Elodie and Heloise (9 page)

In a few minutes, dinner was ready to be served. She called out to her family for dinner, at which point Kyle got up from his chair and ran over to the kitchen to help Heloise serve. He opened the cupboards and began getting out some plates and utensils and setting them on the counter to the left of the stove, where Heloise stood with serving spoons and tongs for the chicken.

“No please, I’m fine. Let me do it.”

“No, you are not fine. Please, let me help. I’m just getting out plates. You put the food on the plates and I’ll serve them.”

“No you don’t have to-”

“Heloise.” He spoke her name in such a way that she couldn’t keep her eyes away from him. Finally she gazed up at him and she tried not to be touched by the concerned look in his eyes. “Let me help.”

Finally she nodded and let him help her. She placed the chicken pieces and green beans artfully on the plates as Kyle distributed the plates at the dining room table. Elodie, Shannon, and Francis came into the room and Francis inhaled the wonderfully sweet smells of honey mixing with the garlic in the green beans.

“
Je ne sais pas ce qu’on mange pour le dîner ce soir, mais que ça sent bon.
" she heard her father exclaim as he took his usual place at the dining room table.

“Yeah wow, Heloise, you’ve really become quite the master chef these last few weeks,” Elodie remarked. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you quite like this. Nice to see you doing something besides studying for once.”

“I’m finding what makes me happy, all right?” she snapped at her sister as she put a scoop of green beans onto the last plate on the counter. “What’s wrong with that?”

“I was just making an observation. Sheesh.”

Heloise ignored her sister’s comments. She made sure all the burners and the stove were off and then she went to join the rest of her family and Kyle at the dinner table.

The feedback on her dinner was positive all around. Most importantly to Heloise, Kyle had nothing but good things to say about the meal. He became animated as he joined in the family conversation, though always looking over at Heloise to see how she was doing. Every time his eyes fell on her, Heloise would pretend to not notice and instead be fascinated by something her mom was talking about. She couldn’t bear to look at him for fear that he would know just how she felt.

Dinner lasted for about forty-five minutes, at which point Elodie said something about going with some friends to the downtown cinema for a movie and that they were coming to pick her up soon. Just as she got up from the table to put on her coat, the doorbell rang and she raced to the door to open it. With a quick au revoir, she was out the door.

Heloise had finished her meal a while ago and she was busy cleaning up the kitchen. Her parents then went back to their usual duties, Francis to his reading and Shannon to watching TV. Kyle meanwhile came over to the kitchen and said that he needed to leave soon so he could get home. There was no hiding the disappointment in his voice.

“Okay.” She pretended like scrubbing the pots was the most fascinating thing to do, not even bothering to raise her eyes to him as he stood there next to her, no more than a foot away from her. 

“Heloise....” He hesitated after saying her name, as if he was preparing to say something of grave importance. Finally, he simply stated, “Thank you for the dinner. It was wonderful.” It seemed like that was not quite what he wanted to say, but he didn’t know what else to tell her.

“You’re welcome. I’m glad you enjoyed my cooking.”

Heloise dumped the soapy water out of the pot where she had cooked the green beans and grabbed a towel from the counter to wipe it dry, still not looking at him.

“I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

“
Comme d’habitude.
”

She heard him walk away and it took everything she had to not tell him to turn around and come back to her because she had something she wanted to finally tell him. She had grown so weary of keeping everything inside, but she couldn’t bring herself to let it out. Heloise waited for him to turn around, but instead, his footsteps continued toward the door and she heard him say au revoir to her parents before opening the front door to leave.

Only when the front door closed behind him did she bother to show any emotion. Before she knew it, tears came to her eyes and began to blur her vision as she walked over to the bathroom to take her shower. This time she went to the bathroom that was the farthest from the living room to ensure that her parents would not hear her. She wanted to be absolutely alone.

She shut the bathroom door, turned on the fan and the shower, and began to cry, every sob rocking her body from deep within her soul.  

Heloise should have been paying attention to the math lesson going on in class. Except that it was the Friday before Thanksgiving and her mind was already on Thanksgiving break. Finally it would be a respite from seeing Kyle since his family was going to visit his mom’s side of the family in Norfolk and therefore would not be around town for a while. 

The two of them still talked at lunch and he still saw her outside of class, but their conversations became less enthusiastic each time they saw each other. His friendly face no longer brightened when she came into view and he didn’t seem as eager to share as much with her anymore. It didn’t help that she was much more reticent about her thoughts since she didn’t want to be too friendly with him and possibly reveal how she really felt. She knew what she should do, but she still couldn’t muster the courage to finally say it. 

Concentrate on the lesson. Must look busy.

She shook her head and tried to concentrate on the lesson, taking notes off the Smart Board like all the other students were doing as the teacher droned on about various algebra formulas they’d have to know for a test after Thanksgiving break. She’d already read ahead in the math book and so she knew these formulas already. However, she still had to make it seem like she didn’t already know what the teacher was talking about.

Classes were only fifty minutes long, but those fifty minutes in class felt like they lasted an eternity. Math class usually flew by quickly for Heloise, since it was one of her favorite subjects, but since she was consumed with thoughts of Kyle, time seemed to slow down. Way down. Every few minutes she’d look up at the clock, only to find that it had been just two minutes since she last checked the time. At least the teacher didn’t notice how distracted she was.

At long last, the piercing sound of the bell rang through the mostly quiet classroom and the students grabbed their books and headed toward the door to their last class of the day. 

Heloise picked up her books, but accidentally dropped her workbook on the floor as she stood up. She looked around embarrassed and shoved it in her backpack, sure that her usually neat updo was now in shambles from bending over and also from sweating profusely during class. 

