Thankfully, the tension in the conversation was saved when the photographer called for the placers to position themselves for pictures.
El could feel the fakeness of her smile.
Hopper didn't return from work until around 10 pm, and when he asked her how the fair went, she only shrugged, mumbling about being tired.
That wasn't the first, and definitely wasn't the last time that Hopper had missed out on moments in El's life that she had hoped for him to be there for.
He had only attended one science fair she had participated in, when she was 13. However, he was called back to duty just as the judgement time was announced. El won second place, but the dullness in her heart was still prominent.
"El? You listening?" Gina, one of El's table mates snapped her from her, quite frankly, depressing thoughts.
"Y-Yeah. Hey, I'm going to go sit at another table, if that's okay with you?"
Gina rolled her eyes, stabbing her fork into her food. She didn't respond, and El couldn't find it in her to care about Gina currently, before gathering her lunch and heading to The Party's table.
Gina was okay, but El wasn't blind to her toxicity. She expected El to spend almost every waking moment with her, and then would complain about spending too much time together, and then would end the conversation with anger that El had turned down an invitation. She constantly pointed out El's flaws, and had even mentioned to her how she didn't understand why so many people were attracted to her. Ouch.
Gina was clearly only trying to be El's friend for popularity, but El didn't have the heart to end their, so called, friendship. That was the thing about being such a kindhearted person: people took advantage walked all over El.
"Hey, guys," El smiles gently as five pairs of eyes glide to her. "I was just wondering if I could sit here?"
The members of the party all gazed from one another, coming to a mutual mental agreement.
"Yeah, sure." Will spoke up, smiling softly at the girl, who returned it.
Dustin glanced across the table at Mike, smirking and winking playfully. The tips of Mike's ears flushed a light pink.
El slipped into the space next to Mike, smiling shyly at the boy, who gulped under her gaze.
The Party was all aware of the fake relationship, seeing as Mike constantly mentioned it to his friends. They also knew how bad Mike had it for El, having endured his rants about how pretty she looked, how smart she is, how nice she is, since middle school.
They knew how much he hoped that the fake relationship wasn't just to get Troy off his back, but they could also see that maybe it wasn't entirely fake.
Dustin happened to also be in the history class that Mike and El shared, and he took mental notes of all the moments the two shared, seeing that El was more interested in Mike than Mike would ever realize.
Sometimes, Mike's total obliviousness just blows his mind.
Will studied El's feelings about Mike. They had been friends for a while, after Will had accidentally crashed into El while riding his bike. They both were okay, just a few bruises left, but Will offered to buy her ice cream as an apology gift, which led to them forming a friendship.
Will was observant. He was the quietest of The Party, since he often stayed in silence to analyze situations and observe people's reactions to certain things.
So Will was quick to see that El didn't only have platonic feelings for Mike, like she had claimed to him time and time again.
It was obvious; her eyes gained a small twinkle when she approached Mike, her stance was much more shy than around other students, her cheeks were slightly more tinted than usual, and she all around seemed much more nervous around the boy.
𝐟𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩, 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬- mileven (pt. 4)
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