Loves Me Not

*REVISED* Chapter Three

This week honestly could not have gone by any slower. For the rest of that night Ellie and I alternated between studying our asses off for finals and binge watching Netflix while we ate ice cream. Regardless of how crappy I may have felt I was not going to fail any of my classes because of some jackass that couldn't keep his lips to himself.

When I wasn't stressing over finals I was hiding in my room, trying to make it until Friday without seeing Dustin. I only have to make it one more day, but Ellie put her foot down tonight. As much as she loves me Ellie refused to bring any more of my meals to our room, and she is forcing me to get some fresh air; since apparently going to my finals over the last 4 days doesn't count. She practically is dragging me to the cafeteria that is on one of the corners of the quad.

I almost feel a sense of normalcy as I shuffle through the various food lines, filling up my plates with whatever happens to look appealing. I chat idly with the people in front of me in line, talking about the how finals are going and how exhausted we all are. I wave goodbye to them as I peel away from the line, one of my plates stacked high with pizza and French Fries while the other is topped with Fettuccine Alfredo that was in the "Nothing Like Home-Eats" section. I make a detour to the fruit bar and manage to balance an additional bowl in the crook of my elbow before I find Ellie already holed up at a table in the back right corner of the rectangular cafeteria in front of the soda fountains.

I'm actually starting to relax, happy that Ellie forced me from my pillow nest in our room, when I mistakenly look up and get drawn in by a pair of captivating green eyes. I accidentally inhale the piece of pepperoni that is in my mouth and start coughing furiously, trying to dislodge the projectile from my throat. I immediately look away once I've successfully swallowed the pepperoni, hoping that our contact was brief enough that nothing will result of it.

Maybe he didn't even notice me. I pick up my cup of cranberry juice and slyly peek over the rim of the glass as I take a sip. I see that Dustin is no longer sitting in his seat across the room, but is instead making his way towards our table. I mutter a string of curses under my breath and quickly get Ellie's attention.

"Please don't make a scene," I plead with her, but she just looks at me with the most clueless expression decorating her features while continuing to shovel Fettuccine Alfredo into her mouth.

The one thing that has always amazed me about her is how much food she can eat. I once saw her eat a whole pizza, half a tub of ice cream, and drink half a liter of soda in the course of 2 hours before she decided to call it quits. It's almost admirable if you think about it.

I turn my focus back to my food as well and pray that if I ignore Dustin long enough he'll leave me alone. I hear the chair next to Ellie scrape backwards and someone plop into it.

"Can I fucking help you?" Ellie mumbles around the noodles in her mouth as her head rotates to face him.

Dustin doesn't even acknowledge her, his intense gaze locked on me. I look anywhere but at him, suddenly finding the speckled pattern on the table quite intriguing.

"So, are we not going to talk about this?" Dustin finally asks after a few minutes of silence.

"I wanna talk about this!" Elle shoves another forkful in her mouth as she pivots her entire body to address Dustin.

"I wasn't talking to you, Elysse," Dustin huffs, his eyes never leaving my face.

"Let's start with the fact that I found out a little bit more about your whore from Mikey's." Ellie pushes on, completely disregarding his statement. "You know what, I shouldn't call her that, because prior to Monday, I never thought that Chelsea was a whore. But she does obviously make a lot of bad decisions, considering she was stupid enough to get conned into getting with you twice! And quiet honestly, she could probably benefit from a lot of deep self-reflection, but—" Ellie stops midsentence when she sees the glare on my face.