4

Later at taping, when everyone was on set, Elie met Kendall's gaze as the director was giving out instructions. Kendall mouthed, "I'm sorry," to Elie. To that Elie mouthed back, "It's okay," and smiled. Kendall heaved a sigh and turned his attention back to the director. Elie thought he looked a bit better now than earlier, but she still couldn't stop thinking about what made him seem so sad and a bit grumpy.

At the end of a long day, all the staff and crew were piling onto the cars to enjoy the weekend. Elie was one of the last to go and the parking lot was practically empty as she approached her car. She was about to get into her car when he heard a voice calling her name.

"EEEEEELLLLLIIIIIIEEEEEEE!" It was Carlos.

"Yeah?"

"Let's go for burgers!" a hyper Carlos said.

"But I have to -" Elie started, but Carlos cut her off.

"The last time you said next time. So this is the next time. Please?" Carlos said with a smile as he clasped his hands together, as though in prayer.

"Oh, alright," Elie said, shutting her car door. "But I can't be out too late. I have stuff to do."

"Stuff like what? It's Friday night!" Carlos said as they walked towards his car.

"I'm too old for Friday night," Elie said with a chuckle. "So uh, how are we getting there? Can we all fit in your car? I mean I could just follow you guys in my car."

"Uh, we'll take 2 cars going there. James and Logan have already gone ahead and you, me, and Kendall will go in my car. And then after that I'll just drop you guys here so you could get your cars," Carlos answered, hoping he got all the bases covered. The burger joint was a 20-minute drive and Carlos thought maybe that was enough time to at least accomplish something with Elie and Kendall, or at least plant a seed in their heads about one another. Or at least get more info.

"So, where are we headed?" Elie asked from the backseat as Carlos drove out of Paramount.

"There's this place that James went to a couple of weeks ago and he said it was awesome and he wanted to go back with us," Carlos replied.

"What's the place called?" Elie asked.

"Kendall, what's the place called?" Carlos said as he motioned for Kendall to answer Elie's question. Why aren't these two talking? He thought.

Kendall turned to Elie and said, "It's called 'Hole in the Wall Burger Joint.'"

"Great name," Elie said, nodding. "That'd be interesting to have nearby."

"Any cool burger joints where you live, Elie? Where do you live?" Carlos asked.

"Orange County," Kendall said before Elie could even answer.

"Aww, you remembered," Elie said as he pinched Kendall's cheeks.

"Ouch," Kendall yelped.

"So how would Kendall know where you live?" Carlos asked.

"We had dinner a couple of nights ago, was it? It was great. We ate a ton of food. Right, Kendall?" Elie said, turning towards Kendall.

"You had a date?" Carlos asked again.

"NO!" came Kendall's booming reply. "I mean it wasn't like that."

"Kendall walked into the coffee shop I was in and he looked hungry so I invited him to dinner. Hardly a date," Elie said as she tinkered with something on her phone and then glanced at Kendall. "Are we there yet?"

"Ten more minutes, Elie," Carlos replied, looking at Elie through the rearview mirror. Kendall, on the other hand, was looking straight ahead, obviously thinking about something.

"I'm checking out the reviews for the place, and there are pretty good food recommendations. I guess we should try them all, right?" Elie suggested.

"I'm pretty hungry too, so I could probably eat everything on their menu," Carlos replied.

They had not had much to talk about after that exchange, except for some small talk about directions and random food suggestions. A few minutes before they reached the burger joint, Elie received a text message from Kendall.

Sorry. I'm just really stressed the past couple of days

To which Elie replied: It's OK Don't worry about it. I totally get you. Being stressed sucks.

A few moments later, Elie got another text from Kendall: You're too nice

Thank you, Elie replied. She looked up to find Kendall smiling at her through the rearview mirror.

"And here we are," Carlos said as he unbuckled his seatbelt and got out of his car. Kendall seemed to linger for a bit since Elie was still in the car. When Elie was about to get out, Kendall hurriedly opened his car door and raced towards the other side of the car where Elie was getting out.

"Oh, hey," Elie said, surprised.

"I'm really sorry about today. I'm just a mess," Kendall said, holding the door open for Elie and then closing it after her.

"Like I said, Kibs, don't worry about it," Elie winked. "Now let's go get burgers!"

James was right, the burgers were really great. It was worth the 20-minute drive from the studios. They all sat at a makeshift long table made out of smaller tables and had a good time trying out burgers and lots of sides. The boys had put their Kendall-teasing in check because they noticed he seemed to be on edge whenever the teasing happened. But the good news was that Elie was with them and they could at least see them together. Well, almost together. They were seated at opposite ends of the long table, across one another.

