Are You Insane Like Me?

[Lucah Ivaskov]

One of the biggest escapes that Lucah found in Eden was the roof. Over the past several years, he'd found it to be the quietest place to think, the emptiest place for when he felt as though he might actually lose his mind, and the easiest place for his best friend to find him. Twenty years old and Lucah was still being treated like a child by his father because the man was convinced that Lucah wasn't doing what he needed to do at Eden. This was where one learned networking, found connections and learned the ways of screwing people over, without them even knowing about it. But Lucah, much as he was pressured into this lifestyle, wanted no part of it. He was beginning to uncover things about his family that he'd have rather left buried.

It was moments like this that he missed his mother the most because he knew she'd be as disgusted by the family she married into as he was. Eden was a place for the corrupt, the wealthy and the evil. Lucah although he may have seemed as such, was none of those things, but he had to pretend to be in order to keep his father off his back. With the council members being parents of different students, they practically knew everything there was on the surface, which was why Lucah focused on his image so heavily.

These few seconds of reprieve, away from the spying eyes of his father, he found it easy to let out what he wanted to be. Who he wanted to be.

Lucah sat on the ledge, his one leg steadily resting on the ground, while the other was propping his guitar up. He didn't strum loud, didn't call attention to himself from below and just hummed quietly with the notes. If he hadn't been quite so used to it, the noise coming from the door would have caused him to jump and he might have even snapped at whoever it was. School official or otherwise. Yet, he already knew who it was.

[Erika Dimitrova]

If the years of being Lucah's friend had taught Erika anything, it was that if he wasn't in his room after classes had ended, there was only one other place he could possibly be. Generally that meant he wanted to be alone and away from everyone and everything. It was his place of solitude. But again, if all the years of being his friend had taught her anyone, it was that normally, Erika didn't count as everyone.

Walking up the flight of stairs leading towards the room, she could vaguely hear the tunes coming from the guitar and the low hum from Lucah's lips. A smile found its way to the brunette's lips and she opened the door, trying to be as silent as she possibly could.

She saw no need to disturb him and therefore the Bulgarian walked over the rooftop in silence, her brown eyes fixated on the boy sitting on the ledge with the guitar in his lips, fingers caressing the strings with grace. She found her own kind of solitude in the boy. Perhaps a kindred spirit of sorts. She sat down then, her eyes glancing over the ledge and over the sun caressed landscape below. She could see various students and staff milling about, but they held little interest to her.

Only one person held it and held it firmly. "I was thinking," she began, looking down at her hands, flexing and unflexing her fingers. "that we should do something fun this weekend. Just the two of us." She looked up at him, waiting for a reaction, but quickly decided to continue. "Get away from the school, I mean. Away from all these people." Her voice held a little contempt, though, she also realized that she was part of the people she loathed so much.

[Lucah Ivaskov]

Lucah continued on strumming as she came nearer. His reaction would have been much different with anyone else, but seeing as it was Erika, he didn't mind the presence and he didn't feel the need to stop what he was doing unless she chose to ask him what he was escaping from this time. The volume did lower, however, as he didn't want to be too loud in case she did decide to talk. That was what they often found themselves doing up here, talking about family, about school, about life. They were much the same, no mother, a distant father and hardly anyone to really understand them. That was the reason they were best friends, though the reason he'd been drawn to her at first was a familiarity in her language that was quite similar to his own.

Her voice made his fingers pause on the strings, but continued slower as he listened. Something fun? Lucah very nearly laughed at the word because it was unfamiliar and a foreign concept to him often. Yes, as a fraternity president, he did throw parties, he threw mixers, and things considered to be entertaining, but he only went through the motions, he rarely ever enjoyed his own social gatherings. They were bearable, if only because he had decent people to keep him occupied.

Away from all these people.

Those words did strike something in him though and he realized that perhaps what she was offering was a good idea. The way she said it was nothing out of the ordinary to him because they both weren't quite...right. He hated himself because he feared who he'd become. And she had her reasons for hating herself. Yet they both would probably say that the other had no reason to hate themselves. More like they had every reason to hate everyone else.

"And do what? Fun is a loose term," Lucah said with a low, short laugh. On the spot, he couldn't think of anything they'd have fun doing. But he was also the pessimist, or as he called it, a realist. HIs fingers stroked the strings more and he did his best to appear open to the idea. Because it could be good for them. And yet, he wasn't always completely certain of what was good for him.

[Erika Dimitrova]

Propping her arms back, Erika leaned her head back and started up at the sky, letting the gentle touch of the sun warm her olive tanned face. "Mmm," she said lowly, arching her eyebrow as she tossed Lucah a sideways glance. "It's a surprise." She knew it could take some convincing, but she was sure it would go over well if he'd only agree.

But Lucah tended to be a little more skeptical. She didn't blame him for being cynical. They were opposites there. She was a lot more naive than him, though, she was also aware of it. Erika knew about her flaws and she supposed she'd accepted that it would be her downfall. It wasn't like she could change something that was such a big aspect of her personality over night.

The biggest evidence of her naivety was her current relationship status; it's complicated. She was happy, though. That was what mattered in the end, wasn't it? Or maybe that was just something she held onto so hard she'd tricked herself into believing it fully.