Chapter Text
- Said that you could let it go
And I wouldn't catch you hung up on somebody that you used to know -
El crosses the street, just barely looking long enough to see if it was clear before throwing a glance back over her shoulder. Her pursuer was barely a block behind her, and she pushes forward, frantically racking her brain for a way to get out of the situation she had so idiotically put herself in. This is what she gets for trying to be nice to people.
She was so wrapped up in her thoughts, she didn’t even notice the person in front of her before she’d nearly run him over. Not noticing him was quite the feat, considering how tall he was. She murmurs an apology and once again turns to look over her shoulder, noticing the distance between her and the guy behind her considerably smaller.
“I’ll give you twenty bucks if you’ll pretend to be my boyfriend for the next five minutes.”
The words had come out faster than her brain was able to process them fully, and now that they were hanging in the air, she inwardly cringes. It was a ridiculous thing to say, she didn’t know this man, not only would he probably be super weirded out, but he could be married, or a major creep. Heck, she hadn’t even taken the time to look at his face and make sure they were in the same age bracket, but then again, at this point she was desperate.
“Excuse me?”
Her head snaps around faster than she thought possible at his voice, and as she takes in the dark curly hair and freckled cheeks she suddenly wishes he’d been a major creep. Because out of all seven billion people in the world, she’d just so happened to run into the one person she loathed.
Mike Wheeler.
Maybe she wasn’t that desperate
She groans, and she can see the confusion laced with disgust painted on his stupid (albeit pretty) face. Instead of responding, she throws a glance around, but there was nowhere to go, beside her were rows of apartment buildings, behind her was a guy she definitely didn’t want to finish a conversation with, and in front of her was Mike. She moves to brush pass him instead, throwing another glance to her pursuer. Mike’s gaze passes between her and the man, the beginnings of understanding dawning in his eyes as she begins to push him aside.
“Never mind then I’ll just-”
Whatever she was going to say is cut off, because he grabs her wrist and pulls her into him, wrapping his other hand around her waist. His lips are on hers before her brain can register what was going on. When her brain does catch up and the shock wears off slightly, she kisses him back (she’ll tell herself later that it was because they had to make it believable, and totally not because of how instinctual and just right kissing him felt). His lips were surprisingly soft and with different circumstances (and definitely a different person) it might have even been enjoyable. The guy that was following her obviously loses interest now that she was ‘taken’ and walks off, much to El’s relief. Mike pulls away, and she ignores the voice in the back of her head that protested at the break of contact. After they catch their breath, he gives her a cruel smirk.
“That good enough for you?”
“Thank you, I-”
“You owe me twenty bucks.” He deadpans, cutting her off.
She snorts unimpressed, and as she reaches for her wallet she grimaces, because, ew, she had just kissed Mike Wheeler of all people. She hands him the twenty, and he inspects it a moment, almost as if he didn’t believe it was authentic before pocketing it. El just rolls her eyes, the familiar disgust and frustration towards him bubbling back to the surface.
“You happy now?” She asks, her voice edged with sarcasm.
He gives her a cheeky, and obviously fake grin. “Yes actually I am.”
El pinches the bridge of her nose, feeling a headache forming. She is saved from having to continue the conversation, (and an even more severe headache) by a familiar flash of red hair in her peripheral.
“Ellie!”
“Maxie!” She breathes out a sigh of relief as Max links arms with her. Max gives the man next to her a once over, but seems strangely unfazed.
“Where have you been? You were supposed to meet me at the apartment like half an hour ago.”
El grimaces checking her watch, she hadn’t realized how late it was. First her boss had held her after her shift was over, and then she had run into aforementioned creep on her way over to Max’s boyfriend Lucas’ apartment, which led to her being late meeting Max (and also led to her kissing Mike, but if she continued to think about that she might vomit). She wasn’t far from the apartment, which made her unlucky run in with Mike slightly less shocking considering Mike, along with their other two friends, shared the apartment with Lucas.
“I ran into some problems.” She emphasizes the word ‘problems’ by sending Mike a pointed glare. She gets an eye roll from him in return.
“Well if we don’t hurry, all the good tables are going to be taken.” Max says, all but completely ignoring the glares the pair was sending each other as she tugged on El’s arm. She was right, their favorite place to have dinner seemed to be everyone else’s so they had to get there early to actually get a good seat. El didn’t even get a chance to agree before Max was dragging her down the street, but not before turning her head back to the man who looked somewhere between confused and annoyed at their interaction. “Bye, Wheeler”
“Bye, Mayfield.” His tone is a lot softer and less prickly towards Max. For some reason they had some kind of friendship, even though El didn’t know why anyone would want to be friends with someone so insufferable. Sometimes she wondered if Max was really only friendly towards him because he was Lucas’ friend, but Max insisted that that wasn’t true. Apparently he was ‘a great guy’ and she just needed to ‘give him another chance’. El thought it was all a load of crap.
As they walk down the street, El attempts to push all thoughts of Mike out of her head, wanting to enjoy a nice evening with her best friend. That is until Max has to go and ruin it.
“So… you and Wheeler huh?”
“What are you talking about?” She asks, confused but unsettled by Max’s suggestive tone.
“Oh don’t play stupid with me Ellie. It’s not a good look on you.” Max teases, frowning when the confused expression on El’s face doesn’t relent. “Don’t act like you and Mike weren’t totally making out before I walked up.”
“I don’t- I don’t know what you’re talking about!” She splutters, feeling her cheeks heat up.
“Dude, we could see you from the window.” Max says flatly, giving her an unimpressed stare. El doesn’t have the time to process, much less formulate a response before Max pipes up again. “Oh, and sorry if you two were trying to keep this on the down-low or whatever, but Will may or may not have been on the phone with his mom, who was with your dad, so uh, now everyone knows.”
El stops, her brain no longer worried about staying moving, but focusing all of it’s energy on processing the red-head’s words. Her brain is a jumbled up mess of confusion and panic, and a singular clear thought gets through.
She is so screwed.