Always Yours | ✔

Chapter Two

Chapter 2 - You're not a player

I step out of my orange ford focus and click the little remote to lock it.

The second I walk into the small building, the aroma of fresh baked pizza surrounds me. This place has always had the best homemade pizza. It was practically a staple in our town. Elliot, Mallory, and I used to come here every Friday after school.

"Hey you made it." Elliot greets me and leads me to a table.

"Of course." I notice there are already bread sticks and marinara sauce on the table. "Did you already order?"

"Cheese and mushrooms." He grins.

"And anchovies on half for you?" I cringe at the thought of his old favorite topping.

"You remember." He smiles.

"How could I not? You made me taste it and that awful flavor has lingered in my mouth ever since."

"You know you loved it."

"Sure."

I pick up a bread stick and delicately dip it in the marinara before taking a bite. I then glance up to Elliot and notice he is staring at the empty space beside me. The place where Mallory used to sit.

I swallow my food before I open my mouth to talk. "Where is she?" I question. Mallory and Elliot were a power couple. I had never seen them apart before.

His face turns sad and dazed. "We broke up."

They broke up? I never saw that coming. They were my two childhood best friends. They shared their first kiss together when we were eight and they were still inseparable when I left. "What happened?" Someone had to of messed up. They wouldn't just decide to leave each other. That's not how they worked. Or at least it never used to be.

Elliot looks away from me, I think out of sadness. "Not long after you left, she changed."

"Changed how?"

"One word, Courtney."

"No." I said in disbelief. There's no way Mallory Everby is one of Courtney's minions. She always shared our hate for her. She even helped us prank Courtney every year on April fools. I refuse to believe she started hanging out with her. There has to be a reason.

"It's true."

"I'm so sorry." I'll let it go now, but I'll figure it out later.

"It's alright. I never thought we'd last forever. Childhood relationships are usually just a heat of the moment type of thing anyways." He could say that all he wanted but I knew he wanted to marry that girl someday.

I think back to how they were each other's first for so many things. Each other's first kiss, first date, first...... wait a minute. "Elliot, are you still a virgin?"

He cracks up laughing, "Of course not. We had our first time together before you even left." Each other's first lover.

"And you guys didn't tell me?!" How dare they. They shared everything with me.

"Really?" He stares at me, one eyebrow quirked up.

"Okay. I guess it's a little personal." But still.

"What about you?" The question caught me off guard and I was never one to be open with these things. Not like how they'd suck each other's faces off in front of people.