Coincidences

Chapter 20: Elijah

For the rest of the week, Luke was sweet as ever, walking Ella to her classes and constantly texting her funny memes and texts. She could tell he felt guilty about constantly trying to push her away. 

They hadn't talked about what they were, or why they made out at her house, so it slowly seemed like they went back to being friends (much to her disappointment). He had shown up to her house every morning before school, and asked her to cover up his hickeys with concealer. He wasn't even her shade, but she made it work.

Thomas had gone back to Arizona, but not before Ella promised to keep him updated on everything that happened.

She was scrolling through Twitter in the bleachers at one of Mike's practices, when Luke climbed up and sat next to her. He was sweaty but it didn't bother her; she always saw Mike and Jake like that.

"Are you free on Saturday?" He asked. 

"Yeah. Why?"

"My friends from LA are coming to visit. I figured since I've met all of your friends, you'd want to meet mine?" 

"I'd like that." 

"Great. I can pick you up or text you my address, whatever you want." 

"Just text me your address. I'll come."

"Okay. Come at six." He grinned at her, and that was that. 

Now here she was, on Saturday, parked in front of his house, sort of panicking. He had never explicitly met her friends one on one, so she wasn't sure how to act when meeting his. Sam and Thomas had picked her outfit; mom jeans, and a short white t shirt that had a tiny blue butterfly embroidered in the middle. Her hair was loose around her shoulders, and she had her usual mascara and lip gloss combo. 

The first thing she noticed was how big and modern looking his house was. She needed to ask what his parents did.  

Ella gave her self a mini pep talk. Sam was stationed to call her with an 'emergency' if Ella texted her 'SOS', just so she had an escape plan to leave if things got awkward.

She was just about to leave her car when her phone rang. It was Luke. 

"Hi." She answered.

"Hey. You good? You've been parked outside for 20 minutes."

Fuck. She didn't even realize they could see her car.

"Yeah. Sorry, my mom called me." She lied. This was embarrassing. 

She hung up and got out of the car, closing the door and stalking up to the door, which Luke had already pulled open. She walked in and was about to greet him, when a heavy force collided with her. She was shocked as a stranger had his arms around her, but she hugged him back. 

"Hey!" He pulled back. "I'm Milo."  His eyes were so green it was unsettling, but his words were kind and Ella instantly warmed up to him. He looked familiar.

"Hi, nice to meet you, I'm Ella." When he pulled back, she saw two other guys in the living room. One of them was staring at her with a smirk similar to Luke's, while the other didn't even look at her, seeming disinterested with the ordeal. He had an aura of superiority around him, making Ella slightly weary. 

"You don't remember us, do you?" The one with the smirk caught her attention with his words. "Let me remind you." He puckered his lips and made kissy faces at her, which made Luke scowl. 

It immediately reminded her of why they looked familiar. Her face heated up; they were there when she impulsively kissed Luke during the summer. 

"I can't believe you guys remember that." She muttered.

"We had to watch Luke sulk waiting for you to text him for a week, how could we forget?" The smirk guy said. 

Ella looked at Luke, startled by this new information. 

"Shut up, Porter. I didn't sulk." Luke spoke up, dodging her eyes.

Ella sat down on an armchair, Luke stayed standing next to her. 

"So," Milo started, looking curious. "Were you the one who left all those hickeys on our dear Luke?" 

Ella's eyes flashed to Luke's exposed neck, seeing the faded purple marks. She wanted the ground to swallow her. This was embarrassing.  "Nope. Must've been the vacuum."

Porter burst out laughing. "You totally did! He denied it but the second we knew the Disneyland girl goes to school with him, we knew something would happen between you two." Porter wiggled his eyebrows.  

"Ella and Luke sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-NG!" Milo started singing, he had a nice voice. 

Porter and Milo spent the next twenty minutes teasing Ella and Luke, with her laughing and Luke telling them to shut up every time. 

Ella couldn't help but notice that the third boy hadn't said a single thing, nor had he introduced himself. He looked quite bored with the whole situation, which was slightly impolite.  

"What's your name?" She called out to him, cutting off Porter who had started listing off all the girls he'd seen Luke with, trying to embarrass him.

The guy looked up, his cold stare meeting hers harshly.

"Does it matter?" He answered, dryly.

Luke sighed. 

"That's Elijah. Don't mind him, he's on his period." Porter said.

Elijah threw a pillow at him then, but still seemed unbothered. "Shut up, dick."

Ella didn't really know how to react to Elijah's attitude; he seemed rude and insufferable. 

They all hung out for a few hours, it was mostly Luke and his friends teasing each other while El watched. She caught Elijah watching her a few times, when she caught him he didn't look away as normal people would, he resumed his staring until she was the one who looked away. 

After a while she went to the bathroom, letting Luke lead her there. He kept apologizing about his 'embarrassing' friends, but she actually really liked Milo and Porter.

As she was stepping out of the bathroom, she jumped at the sight of someone leaning against the wall eyes on the ground, waiting for her. Elijah. In his all black attire and bitter expression, she couldn't help but be intimidated

"Um. Hi?" She caught his attention. He lifted his cold eyes to hers. 

"Look, I'll get to the point. My bad if I've been an ass." He said, insincerely. "I'm not trying to be, I just am." He said, matter-of-factly. His tone remained flat and his eyes blank.

Wow what a shitty apology.

"I also wanna say, that I can see Luke cares for you. So, don't break his heart." His eyes flashed with something resembling anger.

Ella's eyes widened. This was the most emotion she'd seen on him all day. 

"I know he's a pain in the ass, but he's the best person I've ever met in my life. He's been through a lot, something I can relate to, so it takes a while for him to open up. He's like an onion, a lot of layers." She wanted to smile at that comparison, but Elijah was still stone-faced, so she held it in.

"Anyways, what I'm trying to say is, he's going to try to push you away. He did it with me, but I didn't budge. And now he's the closest thing I have to a brother. I love him, and I want what's best for him. So yeah. Take care of him." 

He kicked off the wall and stalked off coolly, hands in his pocket, not glancing back. 

Ella stared after him, reeling from his words. 

a/n HI GUYS I MADE A STORY about elijah set in college!!!! its called "loving carter" its on my profile for anyone interested pls check it out <3 its written much better than this now that I am older 

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