invisible string

two.

"best," you responded, tapping the color coded papers, "and worst," you hesitated, pointing to the other pile.

"okay," ellie laughed. her hand hovered over her own papers for a moment but instead she reached for yours, examining your 'best' notes closer.

you nervously picked at the table during her silence, half heartedly attempting to stretch your neck to get a view of her own notes. it wasn't close enough for you to be able to actually read the writing, but you tried anyway.

she took her notes in black pen, and even her handwriting was enough to quicken your heartbeat. they seemed organized in structure, and she had doodled borders and little pictures around the paragraphs. it was cute.

you smiled softly but the sound of ellie speaking pulled you out of your trance.

"okay," she repeated, sounding determined like she had made up her mind about something. she covered some of her pages by placing a textbook over them, and opened her notebook to a fresh, blank page.

"tell me about... this, and... this?" she murmured, glancing up at you quickly and tracing the areas she was referring to with her finger. "my notes for that section suck," ellie offered.

your heart jumped and you swallowed hard, your voice failing you within seconds. this definitely wasn't the sort of situation that you were most comfortable in, and the sound of her voice with her eyes on you combined to make your head spin.

"okay," you mirrored ellie, trying to obtain any sense of false confidence that you could muster. public speaking didn't come easy to you, and though it was just the two of you, speaking directly to ellie almost made you feel worse.

pressing your palms together in an attempt to stop your hands from shaking, you figured reading off from your notes shouldn't be too bad.

"so, the first section i have are definitions... and the stuff in pink are like afterthoughts, to help me remember. i can show you both, if you want..." your eyebrows drew together in concentration as you looked over the page, feeling ellie's eyes on you once again but unaware of her expression.

"incredible," she mused, mumbling under her breath, watching your hands moving as you nervously explained.

"right, so, everything on here i know is right... but take these ones with a grain of sand," you continued.

ellie laughed suddenly at your words and you froze, your breath nearly hitching and you reminded yourself once again that you certainly must be pathetic.

pathetic or not, it didn't matter. meeting ellie's eyes made you feel warm as you returned her smile, and in that moment you realized you would do anything to have her looking at you like that again.

─ ·𖥸· ── ·𖥸· 

ellie was a good listener, and her quick quips and little jokes throughout your study session had you laughing until your cheeks burned, though you were sure your nerves had played a part in that as well.

she was polite and wonderful, but you had done so much talking that you felt a little disappointed, and a little overwhelmed. if you were truly honest, you wanted to hear a lot less of your own voice and a lot more of ellie's voice.

the conversation had mostly been strictly academic, with the occasional slip of discussing your majors and the worst dining hall food.

as ellie started to pack up her things, you doodled a little flower on a green sticky note while she finished telling you about one of her least favorite professors.

"he sounds horrible," you remarked, slightly off guard as ellie took the pen from your hand and drew what looked like a fern, similar to the one on her arm, next to your flower.

when she finished, she passed it back to you, along with the pen. you thought for a moment while ellie watched, grinning curiously at the pen in your hand. you decided on a tiny planet, carefully placing it on the other side of her drawing.

"thanks for your help today," ellie mused as she regained possession of the material, placing the pen to paper without taking a moment to think.

"thank you," you returned, although not completely sure what you were thanking her for.

you watched her hand flex as she wrote, and the way her eyebrow raised as she examined the sticky note. ellie stood and you followed her lead, wishing for more time in her presence and not ready to face the cold.

to your surprise, she returned the sticky note to your hand. the slightest touch turned your senses on high and the way ellie's fingers grazed yours made you wonder if you were truly delusional.

"see you around, alright? get back to your dorm safe," ellie said sternly, smiling at you once more as she backed out of the room. once more her confidence faltered and she almost looked sheepish as she spoke again. "we should do this again."

you nodded maybe a little too enthusiastically and then ellie was gone, leaving you with an extreme whirlwind of emotions.

to suppress your excitement, you reminded yourself that maybe she was only being polite, but when you examined the sticky note your smile only grew.

your flower, ellie's fern, and your tiny planet.

underneath the three pictures, a phone number labeled with her name-

Ellie!!!!!