Chapter Text
“Illi!” Warren called out from across the schoolyard, waving to Illi, who was sitting on a bench next to her brother, Mikey. Illi giggled and waved back, which Warren took as an invitation to come over. Mikey sighed, pushing up his glasses with a scrunch of his nose, and shook his head.
“What now?” Illi asked, nudging her brother with her elbow,
“You know I dont really like… whatshisname.” Mikey responded plainly,
“Warren,”
“Whatever. I just dont like him,” he shrugged, packing up his lunch, "He's gonna be nothing but trouble, better you realize that now Illi.”
“Youre just jealous that I'm the one getting attention from the opposite gender and not you!” Illi accused, turning her attention away from Mikey and back to Warren.
“Whatever,” Mikey dismissed, "I'm going to sit with Ray, see you at home.” Then he stood up and left. By that time, Warren had made it across the courtyard, and had sat down next to Illi. They talked a bit about classes, homework, and the other things teenagers usually talked about, when Illi suddenly remembered something. She made a small noise in the back of her throat as if scolding herself for almost forgetting, then pulled out a CD case and held it out to Warren.
“Its for you, I burned all of those songs you told me you liked on it,” Illi dug further into her book bag, then pulled out a piece of paper with the CD’s tracklist neatly scribbled on it.
“Holy… How did you remember all of this?” Warren marveled, reading over the tracklist once, twice, then folding it up and shoving it haphazardly into his pocket.
“I pay attention.”
“I know that now,” Warren tucked the CD case safely into his backpack, not having the heart to tell Illi he had no way to listen to it other than his car's busted radio, and figuring he could probably find a Walkman at the pawn shop down the road. Warren seemed to remember something, for he broke the silence with a grin,
“Hey, how ‘bout we listen to this when we go out tonight?”
“Huh?” Illi tilted her head, and Warren's face fell just a smidge,
“Did you seriously forget…” To this, Illi pulled out her flip phone and snapped it open, looking through the texts between her and Warren, then giggling nervously,
“Sorry, mustve forgot because of school… and stuff…” Illi looked up at Warren apologetically, but he just shrugged, not all that bothered.
“‘S okay, as long as you still agree,”
“Of course I'm going!” Illi stood up, “You just havent told me where we are even going, that's like, important.” Her voice rose slightly, but she quickly calmed down, not wanting to upset her or Warren.
“I-” Warren began, but was cut off by the clanging of the schoolbell, to which Illi stood up quickly and rushed towards the door, not out of wanting to ignore Warren's apology, but her next class was far away, and another tardy would mean a three hours detention. Still she turned around at the courtyard's double doors leading into the school and mouthed a ‘sorry’ before disappearing into the crowd of students.