*Edited*
My parents were less than happy to find out that I had been fired my first day on the job. Maybe they realized I wasn't ready for a job yet or something, but whatever the reason was, they weren't pressuring me to find a new job.
I was grabbing my lunch out of my locker the next day when I felt a light tap on my shoulder. I turned around, shutting my locker as I found Mae standing there, shyly twisting her hands together.
"Hi Mae!" I asked, "Do you want to walk to lunch with me?"
Mae smiled sweetly and said, "Of course, but I have something to tell you first."
"Oh, what is it?" I raised my eyebrows, wondering what she wanted to say.
"Well, last night I was studying for a chemistry exam and I got a text from an unknown number asking about what the test would be on, so I responded back with the topics and asked who's number it was," she said all in one breath. I had to replay everything she had just said so I wouldn't be confused.
"So who was it?" I couldn't understand why she was so excited about this. It was probably just someone from her class who needed help.
"Elijah," she said with a huge grin. "He also asked me out."
Aw, that was nice. Mae had gotten asked out. I joined in with Mae as she jumped up and down, clapping her hands.
Wait, what? Elijah asked Mae out? I thought he was going out with Bianca or whatever it was that he was doing with her. So what was he doing with Mae?
I stopped jumping and Mae frowned. "What's wrong?" She asked.
I held up a hand. "Wait, just to be clear, you said Elijah asked you out? As in the Elijah who danced with you and then made out with Bianca just minutes later?" I asked, recalling the after prom party at the bitchy cheerleader's house.
She nodded enthusiastically. "He apologized for that and said he doesn't actually like Bianca. Apparently, she forced herself on him and that's when you walked in."
Yeah, right. I highly doubted that, but I wasn't about to say anything.
"So...you guys are officially dating?" I asked, almost dreading the answer. I really didn't want Mae to get hurt. Elijah wouldn't hesitate about taking her heart in his hand and then crushing it.
"Yep! We talked over the phone and he said we had great 'chemistry' together," she said, putting finger quotes around the word chemistry. "Get it? Because we have chemistry class together?"
Ha ha. What a funny guy. Not. I was going to have to have a word with him.
"Mhm," I said, not knowing what else to say. I tucked my blond hair behind my ear and bent down to scoop up my textbooks, juggling them along with my lunch. We stopped at Mae's locker so she could grab her lunch and supplies for her next class which just so happened to be chemistry.
Coincidence? I think not.
Mae and I walked into the cafeteria and took a seat at the table I usually sat at alone, but ever since I became closer with Uriah, he's joined me. Now Mae was a new addition to my once lonely table. She sat down across from me and opened her lunch as I did the same.
An arm wrapped around my shoulders and a faint smell of cologne wafted in my nose. I tilted my head up to see Uriah already smiling down at me. He kissed my nose, making me blush as he said, "Hey, Veronica. How was your first day at work?"
I dropped my gaze to my hands. I poked my pointer fingers together and said, "Well..."
"That bad, huh?" He asked. I felt him shake against me and realized he was laughing.
"Worse." I sighed. "Let's just say I'm no longer employed."
"Not uh. What'd you do?" Uriah asked like he couldn't believe me.
"I-"
"She spelled my name wrong," a different voice interrupted. I shot my eyes up to stare in shock as Elijah took the seat right in front of me, next to Mae. She blushed as he intertwined their fingers together.
I narrowed my eyes on him. "No, I'm pretty sure I spelled it right."
Mae and Uriah helplessly looked at each other as Elijah and I argued.
"So let me take a guess based on all of this," Uriah said, gesturing at the two of us. We stopped arguing long enough for him to make his prediction. "Veronica wrote a, uh, not nice name on Elijah's cup and got fired. How was that?" He asked.
I dropped my forehead on the table, holding up my hand and made a ring with my thumb and pointer finger. "Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner," I mumbled, voice muted from the table.
"Mae, how about we go out to dinner tonight?" I heard Elijah say. I picked my head off the table to see a hint of pink stain Mae's cheeks as she gushed, "Sure! That sounds like fun!"
Then she looked at me and Uriah. "Oh! You guys should come, too. It'll be like a double date!" She exclaimed.
My immediate reaction was to deny her request. There was no way I'd go on a double date with Elijah. I wouldn't have thought twice about it if it had been with any other guy besides him.
"No, it's okay-"
Uriah interrupted me and with a brilliant smile, he said, "Good idea, Mae. What do you say Veronica?" He turned to me with his dimples that I couldn't possibly say no to.
I forced a smile, hoping it didn't look like a grimace. "Of course."
Elijah smirked, knowing full well that I didn't want to go. I shot him a dirty look, and took a sip of my soda.
"Let's study for chemistry since we have the test next period," Mae said.
"I don't have to study it to know that there's definitely some chemistry between us," he said, repeating his lame pickup line and gave her a wink.
I couldn't help it. I spewed the soda that was in my mouth all over Elijah. And I mean all over him. He was drenched in my saliva and soda and I didn't think he could have given me a scarier death glare than the one he was giving me right now.
