Love, Eliot

Rock and Roll All Night

My frustration soared as Eliot maintained his position on anonymity. I wasn't even sure if I wanted to know who he was but not having the choice killed me.

I glanced over all the guys walking across campus and wondered if I could be looking at him. After a year of knowing Eliot, I was in the same position I started.

I sighed and tilted my head back to the trees. For the first time in a week, the sun warmed my face; I knew my freckles would make an appearance because of it later.

My thighs ached from clenching them all morning; the jog away from Josiah and his questions didn't help either.

"Sunbathing?" A familiar voice said in front of where I sat on the bench.

I opened one eye, "It actually feels nice today."

My ex, Carter, nodded, "That's how you know we'll all be popsicles tomorrow."

Worth it. "Do you need something?" My tone came out sharper than I planned.

"Do you always have to be so confrontational?"

I flinched in spite of myself, "Sorry,"

"Yeah," He sighed and blue eyes found the ground, "I'm sorry too."

I looked away from him and ignored the memories gnawing at the back of my mind. Our whirlwind romance only lasted a few months and ended with pain. When I looked at him I remembered just how much pain.

I gathered my things and rose to my feet, "I should get going,"

Carter nodded but he wouldn't completely let me get away, "Can we get dinner tonight?"

I bit my tongue, "It can't be long. I have plans." If having an existential crisis could count as actual plans.

"Noted," He sent me off with a wave of his hand and a soft smile that once would have caused my stomach to flip.

The sun hit my back like a beam of shame. I pushed myself toward Rosemary's dorm where we decided to meet in between classes.

Cain Hall, by far, had the best dorm rooms on campus. The building overlooked the neighboring mountain range and each room had its own, admittedly small, kitchen. Only the students with lightning-fast registration skills won the honor of residing in Cain.

Rosemary, however, was thrust into Cain as an apology from the school. When they triple booked her original room, they gave her a chamber in the castle to make up for it.

I huffed up the stairs to her room on the fourth floor and reprimanded myself for being so winded.

The walls were covered in pictures and inspirational quotes. I rushed through the self-help hall until the door with Rosemary's name scrawled on it appeared.

The door was already propped open by the deadbolt; I knocked lightly and made my way inside. Rosemary popped her head out of the bedroom.

"I'm just changing," Her hair was pulled into a loose bun on top of her head, "one second,"

I set my bag down on the coffee table and marveled at their apartment like dorm. Being the newest building on campus, the walls didn't even have a yellow tinge to them.

Rosemary came out in her designated rehearsal leggings and a tank top while I tried to sit in a way that didn't press the vibrator further into me.

"So," She grabbed a dry erase marker out of her lopsided bag, "what do we know?"

She started scribbling on the top of the whiteboard: Mystery Man Facts.

Creative. "He has a birthmark," I watched her write in her bubbly handwriting, "and his name starts with C apparently."