Love In The Backstage

Chapter 16

NOT EDITED AT ALL.

♥Ellie's POV ♥

"Austin! Please do me the favor and let her sit on this log." I plead Austin as I approach them. Austin looks between me and Laura and finally decides to sit on another log which happens to be the one next to Laura.

Laura squeals in excitement incurring Austin to roll his eyes and inwardly let a small smile to decorate his face.

I sit on a log opposite to them and Alex takes a seat to the one next to me.

All the contestants are eating happily and others are singing together. I feel someone's stare burning my back and I discretely tilt my head to the side in order to catch a glimpse of the person who's apparently been looking at me for a whole minute.

My eyes immediately lock with Jess and a smile forms on his face as he waves at me from behind the little beach bar. I unconsciously smile back at him and he starts making his way over to me.

"Hey Ellie." He greets me with his big tooth-smile still evident on his face and his two dimples appearing on his cheek. I take in better his features thanks to the fire eliminating his face as he takes a seat on the other side of my log.

"Hey." I say as I tug a strand of my hair behind my ear.

"Hello." Another voice joins our conversation and I turn to look at Alex with a look that says -if-you-say-or-do-something-stupid I will kill you.

He just casually shrugs at me and turns his attention back to Jess.

"So Ellie.." Jess begins to say but trails off feeling uncomfortable on the grounds of Alex's impatient stare.

I give Alex a sideway glare but of course, he doesn't seem to acknowledge me; he's preoccupied by Jess and his awkward state.

"Yeah?" I encourage Jess to continue and he gives Alex a last fleeting glance before he turns to focus on me.

Finally!

I was so close to start singing Ariana's song.

"So I was thinking If we could talk privately. You know." He says scratching the back of his neck with lots of force and kicks the sand below his foot.

"Where?" I ask suspiciously eyeing him up and down to read his reaction but he just shrugs.

"Anywhere you want. Maybe over this ice cream parlor." He says pointing out the thing behind me.

I hesitantly nod hoping that what I'm doing is not going to get me to die.

We stand up and he silently leads the way over there with me trailing right behind him.

"Do you want a drink?" He asks with a smile and my eyebrows immediately shoot up in confusion.

"Aren't we here to talk 'privately'?" I ask quoting his words and cross my arms in front of my chest.

"Then suit yourself." He says with an one-shoulder shrug and the anger starts to slowly boil inside me.

"Talk." I demand raising my voice to catch his attention since he's busy sipping on his second-now beer.

"Talk?" He asks ironically stumbling his way over to me as I take discreetly big steps back.

"Yeah. You said you wanted to talk." I repeat my words as he laughs and a smirk quickly replaces his usual smile.

Shit.

"I changed my mind. I wanna play." He says evilly as he places his arm around my tiny waist invading my personal space.