friends | clouis

thirteen

Promise not to fall

"When everything starts to heat it's on you, cause you promised not to fall, promised we would call it off, now I'm feeling things"

I got changed into a black bandeau top with a blue and green flannel over. Just wearing leggings on the bottom with black combat boots. I didn't do my hair (or really put much effort at all) because it wasn't a date. I grabbed my small backpack and Violet's keys, and looked over to Louis who was finishing putting his boots on. "Let's go," he got up, determined, and walked to the door, not letting me go first. "I thought you were supposed to be a gentleman tonight?" "Technically I don't have to, it's not a date," his eyebrows were raised the whole time saying this. I glanced at him, then carried on walking out to Violet's car. I texted her quickly, then we were off.

We arrived at Olive Garden, the smell instantly filling our nostrils. We got sat down at a table and looked at what we were going to get. I eventually decided on lasagna and an iced tea. The waiter came back and we both ordered. When they left, Louis began to talk. "So," I cut him off. "Remember, this isn't a date. No awkward date questions. We're just two friends out for dinner," he glanced at me. "Alright, what did we even do when we were friends?" I laughed, "We still are," he chuckled with me. "Yeah, but...you know what I mean," "Yeah". We both paused for a second, "We used to show each other memes, talk about old memories, the future," I laughed, thinking about the conversation we'd had the night before everything happened. "Alright, well there was that time when we were all baking together in like seventh grade for the fundraiser," he smiled while I laughed remembering what happened. I finished the story for him, "We dumped powdered sugar all over Violet. Her mom was pissed," he beamed. "It was totally worth it," we laughed together. I stopped laughing after a little while, Louis still smiling. We both knew what the other was thinking about. And we both wanted to ask, but we were both too scared. What did this make us?

Louis stopped smiling after a little while too. We awkwardly sat there, waiting for the arrival of our food. "Clem?" I looked up, I knew he was about to ask about it. "Not right now," I saw our waiter approaching us, food in hand. I sipped my drink as he put each item down in front of us. It was still awkward. I'm sure the waiter felt the tension in the air as they rushed to put everything down. I smiled at them, "Thank you," and they nodded, walking away. "When can we talk about it?" He paused briefly before saying it. "I don't know Lou, if I knew how to respond I would," he nodded. "Let's just take this night to have fun, act like none of this happened," it came out harsher than expected, but he nodded anyways, even if it was hesitant.

We told jokes for the rest of the night, even if it was awkward at first. We just ignored everything for a while, remembering the friendship we had before this. We walked out to the car, laughing. We both got in, still chuckling, and began our drive back to campus.

I felt his eyes lingering on me as I looked out the window. I looked back to him, "Yes?" He laughed a bit. "Nothing," my face wrinkled up, "No, what are you thinking about?" "Look, this might get a bit serious really quickly. But I can't pretend like...that didn't happen. And especially multiple times," I let him finish his sentence before beginning mine. "I know, I just wanted tonight to not think about everything," he looked at me with sympathy in his eyes. "I get it," he removed one hand from the steering wheel and to my leg, inching closer to my inner thigh. "But does this feel wrong?"

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