Uriah burst out laughing. He laughed the kind of laughter that made you clutch your stomach and feel like you were going to have abs by the time you stopped laughing. Mae flinched back in surprise so she wouldn't get caught in the fountain of soda I had spit out.
"Crap, my bad," I said as I dug through my brown paper bag as if I were looking for a napkin. Elijah glared at me while I made a show of grabbing a napkin out of my lunch. I slowly brought my hand out of the bag and gave him a huge smile with what I brought out instead.
He didn't think it was funny at all to see my middle finger sticking right up at him. I heard Uriah sputter in laughter again. Mae looked like she didn't know if she should jump in and defend Elijah or join in Uriah's fits of giggles.
Elijah's green eyes darkened on me and I swore I could see my inevitable death swirling around in his eyes. I darted my eyes around the table before landing back on Elijah who abruptly pushed out of his seat.
It was time for me to get the hell out of there. I darted to the cafeteria doors and yelled, "I'll see you guys tonight!" Then I sprinted to my next class wondering how Mae and Elijah were going to do on their chemistry test.
**********
I didn't think anyone could understand how much I didn't want to go on this double date. I would've been excited if it had just been a date with Uriah, but the fact that it was also with another couple threw me over. Especially, since Elijah was part of the other couple.
Nonetheless, I found myself applying some makeup and styling my hair while putting on clothes that I considered to be "dressy" enough for a date. A car honked in my driveway and I thought to myself that it was so unlike Uriah to beep instead of coming to ring my doorbell and pick me up. I scurried out of my room and opened the front door where I stopped dead in my tracks.
Uriah wasn't the one who had came to pick me up. No, it was his freaking brother. Elijah motioned for me to hurry up from the driver's window while Mae beamed at me from the passenger side. I rolled my eyes at Elijah and shut the front door behind me before climbing in the backseat of his sport's car with Uriah.
"You look great," Uriah grinned.
"Pfft, thanks. You're looking good yourself," I responded, immediately cringing after the words were out of my mouth.
"Can you guys at least try not to make me puke while I'm driving?" A certain moody teenage boy complained from the front seat. I kicked the back of his seat and said, "Speak for yourself, Mr. Chemistry dork."
Uriah snorted and gave me a high five. Mae twisted around in her seat and gave me a secret thumbs up so Elijah wouldn't see. I snickered, earning a low growl from the driver's seat.
A few minutes later, we arrived at a fancy restaurant I've never been to before. We walked inside and ordered a booth for four. We were sat down at a red and black booth near the back of the restaurant. The lights were dim and a candle flickered in the middle of the table. As we sat down, I muttered, "How romantic."
Uriah sat across from me with Mae next to him. That left Elijah sitting next to me and across from his girlfriend.
"Can we change up the seating arrangements?" I asked once the hostess passed out our menus and returned to the front of the restaurant.
"I'd rather not have to look at you while I'm eating. With you sitting next to me, though, I can't even see you," Elijah said, flipping through the menu.
"Elijah," his brother warned.
"You know what? I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I actually agree with you for once. This way, I can only see Uriah and Mae. It's like you're not even here," I said, satisfied.
"Will you guys excuse us for a moment?" Elijah said, grabbing my elbow and pulling me out of the booth behind him.
"What! Stop!" I said, smacking his arm and drawing unwanted attention from nearby tables. I smiled apologetically at them before shooting a panicked glance back at Uriah and Mae. They didn't have a chance to stop Elijah before he dragged me outside.
"What's your problem?" He demanded once were outside. He dropped my arm and leaned against the brick wall of the restaurant.
I pointed at my chest. "My problem? You're the one who started all of this! And why did you ask Mae out?" I blurted.
"Oh so that's what this is all about," he said, narrowing his eyes on me.
"What do you freaking mean!"
"You're jealous," he stated as if it was a simple fact.
"What the hell, Elijah! There's no way I'm jealous-"
"Keep telling yourself that," he interrupted me. I threw my hands up in the air, aggravated. He knew just how to get under my skin.
"Do you even like Mae?"
"I asked her out, didn't I?" He said, crossing his arms over his broad chest. His eyes seemed to glow in the dark night air.
"Then what's going on between you and Bianca because right now, you sound like a man whore-"
"Nothing is going on between me and Bianca. She was fun while she lasted." He shrugged.
"You better not hurt Mae," I said, clenching my fists. "Or else I swear you will feel my wrath."
"O-oh, so scary," he said, raising his hands in mock surrender.
"If you don't mind, I have a double date to get back to," I said, turning my back on him.
"So do I. And just to make myself clear, I wasn't planning on hurting Mae. I'm not some asshole who goes through girls like-"
I held up a hand. "Save it. We'll just have to see about that. And when I'm right," I said, throwing my head over my shoulder to give him a stern look, "You will regret breaking her heart because I don't promise idle threats."
Then I spun around and headed back inside to get this date over with.
*********
Hey guys! Why do you think Elijah asked Mae out? Does he really like her or is there a different reason? Please leave a vote and comment to let me know how this story is so far. Thank you :)