The Misadventures of Chloe Saunders
Chapter 25
Advice
She pushed the incident with Mr. Travis to the back of her brain as sheets of rain pounded the roof after the last bell rang.
Kids groaned restlessly as they gathered their books and pulled up their hoods to run to their cars and the bus ramp.
Chloe waited patiently underneath the overhang of the school out front for Milo, glancing behind her periodically to make sure Mr. Travis wasn't lurking in the shadows to finish what he'd started.
"I'm gonna catch a ride with Nate and Liz," Simon's familiar voice said and she turned to see Derek backing out of the front doors. He didn't seem to see her and grunted something that sounded like a response to his brother.
She looked away quickly and watched the rain seem to pour down even harder than before.
Lightening crackled in the clouds and turned the grey-purple and pink.
"Ew," she muttered to herself, hating the cold wet of the rain, but still mesmerized by the electricity crackling overhead.
Derek walked passed her, backpack hanging off his shoulder by one strap, and he hunched his shoulders up to his ears as the rain soaked him within minutes.
"Hey! Derek!" she called, darting out from the overhang and grabbing his sleeve. "You don't have a ride, do you?"
He shot her an irritated look. "No," he drawled mockingly, "I just like walking in downpours."
A little bit stung and taken aback, she recoiled, cradling her hand against her chest. "No need to be an asshole about it. It was a simple question." Exasperatedly and uncharacteristically tired, she trudged back to the steps and sat down, wiping what she was rain and not tears out of her eyes.
"I'm…not mad at you, Chloe," he sighed, plopping down beside her while he wrung out his shirt, "I just can't get Mr. Travis out of my head."
"Brokeback Mountain?" she giggled.
"No," he snapped while his cheeks turned red as he looked around quickly and peeled off his shirt. He wore a tank top underneath but it did little to hide the bulk of his biceps.
Out of embarrassment, she averted her eyes while he slipped into a dry t-shirt and pulled on a hoodie.
"Sorry," he apologized, wiping his hair out of his face as he turned a darker shade of red than before. "I…he just creeped me out. The way he looked at you."
"Looked at me?" She twisted so her knees touched his.
He ducked his head and rubbed his wet t-shirt against his hair, soaking up the water. "Like he—" Abruptly, he broke off and threw his wet shirt down into the recesses of his backpack. "Like he wanted to hurt you," he spat.
Chloe couldn't think of anything to say after that and stared down at her wet sneakers, where her toes were cold in wet socks.
A horn beeping pulled her out of her thoughts, and she lifted her head to see the family's black car waiting at the curbside.
"Come on," she said, struggling to pick up her backpack with cold fingers, and squeaked in surprise when the bag was lifted out of her hands. She stared blankly at Derek's retreating back until Milos honked again, jerking her from her stare down.
She pushed herself up and jogged through the onslaught of rain. "Milos," she panted as she slid in after Derek, "this is my friend, Derek. I hope you don't mind that I offered him a ride."
"At least you didn't offer me candy to get me in the car," Derek muttered beside her.
She turned red as Milos chuckled.
"Where do you live?" he asked the boy, adjusting his hat out of his eyes while Chloe shut the door and buckled up.
After rattling off his address, he rested his forehead against the window and closed his eyes.
Absently, she wondered if he was sleeping, and just admired him, using his vulnerability—lack of awareness really—to her advantage.
He was broodingly handsome, with a crooked nose—no doubt broken some time before he moved here—that hung over a top lip that was too full and a thinner lower one; his cheekbones looked more at home on a model, his long lashes casting faint shadows across the apples of his cheeks; his pale eyelids were cast in deep, almost purple shadows. Pieces of long hair frame his face, some pieces longer than others, and she wondered if the hair ever effected his vision.
Like the pervert she was, she continued to ogle him.
Positioned under his lips, his chin was too sharp and jutted out like an artist's Neanderthal, which made him even more striking; the jaw was too soft for the rest of his face, more rounded than squared off; a thick, muscular neck drew her eyes to his broad, corded shoulders and a peek of protruding collarbone and Adam's Apple.
Spots of his t-shirt, light grey, were darker with the water that still beaded his cream skin and she could see how it clung in an absent, almost sensual way to his muscles; he was athletic, with long muscles that looked more at home on the nfl field, on a grown man. Thick, blue veins drew that attention to his forearms, decorated with thick dark hair; bone protruded on either sides of his wide wrists and tapered into massive hands, light scars catching the light.
She quickly peeked up at him, praying his eyes were still closed; a deity must've been listening because when she glanced at his face, his eyelids twitching, he was still unawares.
"Is this the boy Lauren doesn't like?" Milos asked quietly from the front seat, and Chloe jerked in surprise, her heart stuttering in its beating.
How stupid she'd been!
How could she have forgotten Milos was there? Her cheeks burned like coals.
"Yeah," Chloe whispered.
"Do you have feelings for him?" he continued.
She bit her lip hard enough to taste copper. "I think so," she admitted.
Milos was quiet for a very long. "I think you should follow your heart. Like one of those romance movies. That's what your mother believed in. Not what your brain decides or your parents. Your heart. Your mother…she was a good woman."
When they dropped Derek off, Chloe was lost in her thoughts and didn't even realize the car had been standing still for several minutes until Derek's voice cut through her train of thought.
"Bye, Chloe." He was walking away when she started.
"Derek! Wait!" She struggled to unbuckle and scrambled out of the car, ignoring the downpour. In the side-view mirror, she caught a glimpse of Milo's smile. "Wait," she pled.
"Yeah?" He cocked a brow at her.
"Willyougoonadatewithme?" she blurted before she could lose her nerve.
For a very long time, he didn't respond; he just stared at her, his eyes gazing at her as though she were a puzzle he was determined to solve. Rain continued to pour down unrelentingly, making her shiver.
"Okay," he said finally.
"Okay…? I mean, I—What? How? I mean—"
He gave her a half-smile, just a tilt of his mouth, that made her heart stutter. "I'll text you, okay? I'm new to the whole dating thing too."
"Dating? We're dating?" she squeaked.
He leveled his stare at her. "If you want. I'd, personally, like that. You should go before you get sick. Oh, and Chloe?"
She paused in walking back to the car.
"If you want to ogle me, all you have to do is ask."