Cold Hearted

Girl Help

Elena POV

Even though I was done with classes for the rest of the day, I went ahead and walked with the VKs since they had a few more. I was walking with Mal as she told me to, mainly because Jay's been being a big silly our whole walk here and has been joking around with me the whole time. Evie said she'd neuter him again and Mal threatened to spell him, Carlos even told him to quit it, but I don't really see what the big deal is, it's all just innocent fun... right?

Anyway, Mal held her books tightly in her arms and stared off at the ground again, the boys were making their own conversation upfront and Evie stood in between us to keep Jay in check, but I was too busy being concerned about Mal to care what the boys or Evie were talking about. She just looks so... empty. No one should ever look empty at all, let alone this empty! She's staring at the ground without even blinking, and yet no one else seems to realize it! I'm sorry, but I just can't stand to see it,

"Mal? Are you alright? You're zoning out again"

Mal's eyes jolted back up to look at me with glossy and distant eyes. She just stared at me for a second with a numb expression on her face before simply shrugging without saying a word. She then looked down again and went into another world it seemed all over again. I sighed and looked ahead as Carlos suddenly turned to me,

"Elle? I need you for a minute"

I perked up and trotted away from Mal to the front to join Carlos, I stepped in between Carlos and Jay for a moment as our group came to a pause,

"Yeah?"

Carlos sighed as I simply looked up at him, waiting for direction,

"I need you to pretend to be someone, you are pretty similar to them already when it comes to character and personality so I thought you could maybe act like you're them for me?"

I smiled and nodded as he nervously rambled on, Jay giving me what Mal referred to as "googly eyes" or whatever that means as Carlos talked to me. Apparently it's just a way someone looks at someone else, but I still don't understand it a whole lot,

"I can do that! What do you need me to do?"

Carlos got his smile back and chuckled with relief,

"Oh awesome, thanks! I uh... just need you to stand there and like... bat your lashes and look cute or something"

I giggled and nodded and began batting my lashes a little more and tried to up my cuteness factor with little body language things. He nodded in approval and continued,

"Perfect, alright imagine that you're the girl I have a crush on you, but you don't know that. I'm gonna act like I'm asking you to cotillion, I just need practice because well... every time I talk to my real crush my words get all jumbled. Part of it is because I don't talk to girls enough, so having practice with a friend should help me out"

Carlos quickly explained, I only giggled as that's so sweet! Getting all nervous with a crush is such a beautiful thing to me, I just think it's adorable! And he asked me to help which always makes me feel awesome, I love helping anyone I can, especially with things like this,

"Got it! Go on"

I excitedly chirped. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment to get himself together and all his thoughts wrapped up before opening his fresh eyes and giving me a kind smile. I went ahead and continued to bat my lashes a little and try to look extra cute. I don't know if I'm naturally cute or not, but I'm trying really hard to fit the part. Carlos started off in a whisper as he said his crush's name in such a low mutter, not even I could hear it, but that's understandable. After that, he spoke up,