Say Hello, Wave Goodbye -- Louis Partridge

15. Run

Two months ago, no. Surely not. I mean, that was a very long time ago. Even if we were together we would have broken up by now, I think. It's been two weeks since Carly told me they were faking the whole thing. I must admit, I was glad she did it because now whenever they laugh it doesn't hurt so much as it did before. There was only two weeks until Christmas and New Years holiday so everyone had started decorated the school with baubles and lights. Matt and I were sitting in the cantine, I saw drawing a Christmas tree while he was making a list. He was Head Boy so he was in charge of the school council.

"I've got it! I've finally got a good idea!"

"What is it, I hope it's not a school pet. Way too unoriginal." He rolled his eyes at me.

"A Christmas themed school dance for sixth form!" Those were the last two years of school, we called it sixth form in the UK. (Totally not your admin trying to inform anyone who doesn't use the British school system about the British school system.)

"Who would come?"

"Everyone! I hear people complain all the time about how we don't have school dances or proms! We should have one! It should be this weekend!"

"Slow down, you haven't even put the idea up, what about next week instead?"

"No because people ditch the last week of school to go on holidays. It has to be this Friday."

"Fine, go ahead, tell the school council. I will be here when they turn down your idea." He ran off. I continued to sketch realising that I had started a new sketch unconsciously. I looked down to see it was my dad. I blinked back at his face again when someone said,

"Who is that?" I thought it was Matt so I said,

"I'm assuming the council turned you down?" I smiled to myself, still staring at my dad's face.

"What council Greenway?" I froze, only one person called me Greenway. I looked up to see Louis' face. You know how I said two weeks had past since my performance? Well, Louis has seemed to even dodge eye contact with me after that, or maybe I just assumed he did...

"Sorry. I thought you were someone else."

"Ah, your boyfriend is still at the council." His tone was bitter.

"You know what Louis, I think you know that Matt and I are just friends. So either tell me why you came up to me or you can just leave." I carried on staring at the drawing. Surprisingly, Louis sat next to me. His hair covered his face from the side, it had gotten longer since I last spoke to him.

"I saw you drawing, and I wondered who it was."

"It's my dad, or was my dad. I don't even know what to say anymore." I finally looked into his dark brown eyes, mine were light brown but it was so much easier to get lost in his. He looked sad.

"You, you cam draw people from memory?" I nodded, his eyebrows shot up. He smiled gently. "So, hypothetically, you could draw me from memory?"

"No, for some reason I can't draw you from my mind." I was irritated so the words slipped from my mouth. I started blushing like crazy, I can't hide when I'm embarrassed.

"This implies that you have tried?" I don't understand why he was pushing this so hard, if he knew I had feelings for him what would change? I sighed,

"Yes. I have an art A-level sketchbook of drawings of you, remember?" He looked guilty,

"You had to stop your art sketchbook because of me?"

"No, the original plan was just to be you because my topic was humans but I started a new sub topic and I draw different people studying. Is that it Louis? Because if it is I need to be by myself right now." He nodded,

"Yes. Yes, that's it." He was right about to leave when Matt came sprinting into the canteen.

"Ava!" He yelled as he reached our table. "Louis! Hi! You guys friends again?" He seemed happy so I gestured him to continue, not wanting to break his mood. "Anyways! I did it! My idea went through! We are having a Christmas Ball this Friday! Whoop whoop!" Louis looked confused,

"Matt's idea to make the school a better place is by adding a Christmas ball." He nodded silently. "I won't be going, by the way." I said to Matt and his mouth opened,

"There is no way you aren't going."

"Isn't... balls meant to be like a date thing? Considering I don't have that, or friends that I can do a single ladies dance with, I'm not going." Louis turned to me now, he was sort of getting that Matt and I were just friends.

"You could always join our group, I mean, Matt is running it so..." I shook my head, the last time I tried hanging out with Carly's friends... it didn't end so well. Matt answered Louis for me by snorting.

"If I know Ava, she would rather move to the Arctic then hang with our group for a night. Okay, I must admit, Amanda is a bit tacky. But Emily is nice, even nicer than Carly if she wants to be. And the boys, I mean, you know Louis, it should be fine. Come on, please?" He begged me and I still shook my head. Louis looked disappointed, or maybe it was my imagination again.

"Ava, you give me no choice, will you be my friend date to the Christmas Ball?" I laughed because Matt was standing down on one knee, I realised that Louis stiffened, he did that a lot. I don't know if he notices it though.

"Yes, of course I will go with you." He gave me a fist bump and sat next to me. I needed to break Louis' silence.

"So, Louis, will you be going?" He nodded and looked away, it almost reminded me of that look he had in the ending scene when Tewksbury he was saying bye to Enola, neither sad or happy.

"Yeah... I want to slow dance with this girl I like." Ouch. It couldn't be me, he's moved on. That's great. No, that is great. I am happy for him.

"That's great." The bell rang so I said goodbye and left to Music. Matt gave me a pile of flyers he had printed out and my hand was already empty. This was going to be an interesting event. In Music, Mrs Welser gave us the task to search up a song we had never listened to before but had heard of from someone. Say Hello Wave Goodbye was the first thing that popped into my mind. I searched it up and Louis was right, it was quite famous. Or it was the band that was famous, not the song.

I was surprised to find out that Soft a cell was the band who created the song Tainted Love. I listened to the song to realise it was good. It was more than good actually, it literally was amazing. The lyrics meant something and that was all I needed in a song. The electronic music was especially well made and I pressed replay as soon as the song stopped. It was weird because somehow, the song reminded me of Louis.

This chapter was inspired by the song by Run, from the band Snow Patrol.

Yeah... this chapter sucked. It's because it was sort of like an intro chapter, I'm sorry if you guys were expecting more, I guess I will see you on the next update.

Xoxo

BrooksAreGreen