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Grace walked into the auditorium hurriedly, looking for her mom to make sure she was seated and everything was good before she went backstage. She had purposely told her mom to show up early too so Grace could seat her, but the elder was yet to show up.
"Hey," Elliot said, appearing behind her. Hardly anyone was in the room yet, mostly just the crew and cast setting up still.
"Hey yourself," Grace replied, her eyes still scanning the area for her mom.
"Are you still mad at me?"
Grace sighed. The feelings she had towards him could definitely be classified as anger, resentment even, but more than anything... she was hurt. She saw what Eliana and Fez had, and while she used to be like that with Elliot, it wasn't like that anymore. She had accepted it a long time ago, but she was determined to not let people hang around that she didn't deserve to waste the time and energy on. That included him. "I'm not mad at you, Elliot. Just need some space."
He nodded, big eyes looking towards the floor. Truly he felt embarrassed. He'd been acting like an idiot with Jules in front of Grace, but long before that too. He took Grace for granted, he knew that now, and his heart sunk knowing there wasn't anything he could do to make things better. "I'm sorry."
"No."
"No?"
Grace sighed heavily, pinching her eyes closed as if actually shutting him out. As if when she'd open them, he'd actually be gone. But he wasn't, he was standing right behind her, stepping closer and closer to her. He shuffled his dusty and beat sneakers as he inhaled carefully, as if not deserving to breathe the same air as her. He didn't. "I can't keep doing this," she said without looking at him.
"What do you mean?" he asked, truly unaware of the effect he had on her nor the consequences of his actions that seemed to affect her life more than his.
"We're not together anymore," she said in a quiet voice, and even though she opened her eyes, she still refused to turn and meet his gaze. She was sure she would cave in a heartbeat if she did so.
"Yeah... I know."
"So there's no reason we should be as close as we are. Normal people don't go back to their exes the way we do," she said, holding out hope that her mom would burst through the doors to the auditorium and save her from this horrible conversation. Ironically, her mom actually always loved Elliot.
"I thought..."
"Thought what?" she said, finally turning to look at the boy, meet his sparkling eyes with her deep browns. He looked at her, somewhere between mesmerized and panicked. "Thought that we were friends? Friends don't sell each other drugs, or suck other girls' fingers in front of them."
