With Love, Étienne | ✓

Chapter Four

MILO THREW THE BALL AND IT BOUNCED OFF THE RIM OF THE HOOP.

For once, the sun was out in the sky. Everyone seemed to take advantage of the rarity of the situation by sitting outside and trying their best to tan their pale skin. Sunglasses and a hat donned my face, however, and Milo kept sniggering when he glanced over at me. I rolled my eyes in response to his childish reaction and flashed him my middle finger.

"Keep laughing," I shouted over, "You won't be laughing when you miss your fifth shot in a row."

Beads of sweat were pouring off of his skin, glistening in the warmth of the sun and it wasn't any surprise that a few girls were pretending to linger close to the court to get a closer view at Milo. He wasn't someone who enjoyed being tied down to a relationship, which most people were aware of, but even still there were the few girls that always tried to grab his attention long enough to change his mind. It was an amusing sight to watch play out but I knew he loved basking in the attention they were not-so-secretly giving him. It didn't matter that he was barely shooting a single shot in - it was his face and body that they were focused more on.

"Shut up!" he groaned and tried another lay-up. I stifled my laugh when it rebounded off the plastic backboard and bounced away. Milo rolled his eyes and ran after the ball, tucking it under his arm before making his way over to me. My nose crinkled at the stench of sweat that radiated off him and pushed him away with a stick on the ground beside me.

"You stink," I complained, "Get away from me."

"The girls seem to like it," he flashed me a wolfish smile.

"Do I look like a girl?" I deadpanned, "Go over to them and get them to sniff you if they like it that much."

"Okay, ew," Milo choked, "I'd rather not do that. I like my personal space and don't really fancy the idea of their noses. . . on me."

"Hey, I'm just saying man," I raised my hands in defence, "That was quite the show earlier."

A smirk played on Milo's lips and he stretched his hands over his head and leaned back against the wooden bench.

"Gotta keep them entertained, you know?"

"Yeah, yeah," I rolled my eyes, his comment irritating me but I sealed my lips tight. Instead, I pulled out my phone and smiled when I noticed a text from Lou. While I was typing out a response, Milo leaned over my shoulder to peer at what I was doing.

"Lou?" he echoed and I shot him a glare and turned my phone away from him. He didn't have a lot of sense of privacy and oftentimes thought it was okay to peek into others' personal belongings. It was one of the things that bugged me about Milo, but I let it go more often than not as to not cause an argument.

"Is she coming over?" he probed despite the annoyed expression on my face, "Text her and tell her to come out. She's probably on campus somewhere anyway. We can all hang out and grab some ice-cream too."

"I don't know. . ." I trailed off and scratched the back of my head, "She said she was kind of tired today. She'll probably just want to go home after her classes."

Milo nudged my shoulder, "I'm telling you, ice-cream always works as a charm with her. Go on, text her or wait, maybe I will."

Just as he went to fish his phone out of his pocket, I quickly held up my hands and shook my head.

"No, no, it's okay. I'll just text her now."

14.28 ÉTIENNE: hey, milo was asking if you'd be up for some ice-cream. u can say no if you're tired. i'll come up with some excuse for you.