The Quest for Epic

Chapter twelve

“Rob!” I said breathlessly.
Sure enough, my high school sweet heart and only serious boyfriend stood before me, looking like time had not passed at all.
“Hi Ellie”, he smiled at me then nodded at Maya “Maya”
I could hear Maya grunt behind me. These two had never liked each other but had tolerated one another for my sake.
“Oh my gosh, Rob I can’t believe this is you right now”, my brain woke up from its daze and I took a step forward and hugged him “You look great”
And he did. Rob was Korean-American with great almond eyes and an awesome olive complexion. He was not overly tall, but he was taller than me and he was good looking in a serious kind of way. He always looked serious, practically everything about him was serious, down to the way he dressed. Like today, he was wearing an oxford polo and tan slacks with loafers. He looked like he hadn’t changed at all.
“You look beautiful”, Rob said as he hugged me back. He pulled away; eyes alight with affection as he looked at me “It’s great to see you. Why don’t you come over to my table, say hi to some of our friends over there and we can catch up?”
Maya cleared her throat then and stepped forward, her protective instincts taking over.
She looked at me, wanting to know if I was okay or not with this.
I placed my hand on her shoulder to reassure her. “That’s fine”, I said looking at him, and then at Maya. I did want to say hi to some of our old friends rather than hang with Maya’s group all night and I also wanted to talk to him, I was curious.
“Well alright”, Maya said looking at me “I’ll be right over there with the girls if you need anything or want to leave, okay?”
She gave me a fixed look that said I shouldn’t dare think of going home without telling her. I nodded and playfully shoved her off. I watched as she reached the girls’ table and they pulled her down almost immediately to continue their gossip.
I looked back at Rob and he was smiling at me, cute dimples denting his cheeks. “So…”
“So… lead the way”, I gestured to him
He placed his hand on my elbow and steered me to the other side of the room, his touch familiar against my skin.
Once I got there, I hugged and said hi to some old friends from the academic decathlon team; Alexa, Trish and Connor. Maya had been my best friend, but these guys weren’t far behind on the scale and I was really glad to see them.
“Ellie! It’s been eons”, Alexa gushed as she hugged me. Trust her to always include stuff like ‘eons’ in her speech.
“Hey I want a hug too”, Trish pushed her aside which wasn’t hard for the girl who was about 6 feet tall. “You sounded awesome on the mic, Ells”
“Thanks, Trish. You look so great!” I pulled away from the hug, a smile stretching my face
“Thank you”, Trish said shyly “I got contacts last year”
She seemed bashful, which looked out of place on such a tall, strapping girl. She was the one who usually intimidated the competition when we had decathlon meets.
Next thing I knew, I had been swept up in a smothering embrace from behind.
“Connor!” I laughed as his skinny arms tried and failed to spin me around
“Hey, put her down man”, came Rob’s voice from behind me. He sounded a bit annoyed.
“You don’t have to be so jealous of our love all the time, dude”, Connor teased and winked at me. Rob and Connor had been best friends back in high school and had always been annoyingly competitive, I didn’t know if they were still best friends but their dynamic still seemed the same.
“Very funny, Connor. How have you been though?” I asked him. Connor looked like the least changed of all, he was still tall and skinny, his coppery brown hair flopping over his face and light freckles dusted on his nose.
“Ehh”, he shrugged “Not the same without you”
“Don’t be such a tease, Con”, Alexa piped up slapping him on his shoulder
“Ow”, he scowled at her, rubbing the spot on his shoulder “Do you have to be so violent?”
“Connor has a really serious girlfriend now, Ells. Can you believe it?” Trish poked him in the ribs.
My eyes grew wide in excitement for my friend, he was a romantic at heart but never really lucky in the love department. “For real? That’s awesome”, I smacked his arm
“Ladies! Ladies! I understand that you guys are upset that I’m off the market but no need to resort to violence now”, Connor wagged his eyebrows at us and we all burst out laughing
I felt Rob place his hands on my shoulders. “Okay, guys. I’m sorry to break up the party but I’m gonna have to take Ellie away for a bit”
“Ooohh”, Trish and Alexa exchanged looks
“Are you guys back together or something?” Alexa asked
“What? No, I mean I just saw Rob here today for the first time in almost two years”, I said looking at him and expecting him to say something similar.
But instead he had a strange look on his face, a look that was familiar to me. It was the look he had when he was devising a plan to fix a problem.
He smiled at Alexa. “Well, never say never”.
Oh, boy.
“Come on, Ells”, I waved off the guys as Rob led me by my elbow towards a booth nearby that was less surrounded by people.
We sat down to the sound of Stacey and Annabel butchering a Florence + the machine song.
“So…” I fidgeted with my fingers suddenly feeling awkward “What’s been going on with you, Rob?”
He just stared at me for a minute, not saying anything.
“You look so beautiful, Ellie” he finally said
I couldn’t help but blush a little, Rob had always been a charmer.
“Ah… I think you already mentioned that”
“Really, did I?” his dimples flashed
“Yes, you did”
“Well I guess you needed to hear it again”
