Love Hate

Ch. 11

Theo's Point of View

"I want to stop acting like I hate you," I said, grabbing his hand.

We were at my house that time because his parents and brother were home but my parents were gone. We were in the living room watching a movie, though we weren't paying much attention to it.

He linked his fingers with mine, "I do too."

I smiled, "Then let's stop."

He stared off into the distance for a minute.

I used my free hand to gently grab his chin to make him look at me, "What's wrong?"

"I don't know," he said. "It's just that everyone expects us to hate each other. Everyone will go crazy when we suddenly stop."

I shrugged, "It'll be pretty much like when we stopped fighting those few weeks in the past. Except this time we won't care about what they say because we're happy together."

He smiled a little, his ears turning red, "I guess that's true."

I nodded, "Yeah! So let's just stop!"

He laughed a little, "Okay, but let's take baby steps. Just so we don't make anyone's head explode."

"Fine," I said. "What do you suggest?"

He shrugged, "I don't know. How about for now let's stop acting like we hate each other, but let's not act friendly yet. How's that sound?"

I pouted, "But I want to be able to smile at you at school."

He smiled and ruffled my hair with his free hand, "Come on, it won't be that bad. It'll be better than pretending to hate each other."

"True," I said.

**

The first week after we stopped pretending to hate each other, everyone did indeed go crazy. I heard whispers everywhere; everyone was wondering what was wrong with us and if we were possessed or something. It was really funny.

We agreed to only nod in acknowledgment to each other rather than actual greetings, and even that made people go crazy. Especially our friends who were always curious why we hated each other — after never getting an answer and then we suddenly stopped yelling at each other, they were very confused. Especially my friends. I couldn't hide my emotions well anymore so usually after Aaron and I nodded in the halls, I would smile a little to myself. They always noticed and always bombarded me with questions they knew they were never going to get answers to.

Based on how crazy people were going after we just stopped fighting, I understood why Aaron said we should take baby steps. If we just randomly started being friendly or even couple-y, I was sure people's heads would explode!

**

As I was walking through the lunchroom with my friends, finding a table, we passed the table Aaron was sitting at with his friends.

It had been a month since we agreed to stop acting like we hated each other in public. We still hadn't agreed to act friendly in public yet so...

I decided to surprise him!

He looked up and saw me and he gave me a small head nod, acknowledging that he saw me. But instead of doing the same thing like I usually did... I smiled at him.

I almost started laughing, too, when I saw his reaction — and his friends' reactions. His eyes widened but I knew he was trying to stay calm. His friends just stared at me incredulously.

Luckily, my friends didn't notice. All they saw was I looked in that table's direction.

After we sat down, Henry shook his head, "You guys are so bipolar."

"What do you mean?" I asked before taking a bite of my burger.

I knew exactly what he meant.

"You guys hated each other for like ten years, were at each other's throats the whole time, and suddenly you're chill with each other. Not before completely ignoring each other, then arguing again, then acting chill. I don't understand you idiots."

I just shrugged.

My phone buzzed, and when I checked it, I had to stifle a laugh.

A- What the hell was that? My friends are interrogating me now!

I quickly looked over at his table and almost laughed again when I saw him giving me a look as all of his friends talked to him at once.

T- I was happy to see you :)

A- We agreed to stop yelling at each other. We didn't say anything about flirting!

T- Lol, you call that flirting?

T- I can do worse ;)

A- I swear...

T- What? You gonna punish me?

A- Just wait and see

T- Can't wait!

I didn't look at his table again because I knew he wanted me to. So instead, I finished eating and chatted with my friends as casually as I could.

Most of the conversation was them interrogating me so I had to find creative ways to get out of some questions they asked me about Aaron and what was "up" between us. Instead of being annoyed like I used to be though, I thought it was really funny. It sucked keeping our relationship a secret but at the same time it was funny seeing everyone so confused at our "sudden" change in behavior. If they knew what actually happened, they would have dropped dead out of pure shock!

After lunch, people were walking by our table and crowding while trying to leave so we just stayed put and waited for it to clear out.

Coincidentally, I looked up to see a certain group of people walking towards us.

I made eye contact with Aaron, and he gave me a look like he was challenging me to do something as he walked by. Or maybe he was going to do something. I couldn't tell. But I loved that look.

"Hey, Miller. What was that earlier?"

He didn't fake anger or malice — it was just a question.

My friends looked between the two of us, and so did his friends.

I just smiled, "What, I can't smile at you, Thompson?"

He took a step closer to me, making me look completely up at him.

It was hot, honestly.

"Watch yourself. You don't know what I'll do to you if that happens again."

Then he fucking winked at me!

And just... walked away.

Everyone around us was obviously watching the whole interaction — so whispers erupted all around.

All I could do was sit there and laugh a little to myself.

That little shit.