Our Last Dance

Chapter 4

The cafeteria food was atrocious. For the past fifteen minutes, I'd been pleading with Es to ditch this culinary disaster and head out for something edible, but she was adamant about sticking to the freebies.

"We're not spending a single dime when we can get a free meal here," she insisted, her tone resolute. "So quit whining about the quality."

I sighed, resigned to my fate. "Fine." Grabbing my tray, I made my way over to our usual table. Es was always one for a bargain, even if it meant enduring subpar sustenance.

"So spill, what's the deal with you and Elijah?" Es inquired between mouthfuls of mystery meat.

How does she know his name?

"How do you know his name?" I questioned, surprised. I don't remember telling her.

She suddenly began coughing, her face turning red as she struggled to catch her breath.

Concerned, I reached over and patted her back gently. "You okay?"

She nodded, still coughing slightly. "Yeah, just went down the wrong pipe," she managed to wheeze out.

I waited for her coughing fit to subside before turning back to our conversation. "How do you know his name?" I asked, again. I had only just learned it myself earlier today, during our awkward exchange in class. I couldn't recall ever encountering him before, not in the halls or the cafeteria. He seemed like a new face, possibly a transfer student.

"I overheard you two chatting earlier," Es confessed once her coughing had ceased, her voice strained. "I popped by your class to ask you something, but when I saw you deep in conversation with him, I couldn't help but eavesdrop a bit."

"Why do you seem so unnerved by that question? I was just curious about how you knew his name," I shrugged, squinting my eyes at her.

"Oh my god, Layla, you need to stop overthinking so much. I wasn't bothered by that question," Es replied, rolling her eyes. "And by the way, you still haven't told me about how you apologized to him. You have got to spill the tea," she added.

Before I could respond, a voice behind me cut into our conversation.

"She almost cried," a voice spoke up, sounding quite amused. I turned around to see who was speaking and saw Elijah-oh, I mean Mr. Psycho.

"Ugh, there you go. Here he comes, the Lord of Doom," I grumbled quietly under my breath. I turned to face Es. She looked at him and gave a slight awkward smile. I didn't know Es could be awkward, but apparently she can with Mr. Psycho.

Elijah came over to the table and placed his food beside mine.

"Your majesty, can I sit next to you?" He asked with an arrogant smirk, not waiting for a reply as he sat down beside me. Such a gentleman.

"This majesty is about to roundhouse kick you into outer space," I muttered with a sweet fake smile on my face. I was pretty sure I looked like a joker.

"You're not scaring me off this time, my love. We are friends, and friends are supposed to be nice to each other," he said with a smile, dimple appearing on his left cheek. I rolled my eyes in response.

He turned to Es and offered his hand for an introduction.

"I'm Elijah, the new transfer student," he said.

Es smiled and shook hands with him. "Yes, I know. Layla's talked about you," Es looked over at me with an amused glint in her eyes, "A lot," she added. This motherfucker.

Elijah looked at me and chuckled, "I knew she was obsessed with me since day one, though I didn't think it would go to this extent," he paused before shaking his head as if he felt bad for me.

"You know I have a fork in my hand right?" I deadpanned.

Elijah turned sideways to look at me, his smile still plastered across his face, "I always find women who give me death threats attractive," he teased, stuffing his mouth with sandwich. Es choked on a drink and nearly spit it out onto my lap. I shot her a dirty look.

"Don't make me punch you in the face, this time I'm not going to apologize," I glared.

Mr. Psycho seemed unaffected by my threat and simply grinned. "And why not? I would love for you to punch me."

"You're unbelievable," I glared at him, "And I never said I was your friend," I said before stuffing the remaining sandwich in my mouth.

Elijah placed his hand on his heart dramatically, "That's too sad for me, Layla. I feel like I'm missing a piece of myself now, and I can no longer function without the bond of friendship. You wound me," he said while wiping away a fake tear.

A slight smile crept up on my face at his act. "If this were anyone else, I'd call it stupid, but since it's you, I accept your theatrics. Now, if you've finished eating, let's get out of here before more people start giving us weird looks," I said, getting up to grab my bag.

Es had a weird glint in her eyes, and I couldn't help but roll mine. She was definitely enjoying the drama.

"Es, stop that before I smack you silly," I warned her playfully, and she held up her arm in mock surrender as we exited the room.

"We don't have classes for the next four days, right?" I asked Es, walking beside her.

"Yep, and just thinking about it makes me so happy," Es closed her eyes and sighed in an exaggerated manner, and I snorted at her excitement.

As soon as the door closed behind us, Elijah turned to look back at me, his face showing nothing except amusement.

"What?" I snapped, annoyed that he found me entertaining.

He laughed. "Oh, nothing really, but you are adorable when you get all riled up," he stated, squinting his eyes at me.

"I am not cute, I'm gorgeous," I narrowed my eyes at him and started leading the way towards the classroom.

"No, you are not, but I will concede that you have a good personality," he stated. I stopped walking and looked at him, shocked.

"Excuse me?" I asked, offended. What kind of backhanded compliment was that?

"And that's enough," Es interjected. "You guys are going to be the death of me," she sighed.

I turned back to look at Es, who looked exasperated. I looked back at Elijah, and he had a small smile across his face.

"Asshole," I glared at him. "Let's go before we're late," I mumbled before we all continued walking to our respective classrooms.

Es didn't say more than two sentences the whole time, which confused me because I had never witnessed Es being quiet around a new person. She was either chatting nonstop about something or making sarcastic comments in the span of ten seconds. She easily made friends because she was a charmer.

But she was usually calm and comfortable with the people she was close to, which was quite the opposite of me. Seeing her being comfortable with Elijah too was weird.

I sighed, realizing I had been overthinking this again, before turning around to catch up with those two who were already ahead of me.

"You need to walk faster, my love. I know you're short, but we only have a few minutes till class starts. Put all your unresolved anger into running!" Elijah yelled.

"That's it!" I hissed before charging forward at full speed, intending to give him a good smack. Elijah saw what I had in mind and ran, laughing and I followed closely behind, determined to kill him.

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