Ridgeport Preparatory Academy discussion

Meredith was honestly more than a little surprised. Seriously, she'd been at the school less than a month and already she'd gotten hit on in such a vulgar way that she was filled with the urge to sort of turn herself inside out just to escape the attention of this guy. This guy being Leonal Anderson, because if there was any boy at Ridgeport that could drive a girl to near insanity from flirtatious efforts? It was probably Leonal Anderson. But apparently luck was on Meredith's side that day because while Leonal was firing off innuendos and flirtatious lines and telling her how he could help her make friends and the two of them could even be 'special' friends, Meredith's very own Knight in Shining Armor decided to make an appearance.

Although, he was less of a knight and more of a quick fix convenience that Meredith forced into being her savior.

"Yes, well while that all sounds very....fun, I'm sorry but I have a boyfriend." And no doubt Lucas was showing up to tell her to stop being late in the morning when he picked her up. Lucky her, the Welsh family not only insisted upon paying for her education but they also sent Lucas in a private car to pick her up every morning. Couldn't have her taking the subway and then walking to school apparently. But either way? She used the situation to her advantage, reaching out and taking his arm like they were a couple or something.

Although arm holding? Slight cuddling? Didn't really fool Leonal so naturally he sort of sneered with a laugh. Followed by, "Welsh doesn't date."

As if it was a ridiculous idea to think of Lucas Welsh dating. Not as ridiculous as the notion of a Hoffman dating. Meredith almost felt offended on behalf of Lucas, that people assumed he didn't date. "Well he dates me." But a guy like Leonal...well he'd need proof wouldn't he? And so naturally Meredith's idea of giving a guy like Leo proof was to turn around and before Lucas could say anything to argue with her claim? She was kissing him. Really kissing him. Not some quick little fifth grade dance peck or anything like that. But not anything as disgusting as ramming her tongue down his throat either. Just enough that when she broke off Leonal had gone on his way. Moving on to find some new girl to entertain him for a few minutes.

Heading off towards the school fountain from the looks of things. And leaving Meredith to clean up her mess with Lucas.

Breaking off from the kiss, Meredith quickly took a step back, creating this sort of invisible barrier between her and Lucas. "Were you just chewing gum or is your mouth always so minty?"

Lucas was slightly relieved and more irritated to have seen Meredith in the front office, otherwise he would had to hunt her down during the school day. The girl had left her phone in the car. It was a good thing that he had seen it. If he hadn't Marc (Lucas's caregiver in New York and a whole backstory that will be given at another time ) would have had to turn around and waste his time to come give it back to her. Of all the things, how does one forget their phone?

But then Lucas opened the door and saw Anderson and caught the last of his tasteless remarks directed at Meredith, showing just how much class he lacked.

Before he could say anything Meredith was making some remark about a boyfriend and for some reason that boyfriend was him. Lucas didn't react in any sort of questioning way. He knew how much of an ass Anderson could be and it was part of his job to make sure Meredith was settling in fine at school.

Lucas raised his eyebrows at Anderson's next comment. He couldn't care less what remarks people made about him. They were always pathetic little jabs.

What happened next was more than surprising. Though in hindsight, Lucas should have guessed what was coming next. Meredith's lips met his and the next thing he knew he was kissing her back instead of pulling away because maybe he did care a little. Lucas heard a click of a camera and receding footsteps. Subtle, Anderson. He thought breaking off the kiss and taking a step back, further creating the invisible barrier between him and Meredith.

Gum. He thought in reply but didn't answer aloud. It was best to ignore what had just happened because Lucas wasn't sure what he thought or felt about the matter. The answer to that should have been nothing. But Meredith had a way of getting in his head and create a confusinf chaotic mess. One he was not in the mood to clean.

Instead Lucas held up her phone. "You left this in the car."

Oh hey, look at that. Cell phone. And yeah, Lucas might have thought it was odd that she didn't notice she'd been without it, but how was she supposed to notice that she had left it behind when there was so much stuff in her bag that she was supposed to be mindful of. Sure if she had left a textbook behind she would've noticed in an instant, because her bag would've been about two lbs. lighter. But it was her phone and so it hadn't even registered that she'd left it behind. "Oh, thanks." Guess she was pretty lucky that Lucas Welsh was so observant that he could pick up on her phone being left in the seat. Even if he hadn't been observant enough to know who she was the first second time they'd met. And hey would you look at that? No new messages on her phone. Because all her friends were too busy with their lives to keep her updated, and it's not like she had tons of friends at Ridgeport.

