Hold Me Closer

Chapter 9

Felix slid into his seat next to Clare at the back of Miss Coraline's classroom. He set his backpack down on the ground and pulled out his notebook that they were using for their dress in fashion & design.

Two days ago, on Monday, Clare and Felix went to talk with Lizzie to see if she was up for helping them out, and thankfully, she had agreed. Lizzie also reassured them she was lesbian. With the new found information, Felix had no problem texting Lizzie in homeroom at the beginning of the day, and low-key ignoring Zinnia. He wasn't rude to her face, just a little more distant than usual.

Clare decided she should start a conversation. "How's it been going with Zinnia? I haven't really been listening to you guys."

"I think I'm definitely getting the message off that I like Lizzie," He said, "But I think she's getting more ambitious. I mean, you saw her in gym the other day. She was begging me to play basketball."

"I kinda expected that." Their plan was going opposite of how they wanted, so they were gonna have to do something drastic, all for Zinnia's sake.

Pulling out a pencil, Felix started to sketch a bigger version of what the top piece that they were making together in fashion class, which was what they were working on today.

"That's right," Clare said, "Today's Wednesday, our last in class work day."

"Correct," He replied, "I don't think we're gonna finish either. We still haven't finished the skirt and haven't even started the essay. So, do you want to meet up at my house tonight to work on it?"

Before Clare could respond, Zinnia barged into their conversation.

"Hey guys!" She said, sitting down at the table in front of them. "Felix, I have something to propose." He glanced over at Clare and made eye contact with her, almost saying: "uh-oh, what now?"

"And what would that be?" Felix asked. Zinnia must have been catching onto the fact that Felix had been texting Lizzie and talking about how amazing she was for the past two days, so this wouldn't be anything good.

"For my art class," Zinnia started, "I have this piece that was so good it's going into an art show! I was wondering if you wanted to come with me and we could look at all the art together."

"I... when is it?" Felix stuttered. Clare had a feeling he didn't want to say yes, but didn't want to come off as rude saying no.

"It's this weekend on Sunday."

He paused for a moment. "You know what, I'll go. Message me the time and then I'll get back to you."

Clare turned to him abruptly, shocked by his response. She thought he was gonna say no.

Zinnia gasped. "Really?! Thank you so much! I'm so happy to bring you along. Afterwards we can get some food too. Art museums make me hungry." She turned back around to her desk, probably kicking her feet from being excited.

Clare leaned in to whisper to Felix. "What are you doing?" She asked, quietly.

"Okay, here's my plan. While we're at the art museum I'm gonna tell her about how I'm not interested-in a nice way of course."

Clare nodded her head, though she wasn't fully agreeing to the idea.

"Don't worry. I still wanna be friends with her, so I'm not gonna blow her up. She's still a really nice girl who's enjoyable to talk to."

"Yeah, but she gets hurt really easily, by words especially. She had a tough childhood with her parents and they were verbally abusive toward her."

He went silent. "I'll be really easy on her, promise." He stuck out his pinky to make a pinky promise.