Inevitably Visible

Stealing Max's Heart

**Elena's POV**

Today Max and I were heading out to the city with five of our friends from choir. I wasn't sure how I wanted today to go, so I asked two of my close friends, Jenny and Mark, to meet me so we could talk about it.

"I don't know what to do. I like Max but I don't know if I'm ready to date again," I admitted. "But another part of me wants to be with him already. "

"Has he given you any hints he might try to ask you out tonight?" Mark questioned. "You might be stressing over nothing."

"Jenny said he asked her about it." I inquired, gesturing for her to tell him what happened.

"He went up to me yesterday in English since we had to work in  partners. I agreed to be his partner and we quickly finished the worksheet together. Once we were done, he asked me if I was excited for our trip and other small talk questions. Then he asked me how Elena was doing. He asked me if I personally thought she was over Ryder. I told him she was fine and this was as over Ryder as she was ever going to get. I said he'd still have a small place in her heart, since they were together for such a long time." Jenny finished. I moved my glance from her to Mark as he began to speak.

"So then he's contemplating whether it's the right time or not, correct?" Mark asked, trying to take it in.

"Correct." I responded. "It's hard for him to know if I don't even know myself." I stated my thoughts out loud.

"I think you guys should start to. Not date, but at least allow yourselves to begin having these feelings for each other. I know you haven't even been able to do that." Jenny said, clearly knowing exactly how I felt towards the whole situation. Ever since Ryder passed, I have felt it would be so wrong to love another. Every time I felt my feelings for Max begin to grow, I would quickly push them aside.

"I agree with Jenny." Mark said, pulling me out of my own thoughts.

"Do you guys really think so?"

"Yeah, and we'll stick by you the whole night. No worries, if you ever don't know what to do we'll be there to help." Mark said with certainty.

"But we'll also give you your privacy, right Mark?" We both looked at Mark with raised eyebrows.

"Yeah! I didn't mean for what I said to sound like a stalker or anything." he said with an embarrassed look.

We laughed "I was only messing with you Mark," Jenny said. "Hey what time is it anyway, we need to be ready by five."

I turned to check my phone. "Four, we need to start getting ready."

We all began getting ready and made it to Starbucks right on time. We waited for the others to arrive before we all headed out to San Francisco. Once we arrived in San Francisco we drove straight to Union Square.

"Elena, do you want to wander the Westfield Mall with me?" Max asked politely.

I glanced over at Jenny and Mark, who both nodded their heads vigorously looking at me with wide eyes.

"I'd love too, we'll meet up with you guys in about an hour?" I looked around the group for approval.

"Sounds great." Troy, Max's friend answered.

"Yeah, just don't have to much fun." Jenny said. I turned to see her smiling at me with a smirk on her face. I glanced over at Mark and he said "Take care of yourself" with a wink. I could feel my face flush a deep crimson red.

"Bye you guys." Max said, pulling me away. He laughed at my reaction towards my friends and took me away before I had a chance to endure further embarrassment.