𝐒𝐔𝐍𝐅𝐋𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐑 | louis partridge

fourteen

i sat at my desk in first period, mr. vann explaining something about different ocean features. he had a diagram of the ocean floor pulled up on the board, a wooden pointer in his hand.

i wasn't paying any sort of attention, though. louis was sat at a desk on the other side of the room, and i could see him glance at my out of the corner of my eye.

he got to pick his seat, and there was an empty desk in front of me. yet, he decided to sit over there with olivia. i learned that was the girl who is on the welcoming committee. they seemed to be the best of friends.

louis and olivia.

the desks were set in pairs, side by side. i was with lilia. louis stole olivia away from her friend that was in the class.

"y/n!" mr. vann called out, pointing his pointer at me. "tell me, what is it called when warm water rises and cold water sinks?"

fuck i know this. "um... uh- convection, right?"

he chuckled. "i don't know, you tell me!"

"it's convection." i said, annoyed. i told him my answer, i didn't know why he had to make it so difficult.

he nodded. "correct, nice job."

i glanced over towards louis, and he was looking at me. dang it, i didn't want to be noticed. we made eye contact, and, slowly, he offered me a small half smile.

he's just doing that to be nice. he doesn't like me.

i looked away quickly, my eyes focusing back down on my desk. there was a note there that lilia must have slid over.

dude what's wrong with you and louis..?

i flipped the neon pink sticky note over and clicked my pen open.

i'll tell you la

"miss l/n and miss buckingham! bring that note up here." mr. vann called us out, causing my cheeks to burn violently.

lilia stood up because it was easier for her to get out of the seat, gently picking up the note and bringing it up to him.

he held it in front of his face, readjusting his glasses. "alright. 'dude what's wrong with you and louis?'" he flippped it over. "'i'll tell you la-' i assume miss y/n here was trying to say later."

oh. my. god.

i put my head down on my desk, my forehead pressed to the cold surface. he did not just read that out loud. now everyone got to know that there was a problem between us.

i heard laughter and whispering, and a little part of me seemed to die inside.

the class continued on, but i barely paid any attention. it's not like i needed to know about oceans anyways.

-

finally, after study hall, math, and geography it was lunch. i sat with lilia, ralph, and cylia outside in our little cluster of trees. luckily, we all had the first lunch period together.

so did louis. and olivia and some of her friends.

it was a good thing we had our little getaway area then, wasn't it? i didn't want to deal with everyone talking about science this morning, and i couldn't face louis.

i was munching away on some chocolate animal crackers, i wasn't very hungry. my appetite had went away after my fight this morning.

but, my appetite wasn't really important. all that was important to me ever since louis came back was, well, him. he consumed my time, my thoughts.

turn one corner in my brain, bam, louis. take a u-turn, louis. louis, louis, louis. i guess i just wanted to make him happy. make him feel loved by me, even if it was just platonically.

then, all that had to come to a full stop when we fought earlier that morning. it was stupid, i came to realize by the time i found myself with my chocolate animal crackers.

i was just so protective of him. i didn't want him to get hurt, i knew that i couldn't bear to watch someone just use him. i could see the hurt look that would be in his eyes as someone dropped him after they got what they wanted.

but i knew that i couldn't stop him from making other friends. if that's what he wanted to do, he could do it. i knew he wasn't stupid. i really did, but i just wanted him to be safe.

all i had to do was apologize to him. i couldn't do it over text, my mother took my phone. i can't even go over to his house after school because i'm grounded. maybe on the bus i could apologize, i just need to make sure he gets on the bus before me so i can sit next to him.

maybe, if we have more classes together besides first period, i could pass him a note or something. i just had to hope he would listen to me.

"y/n... hello?" ralph asked, waving a hand in my face. "what are we supposed to be doing for mrs. taylor today?"

mrs. taylor was math, algebra to be specific. "um, something about parabolas. i don't know, it was confusing though."

he groaned, laying his head back against the trunk of a tree. "great. just great. i suck at graphs."

"i know!" i exclaimed. i did too. "give me some equations and i can solve those, but graphs? sometimes i literally count wrong and it all goes to shit."

we had a heated conversation about graphs and how much we hate them before we heard the bell ring, signaling that we needed to get to class pronto.

i had english next for two class periods, then i had pe, and then finally culinary arts, then i could leave for the day.

i zipped up my nearly finished bag of animal crackers and hurried out of the trees, making my way back to the school. i had six minutes to go to my locker and grab my textbook, notebook, a novel, and my pencil bag.

with three minutes to spare, i got to my locker and shoved my food in there, trading it for my supplies. now i just had to hurry across the school to my english class, where hopefully louis had to be for the next two periods as well. i needed to make sure he would sit next to me on the bus.

i opened the door to my english class, scanning the classroom. my heart sank. louis wasn't in there among all the other students. disappointed, i made my way to my desk, setting down my books and supply bag.

right before the bell rang, the door opened again. the butterflies inside of me came alive again when a certain brown haired boy walked through the door and up to the teacher.