t h i r t y o n e ;
Dieter didn't even allow her kiss to go on for half a second before he placed a hand on her shoulder and pushed her back slightly. There were so many things wrong with what was happening. And so many thoughts racing through his mind in a jumble of emotions. The very first was utter confusion. Had she done that a year before or even six months before, he would have still had the same physical reaction, but his mind and heart would have wanted it to happen. He would have been aching to hear from her own lips how much she had been wanting that to happen.
But now things were different. And yet, there were things that had remained the same. For one, she was going out with Jairo--his best friend since pre-school. The two boys had a crush on her growing up and she eventually chose Jai after Dieter had felt like she was stringing both of them along for literal years. But he accepted it graciously and moved on, despite the heart break he was feeling. He was happy for them because they seemed to be madly in love and had been dating for years at this point. That remained the same. What had changed were his feelings towards her. He no longer saw her as this sweet and perfect person who he wanted to protect.
He had seen another side of her that he didn't like. She was mean and vindictive, but she was also a bully. She also wanted the attention of everyone around her, all the time. And she'd find herself getting angry when she didn't have it. Dieter hated the way she was acting towards Louise and it made him question being around her.
Another thing that had changed was that after years of longing for someone who didn't choose him, he had found a girl who was nice and was so beautiful. A girl who was funny, knew her way around words, and was extremely sarcastic. But most importantly she was a girl who liked him back. At school, Dieter had his fair share of girls that swooned over him. He was popular, he was on the football team. But every time he seemed to like a girl, she was scared away easily. Now he was beginning to think that it was maybe Yamilla's doing. She wanted him to remain alone so that he could keep having feelings for her.
Yami shot him a look of having taken full offense at his actions, but still decided to try again. When he refused her for a second time, she jutted out her lower lip into a pout. "Why won't you kiss me, Dieter? I know you've always wanted to. Don't think I didn't notice the way you looked at me. Moira thinks so too."
That's because Moira's just your little minion, he thought to himself. He gave a firm shake of his head. "That's not what I want."
They were outside Granny's and the entrance had a patio with twinkling lights for outside dining. But it was a cold day in November and most people preferred to dine inside by this time of year. The patio was surrounded by white fencing enclosure wrapped in beautiful green vines and that provided some privacy from anyone sitting in the parking lot. That was exactly where the rest of the group was. They were waiting in the car for them--half of the group in Jai's car, and the other half in Dieter's car since he had handed the keys over to Clarisse.
But she kept pushing it. "If you ever need someone to satisfy your needs, you can always ask me. I could teach you and help you learn what you like." She said in a voice that was trying to sound seductive. But what Dieter wanted more than anything in that moment was to get out of there. He didn't want their friends to walk in on them and get the wrong idea.
"N-no." He stammered nervously. "I only wanted to talk to you because I want you to lay off Louise. I really like her."
Yamilla rolled her eyes. It made her blood boil to think of Dieter happy with someone else. She wanted him always liking her and hoping that she'd pick him someday. "She's a private school little rich girl who's gonna change you for someone else the first chance she gets." When he didn't play into her game, she huffed in annoyance. "Whatever. Suit yourself if you wanna get heartbroken by some bitch."
She then turned on her heel and walked towards Jai's car where half of the group was waiting. Dieter followed a minute after and got into the passenger's seat of his car. In the passenger seat was Clarisse and in the back seat was Johnny. Rohan and Moira were getting a ride with Yami and Jai. Ally and Ralph had their own car, and Finn had taken his bike to the diner since it was his primary mode of transportation. Clarisse turned in her seat slightly to look at Dieter, eyes wide with curiosity.
"What took you guys so long to come meet the rest of us?" She asked him a bit shyly. She was mostly quiet and reserved, but had her temper sometimes. Although that temper mostly just made an appearance whenever Yami or Moira were bullying her. But she was always especially nice to Dieter. She was one of the friends he most appreciated in the group. She was the one friend he was most close to. They talked all the time and told each other everything.
He gave a small shake of his head. "It was nothing important."
He would try to downplay the situation in front of the rest of the group. Despite the fact that he most got along with Clarisse, he knew she and Moira were pretty close as well. He wanted to avoid any information getting to Moira because she would not hesitate to blurt it out to the group that Yamilla had tried to kiss Dieter. Little did he know that when they took too long to come back, Clarisse had offered to go find them.
That was when she saw Yamilla lean in to try to kiss Dieter. She had gasped and turned away quickly, hurrying back to the car and pretending she didn't see anything. But she couldn't help but feel sorry for Jai. Yamilla was his girlfriend and Dieter was his best friend. It would have been terrible and unfair for them to do something like that to him. But she decided to keep the information to herself for the time being. She wasn't sure if she had all the details yet and she didn't want to start drama over something that could be nothing.
