Re: James/Luke's Apt: Beginning of a New Me [Lucas]

[Guest]

James snatched the poster from Luke and read it, and snorted, "Yeah right, no way am I entering that." He said handing the poster back to Luke.

[Tiger-Lily]

"Why not?" Luke demanded. "Time to try new things. You can sing. You were supposed to at Tiff's party. Yeah, it got canceled, but the universe gave you another shot. Give me a good reason why you can't."

[Guest]

"First of all that was canceled so it was a sign from God that I was never meant to sing in public." James stopped and then started coughing and made his voice raspy, "I lost my voice."

[Tiger-Lily]

"Right," Luke said dryly. "Seriously, what is it? You've sung before, I know you have."

[Guest]

James ran a hand through his hair and sighed, "Yeah I have, but never in public. You know that. The only time I've ever sang was around... Ev." He muttered quietly.

[Tiger-Lily]

Luke inhaled slowly, trying to work around this. "So you should sing now...simply so that she's not the only one you've sung in front of. So she's no longer special enough for that."

[Guest]

James took a deep breath, biting his lip. He wasn't sure if he wanted to open himself up like that in front of people. Basketball was different, it was a sport, he was seen as tough, competitive, a leader. Singing is different and he knew that, it didn't matter what kind of song you sang, if it was your own or someone else's it meant basically telling people how he felt, a room full of strangers?

I don't think so...

James shook his head, "I don't think I could do it... dude its just... yeah. I can't."

[Tiger-Lily]

"What if I backed you? With my guitar?" Luke asked. "Hell, it's in two weeks. I could get a couple kids from my music class to band with me, even."

[Guest]

James bit his lip, still really unsure of this, "I don't know dude... I mean even if I did sign up, what the hell would I sing? This is weird."

[Tiger-Lily]

Luke grinned. "We have a whole band. We could sing anything, really. Any song coming to mind that you particularly like? You could do a cover of a pop song, even."

He briefly wondered if Alexis had mentioned this to Evelyn. Evelyn loved to sing...probably not though.

[Guest]

"Dude I have no idea, I like whatever. But.. wait a minute I don't know if I'm even singing yet so... yeah." James said not really too sure that this was really going to work out for him.

[Tiger-Lily]

"You need a change. You need to not focus on her," Luke expostulated calmly.

[Guest]

James nodded, "I know, I know." He repeated, "I have no clue what to sing is all, I guess I'll do it." He said half sure of himself.

[Tiger-Lily]

"It'll be fun," Luke replied encouragingly. He nudged James. "And girls dig singers, and you know your voice is great - what little I've heard of it."

He glanced at his watch. They had a few hours before they had to leave for Rockefeller. "Just think of one song that comes to mind."

[Guest]

"Britney Spears, Hit Me Baby One More Time." James said with his most serious face to Lucas, before his lips started twitching and he started laughing.

[Tiger-Lily]

Luke stared at him evenly. "Yeah, let's do that. I can see you up there with a blond wig and heels. And maybe a stripper pole or two."

[Guest]

"Actually, I wanna be the "Oops I did It Again" Britney? You know that whole red leather outfit. I think it would show my figure off greatly... or maybe that outfit in her Toxic video, that all glittery nude diamond number? I'd look killer in that." James matched Luke's serious tone.

[Tiger-Lily]

"You'd need a shitload of hairspray. And like, all that make up she has painted on. Like, buckets of it to cover your warty nose." Luke went on seriously.

[Guest]

James touched his nose before turning to face Luke, "Dude my nose is not warty!"

[Tiger-Lily]

"Are you kidding?" Luke feigned shock. "There's a big one right there, below your eye. How can you see?! That thing blocks everything!"

[Guest]

James was at the least bit mildly offended! He did not have a warty nose! He did have a small mole on there somewhere, but not a wart. That stuff was gross.

He heard his phone vibrating on the night stand in their room and he got up to go get it, as he was leaving he looked at Luke and said, "Yeah well you have a big head... and you're a fatty." He said sticking his tongue out childishly. He went to the other room grabbing his phone and sat down on the couch.

He had gotten a message on his Facebook... from Evelyn.

James raised an eyebrow and opened the message,

Evelyn Mathesson Report

In light of all the crap that went down this weekend (and has been going on ever since we met in NYC), I feel like we need to have a civilized face-to-face chat. Not like we've done before, but more along the lines of the successful one Luke and Lex had. I need to explain, and I know you're wondering why I've been doing all these things that don't seem like ol' Evelyn from Ash Creek. It's not because I'm stuck on you - that, I promise you.

I had my reasons for wanting out. And no, you being a possible player wasn't one of them this time. I want to explain because until I do, until you realize why I believe we wouldn't work out, we're going to clash at every given opportunity and with so many mutual friends, we're going to have a lot of opportunities to butt heads in public. You're going to keep assuming I'm a cold-hearted bitch who didn't give a damn about you.

And that's not true at all. I'm only doing this because at some point, I did give a pretty big damn about you. And I don't want to end things this way.

Hopefully what I want to say to you will help you realize what NOT to do to some other girl out there.

Let me know if this is cool with you, and we'll work out when/where to meet.

- Evelyn

James had forgotten to breathe for a minute, and exhaled slowly as he had finished the letter kind of losing himself for a minute.

[Tiger-Lily]

Luke wasn't offended in the least. He loved food and openly acknowledged this fact. "You're a..." He paused, thinking, and then said, "Car-wrecking jock!"

[Guest]

"Huh?" James said distractedly missing Luke's comment, and he just snorted lightly, "Yeah you're a... blond?"

[Tiger-Lily]

Luke frowned. He wondered what had James preoccupied. "And you need a book of comebacks, really badly," Luke informed him. He got up and followed after James, sitting down on his own bed. James was standing by his nightstand, simply staring at his phone with a perplexed look in his eyes. "What's wrong?" Luke asked, amused grin fading.

[Guest]

James sighed, "Evelyn decided to send me a lengthy message over Facebook, she wants to talk to me all civil like and explain shit to me as to why she's been doing what she's been doing. What do you think? Should I hear her our and arrange some time to talk to her, or just say fuck it and move on?" He asked his best friend for advice.

Because he figured he could just go talk to her, but why should he listen to her? He was scared of getting sucked back in to it, but he never wanted to stop talking to her altogether either.

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