1961 // louis dimucci

Chapter 13

I walk past Chloe, who is standing at her locker, and I jokingly nudge her shoulder. She spins around, makes eye contact with me, and looks away.

Okay. I am one hundred percent sure that she hates me.

It's almost been two weeks since the "incident" and she hasn't said one word to me! She's been talking to Shakespeare more than she's been talking to me! I've watched her talk to him in all our classes.

I need to talk to her.

The next day, when she's putting her books into her locker, I decide to try and see what's up.

"Chloe?" I appear beside her, "Can we talk?"

She slams her locker shut, "Sorry, Louis, I need to get home," She starts to walk away.

I run and jump in front of her to stop her from leaving, "What is so important that you need to get home for?"

"Well..." She rocks back and forth on her toes, "I've got to... uh... wash my hair? I'm washing my hair."

"Your hair looks fine."

"I gotta go," She brushes past me.

I grab her arm and pull her back, "Please."

She sighs, "What do you want, Louis?"

"I just want to talk!"

"About what?!" 

"About... the other day when we almost ki-"

"Shh!" She shouts at me, looking around worriedly, "Do you want someone to hear?!"

"Well, no, but-"

"But nothing, Louis. Nothing happened, alright? Let's just forget about it!"

"I didn't - I wasn't trying - well, you were ignoring me, so I thought-"

 "I just don't think we should hang out anymore, okay?"

Wait.

"What? What do you mean?" I ask. What?!

"You know, we're just friends, right? And we'll always be just friends."

"I-I know that, but why can't we hang out anymore?"

"Because... because I don't know what's going to happen if we do," She tells me, searching my eyes, "I'm sorry, Louis."

"But-"

"Sorry..." She says quietly and walks away. No. She is not getting away so easily this time. I grab her again.

"You're comin' with me," I tell her, and I begin pull her out of the school.

"Louis!" She struggles, "What the hell are you doing?!"

"You'll see..." We end up at my cycle.

"Rhonda's probably waiting for me, Louis," She points out, but doesn't try to leave. So she does want to hang out!

"Yeah, so? She can wait," I say, hopping onto my bike, "Get on."

She hesitates, looking behind her for who knows what, and then finally gets on behind me, wrapping her small arms around me.

"Where're we goin'?"

"We're going to hang out, like just friends."