She stepped out of the classroom and immediately saw Kyle standing to the right of the classroom door. She was surprised to see him because he didn’t usually meet her outside her sixth period class, since his class was all the way across the school. Her heart leapt into her throat at the sight of him.

“Kyle. What are you doing here? I thought your class was all the way across the school-”

He stood there to the right of the classroom door wearing a red sweatshirt with front pockets, jeans hanging on his skinny frame, and white tennis shoes with a stony face that was his usual look these days. 

“I asked my teacher if I could leave a little early to go to the clinic.” He gestured toward the school clinic located directly across from her classroom. “Listen, I really needed to see you, Heloise. Things haven’t been the same between us for a while. I know you’ve noticed it, and I certainly have. And.... there’s something that I really need to tell you. What are you doing after school today?”

“Nothing as far as I know.”

“Good. Meet you in the front hallway after school? I really need to get this out.”

“Um, sure.” She nodded, her throat turning to a desert. Was he going to say the words that she was longing to hear?

“All right, good. See you then. I have to run.” He waved and then disappeared into the crowd. After just a few moments, she could hardly tell where he was in the large groups of students milling around before their next class.

The last class of the day seemed to drag on even longer than her previous class had done. Her heart thumped in anticipation, wondering what Kyle had to say. He had sounded so serious, not at all his usual self, that she wondered if she would even still be his friend after their talk.

Finally, the last bell of the day rang and eager high school students poured into the hallways to catch their buses home. For Heloise, class couldn’t have ended fast enough. At least classes were only fifty minutes long. But now it was the moment of truth.

Heloise quickly gathered her things and shoved them into her backpack, trying to hurry as fast as she could so she would meet Kyle in time. The tiny science hallway at the other end of the school was packed to the walls with a crowded sea of students, and Heloise couldn’t see over them to know if Kyle was there waiting for her or not.

There he was in the front hallway, standing with one hand in his pocket and his other hand’s thumb hooked through his backpack strap. His face was just as stony as it had been when she saw him before her last class. His eyes darted around the large vestibule as more and more students flooded the hallway and pushed toward the front doors of the school.

When his eyes fell on Heloise, at first his face softened, then it returned to utter blankness. Heloise had never seen him looking so serious before and it made her even more anxious. He then went to an empty spot along the wall and waited for Heloise to approach him.

“All right, I’m here.”

“Good. Let’s go then.”

While everyone else around them buzzed about in a flurry of conversation and activity, Kyle and Heloise remained absolutely silent as they walked out of the school. Only when they had crossed the street and seemed to be heading toward the town park did one of them finally speak.

“So where are we going?”

“Here.”

Kyle led her through the town park just a few blocks from their school, where the noise of the students dissipated into the cold November air. The park was laid out with at least seven diagonal paths all converging on a central fountain and many benches lining the stone paths. Beautifully manicured flower beds were scattered all over the small park, lending a kind of simplicity to the surroundings that really appealed to Heloise..

He picked a bench in front of a bed of pansies and set his backpack on the ground to his right. He plopped himself down, obviously lost in thought. Heloise followed suit and sat at the other end of the bench, at least a foot and a half of space between them, with Heloise sitting off to Kyle’s left. His face had not changed its expression since they left the school, and she feared what Kyle had to say to her. He sat forward on the bench, holding his chin up with his hands with a fixed gaze on something far off in the distance. Then he sighed, leaned back against the bench and turned to face Heloise.

“Heloise, I’m going to just come on out and say it.” He leaned a little bit closer to her and for the first time that afternoon, she lifted her eyes to his and saw something in there that she had never seen before.

“I like you. No, more than that. I really really like you. I know we’ve only known each other for about a month, but this last month has been one of the best months of my life. I haven’t felt like this about anyone before. You’re so smart and beautiful and I really really want to know more. I want to be more than just friends and I just hope that you feel the same way.”

Throughout his confession, he became even more frenzied, as if he was finally letting go of some deeply felt emotions. Heloise sat up even straighter with every sentence he said to her, not quite believing what she was really hearing.

“And ever since that night when I came over for dinner and we played Mille Bornes, you’ve been acting very strangely. You’re not the Heloise that attracted me. And I hate to see you like this because dammit Heloise, you are one of the smartest and most beautiful girls I have ever met and I’ve wanted to be with you ever since that party at your house when we spent so much time talking and getting to know one another. But I was too shy to ask you on a date, so I decided we should just try being friends. But I know you too much to just be a friend. I want you too much.”

His eyes fell on Heloise and instead of meeting his gaze, she stared at her hands, unsure of how to respond and trying to hold back the tears in her eyes. They were the words that she longed to hear, but now that he had actually said them, she didn’t know how to react. She didn’t want to believe that he had actually said what she thought he had said. She couldn’t. Every second that went by felt like an eternity and as she remained silent, she knew it was giving him the wrong impression about her feelings.

Kyle shook his head in disappointment and stopped looking at her, his eyes falling to his feet instead. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have even said anything. I should’ve just left well enough alone.” He started moving toward the edge of the bench and motioned to pick up his backpack.

She might have let him leave the house that night when she cooked for him, but she knew she could not let him go this time without saying what she needed to say. There was no way.

“NO!”

That word escaped from her throat with a desperate raspiness that surprised her. “Kyle, please don’t go. You have no idea how much I have wanted to hear you say those words to me.” Tears began to flow out of her eyes and she did not wipe them away this time. Her defenses were breaking down and there was nothing she could do to stop them. 

Kyle sat back down on the bench and moved a little closer to Heloise, his attention focused on her.

She let it all flow out. “I really really like you. And you have no idea how I have wanted to tell you my real feelings, but I have been so scared that you didn’t feel the same way. I’m not used to this. I don’t think I’ve ever felt anything like this for anyone in my entire life. And then you came along that night at the party and you looked just as awkward as I did at that party surrounded by all those people-”