Five Twenty-Eight

10.

It was never ending. It seeped into her consciousness and infected every thought in her mind. She could feel his touch on her skin and hear his words in her ear and smell his cologne over any other scent in the vicinity.

Her fingers poked at the chipping paint that coated her nails, while her thoughts went wild. She inhaled slowly, resisting against the shudder that taunted her when his voice scurried across her mind.

"Fuck, Elisa— That's so good."

She was a sitting duck. Being held prisoner by her own thoughts and complete inability to take control from him in her own head.

"You alright, kid?"

She snapped back down to reality, whipping her head around to look at Oliver, who watched her in curiosity for another moment before shaking it off and turned to Marissa.

"Yeah," He smiled at her, "We're good— Did you guys want to get ice cream or not?"

Marissa hummed as she thought, spinning the hematite ring around her finger, and glanced back at Jesse, who walked slowly behind all of them in a deep thought. "I don't mind. We're going over there anyway, aren't we?"

When this new trio swung around Daniels' Book Nook to steal Elisa away before she could sneak up to her room, Marissa swore to come back at the end of the night. Looking around right then and there would've been the most logical thing to do, but Elisa quickly realized that logic wasn't exactly the way Marissa lived her life. Instead, she followed whatever her heart desired in that moment— Even if that meant walking an extra ten blocks because she wanted to go all the way back to a little book shop at eight opposed to five.

Oliver draped his arm over Elisa's shoulders casually, tearing his eyes away from the couple lingering behind them to lean closer and whisper in her ear, "Are you okay? You're spacing out on me again."

She reached up to grab his fingers, lacing them with hers and sighed softly, "How many more times do I need to tell you I'm fine— Just so I can prepare, you know?"

"You're not even on the same Earth as me right now, El," He said quietly, "You've been out of it all night."

She'd been out of it all week.

"I'm fine," She raised her eyebrows, "I'm tired I guess? I haven't even been home because I went straight to the shop-"

"I told you we didn't have to go out tonight-"

"And cancel on them again? I'm not exactly making a great first impression-"

"They love you-"

"I've said maybe three words."

He came to a quick stop, his arm around her shoulders forcing her to stop with him. "Do you want to go home?"

She huffed in frustration, shifting away to look at him. "No, I-"

"They're going back to Daniels', El. We don't have to go with them."

Elisa sighed, glancing back at Marissa and Jesse as they murmured to each other with their eyes up on a building ahead, seemingly discussing their plans for the next time they come to this side of the neighborhood.

"It's fine, Oliver," She retorted, crossing her arms over her chest, then turned to look at them both. "Do you guys want to come upstairs? I think there's a pack of cookie dough floating somewhere around our fridge."

Marissa gasped in surprise, glancing up at Jesse in excitement, and made a decision based off of that quick look alone. "We would love to," She grinned, bouncing up on the balls of her feet.