“With how loud we were bein’, I’m sure they’ve got a clue. Unless they really think that was a cat,” Johnnie retorted, though he really had no idea when most of the world was a Gaussian blur for the whole summer.
“Secret monogamy,” he scoffed, rolling his eyes. It was the dumbest thing he’d ever heard. He didn’t know why he’d ever keep his love on lock down. Especially not something as groundbreaking as monogamy. He couldn’t even spell it, much less entertain the thought of having only one choice of dessert for the rest of his life but… right then, he couldn’t think of wanting to do much else. Maybe old age was making him soft. He’d be 25 eventually and his life would be over before he knew it.
“Darlin’, I ain’t afraid of nothin’. What are they gonna say? ‘Ward’s fucking again, what a cad’. It ain’t news to me. I’d send them invitations to watch and seethe in live colour.”
Johnnie pinched her chin between his fingers and held her steady, gazing into her eyes with an undeniable tenderness before pecking her on the mouth. “But if that’s what you want, then who am I to say no?”
He eased up and inhaled as he smoothed down the front of his shirt like he was brushing all the soft sentiment from his being. Conceding to a girl was one thing but conceding to a girl who wanted to keep him a dirty little secret was another thing but he didn’t like questioning things too much. The whole ruse would only last a good week or two, he was sure of it.
“I’m just gonna tell you now that it ain’t gonna work the way you think it’s gonna,” he pointed out casually, fishing his cigarette from behind his ear again to stick between his lips. “There’s no way you’re gonna be able to resist.”
“I hope they did think it was a cat. Two cats. However many cats necessary to make the noise, because I’d rather my baby brother’s mind not have to absorb that,” Lore insisted. Baby was clearly a loose term but Finn was always going to be her younger brother, and her protectiveness over him extended to shielding him from any explicit details about her personal life. It was like having a friend who still believed in Santa by fifth grade - you wanted to cover their ears for all of December to protect them for just a little bit longer. Finn was by no means stupid and definitely knew certain things about her that she’d tried to keep secret, but the more he assumed alternative explanations the better.
The secret monogamy bomb had been a big one to drop, and while Lore had been hoping to be okay no matter which way the dust settled, she found herself frozen in place as she waited for the male to work things out.
The phrase itself clearly wasn’t a hit, and he could say he wasn’t afraid of what other people thought all he wanted, but neither of those things were actual answers to the question that had more or less been posed. Was he specifically also down for secret monogamy?
“Fascinating hypothetical, but maybe we don’t expand on the invite thing,” she tossed out, a slight frown appearing on her face as she worked through a short explanation of where she was coming from with things. “I just don’t trust people not to try and tear this apart. Because people are horrible and they don’t just let people have things. And having lived in Lima since I was seventeen years old I can absolutely confirm to you that people in this town are somehow even worse. And I’ve lived in both LA and New York, which are essentially both Judgement Town USA.”
Taking cues from what Johnnie was doing more than what he was saying, hope had definitely settled into her heart as she stared into his eyes. Tender prolonged eye contact would be such a weird way to break things off with someone or to turn them down.... But then he was speaking and a wave of emotions was flowing through her - not just relief, but an incredible amount of fondness.
God, she really, really liked this boy. What was she getting herself into?
“Thank you,” she murmured as he moved just a tiny bit away. What she actually wanted was to live in a world where she could do whatever she wanted and not be judged for it, but Lima, Ohio was like East High circa whenever the hell High School Musical was set. You stuck to the status quo, lest you wanted to cause a huge choreographed number (probably by Glee Club so you know it’d be bad) in the dining hall. Therefore, a secret relationship was the next best thing.
Shuffling so that she’d reversed positions and made sure that Johnnie was the one trapped (in a nice way!) against the desk, Lore shifted gears. She was on a big actions-speak-louder-than-words kick but there was no reason why both couldn’t be effective.
“Oh, but you see, I only have to resist in public. And locked rooms in parts of school where almost no one goes during Orientation are not technically public.”
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