Know Your Enemy

Just give him a chance.

Harlow’s words repeated through my mind as I watched the back of Louis’ head disappear down the hallway. It wasn’t hard to find him, even in a big crowd, because of his distinct hair color and style. Or maybe I’d just grown fine-tuned to him, and I instinctively knew when he was around me, like he gave off an aura that my mind picked up on without breaking a sweat.

“CLARA. Are you listening to me?”

Hailey’s voice was hostile, and it was obvious that she’d called my name more than once with no response. I blinked a couple of times and shrugged, giving her a closed-lipped smile of apology. “Sorry. What were you saying?”

“God, what is going on with you? First, you’re acting all strange and being weird around Liam earlier, and now you’re spacing out? Since when are you all distant?”

“I just didn’t sleep that well last night,” I mumbled as an explanation. God, I needed to see Louis and tell him what I realized I had to do. But I couldn’t do it during school, when tons of people would be watching and send the news down the grapevine. I had to tell him when it was just the two of us, when there wouldn’t be as much stress on me.

“Yeah, okay. Whatever you say.” And with those words, she disappeared into her classroom, leaving me alone in the hallway with my thoughts.

All through the next three classes and lunch period, my mind whirred with different possibilities of how my conversation with Louis could go. Should I come on strong, just pushing him into the lockers and kissing him with all my might? Or should I be myself, where I just tell him the truth and hope something comes out of it? Being shy was another option, where I could look at the ground and tell the truth to his shoes, and he could put his finger under my chin to make me look at him, just like in the movies.

“Whoa,” I heard Harlow say from behind me while I was at my locker. I’d paused in the middle of putting one of my books away, and I’d leaned my forehead against the cool metal of the side while I tried to decide which way to act. “I can almost smell the smoke coming out of your ears from down the hallway.”

“This isn’t funny,” I grumbled. “Harlow, what am I supposed to do?”

“Don’t ask me,” she replied, putting her hands up in innocence. “What you do is up to you, not me. I just told it like it is. Do with the information what you want.”

I swallowed and finished throwing the book in my locker before slamming the door shut. Then, swinging around to face her, I asked, “Where’s Louis?”

A grin broke out over her face as she explained that he was staying after for his English class to re-take a test, and he’d be out soon.

So I sauntered down the hallway toward his classroom to keep things from looking suspicious, thankful that I’d called off cheerleading practice for that afternoon. My hand obsessively reached for my ponytail to make sure that everything was still in place or my sweater to make sure it didn’t shift off my shoulders. I’d never been so nervous in my life, even including trying out for the paper shakers in the first place, and my palms and forehead were slick with sweat.

I stood outside his classroom, trying to make myself busy by taking out an old, battered copy of The Odyssey, the book I had to read for my own English class. A couple of people gave me curious looks as they passed by, probably wondering why I was lurking in the near-dead school hallways to read my assigned chapters, but nobody was bold enough to ask me straight-out what I was doing.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Louis emerged. At first, he didn’t seem to notice me, but once I pushed away from the wall, he turned to me, his eyebrows furrowed, and said, “Clara?”

I felt my face heat up dramatically as I nodded. “Can we talk for a minute?”

“Well, I have to meet Harlow, but you can walk with me if you want.”

That wasn’t exactly how I expected to be received, but I fell into step beside him anyway, my flat sneakers making soft pattering noises on the linoleum floor. We were silent as we passed by about four classrooms, and Louis finally said, “Are you going to talk, or…?”

“Right. Um.” I reached up for my ponytail again before sighing. “Look, Louis, I know that I might have ruined things the night of the party, when you told me that you liked me, and I told you that I had to go. I was just…confused, and I didn’t know what I wanted.”

He stopped, so I paused right along with him, running my hands down my long skirt to try to get rid of some of the sweat. “But I’ve talked to some people and thought it over, and I realized that it really shouldn’t matter if you’re from my side of town, or the other side of town, or if you’re from the slums of China. If I like you, I should just go for it, without worrying if other people are giving us funny looks or talking about me behind my back.”

He blinked his blue eyes a couple of times, but he didn’t say anything.

“So what I’m trying to say here,” I finished, hating that he didn’t stop me from rambling like Harlow had when I’d spoken to her about the subject, “is that I like you. A lot. And the only reason I didn’t give you a chance is because I was being shallow, and that really wasn’t fair to you. Would you be willing to give me another shot?”

There was a couple of beats, where my heart started to race faster in my chest, before I finally saw the smile I’d been hoping for. “God, I can’t believe this is happening. I’ve liked you since freshman year. Do you know how many times I’ve pictured this moment?”

And there I was, thinking that I’d ruined everything. But from the look in Louis’ eyes, I knew that I couldn’t have been more off-base. “Well, that’s sweet of you.”

His hand reached out for a second before falling back to his side, like he was afraid to make a move that he’d regret. “If you’re asking me to go out with you, then I’d be honored.”

He was so precious, with how much joy was written all over his face, the way that his hand was shaking just slightly. So I got up on my tiptoes and pressed my lips against his soft cheek gently.

“Thank you, Louis. Call me later, okay? We’ll set up a time and place to go out.”

“Or we could go out tonight? Six thirty, at Cal’s?”

Cal’s Diner. Where everyone would see us and know we were an item. It was a big leap, but I could tell how much it meant to Louis that I’d agreed to go out with him.

Shoving down my insecurities and my fears, I nodded. “I’ll see you there then.”

Brushing my fingers against his, I maneuvered around him and started padding the opposite way down the hallway. And I didn’t say anything when I heard a quiet, but very intelligible, “OH, FUCK YES.”