Love, Eliot

Welcome to the Jungle

"What a Nightmare," I fell into Rosemary's open arms, "He knows something, he has to."

Rosemary nodded with an overwhelming amount of sympathy, "So we're assuming that Eliot knows it's you now?"

"No," I chewed on my lip before changing my answer, "I don't know." Eliot never seemed to know more about my identity than I knew about his.

"Well, have you told him more about you?"

I shook my head, "If it's Josiah then he could have found out by just being in the right place at the right time." Both of our gazes traveled to where he stood across the room. The next scene would be the last for the day and Rosemary would be front and center with Josiah.

The phone vibrated in my back pocket and I told Rosemary about the app notification. "That doesn't mean it's Connor," She pulled her hair down and tuck away the scrunchie, "I know a lot of people with the same app,"

I nodded, now disheartened, and searched for Connor in the crowd. After his Tango performance, I expected him to be getting notes from Ms. Wright, instead, he rested on the back wall with Josiah walking up to talk to him.

I pulled the phone out and clicked the screen; There were no new notifications. Before heading over to make the switch I wished Rosemary good luck on stage.

While the room was crowded, I made my way to the back without stepping on anyone's toes and slid past the majority of Josiah's friends. Connor's expression changed when he saw me approaching, "Oh hey," He pulled my phone out of his back pocket, "I think I got the wrong one by mistake,"

I forced a laugh, "Yeah, me too," Josiah waited for less than a foot away for our awkward exchange to be over. When my phone was back in my possession I sighed. The screen lit up and there were no new messages from Eliot.

Connor seemed unfazed by the switch and returned to his conversation with Josiah. I backed away and opened the messaging thread between me and Eliot. The messages were riddled with dirty secrets, thoughts, and unrecognizable pictures.

I shielded my screen from everyone around me as I reexamined the background of Eliot's pictures. He chose the most blank backgrounds in existence, white sheets. The only thing I could identify him by required a inappropriate examination of all the men on campus to be useful.

I held back a frustrated scream as another message came in.

"Just wasting away, you?" The green light by Eliot1980 taunted me; His vague responses never helped.

My fingers hovered over the screen; For the first time, I was certain that the mystery needed to end.

The cafeteria tables sat empty with soft pop music playing over the speakers. I pretended to be interested by the college advertising on the napkin containers while Carter finished collecting his food from the buffet.

The majority of the student body wanted better heat inside of the dorm buildings but the school decided that a new app to control the cafeteria music would be a compromise. I sighed and stuck another spoonful of mashed potatoes in my mouth.

Every college student who knew what was good for them had long since started hibernating in their dorm for the night. No matter how forgiving the weather could be in the morning, we all knew the temperature would decline as soon as the evening classes let out.

The desolate state of the cafeteria only made for a more awkward evening with my ex.

Carter placed his plate in front of me as I drank another cup of the dull coffee offered to the students.