Starcrossed

warning.
    “Stay away from Hector.”
    Wednesday morning, Helen ran out of the house and toward Lucas’s waiting car before Jerry could get it into his head to come out and “have a talk with that young man,” as he had been threatening. Helen wasn’t entirely sure if her dad was serious or if he was just trying to get a rise out of her, but she wasn’t about to take any chances. It wouldn’t be fair to put Lucas through the traditional parental screening when they weren’t even officially dating.
    “Ready?” she asked quickly, trying to distract Lucas.
    “Should we wait?” Lucas asked when he saw Jerry standing in the front door.
    “No, just drive. Quick! I don’t know if he’s really going to do it or not,” Helen responded desperately as she waved good-bye to her father.
    “Do what?” he asked. He put the car in gear and drove out.
    “Try and talk to you, man-to-man,” Helen said, relieved.
    “Well, in that case,” Lucas said. He hit the brakes and shifted into reverse.
    “What are you doing?” Helen put her hand over his to stop him from shifting.
    “I’m going to go inside and talk to your dad. I don’t want him to feel like he can’t trust me with his daughter.”
    “Lucas, I swear to whatever god you think is holy that I will get out of this car and walk to school if you go inside and talk to my dad.”
    Lucas smiled and shifted back into first, driving away from her house. “Who told you the gods were holy?” he asked with a sinister glint in his eyes. Helen punched him on the arm.
    “You just did that to see me freak out, didn’t you?” she asked indignantly.
    “Hey, you’re the one embarrassed by her own father. You’re pretty cute when you panic,” he said with a huge smile.
    Helen tried to smile back at him, but it came out all mangled on her lips. She had no idea what to think. The use of the word cute could either encourage her hopes, or eulogize them.
    Every person who recognized them honked and waved with a big smile on their face. Honking at passing friends was customary on the island, and it was something that Helen had grown up with, but it seemed to her as if everyone was leaning on their horns for an extra-long time this morning.
    “So, listen,” Lucas said, changing the tone from playful to something a little more serious. “Hector told me you found him on your roof.”
    “Yeah,” Helen replied, trying to scrunch down in her seat so no one could see her. “About that . . .”
    “I wanted to explain why we didn’t tell you before. I asked to be the one to tell you, and I meant to,” he said. He glanced over at her as if to check how Helen felt about what he was saying. “I just didn’t figure out how to tell you in time. I didn’t want you to think I was some shady stalker hiding out on your roof.”
    “I’m not going to lie—well, I can’t lie to you, can I?” Helen said with a grin. “I was a little upset, but I’m fine about it now. If your family is willing to protect mine, I guess I can put up with a little shadiness.”
    Helen was forced to stop talking because someone was honking out “Shave and a Haircut” in the most intrusive way possible. She wanted to tell whomever it was to kiss off, but she couldn’t. These were her neighbors and she had to be polite. She wasn’t cramping up, but she suspected that she might start to. She stuck a fist into her stomach.
    “What’s going on?” Lucas asked intently. “I’ve seen you do that before. Are you in pain?”
    “No, but I think I might be soon. Don’t worry about it, there’s nothing you can do. Well, I guess you could go away and never hang out with me again,” Helen answered.
    “That’s not going to happen,” he said with raised eyebrows. “But what are you talking about? Are you allergic to me or something?”
    “No.” Helen laughed. “I think I’m allergic to attention. And we tend to draw a lot of it when we’re together.”
    “But it’s not just me, right? You feel those pains even when I’m not around?”
    “Yes. I’ve had this all my life. I don’t know exactly what causes it, I just know that sometimes when people stare at me I get a terrible pain in my stomach.”
    “Allergic to attention,” Lucas said to himself, absentmindedly taking Helen’s hand while he thought. He had to let it go to shift as he parked at school, but as soon as they were out of the car he claimed her hand again and rolled her fingers around in his.
    Helen watched Lucas as