Loveless

Chapter Five

When I went home that day, my mom threw a fit. Apparently the school called our parents because they were worried we had been kidnapped, which is very dramatic in my opinion. I was grounded for 'three weeks' but it only lasted four days, then we forgot.

Oliver and I haven't talked about what happened, in fact we haven't really talked since. I haven't had my phone and we didn't see each other in school; I would like to say I haven't been hiding from him, but I have. What am I supposed to do if he regrets it?

Since it's Friday, I decide it's time to muster up the courage to face him. I walk up to our lunch table and greet Lillith, Oliver, and Beth. I don't know when Beth started sitting with us, but she's pleasant so I don't mind.

"Hey. Where have you been?" Oliver asks. He looks dreadful; there are bags under his eyes and he looks more pale than normal.

"My mom threw a fit about us skipping, so I was grounded." I say, knowing he won't accept this excuse.

"What about lunch?" He asks.

"I've been in the library. Ms. Earle already assigned a project for English so I've been studying." I explain; it's barely a lie.

"Oh. We missed you." Oliver says quietly.

"I missed you guys too! How are you Lilith? Beth?" I ask the girls.

"Not bad. We were actually just talking about going to Connor's party this weekend. Can you help us convince Oliver to go?" Beth begs.

"If you go, I'll stay with you and if you absolutely hate it we'll just leave and go to your house." I say to Oliver, earning smiles from the girls.

"I really don't want to." He says whining.

"At least try? It'll be fun! We can walk together, with Lils and Beth too! Right?" I ask them.

"Yeah of course! We can all show up fashionably late too if you want." Lilith chimes in.

"Okay, fine. But you have to promise that if I want to leave, we can." He demands.

"Of course, I pinky promise." I say, offering my pinky. Pinky promises are the most important kind of promise. When he locks pinkies with me, it's like a jolt of electricity shoots through me. I missed him.

"Ah yay!" Beth squeals.

"We're going to go now! Want to get to class early."
Lilith announces, standing up and tapping Beth's shoulder.

"Yeah. Bye boys. See you tonight." Beth says rushing off with Lilith.

"What do you think they're up to?" Oliver asks. I'm glad he noticed something is up; they're being awfully weird this week.

"I was gonna ask you the same thing. I bet they're plotting. Maybe Lils is gonna ask Connor out tonight or something." I say, casually. The weird thing about me is that I can read most people the way Oliver reads me; just not Oliver. My mind is always distracted when I'm with Oliver.

"Yeah probably." He mumbles. We sit in silence for a few minutes. He's reading We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach for the millionth time.

"How are you?" I ask quietly. I hope he's well, I feel quite bad for ghosting him after such a big day for us.

"I'm okay, you?" He asks, putting his book down.

"I'm alright. I missed you." I say, nudging his leg with my foot under the table. He looks down at his hands and smiles.

"Really?" He questions.

"More than ever." I respond.

"I was worried I scared you or something. I don't know why I chose to just go for it. Everything was moving so fast, I've never even kissed a boy before, but it felt so... Right." He said quickly. No wonder he looks so awful, he's probably been overthinking this for days.