I don't want to be your friend anymore

45| I... I can wait

As we all know, Eli would sometimes not go to college. On those days, he would call and message Jessica while he sat by her front door, though he never got a response or even saw her.

He couldn't understand why she would break up with him. 'Maybe I did do something wrong, like keeping that secret to myself' was the only reason he could think of, even after she had explained to him why exactly she decided to part ways.

In the couple of days after the incident, she had been just fine with him, though. It took him completely by surprise when she said that they can't be together anymore. He felt like they were back to square one, maybe even farther behind that, but he knew one thing: he wasn't going to slack and let Jessica slip away. He was going to be patient and break through her guard and he couldn't wait to see her again.

At least, during the past week, she had answered a couple of his messages. They were one-word replies but hey, it was some kind of progress and Eli was thankful for that because he missed her... her dimpled smiles, her dumb jokes and comments, her voice, her food, her scent, her tongue piercing, her warmth... he just missed her. Could he have become obsessed or was he just in love?

"Eli! Hey, E!" he snapped out of his thoughts when Payton shook his shoulder.

The group was sitting at a student hub table just passing time and waiting for their next lesson. Nadia and Payton had worried expressions on their faces and River seemed like he had been crying.

"Yeah, what's up?" Eli said, sighing deeply.

"Have you talked to her?" Payton asked.

"No, not at all..." he answered quietly. "I mean... she won't talk to me. She will say she's fine when I ask her how she's doing but she won't actually keep a conversation going with me."

"I called her today, E" Nadia said.

"What did she say?" Eli snapped his gaze towards Nadia, expecting something good.

"Nothing much... she just told me she's thinking of coming back sometime next week" Nadia answered with a small smile.

Eli's eyes widened and his heart started pumping faster at the thought of finally seeing her again. But that same thought brought a heavy feeling of sadness and helplessness t0 his chest, effectively weighing it down again because Eli knew he couldn't pepper her with longing kisses and make her cum in his mouth any time soon.

Whatever Jessica had said to him, though, didn't change the fact that she was still his girlfriend.

"Finally! I miss her so much..." River muttered. Tears fell from his eyes and his lips quivered.

"Hey... she's going to be okay, we just have to give her some time. It should get better from now... for all of us" Payton said, rubbing River's back to soothe him and looking at Eli as she said that last part.

"She didn't have to break up with me, I would have been there for her..." Eli stated.

"We know and she knows that too, E, but she was scared you would get in trouble. She knows better than any of us how it feels to be bullied. She was really just protecting you. Didn't she tell you that?" Nadia asked him.

"Who's supposed to protect her, though? And how would breaking up with me make the situation any better? Ugh... I don't know, man... I'm just glad she's coming in soon" Eli said.

It was true that he despised not being able to cuddle with her or see her anymore but at least she had told Nadia she was coming back to campus. This was now the second time during that academic year that she had been staying at home for weeks and Eli was worried it would end up not working in her favour.