And since Lucas hadn't answered her question about his breath, Meredith was going to assume that meant that he didn't want to talk about what had just happened. Hmmmm, was she a bad kisser by Welsh standards? She'd always thought she was a decent kisser. No guy had ever complained about it before. Was it because he had probably tasted strawberries? She'd had a strawberry smoothie for breakfast. Did he not like strawberries? Or maybe he was just used to girls using him as cover-ups and planting smooches on him bright and early. Or maybe he expected odd shenanigans from her. Was that how he saw her? Some sort of shenanigans girl?

She didn't much like the idea that he saw her as some sort of shenanigans instigator. "Did I hear a camera click? Am I about to ruin your reputation because of that hasty aversion plan?" Because wouldn't that just be fantastic. Ruin his reputation as well as make him practically babysit her, because apparently that's how Lucas felt about her. That he had to babysit her. Was the Welsh family worried she'd make some great embarrassment of them?

"It's nothing." Lucas said in reply. His attempts at ignoring the incident that had occurred not even a minute ago was making his head spin. He couldn't figure out what he was feeling, why or why he couldn't figure out how or why he didn't know what he was feeling. This was what he meant when he thought of Meredith creating a confusing, chaotic mess in his mind. Snd each time he met with her the mess would pile up even more. And it was the most uncomfortable feeling Lucas had ever felt. He hated not feeling in control of his own mind. And he didn't know why it was only with Meredith. It wasn't as if he liked her. Well he liked her but didn't like her. Was it bwcause he felt guilty that his family had to buy out her father's company? That he felt a strange sense of responsibility for her, beyond his parents' requests?

Lucas attempted to push the thoughts away. He shouldn't have been thinking them in the first place. This is why he wanted to avoid discussing that incident. It was leading him down a hole. And he wasn't quite certain if that hole ended or if there was a way out.

But it was going to end up on SOS anyway. "I have no reputation to ruin. Most likely, Anderson will send it to SOS, if he hasn't already." No doubt Anderson had already submitted the photo with some snarky comment. Lucas couldn't care less about the site or what people thought of him. But he wasn't sure how Meredith would react to whatever was posted. Did she even know about the site? "Depending on how things go you may have to keep up the charade." He added, surprised at his own words. Because chances were if she didn't continue pretending to be his girlfriend Anderson could circle around back to her and he might even bring Lyell with him.

Or they would do that anyway and still poke fun at her for dating him. Lucas frowned. Meredith had created a mess that went beyond him and her and he wasn't sure what to do about it.

Great. That was great, already things were getting sent to SOS, and yes Meredith knew what the site was. You couldn't walk four feet in the school without someone being on some device and checking the site for the latest gossip. Everyone in the school was pretty much subscribed to it and got alerts whenever a new post came up. So yes, she knew about the site before she had known where she would be sitting in the cafeteria at lunch. Although she didn't really know why she would have to keep up the charade. Keep pretend dating Lucas Welsh? Why? It wasn't as if she had a reputation to protect, and surely she wasn't the first girl to lie to get out of the hassling of some guy, right? I mean....what? would SOS brand her as some sort of liar for her life if she proved that she wasn't dating Lucas? Not that it would be some great offense to date Lucas but the guy didn't exactly strike her with the warm and fuzzies.

Lucas gave off more of an 'oh wow he's attractive' kind of vibe, but at this school nearly every guy seemed attractive. Although a lot of them seemed to generate it in an 'i know it' kind of way whereas Lucas had a more aloof feel to things. Like he didn't care that he was attractive, but he took care to make himself look good? It was hard to explain. But that's sort of how it felt. "Wow, things have sure gotten complicated. How about we just sort of see how things play out?" Because Meredith? Make a plan about what she should do? Ha. Yeah, highly unlikely to happen. I mean just look at her occupation major at Ridgeport.

Ancient History? More like, 'no idea what i should do with my life so i'll pick this cause it seems like fun?'. Yup. Planning? Not her strong suit. I mean c'mon. She'd just kissed Lucas to get rid of Leo and now here she was stuck in a mess waist deep and no idea how to fix things. Best to brush things under the rug and ignore them, right? "Don't you have a class to go to? I think I have a class to go to." When in doubt, flee.