Elie was having a great time with the boys. At one point during their time there, her eyes wandered around to Kendall. She doesn't know if it's the gorgeous California sunset, or Kendall's coloring, or maybe she was too full from the burger and the sweet potato fries, but all of a sudden the sight of Kendall made her heart beat faster. She looked at him for a split-second more than she should, and Kendall caught her looking at him. She just smiled at him to save face, and then turned her attention to James who was telling some story about his high school buddies. But Elie wasn't paying attention.

Get a hold of yourself, Elie. You don't really want to start this now, Elie, do you? Do you?

From the corner of her eye, Elie could feel Kendall's glances at her. She felt like hitting her head on the table. Feelings are bad, bad, baaaaaaad. He's a kid. A cute kid, but you work for them. Also, a kid.

Kendall, on the other hand, wasn't doing much better, and took a turn for the worse when he caught Elie looking at him. Or at least that's what he wanted to not think Elie was doing. He wasn't sure whether to feel happy or horrified or both. He closed his eyes for a moment, took a deep breath, and opened his eyes just in time to see Elie intently listening to James' stories. For some reason the sunset made her look like she was glowing. This is getting so much worse, he thought to himself, and sighed.

"Kendall, earth to Kendall," Carlos whispered.

Kendall was pulled out of his rumination. "Yeah?"

"Can I ask you a question?" Carlos asked, still whispering.

Kendall looked weirdly at Carlos. "Sure, go ahead. And why are we whispering like middle school girls?"

Carlos pretended to scratch his neck and subtly moved his head toward Elie's direction.

"That's not a question, Carlos,' Kendall said.

And without warning, Carlos asked Elie from across the table, "Elie, are you dating anyone?"

Everybody stopped their babbling and looked at Elie.

"Wow, the questions turned personal fast," Elie said as she took the last bite of her burger. "But the answer is no."

Suddenly, somebody came over to their table. "Fuckers! What brings you all the way up here?"

"Hey, Dustin!" Carlos stood up and did the hand thing that boys do when they see each other. Everyone else followed suit.

"And oh, you didn't tell me we have a lovely lady with us," Dustin said when he noticed Elie walking towards him. "Hey, E!"

"Hey, D!" Elie said as she gave Dustin a hug.

"So what were you guys talking about?" Dustin asked as he took a seat between Kendall and James.

"Elie's dating history," Carlos replied.

"Ooh, interesting. Go on, go on."

Logan took a quick glance at Kendall and then asked, "So… Would you consider dating any of us?"

Elie took a sip of her drink and crossed her arms. She scanned the good-looking young men in front of her. "Hmm, let's see. James here, probably not."

"Hey!" James interjected.

"But you're prettier than I am, James! Can't be next to that face all the time," Elie said as she did the spirit fingers over James' face.

"This," James said as he too did the spirit fingers on his face, "has nothing to do with this." He pointed to his heart.

"I know, babe, but I'm being really superficial right now."

"Oh, alright," James said.

Dustin was next. "D-Belt? The bleached blonde hair's not doing anything for me, no offense."

"None taken," Dustin nodded at Elie and winked.

"Logan…" Elie looked at Logan and slowly shook her head no.

"Aw, come on!" Logan said in mock protest.

"Now it's on to Carlos. Hmm… Papi, you know I love ya, but we're almost the same height. What am I going to do with half of my shoes?" Elie was pretending to be a stuck up sorority girl obsessed with her shoes or something.

It was torture for Kendall. He knew his turn was up, and he knew that everyone's joking but as much as he's a bit terrified, he can't wait for what Elie has to say. And finally it really was Kendall's turn.

"As for Kendall," he heard Elie say. He smiled awkwardly at her. He took a deep breath. "He likes the same stuff that I do and we have a lot in common, but…"

Elie's phone suddenly started ringing just as she was about to say whether or not she would consider dating Kendall.

"Oops, sorry guys, I have to take this," Elie said as she stood up and walked out of the restaurant.

Kendall's ears were burning. All eyes on the table were on him as Elie went out to take the call.

"The waiter, Kendall. The waiter has made more moves on Elie in the last half hour that we've been here than you ever had in the last two-and-a-half weeks," Logan said in disgust.

"What do you want me to do, man? It's not that easy!" Kendall said, defending himself.

"Man up! The first thing you have to do is to be fucking honest with yourself for just one second," James said. "It's getting really annoying having to hear you say 'Oh, it's nothing, not in love, not at all, everything's okay' and all that shit."

"And don't think we don't notice the way you look at her, or at least the back of her head," Dustin said, laughing.

"See, even Dustin notices, and he's usually so inept," Logan added.

"Who's inept?" Elie asked, nobody even noticed that she had entered the restaurant and was now standing behind Dustin. Kendall was startled. How much did Elie hear?

"Dustin. Dustin's very inept," Carlos quickly replied. "There's a girl he really, really likes yet he's not doing anything about it."

