Forget Me [Lucas]

[Kate Warren]

It had been three days since Kate had shared a spontaneous kiss with a stranger named Lucas Blacke. Since then, she had been avoiding thinking about that night at all costs. Every time she thought about it she was reminded of how easily she had been persuaded to lose control, not only by him but by herself. She would not let that happen again, not now or ever, and especially not with him. He had brought out the side of her that she wanted to bury deep down. So, in her mind, the kiss never happened. She never talked about poetic words with the handsome boy, she never asked him to dance, and she never let him touch her. The night was so forcibly pushed into the back of her mind that it might as well have been dream. In some ways, it was.

Since that night, Kate had thrown herself into everything she did. She studied overtime even if she didn't need to, she packed and repacked boxes for her move in the near future, and she found herself burning off any free time she might have at the gym. Sure, the gym made her think of sweaty Lucas lifting weights in the memory he'd so generously shared, but as long as she got into the zone, she didn't have to think about it.

Today, Kate decided that she needed to begin track conditioning. The season would be beginning before she knew it, and if she was going to try and compete with her friendly rival, Sydney, she had to start training. Kate wore black running shorts, a dark gray tank top, and black running shoes. She had been running on the treadmill for 30 minutes, and planned on going until her legs failed her. Step. Breath. Step. Breath. Don't. Think. About. Him. She turned up the music that blasted in her ears, some upbeat song from the 80's that she couldn't remember the name of. Step. Step. Breath. She pressed on, waiting impatiently to reach her limit. Her heart was beating fast, like it had been that night, but for a different reason. She pressed the button to raise the speed and ran until she had to stop.

Kate stepped off the machine onto wobbly legs, sweat dripping down her forehead. She focused on breathing to get her heart rate down as she walked swiftly to the water fountain to refill her water bottle before a round of weight lifting. She waited behind someone in line, trying to be patient as he filled his own bottle. It wasn't until he turned around that she realized who it was.

"Lucas. Hi." It was all she could say. If her legs weren't so weak, she might turn around and make a break for it. Too bad.

[Lucas Blacke]

Why did he open up? Didn't he see in time that she was just another one of those people that would discard him? She had broken him that night as she took off with a lame excuse, and while he thought there was something more going on she told him it was because someone maybe put something in her tea. If she was one of those girls needing to justify a little fun with drugs she most clearly wasn't for Luke or anyone else.

Still, there was this part of him that couldn't stop thinking of Kate, the girl who didn't mind her retrocognition. The girl who got him to open up, who had convinced him to go on a date, to kiss, to dance. Yet that dance never came, he had promised her but she bailed before he could deliver. Another broken promise of which the mere thought broought him down. Too often was there a broken promise in the game and now he knew how much those could hurt.

But he managed to keep a straight mind most of the time by telling himself that she bailed before getting the dance because he had promised a dance at the end of the night, and in a way she had caused the night to go on forever. Though this also meant the pain would go on forever.

Working out did prove a valid way to clear his mind, however. Starting out slow with lifting a few weights got his blood going despite his shirt getting sweat-ridden and moist due to the thought he had that public places like this were not the right place to go barechested. Still, it felt odd having a shirt on his person and he wanted nothing more than to get rid of it. Maybe he'd start up a private session later on in which clothing was optional. He chuckled as he pressed the weights away from him.

As he got up to refill his water bottle though he found that there was something stepping behind him at the water fountain. Someone who had hurt him and was now having to deal with the consequences.

His smile faded as he turned around and saw Kate greeting him. ''Kate.'' He simply nodded as he stepped forward. ''Lookin' for more hearts to step on?''

He didn't know why he was doing this, why he had done what he did. Nine out of ten times his heart would end up in pieces anyway, and he was starting to run out of tape.

[Kate Warren]

Kate was suddenly aware of how she must look. She was usually so put together, so well dressed, and had perfectly applied makeup. However, the gym was an exception. Not a trace of makeup lined her eyes or smoothed her skin. Her hair was tied up, but it didn't contain all of the wavy strands that escaped from the band. Sweat dripped from her forehead and she probably didn't smell that great. So, in the unattractive and sweaty state, of course she had to run into the one person she didn't want to see or look bad for.

She tried her best to be optimistic about the situation. There was a possibility she could mend her relationship with Lucas, not that she'd ever had one in the first place. That night was rushed and it was a grave mistake on her part. She wished she could redo it and end the not-date before it had gotten so out of hand. At any rate, she was paying for her moment of weakness.

"Excuse me?" She said, her eyebrows raising and her bright blue eyes wide. Hearts to stomp on? What was his problem? It was hardly a kiss, what did he expect from her, to drop down on one knee and propose? Kate tried to tame the swell of anger that was all too eager to show up in her expression, but that would be rude. Kate Warren was not rude.

"I apologize if I misled you, Lucas. The way I behaved was uncharacteristic and inappropriate. Who you saw that night is not who I am, and I never meant to hurt you." Kate smiled warmly up at him, but kept her distance. She might be a little bit taken aback, a little bit angry, and somewhat regretful, but she maintained her politeness through it all. However good that her behavior may have felt, she was determined to not let history repeat itself.

[Lucas Blacke]

Maybe it was because he was at the gym that he acted a bit out of line, but then again she did hurt him. He liked almost everything about her, the way she used her power and had no aversion to it and how she talked to him, looked at him, touched him. Perhaps it was the knowledge that she had retrocognition that made him like her more than he should after a single night, but the fact was that Luke was a quickly attached person. He wouldn't let this go over without making someone feel even more bad then they already did.

She did go on saying how this wasn't her and that she never meant to hurt him, but in the end she did hurt him and there was no changing that. Surely the memory of that night did something to counter that but it was far from enough, he still felt hurt, even when the first few words out of his own mouth sounded like those out of a reality tv show.

He didn't want her to propose, he didn't want to be in a relationship with her, he just wanted her to admit it wasn't a mistake. Though he did something like she had often enough himself he had never felt the devastation of the following days himself, and he had to say he didn't like it. The combination between being pretty much rejected and being himself was enough to make his mind shoot down the drain and pick up his defense, he was ready to hate her just to make sure she couldn't hurt him again.

Over a kiss. It was idiotic to think for some, but Luke really was the kind of guy who would get attached that quickly even if he didn't show it himself.

''No apologies needed.'' He finally said as he looked her over, and just when people would think he was being happy and glad he would shatter that illusion by letting people know what was what; that he was guarded. ''Not when they try to justify pain.''