The Elites

Chapter 17

Chloe

Chloe walked towards her bike. She hadn't seen Nash all day and she wished she could be happy about it, but instead, she found herself worrying that she had ruined everything with him. He must hate her. After the things she said to him, Nash must finally be sick of her. And she should be happy about that, but instead Chloe felt even more miserable. She thought she wanted nothing more than to be left alone with her dad, but pushing away Nash had turned out to be a lot harder than she expected.

She finally reached her bike and she unlocked it, pulling it away from the bike rack. She had spent the last hour studying after school and now after a long day, she was ready to go home and complete her chores. Lately, life had been flying by and Chloe found herself more and more exhausted, but she reminded herself just two more years until she'd graduate. And then, life had to become easier.

"Chloe."

Chloe froze at the sound of Nash's voice. She turned around slowly to Nash in his car, his window rolled down as he stared at her with a pained expression. Her heart hammered against her chest. She thought Nash would never talk to her again, but there he was.

"Hi," Chloe said, feeling breathless. She flushed, stunned by how high her voice became around Nash.

"Look, I still need to beat you in one contest before the year finishes," Nash said. "So how about another contest. A lemonade selling one."

"We're going to be selling lemonade?"

"Yup. Best salesman wins."

Chloe bit her lip. What an interesting contest. Her eyes roamed around Nash's face, curious, but he had become expressionless - almost disinterested, reminding Chloe of his former self. And wishing to be distracted like old times, Chloe nodded.

"Ok, game on." Chloe smiled. "I accept the challenge."

"Good, then hop into the car. I'll drive you to my place."

Chloe hesitated, remembering their fight the other day. Nash sighed as if realizing where Chloe's thoughts had trailed.

"I'm not doing you a favour. You're going to be too slow on that bike so just hop in and let me take you to our contest. It's not that serious."

Chloe hesitated before nodding. He wasn't helping her. He just wanted to beat her and Chloe put her bike in his trunk before hopping into the front seat. Nash shot her a small smile before driving off, and Chloe anticipated their upcoming contest. It had been too long.

*****

Chloe had a lemonade stand a few meters away from Nash's and she already had five people lined up for her own homemade lemonade. Nash also had exactly five people lined up for his own homemade lemonade and she poured cup after cup for her customers who paid exactly one dollar per cup.

They had gone to his home and made fresh lemonade using their own special recipes and then created cardboard stands that they brought to a street a few streets down from Nash's home. Chloe had thought no one would care for their cheap lemonade, but to her surprise, in the heat, people had lined up over and over again to both their stands, devouring their lemonade and making them profit.

She glanced at Nash who spoke to a girl around their age. She was batting her eyes up at Nash, her silky brown hair flowing down her back and Nash was smiling as he poured her another cup. Chloe's eyes lingered on them, surprised to see someone clearly flirting with Nash. Although he'd always been attractive, most people were wary of Nash at school. He had a rep for his anger and girls avoided that, but for once, Nash didn't seem so angry. He almost seemed to be reciprocating the girl's flirting, and Chloe found her heart dropping. She pulled her eyes away, stunned.