leopard space dolphins » original ✓

eight: deception

"Elias." I called from the other side of the table where I was sitting in the lounge chair. He had one earbud in, but I knew he was ignoring me. "Elias Wolfe."

When he didn't even bother to look up from his writing, I huffed before picking up the first thing I could find— which was a pen —and chucked it at him. Somehow I missed and it went sailing right past his head.

For the past couple of hours, I was sitting here bored after we watched (well, he watched) the videos. There was nothing I could help with other than basic lab aid, so he just told me to "sit and don't fuck anything up".

That was about four hours ago.

I picked up another pen and beamed it at his head, and to my context it smacked him on the side. He sighed, before taking out the other earbud and looking at me. "What, Ember?"

"I'm bored, talk to me," I whined, pushing my bottom lip into a pout. My phone died a few minutes, so he was the only source of entertainment that was in the proximity.

"I'm busy," he murmured, and I could tell by the way his voice sounded deeper than earlier that he was probably getting a little tired. "I just finished the first test batch equation, no thanks to you."

"Really?" I said in disbelief, instantly perking up. I didn't think he'd honestly crack it the first day, but somehow he did.

"Yeah," he replied, rubbing at his eyes and sighing. Now I definitely knew he was tired. "It won't take that long to make if we start now—"

"You look exhausted," I noted, getting up from the chair. Through the windows, I could see the sun starting to set, which meant it was actually nighttime since it was still summer. "We should just call it a night, it's getting a little late and I'm starving."

"God, me too," he agreed, shaking his head. "Do you want to grab something from Gigi's before I drop you off?"

I nodded, a little surprised he even offered. I thought after all that silence and whatever happened earlier that he couldn't wait to get away from me. I had a way of drawing people in, while simultaneously repelling them away. Go figure.

We packed up and placed everything in a corner before leaving out to his car. I hopped in and grabbed the aux cord before he could even get fully settled in.

"You just couldn't wait, huh?" He asked, gesturing to my hands with slight amusement.

I just shrugged and pressed play and my music started to surround us. He put the car in drive and sped off down the road. Within a couple of minutes, we were pulled up outside of Gigi's and I could feel my stomach rumbling from hunger.

"I am starving," I moaned, clutching my stomach. "My stomach is yelling 'feed me, feed me' right now."

"Get whatever you want," Elias said, as he opened the door for me to enter. "I'll pay."

"Aw," I gushed while beaming up at him. "Are you asking me on a date—"

I didn't get to finish my sentence because my eyes trailed over to the corner booth, where Marcus and Serena sat, laughing it up like they were old friends even though I knew she didn't like him.

I saw her place her hand on top of his, and smile the same smile she gave boys when she was flirting. She tucked her hair behind her ear, bit on her thumbnail, and look up at him through her eyelashes and I knew I had to beat her ass one more time for flirting with my ex.

"You little bitch!" I yelled, trying to push past Elias to get to that corner booth. "What the fuck are you doing?!"

Elias grabbed me by the waist before I could get halfway. "Ember, calm down."