I just shook my head with a laugh. Rob was turning on his full charm tonight, if I didn’t know him better I would probably fall head over heels right now. His charm and confidence had been what attracted me to him in the first place. My mind flashed back to sometime about three and a half years ago. Rob and I had known each other, had some classes together here and there, occasionally said hi to each other in the hallways at school but we were never really friends. We were both the best students in our year and there was always a bit of competition between us. That all changed when we got on the academic decathlon team with Alexa, Connor and Trish. I had been friends with all of them first before Rob, and then one night we had to study together by some twist of fate for a competition the next day. We bonded over differential equations, the ice was broken and we became friends so quick, the other guys thought we were messing with them.
That was when I began to notice Rob in a more-than-friends way, I admired how confident and sure of himself he was. Everyone liked him, and he taught me that being smart was nothing to be ashamed of and rather, I should be proud of myself. I admired him; he was my knight in shining armour. Then one night, after a decathlon meet than ran late, we all went out for milk shakes and Rob took me home because he had his driving license before I did and my mom wasn’t able to get me as she worked night shifts as a nurse. Before I came down, Rob told me he liked me, he wanted me to be his girlfriend and then he kissed me. It was as simple as that. We became a couple, much to the annoyance of Maya who thought he was an over confident ass hat (he thought she was a slacker and generally unworthy of his attention). But I didn’t care about all of that, I was too happy to have a boyfriend who made me better and I tried to be his perfect girlfriend till graduation day when we decided it would be better to break up as we parted ways. Sure, there had been problems, a number of them which I overlooked to remain in the relationship but right now, looking at his handsome face filled with affection for me, I couldn’t seem to remember any as past feelings came rushing back.
“Earth to Ellie”, Rob said, looking at me curiously
I snapped out of my reverie. “Huh?”
He chuckled. “I forgot how distracted you could get. I was asking what you have been doing with yourself these past two years”.
“Uh… ahh”, I shrugged “Well nothing particularly interesting, school mostly. I’m interning now but this is like the first real break I’ve spent back here since then”
“You see, Ells. We’ve always been on the same wavelength; this is the first real break I’ve spent here since then too”
“Don’t tell me Brown has kept you so busy”, I quirked my brow at him and rested my chin on my hands. Rob had gone on to an Ivy League college while I had chosen NYU because I liked the city and Maya and I had already made plans to go there together. Rob had always held that over my head, insisting I had made the wrong choice not going for an Ivy League.
“Well, some but the real reason is I’ve been spending breaks with my mom in Florida”, Rob explained
Oh, that made sense. Rob’s parents had gotten divorced in senior year and his mom moved to Miami. “How’s your mom doing?”
“She’s great, actually. She’s dating now, it’s kind of sickening”, Rob made a face
I laughed. “I know the feeling, trust me”
He gave me a look like he was trying to read me. “I missed your laugh, Ells. I missed you. You know the only thing my parents agreed on was giving me hell for breaking up with you”
Okay… I didn’t know how to respond to that. I tried changing the subject.
“Well I’m sure your dad is glad to have you around”, I looked anywhere that wasn’t his face.
“Yeah, I guess so. And I think I’ve found one more reason to come around more often”, I could feel his stare scorching me before I looked up and caught him.
Before I knew what was happening, he was taking my hands in his across the table.
“Ellie… I’m going to come straight with you right now, I can’t for the life of me figure out why we ever broke up. But I’m not seeing anyone right now and I want you back, we can take it however slowly you want. So I guess the question is, are you seeing anyone at the moment?”
My mind flashed to Noah and the feeling I got was so painful, it threatened to take away the fun experience this night was turning out to be. I struggled to push him to the back of my mind before Rob noticed the change in my mood.
“No”, I shook my head “No, I’m not”
Rob’s face broke into a winning smile, his dimples on full display.
“That’s terrific”
Terrific, really.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Maya motioning to me from the other side of the room.
“Uh, I need to go now. I think Maya is calling me over”, I explained to Rob as I made to get up.
“Oh… okay”, he tossed a fleeting yet sour look at Maya then pulled out his phone “Well give me your number and I’ll call you and we’ll set something up”
“Okay”, I took his phone and saved my number in it then handed it back to him
“Be expecting my call now”, he beamed at me.
I tossed him a smile over my shoulder and then walked over to Maya.
She scrutinized the look on my face quickly before asking, “What the hell was that all about?”
“Maya”, I looked her squarely in the eye “I think I may have just accepted getting back together with Rob”

A/N: Hi guys. I need to squeeze out time to write nowadays so sorry if the chapters are short. Btw more twists to come hehe. The picture is of Noah (imagine with long hair). Still searching for a pic that best describes him :). So read, enjoy, votes, suggestions, comments all welcome. Xoxo