-
Logan and Louise made it back to his home with her being silent the entire time. Her face was leaning on the glass and her dark eyes trained out the window. He could easily tell that she was visibly upset by whatever happened at the diner. He wanted to help her but didn't know how to.
He heaved a sigh as they pulled into the driveway to his house. He was thankful that Maria Valentina wasn't around. Her judging in the pageant kept her busy and whenever she had free time, she was too tired to make the drive across the small town to visit him. She instead chose to video chat with him in the afternoons as he was getting ready to unwind for the day by watching television or doing other things. Sometimes he felt like they weren't actually together in a relationship, since he didn't see much of her. But he told himself that was the life of a super model who was also an actress.
It surprised him that after moving to the small town, things seemed to die down for them. When he had been in college in her home town which is where he met her, it was a big city. It was also in her country where she was famous and popular. All the men around her wanted her and the women wanted to be her. He was surprised she even looked her way.
Now it had all grown monotonous, or perhaps his priorities had changed. Now he was more focused on his job at the elite private school for girls. He now had a house of his own, a decent car, a good job. He even managed to reconnect with someone from his past and make ammends, he thought to himself as he glanced over at Louise.
He turned the car's engine off and stepped out of the car. She silently did the same.
The two walked up the small steps that led up to his porch and he unlocked the front door without a word to her. They entered the house and she went into the bathroom, locking the door behind herself and turning on the running water at full blast. He had followed closely behind her and her brown eyes locked with his blue ones as she shut the door in his face. On her way there, she had tossed her cellphone onto the couch. The screen was bright with incoming calls and text messages. He shot a small glance as he passed the living room couch to catch the name that made his blood boil. Dieter.
Logan Barry Bush wouldn't exactly consider himself and Louise Belcher to be the best of friends. Especially considering the way they had started out eight years prior. But now that they weren't enemies at least, he had some appreciation for her. A tiny part of him could even say, but never fully admit, that he maybe even sort of cared about her a little bit. And maybe she cared about him too. It was difficult to tell sometimes with the way she talked to him.
Even with the water running, he could hear her crying inside the bathroom and he touched the door knob for an instant. The next thing he did was to knock on the door. Louise was a strong kid when he knew her as a child. He thought back to the time when he stole her bunny ears and she got a gang of bikers to threaten him into giving it back.
She always knew what to do or say to get her way.
"Hey Louise..." He called slowly.
It almost seemed out of character for him, given their recent banter. It wasn't like the usual teasing they had before where they were actually mean to one another. It was banter more like old friends playing along. But this--the way he called to her now--was from one friend to another making sure they were okay.
He could hear her sniffling through her tears as she tried to get her shaking voice under control. "Get lost, Logan!" She shouted over the running water.
But he tried to give it something of the runaround to distract her from whatever was going on. "You're really running up my water bill in there. Not to mention the water that is being wasted in general. Think of the damage to the planet."
She scoffed in a way that sounded as though she were stifling a laugh. There was a brief moment that passed before he heard her close the running water from the faucet. "I guess you're right. But also...I don't care about your water bill. I'm doing it for the planet." He could almost picture her rolling her eyes as she replied to him.
It was another minute before the door opened and she stepped out into the hallway. Without warning, she stepped into his arms and buried her face in his chest.
"Thank you Logan." She said with a sad smile.
She truly could not believe that his words--the words of Logan Bush--had made her feel better. If someone had told her nine year old self that eight years later she'd actually get along with her bully, she would have laughed in their face and likely punched them in the gut too while she was at it. But in a surprising turn of events, there they were.
Their embrace went on for longer than she thought though, with him resting his chin atop her head as he was a good deal taller than her. And she cleared her throat awkwardly, stepping away from him.
"Alright, enough mushy stuff." She said with a sarcastic tone.
It was just a dumb boy she met in town that she was sad about. Louise Belcher didn't care about boys and Louise Belcher did not fall in love.
Dieter Park was over with.
-
how long has it been since i updated this?
an actual year!
to be honest with you guys, maybe about a year and a half ago, i kinda lost the inspiration to write every day like i used to. and it was a boy's fault. his name will not be disclosed, but lets call him dieter. we work together and have been friends for three and a half years. two of those years i have been in love with him.
and we hang out all the time. at first with friends, but most recently just the two of us. he's my best friend above all and i love him so much. and now i kinda spend most of my time texting him or hanging out with him so i didn't have time to write.
i want to break free from that though. bc i reached a point where it actually hurts not to be around him. and i dont want that. i love him, but i dont want that. so i decided to start writing again and also start working out again.
so without further ado, i hope you all like the update. i know its kinda shitty but im kinda trying to get back into the swing of things. alsooo, fun fact: i modeled dieter and his friend group after my dieter and our friend group. moira and yamilla are real. and we dont talk to them anymore because they did something to me and dieter. but that's drama to implement in the story.
-clary