Misadventures with Lucas and Josh
Originally named “Midnight Encounter,” but in keeping with the naming convention of the rest of my flash fiction groupings with recurring characters, I’m renaming this collection, “Misadventures with Lucas and Josh.”
Note: the name Henry was used in the original flashfic, but I’ve changed that name to Lucas (since I now use the name Henry for a main character in one of my books). This is the second of two (reworked) parts that introduce these characters. I hope to continue their story.
Part 2 incorporates this list of prompt words:
thunderstorm – condo – purple – antique – frantic – ridiculous – preserves – regeneration – Excalibur – elbow – doppelganger – schadenfreude
Here’s an easy look at Part 1 in case you missed it last week (the heat rating gets up there with this first part, so there’s a spoiler dropdown to click…only if you’re 18 or older).
And here’s Part 2:
“Yeah, Josh can call me. I told him he could.” Lucas’s tongue darted out to catch the dab of grape preserves on his lip, but missed. He dropped both the phone and his sandwich as the glob landed and slid down the side of his white shorts, leaving a purple streak. “Damn it.”
“What? What’s going on?” Lucas could just make out Paul’s voice. He sighed and picked up the phone, but left the sandwich. The ten second rule did not apply during shedding season. Furball came over to sniff the PB&J.
“Sorry. Dropped the phone,” he told Paul. “Anyway, yeah, Josh said he’d get my number from you.”
“Okay. I just wanted to make sure you wanted me to give out your number.”
“Sure. You know him, right? He’s okay? I mean, he’s a bit different, but that was fun.”
“Yeah, he’s cool.”
“Hey, I’ve gotta go. Got a mess to clean up here. Great party, by the way.” At least, it had been a great party up until Bryan had cornered him and drunkenly rambled on about regeneration, or reincarnation, or some such off-the-wall topic. When Edward had joined them and started in with his dumbass stories dripping with schadenfreude that would only be funny to fellow asshats, Lucas had become downright frantic to get the hell out of there.
“Thanks. Yeah, I’m still picking up from that. Why are all my friends such slobs? Seriously, I’ve got coasters everywhere, but now there’s a ring on my antique coffee table.”
The antique coffee table Lucas had put a cold beer bottle down on? He mumbled something about inconsiderate people and hung up the phone.
He’d barely gotten the floor wiped up when the phone vibrated in his pocket. He tossed the grubby paper towels toward the trash and looked at the caller ID. Not a number he recognized, but he pressed to answer the call. “Yeah?”
“Lucas?” The familiar voice had a cheerful tone. “Hey, it’s Josh. Remember? From last night?”
How could he forget? He’d hoped Josh would truly follow up with the promised call, but he hadn’t gotten his hopes up. “Yeah, don’t be ridiculous. Of course I remember.”
Josh laughed. “I try to be memorable.”
Lucas grinned reflexively. “You were memorable all right.”
“Great. How about a memorable afternoon to add to it?”
“What? Today? Like, right now?”
“Sure. You doing anything? I feel like going over to the Excalibur for some go-carting.”
Lucas hadn’t been go-carting since he was a kid. It sounded fun, though. “Okay. But isn’t there a good chance of another thunderstorm this afternoon?”
“Well, if it does we’ll play laser tag inside, instead.”
Awesome. Lucas liked Josh’s idea of a date. If it was a date. He assumed it was a date. “Okay. Where do you want to meet up?”
“Come over to my condo. We’ll head out together from here.” Josh gave him the address and they arranged to meet in a couple hours.
* * *
The door swung open and a wide grin spread across Josh’s face. “Well hello there.” He looked Lucas up and down as if he’d never seen him before. It had been dark in the park, but seriously, this was a bit much. “Nice.”
Heat crept up Lucas’s face. “Uh, thanks. You look nice too.”
An eyebrow quirked up on the handsome face. “Yeah? Maybe Josh’ll share you with me.”
Lucas blinked. Either Josh had a doppelganger, or his sense of humor was even weirder than Lucas had given him credit for.
Josh—the real Josh—stepped into view. “Jeremy, keep your hands off. He’s mine.” When Josh reached them, he took hold of Lucas’s elbow possessively. “Hey, Lucas. As I imagine you’ve figured out, this is my twin brother, Jeremy.”
Lucas swallowed. Hard. “Yeah, I was starting to catch that drift.”
“Lucas thinks I look nice. He told me so.”
Josh rolled his eyes. “He thought you were me. Hands off. He’s cool. I kinda like him.”
“Don’t you think Lucas should have a say?”
Josh’s jawline hardened. “Fine.” He turned and faced Lucas. “So, do you just want to play around with Jeremy, too, or are you interested in getting to know me and see what happens?”
Lucas’s mouth dropped open, but it was an easy decision. Josh was quirky in a fun way. Jeremy was…cocky. Lucas smiled and answered. “Just you.”
AHA, interesting turn of events with the twin!! Also, I like that Josh didn’t wait, but threw himself on the phone to call!! 🙂
Thanks! They’ll be a fun pair to work with for future flashfic scenes. 💖