This is Not the Last of Us

Chapter 20

"Did you guys hear?" Cat started, they were all seated at a table together, "Ellie's got a crush."

Dina and Jesse both perked up. Their fingers were interlocked, and Dina smiled mischievously.

"Oh," Dina leaned forward towards Ellie with an even bigger smile, "is that so?"

"What? No!" Ellie shouted and cleared her throat. "Who would have a crush? Not me."

Cat giggled and looked over at Ellie, "It's okay to admit it, Ellie. We're not gonna judge you."

"So who is it?" Jesse leaned forward. "Someone we know?"

As if by a terrible stroke of bad luck, Ellie immediately heard the girl's voice.

"Ellie! Perfect timing, can you give me a hand?" Ellie's best friend hurried over.

She was holding a giant stack of papers, and she had an easy smile on her features. She stood over all of them talking and tilted her head.

"Did I pick a bad time?"

The three others stared at her and then turned over to Ellie.

"No way!" Dina said with a dramatic gasp followed by a cute laugh. "You're kidding, right?"

"Shut up, Dina." Ellie demanded and turned back to her friend, "What do you need?"

"Oh, see, Papa was supposed to hang up these posters for the winter dance thing? He said he had something to do and asked me to do it for him, but there's a lot of them. That, and I don't know where a lot of people hang out here. I've been so busy with work and training, you know?"

"Yeah, I can help." Ellie offered and stood, taking a stack of the papers from her.

"Awesome, thank you so much! We can get extra tape from dad. He's made quite a bit."

"Do you mind if we give you a hand?" Jesse offered.

"Oh, I don't mind! It'd be a huge help actually."

"I'm Jesse, by the way. This is my girlfriend, Dina."

"Hi! You're Seth's daughter, right? He's an amazing doctor!"

"Yeah, I am! I'm training to take his place, so I'm a bit busy, but it's a pleasure to meet you two. Ellie's told me a lot about you two!"

"I'm Cat! Let's get along!" Cat eagerly took her hand and shook it.

They all split the papers into equal portions and followed her to the town's doctor's office. Seth was nowhere to be seen at first, but he poked his head out of a side office and smiled.

"Well, if it isn't my favorite girls! What's the special occasion?"

"Papa asked me to put up these posters for him, and Ellie and her friends are going to help me."

Her father fully moved out of his office, and they all couldn't help but notice his visible surprise. He approached his daughter and felt her forehead. After deciding that she was healthy, he stepped back and stared at her in disbelief.

"You're... making friends?"

"Yup! It's nice to see you, doctor!" Cat cheered. "Don't worry, we'll all get along just fine."

He stared at his daughter, and then turned to Ellie before whispering, "She's making friends?"

"Kinda," Ellie shrugged and smiled playfully, "I'll make sure they don't tease her, Seth."

"Good. So what do you need?"

"We need tape, do you have enough?"

Seth blinked and then laughed, "I've got enough. Hold on, I'll get you guys some. Just wait here, okay?"