Five Steps Away

Chapter 10

Everything with Elijah has been weird. Granted the 'weird' isn't exactly a bad weird, but it definitely isn't what I would have expected to happen.

Turns out we're surprisingly good actors.

After we kissed in his car last week, kissing has mixed into our daily routine. Obviously it's only when we're in front of people we know (after all, kissing is purely to make our relationship look realistic). But it's been really nice...

And Elijah's a really good kisser. Like, criminally good.

"Are we going out today?" Elijah asks. I turn my head to look at him.

"Carla's Cafe?" I suggest. He smiles, nodding.

I rest my head back on his shoulder, and my hand grazes his ever so slightly, before he takes hold of it.

We've been going out a lot after school. It's been nice. We talk for hours, laughing about everything and anything. It's been like a moment of calamity. Something that grounds me.

At the sound of laughing, I look up, only to see Lily covering her mouth, her face lit up and animated. Next to her, Thomas is a lot less subtle. He's doubled down, laughing freely at whatever just happened.

Surprisingly, Lily and Thomas have been getting along really well, despite both of them being extremely shy.

I look at Elijah, a smile on my face. "They're replacing us, you know?" I say. He chuckles.

"Yeah, they definitely are."

At the end of the day, as I walk back to the parking lot to get to Elijah's car, I see Jenna at her locker. My heart pounds. I haven't seen her ever since our fight.

She's wearing baggy jeans and a t-shirt, her hair effortlessly perfect as usual. She looks unbothered, but happier than usual. She's smiling as she looks down at her phone. But it's a different kind of smile. It's brighter. I suck in a breath. A couple of weeks ago I would've known exactly why she's smiling so much.

As hard as it is to admit, I miss her. I didn't think she'd stay mad at me for this long, I know that we're just gonna start talking again at some point but I don't like how it's taking so long. It's almost like she's completely blocked me out of her life, which to be honest hurts like hell. But I know we'll make up soon enough. We always do.

I try to shake it off, moving to Elijah's car. He's already in the driver's seat.

He smiles at me, before he starts the way to Carla's Cafe. It's a bit of a drive, so no one from school usually goes there, which is exactly why we have been ever since last week.

He still doesn't know why I hate Ivy Cool now, but when I told him I didn't want to go there anymore he thankfully didn't ask why.

"Hey... so I wanted to ask you something," I start, breaking the comfortable silence we had fallen into. Over the past couple of weeks, we've gotten used to each other's company enough to be together in complete and utter silence. Simply the act of being present is enough. I don't feel pressure to start a conversation, cause it doesn't feel like he'd get bored of me if I didn't.

He glances at me before looking back to the road. "You know Charlotte Drew right?" I ask. He nods. Everyone knows Charlotte. She's that one girl that no one likes but everyone pretends to. Her parents are crazy rich, and she's an only child, so she's used to attention and sis definitely isn't ready to let go of it. She celebrates her birthday at least 5 times a year. Like actually 5 times a year. I've overheard her say that it's cause she was born on New Years so her birthday is technically all year long (how that makes sense is beyond me). Today is going to be the 4th one so far. She'd probably have a lot less friends if her parties weren't as fun as they are. "She invited us over to her birthday party tonight."