Inferno Part 3

~137~ As Much Drama As The Shore

Ellie's POV

We spend the morning kinda laying low. Even though Jake is trying to push the idea out of his mind, I know it's eating him alive.

Frankly, I'm mad at Justin. Even though I feel bad about hiding out in Jake's room for so long, I think he was out of line. 'I can never be inconvenienced, but let me see how much I can inconvenience others'.

By the time Justin is ready to go to the center, I can tell Jake's mind is racing.

"Please just come and hang out? She'll just think my brother is here for a visit. Please?"

"Um, hello?" I say with an attitude.

Justin looks at me and shakes his head. "You're not coming, Ellie."

"Excuse me?"

"I know what you're going to do. You're gonna butt in, and make a mental list of EVERYTHING that is wrong with this girl. Then you'll tell him all about it later."

The hurt of that is so overwhelming, I feel sick to my stomach.

"You really don't know me at all, do you?" I think I'm actually thinking about going home. Maybe I really don't want to keep trying.

"Don't talk to her like that. If I go, she goes," Jake snaps.

Justin sighs loudly. "Hurry up. I need to leave in five minutes. You coming or not?"

Jake looks at me, and I shrug. I think he needs to say 'thanks, but no thanks', but I'll never tell him that. I wanted to say that with Nolan, and look how wrong I was.

Jake finally nods. "I'll go, but I'm promising nothing."

Justin grins big. "That's all I'm asking."

I get shoved in the back of the car again, and I'm in such a foul mood. I kinda feel like we got played. Maybe he wants us in our lives, but it's always on his terms. I don't know, maybe I'm just really missing Taylor.

The ride is silent, with all of us in our own heads. When we get to the center, we walk in.

It's pretty cool. Lots of teens and preteens, hanging out and goofing around. Justin walks over to this girl, who's playing Basketball with several teen boys.

"How's it feel gettin' schooled by a girl, fellas?" She asks as she does something fancy and makes a basket.

One of the boys grins. "We'll let you know when we see one."

"You've got jokes," she chuckles as she jumps on his back and makes another basket, one-handed.

"Hey, there's my big bro! I can't keep hangin' around you losers, I've got some mentoring to get to!"

She grins big and jogs over to Justin.

"Hey big bro," she says as she gives him a high five.

"Hey Raya," Justin smiles.

"I need that much mentoring, you brought me more people?" She smirks.

Justin laughs. "Nah. My brother and sister are in town for a week; and I didn't want them messing up my record collection, so I made them come along."

"You're old, Justin. No one listens to records anymore," she teases, crossing her arms.

"I'll have you know they're making a comeback, thank you."

She rolls her eyes and gets out her phone, waving it in the air. "All you need is on this thing, old man."

Justin scoffs as he takes the basketball away from her and makes a basket, super far away from the hoop.