Convincing her (Jen and Lucas)

Chapter 349: Wedding

Time had gone very fast for the couple and before they knew it, Jen was back in school with her friends, Lucas' schedule had finally normalized and he had even gone further as to apply for the university early for the intensive course that he would complete in ten months rather than the initial eighteen months.

After Jen's class ended, she walked towards the cafeteria as she had always been doing to go and see Nancy and Leanna.

She played with her phone as she sat on one of the benches and waited for the two girls. In no time, the two girls also joined her in the cafeteria and Nancy talked about anything and everything as she normally did.

"Here you go," Leanna said as she gave the two girls two envelopes.

"What is this?" Nancy asked and curiously opened it and took out a card.

"It's a wedding invitation," Jen answered as she had taken the card out even faster than Nancy.

"Seriously? With Ethan?" Nancy asked with rounded eyes. She was genuinely surprised about the whole affair.

"Yeah, I'd like you to be my bridesmaid, and for you to be my maid of honour," Leanna said to Nancy and Jen, respectively.

Her decision surprised Jen because she always felt that Leanna was closer to Nancy than she was to her. But after thinking about it carefully, it seemed that when it came to serious matters, Leanna seemed to always come to her first rather than Nancy.

"I would be honoured," Jen answered with a sweet smile. At the same time, she was thinking about the number of times that Lucas had already asked for her hand but was denied, and she started feeling bad about her choices.

Before she could dwell more on her feelings, she was distracted by Nancy who was even more excited than they were about the whole affair.

Nancy knew about Leanna's pregnancy. It was inevitable since the two of them lived together and with Leanna's sudden change in temperament and her bouts of morning sickness, if she didn't explain her situation, Nancy would just be very uncomfortable and would try to avoid her as much as possible.

"Me too," Nancy said as she looked at the invitation with a lot of excitement. Fortunately, she did not overthink the fact that she had known Leanna for longer than Jen.

She just thought that the fact that Leanna only met Ethan because she was friends with Jen was enough reason to make Jen her maid of honour. She was also planning on doing the same thing if things worked out with Dave. 

Jen was completely oblivious to the fact that she was going to be the maid of honour in all of her friends' weddings.

"I'm very happy for the two of you," Jen said after staring at the invitation for a while. She was very hesitant about marriage, but seeing one of her younger friends do it readily started the slow change on her mentality towards it.

"Thank you," Leanna answered, not knowing how much her own decision will influence the choices of her new group of friends. 

"How are things going with Lucas?" Nancy asked after her excitement had died down.

"They are going well, but he will be travelling for his studies in a few months," Jen said. She frequently talked to Laura and Rachel so they were aware of her progress with Lucas.

The two of them talked for a while before they separated to their own locations. Jen knew that Lucas was going to be busy, so she went to the library, she was trying to get back on track because she slacked off a lot during her holidays. 

Nancy accompanied Leanna to her meeting with the wedding planner, Jen promised that she would accompany Leanna on her next appointment as they separated. Leanna didn't mind too much as long as she had someone to accompany her. If Nancy wasn't accompanying her, then she was sure that Ethan would have pushed someone's surgery back just to make sure she was not by herself.

After spending the whole afternoon and evening at the library, Jen was startled out of her studies by her vibrating phone.

"Mmh," she answered without checking who the caller was.

"I'm outside, let's go home together," Lucas said. Jen already felt like her fatigue was reduced by half when she heard his voice.

"Okay, just give me two minutes," Jen whispered because of the solemn atmosphere in the library.

"Hurry up," Lucas said before hanging up. He put his phone in his jacket pocket before slipping his hands in his pants pockets and leaning on the pillar that was in front of the large library doors.

The weather had warmed up already since it was early spring, but the nights were still cold. Some of the students leaving the library couldn't help but stare at Lucas as they left the building. Lucas returned their stared blatantly, and they always ended up avoiding his gaze. He remembered that just a year ago he would have been standing there taking a cigarette break from his studies late at night and couldn't stop the reminiscent smile that appeared on his face.

"What are you thinking about?" a lazy voice said as a pair of arms wrapped around his waist. Lucas was immediately pulled out of his thoughts and his smile became wider as he looked at Jen's smiling face.

"You," he teased as his fingers brushed some stray hairs away from her face. 

"Is that so?" Jen asked as she straightened her posture.

"I was thinking about when I used to take a break from studying here," Lucas said honestly as he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her closer to him.

"Ah~," Jen said as she cooperatively took a step forward and stood flush against him.

"Should we go home now?" Lucas asked as his dimpled smiled reappeared. Jen nodded absentmindedly, and the two lovers left the building for the parking lot.

Jen took off the sweater she was wearing the moment she walked into their home and draped it over her arm.

"I don't feel like cooking, let's order room service," Jen suggested as she turned to look at Lucas while walking backwards.

"Mmh," Lucas responded as he looked at her indulgently.

"Leanna and Ethan are getting married," Jen said suddenly and found herself backed up to a wall.

"Oh?" Lucas responded in question as he stood in front of her and dropped his briefcase to the floor. 

"Mhhmm," Jen answered and nervously bit her lip. Now that she saw how Leanna was living in the moment, she started having doubts about her own choices.

Lucas looked into her eyes and smiled as he had figured out what she was thinking about.

"Then we can't miss it," Lucas answered, his smile not leaving his eyes.

"Ah," Jen responded with a bit of disappointment.

Lucas hooked a finger under her chin and lifted her face so she was looking at him. Jen blinked her big brown eyes at him and Lucas had to fight the urge had to take advantage of her.

"We'll have to make arrangements for our future," Lucas said after he was able to calm down his emotions.

[.]