"Hey, Clover," Cato said, leaning up against the locker next to mine and kissing my cheek.
"Hi," I replied.
"Do you wanna come over after school?" he asked. "I have some homework and I don't have anyone to do it for me." I glared at him. "Kidding. But will you come over anyway?"
"I guess," I said, "but only if we can watch one of my movies."
"Clover," he whined. "Your movies are so cheesy."
"No, they aren't!" I insisted. "They're so good! They are funny and clever and just amazing and come on, we always watch your kind of movie and it always sucks and you know it."
"Which one do you wanna watch?" he asked with a defeated sigh.
"Little Women," I stated. "The 1994 one that was directed by Gillian Armstrong."
"Who is in it?" he asked.
"Winona Ryder, Susan Sarandon, Christian Bale-"
"Is that why you want to watch it?" he asked. "'Cause it has Christian Bale?"
I laughed. "No, I just love the story."
"Then can I pick which version we watch?"
"No," I pouted. "Because I wanna see Christian Bale."
He laughed at me. "Can we watch something else?"
"Yeah, sure. After Little Women, we can watch Ten Things I Hate About You. That one is from 1999 and it has Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Heath Ledger from back in their glory days. I swear every time Joseph Gordon-Levitt smiles-"
"Okay, okay, okay," he sighed. "We'll watch your lame-ass movies." I smiled at him.
"I'll come by your locker at the end of the day and we can walk back to my house.
------------------------
That afternoon at Cato's, I started crying about three-quarters of the way through Little Women, when Beth died, and he laughed at me and I curled up against him for the remainder of the movie.
It took me a while to stop crying at the end of the movie, but I eventually calmed down.
"You're cute," Cato laughed, tossing me a chocolate bar.
"You're sappy," I shot back.
He smiled at me. I started to lean in, and when our lips were only an inch apart, I looked him dead in the eye and took a bite of my Snickers, then leaned back against the couch.
"Asshole," he scowled, taking my chin in his hand and kissing my forehead.
