Chubby Love

Chapter 7.

It felt like forever that Lumi and Ren were staring at each other. The crowd surrounding them were just as shocked as Lumi was. She felt like she was dreaming. When she clearly was not going to answer him at that moment he decided to grab one of her hands causing her to nervously drop her box of desserts. He looked down at the box feeling bad they had fallen but he needed to get them out of the spotlight. He slowly pulled a stunned Lumi out of the crowd and walked her all the way out to the courtyard where they were finally alone.

When he found a suitable location for the two to discuss more he stopped and turned to look at the still dazed female. He sighed and let go of her hand looking off to the side. Lumi shook her head slightly to snap herself out of her confusion. She could not believe what was happening.

"Are you ok?" Ren finally asked, breaking their silence.

Lumi tried to talk but ended up coughing instead from the build up of saliva that sunk into the back of her throat.

"Ack, yeah..." She said in between coughs.

"Why did you ask me that back there?" She asked him after her coughing had stopped.

Ren wasn't sure how to answer him. Half of him really wanted to go out with Lumi because he didn't want her to be with someone else but then another half of him wanted to help her out of her previous situation. He knew how mean teenagers could be and after what happened in the library he didn't want her to be a target of anyone's bullying ever again. She was dear to him. If everyone in the school thought Lumi was dating one of the most popular students then people would hopefully leave her alone.

"You looked like you needed help." He decided to hold onto his feelings a little longer.

Ah, this makes more sense. Of course he didn't actually want to be my boyfriend. He was just being nice. She pondered in her head. She looked down at the ground with disappointment then flicked her hazel eyes up at him.

"I don't need your help Ren. I'm grown now." She muttered. Her tone was a little salty but true, he had left her alone for so many years. She had learned how to handle bullies and rumors on her own. And with that she walked away from him and headed to her first class. Ren sat down on the ground with his back against the school wall as he placed a hand over his face thinking if he had messed things up even more between them.

The rest of the day there were whispers all around Lumi as she roamed the halls from class to class. If she wasn't the hot topic of the school year before she was now. During lunch Jade had a million questions but Lumi deflected every one of them. Midway through lunch Freddy slowly approached their table and sat next to Lumi. Lumi smiled up at him to reassure him he did nothing wrong.

"I have something to tell you Lumi." He said with his head down so he couldn't look her in the eyes.

She looked at him puzzled.

"Earlier this year Chloe and I kind of made a deal. If I could make you confess your feelings for me at school I-I...I would reject you." He said ashamed.

Lumi and Jade sat there shocked looking at the blonde haired male.

"I'm sorry." He said, finally looking up at her with pleading eyes. "I didn't mean to hurt you."

Jade glared darts into Freddy while Lumi looked at him as if she was looking past him. Chloe, that bitch is always up to something. She said in her head. Lumi knew full well why Chloe had done this. It was for revenge because she always thought she would have gotten a chance to be with Ren if Lumi wasn't around. She wondered if Ren knew and that's why he had been coming around. He used to always try and protect her back in middle school and now he was doing it again. Her attention went back to the pleading blue eyes before her and she gave a faint smile.