Seven Twenty-Eight

3.

Elisa stared down at her quiz with her eyebrows furrowed, uncertain of her answers. She picked it up in her hand, bringing it closer to look over it once again. She sighed and glanced up at the clock above the door, feeling like she had been taking the assessment for hours.

Finally, she picked her out of her seat, walking around the desk to worm her way to the back corner of the room and hesitantly placed it down in the nearly full basket of papers.

She pulled a book out of her bag when she finished, opening up a rough copy of A Separate Peace and began to distract her mind.

"Elisa?"

She lifted her eyes, staring ahead of her in annoyance. "What?" She whispered back to him, looking at him from the corner of her eye.

"Are you okay?" Oliver asked, mindlessly spinning his pen in his hand.

"Mhm," She hummed, looking back down at the page, "I'm reading."

He frowned, sitting back in his seat. "Right," He whispered to himself, "Sorry."

They sat in silence, as they had, almost, the whole class until the bell rang moments later.

Elisa took her time, lazily finishing up the page she read before snapping it shut, holding it under her arm as she turned to pick up her bag. She turned around afterwards, frowning when she noticed him waiting behind her.

"Are you coming to dinner?" He asked innocently, twirling the excess straps of his bag around his fingers.

"Uh— Sure," She said hesitantly, confused by his persistence. She walked alongside him quietly, observing the mostly empty hall around them as he bid his hellos to the people that straggled behind.

"Are we okay?" He blurted out, holding the door open as she walked through.

She looked at him over her shoulder, holding her book to her chest as she pulled the next door open. "What?"

Oliver pressed his lips together as he walked past, immediately stopping to turn to her. "I don't know," He shrugged, turning as she caught up with him, "I've been getting a weird vibe from you the past week."

"I don't know what to tell you," She retorted, "I'm sorry you've been getting weird vibes?"

"At first I thought, maybe, you were overwhelmed with all the change. My friends? I don't know," He trailed off, shoving his hands into his pockets, "But now it just feels like it's me, and that you don't want to be talking to me."

"I'm talking to you now, aren't I?"

"It doesn't sound like you want to be," He shot back, glancing to the side to look at her.

She sighed, shaking her head as she continued to look at the ground in front of her, "We're cool, Oliver. Don't worry."

"Are you sure? I know it's only been a few weeks but I do really like you— Being friends with you, I mean-"

Elisa halted in place, tilting her head slightly when he took a couple more steps.

"I just feel like I did something, but I don't know what it is. And if I did, you kind of have to tell me because I'll never figure it out— I'm not very-" He paused when he realized, turning around to look at her, "I'm not very bright."

"It's fine," She told him, smiling sheepishly.

"Elisa," He rolled his eyes, "I'm really trying here."

"Look, I don't know what you thought this was," She started, moving her book under her arm as she rubbed her sweating palms together, "But I don't do this. I don't do friends o-or boys? I don't have the time to be playing games and getting myself stuck in the middle of drama."