Dustin stared at Carlos before he slowly realized what was going on. He nodded and said, "Yes, inept. I am very inept."

"Who's the lucky girl? Which one? From the crew? How's she like?" Elie rattled off questions to Dustin as she went back to her seat.

"Uh… She's… Kendall, help me out here," Dustin said as he patted Kendall on the back. Elie then looked at Kendall. "So...?"

It finally dawned on him what his friends were doing. He cleared his throat, "This girl, she's… she's the coolest, most awesome girl." Kendall's heart felt as though it was lodged in his throat. Am I really doing this? Yes, he was. So he went on, "He's never met anyone like her before. He thinks this one's pretty special."

"Awww that's so sweet! But why aren't you doing anything? If she's so special, Dustin, why haven't you asked her out yet? I mean does she even know that you like her? Does she even like you, even for a bit?"

"I think so. I mean we're good friends. I haven't known her for a long time, sure, but we're really tight. At least I like to think so," Dustin replied, quickly glancing at Kendall, and then added, "We already had dinner together one time."

"Really, when?" Elie inquired.

"We, uh… it was…" Dustin started but James cut him off.

"It doesn't really matter but the point is, this man here is just letting things go to waste. He's not doing anything. He's just sitting there!" James pointed to Kendall and Dustin's direction.

"Whoa, James. You're really up in arms about this," Elie replied, astonished at how James was reacting. "Maybe Dustin's just gathering his momentum."

"Some kind of slow, if you ask me," Logan retorted.

"Hey, give the guy a break. Maybe Dustin's falling in love and this is all new to him and he doesn't know what to do or how to proceed. You guys should just help him out," Elie suggested.

"Fuck, yes!" Kendall said loudly.

"See, Kendall agrees with me. Amen, brother," Elie said. Carlos snorted, James choked on his drink and started a coughing fit, and both Logan and Dustin started laughing. Only Kendall and Elie were not having some sort of reaction to what Elie said.

"You guys are weird. Why do I even put up with you?" Elie said in jest when all the coughing, laughing, and snorting have died down. "So, uh, Dustin, how long have you liked this girl?"

"We think he loves her," Carlos said.

"You – we don't know that," Kendall quickly said.

"I don't know Kendall, what do you think?" Dustin said, raising an eyebrow at his friend.

"I really have no idea," he replied truthfully, looking Elie in the eyes.

"Maybe he does. She's beautiful, smart, sincere, all those things," Logan offered.

"She sounds awesome. When can we meet her?" Elie asked.

"Oh, look at the time!" Dustin changed the subject because the more questions Elie asks, the greater the possibility that he won't know the answers anymore. "Catch you all later, gotta go." And he got out of Hole in the Wall just as fast as he came.

"He sure doesn't want to talk about it," Elie commented. "But God bless him, maybe he's just scared."

"Yes, but he should move his ass soon or somebody else will get her," Carlos said.

"If it'll happen, it'll happen," Elie countered, "although he shouldn't just leave everything to chance. He should at least ask her out again."

"Listen to the woman!" James boomed, head turned towards Kendall.

"Anyway, shouldn't we be going now?" Elie asked.

"Alright guys, let's go," Carlos said as they all scampered out of the restaurant.

They all drove back to Paramount where their cars were. After saying their goodbyes, James, Logan, and Carlos drove off. The last ones on the lot where Kendall and Elie.

"That was fun," Kendall smiled at Elie.

Elie smiled back. "Yeah, it was. We should all do that again."

An awkward silence followed, and then Kendall asked Elie, "Are you heading home now?"

"Unfortunately, yes. I have some stuff to finish… for class," Elie replied.

"Class? What class?" Kendall asked again.

"Graphic design class. It's just an online thing to keep me preoccupied while I figure myself out," Elie shrugged. And then it was quiet again. Why is this so awkward all of a sudden?

Kendall looked like he was about to say something but stopped himself. They were both just standing there for a few uncomfortable, quiet seconds.

"I'll be going now. I'll see you Monday?" Elie finally said.

"Yeah. Okay, okay. Drive safely," Kendall replied. And then they just stood there, not knowing whether to hug or shake hands or just wave at each other. Elie just turned around and started walking to her car.

Kendall turned around to go to his car. Man up, man up, man up, he thought to himself.

"Elie!" he shouted.

Elie turned around to face Kendall, who was a few yards away now. "Yep?"

"You wanna, I don't know, hang out tomorrow?" Kendall asked, unsure of the answer to his question.

I'm sorry this is such a long, drawn-out chapter. I might not have as much time to update so I gave you guys a super long one

Thank you to the lovely people who gave reviews. Very encouraging to me, so thank you!

Please don't be frustrated with Kendall as much. He'll get his head on straight pretty soon.