Eight Letters. Three Words.

Eight Letters. Three Words - Ch. 13

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“What for?”

“Coming after me.”

I laughed, eating another spoonful of chocolate and shaking my head.

“Ready to go beautiful?”

She nearly choked on her ice cream, gurgling coughs escaping her as she looked at me like I'd gone mad.

“Beautiful? Do you want to get punched Dylan?!”

Suppressing a chuckle I opened the car door for her, throwing away the remains of chocolate fudge. “I established you were my date back there,” I pointed towards the café we had exited, “so I guessed you wouldn’t really mind the pet name."

“You’re date?” Her eyes narrowed at me.

“Seatbelt please.”

“That was stupid.”

I shook my head, “I disagree. It’s probably the smartest thing I’ve said to Katelyn in months.”

Chloe remained silent for a while, we drove comfortably together. I found myself stealing glances at her through the rearview mirror as she toyed with her hair, or stared out the window.

“You can’t ignore me forever Chloe." I glanced at her again to find her looking straight at me.

“Back to the same old conversation?” there was a smile in her voice, which got me grinning back in return.

“We never do finish it.”

“I… I don’t want to ignore you.”

Finally.

It did well to my ego to have her say that, even if it was something I’d known all along. But I felt uneasy for what she would say next, Chloe always said something next.

“I want to ignore the rest. The people who whisper, who talk…” her voice drifted away and she ate another spoon of mango.

I stared at the contents in disgust, realizing just then that she was quite aware of it. “Want some?” she moved the spoon towards me.

“Sick."

“Delicious," she corrected, and rolled her eyes like she were truly in heaven.

I don’t know what came over me, but while I slowed the car as we approached a stoplight I threw her another brief glance, to realize she was about to eat up the last bit of disgusting ice-cream.

I reached for her hand grabbing it carefully and guided the spoon to my mouth, where I ate the strange combination of flavors. Chloe was staring right at me, her bright green eyes glowing in an I told you so way.

“Wow,” I managed swallowing.

“Was it so bad?” Her breath fanned my face, a sweet and cold smell to it. I leaned towards her slightly still holding the spoon, and her hand in mine.

“No it wasn’t…”

I wanted to kiss her. I wanted to kiss Chloe Foster. Have her lips molding with mine, and have her sigh in contentment against my mouth. But I couldn’t, I scolded myself. Because as I focused on her eyes I knew she wasn’t ready, and who knew whether she'll ever be.

Chloe Foster

He wanted to kiss me.

I’m not stupid, even if my grades disagree with me I know the signals, I’ve feared them for too long, and yet, despite being aware of it I felt how the same fear began creeping over my body, felt it shaking me to the core. I slumped against the window.