Promise. (Manthony)

Twenty-Six

I curl my hands in a fist in my jacket pockets. "What will it take for you to leave me alone?" Elijah smiles as he shakes his head at me. I should've ignored his message and blocked him right away but I was too scared to. Now, everything felt worse.

"Can you believe this guy?" He says, turning to look at Tanner and James (the friend from the other night), and laughing. Tanner and James laugh along with him. I look down in defeat.

"You're a lot more conceited than I thought." Elijah takes a sip of his coffee as he crosses his legs from underneath the table, keeping his eyes on me the entire time. Only psychos drank coffee at night.

I can't help but scoff at this. "What do you mean?" I snap. He rolls his eyes at me in annoyance.

"I told you I was going to bother you and Christian. Not just you and not just him."

"Why do you have to bother both of us? This was between you and me." I cross my arms. My eyes did not break eye contact with him. I refused to make him think he was getting to me.

"Not to mention, why are they here?" I point at Tanner and James. "They have nothing to do with this either!" I exclaim.

"Keep it down." Elijah narrows his eyes at me as if he was threatening me.

"What are they doing here?" I repeat with even more hatred in my voice.

"Christian hurt him, didn't he?" Elijah asks, referring to Tanner. He sets his coffee cup down, waiting for me to answer his stupid question.

"Not on purpose." I finally say. "I'll do whatever you want...if you leave Christian out of it." I add, not wanting to waste time.

"Fine," Elijah agrees. My eyes widening at this. "Make them leave," I tell Elijah. Testing to see if he really would. He breathes heavily. Crossing his arms as well.

"Leave." He orders. His friends were sitting behind him as if they were only there to serve him. I guess they were. Tanner and James get up and silently leave the cafe. Neither of them looks at me again, and they soon disappear.

"What do you want?" I ask again. Elijah gives me a serious look. He was attempting to read me to see if I was serious. I guess I seemed serious.

"You have an interview in two days. You're going to be interviewed by Jimmy Fallon."

"And? What about it?" I interrupt. That was a huge step for us.

"I'm going to make a call. That call will make sure he asks you if you have anyone "special" in your life. When he does, you're going to say that you're dating a girl named Lily. You'll meet her tomorrow. Then, you're going to go out with her and make sure the paparazzi see you."

"This is still hurting Christian."

Elijah shrugs at me.

"Either that, or I'll make sure both of you get worse than how that's going to feel." Elijah uncrosses his legs. He leans forward and cocks his head to the side.

"Deal?" He asks.

"Can't we do something else?" I ask quietly.

"God, you're infuriating!" He yells with his voice slightly raised. A few people look at us, and I send them a half-smile to reassure them that everything is fine. Although I desperately wished I could announce how fucking crazy my ex was.

"Either that, or Tanner and James take you home where all your stupid friends are right now, and in front of everyone, you announce you lied to Christian. You tell him you feel nothing for him. You tell him that he's an idiot for thinking you'd ever reciprocate those feelings."