giving the beach a less deserted feel to it. But as he walked his way along the beach in the direction of the garage, he saw a figure that seemed familiar. It had been dark the night before but he could swear it was Tor. He almost couldn't believe it. Lucas found himself eyeing her figure a little longer than was respectful but he justified it in his mind by saying he was "just checking to make sure they were the same person." He broke into a jog, his sandals sticking slightly to the muddy sand along the ocean waves. As he got closer, he slowed to a walk and cupped his hands over his mouth to call out, "Tor!"

Tor woke with the feeling that she was going to have a good day. The sun was peeking through the curtains and made her room feel warm and pleasant. She snuggled down into the covers just one last time before throwing them off and hopping out of bed. Normally, she wasn't such a disney princess when it came to waking up in the morning, but she was particularly excited to see how the day would unfold. That is to say, she wanted to see Lucas again. She was waiting from a call for an unusual number because she knew that it would be him.

She went into her closet and pulled out the usual thing she wore for her morning walk, but took extra care with putting her hair up. If there was one thing her mother had taught her, it was to be prepared. She flashed herself a smile, grabbed her iPod, cell phone and sneakers and made her way through the house and out the front door. She was the earliest riser in her family, often getting in a jog or walk and sometimes even off to school before everyone else. Orion was still home-schooled, so he didn't need to wake up until close to noon, and Eli... well Eli was still "trying to find his way."

Tor made her way to the beach and began a light jog, pacing herself to the sounds of Muse coming from her earbuds. She liked exercising to music, it was a huge motivator and a perfect way for her to get in the zone. She alternated between jogging and walking as she made her way up and down the beach, finally deciding to stop when her playlist ran out after 15 songs. She was sweating only a little and felt good about the work she had done. A leisurely walk made the sun all the more enjoyable, and she took her time.

"Tor!" She stopped, pulling out her earbuds. Had someone called her? "Tor!" She turned around and shielded her eyes against the sun to see a figure running towards her in the sand. The voice was familiar and she broke out into a grin when she realized that it was the person she most wanted to see: Lucas.

She ran to meet him halfway, pulling her hand down out of it's elastic, and running her fingers through it quickly. She felt the butterflies in her stomach return, and she was glad for the slight flush she had retained from the jog, for surely she would have been blushing brighter than Mars.

"Hey," she said, trying to play it cool as she slowed to a stop in front of him. "Fancy meeting you here in the morning. Going somewhere special?"


((Just to let you know, I will be gone until next Friday! Didn't want to leave you hanging wondering if I had abandoned you (I won't do that btw). :) ))

Lucas watched her take down her hair as he approached. It fell down in chocolate waves, and it looked so soft despite the tangled look it had gotten from the salty air of the windy beach. He wanted to go up and touch it, but he would never admit that in a million years. He kept his smile in check as he finally reached her, and gently tugged her arm to bring them both back to the direction they were heading in a moment before.

"Hey. It's nice to see you again too," he admitted. "If by special you mean the garage up here, sure," he laughed. "I'm going to work. That's why my shorts are stained with black everywhere," he told her. Lucas didn't feel the need to say sorry for it; this was how he dressed for work. Take it or leave it, either way he'd be the one to fix your car when it breaks down.

When the attention was brought to clothes, he noticed that she was wearing sports attire. Lucas found himself thinking that she must be pretty serious about running, or jogging, or even just walking out here if she has special clothes for it. No wonder she was so thin, he noticed. "Do you walk out here often?" He asked, taking slower steps than he usually did. He knew he wouldn't have long to talk to her before the garage would be there, but he didn't want their conversation to end sooner than it had to.

(OOC: No problem! Enjoy where ever you're going. :) )