"I just realized," Meliodas ponders aloud, very distracted and very much not doing his work like he should be, "this isn't like any regular dorm. You've got a kitchen, a tiny laundry room over there," he points to a door that's wide open, revealing a washer and a dryer, "a full bathroom and two bedrooms. I didn't know they made dorm rooms like this!"
Elizabeth smiles - the first time he's seen her smile genuinely. "Diane and I pitched in to get a more high-end room. It's kind of inconvenient to run around all over the place for food, a bath, and a place to wash and clean your clothes."
"Huh. I guess that's a valid point," Meliodas muses. A yawn suddenly escapes him—he stretches as he tries to glance around for an alarm clock or something that can tell time. "What's the time?"
The silverette grabs her phone from the coffee table, turning it over to check the hour. "10:16," she answers. Then she turns to him with a smile as her phone turns off. "I guess it's time for you to go!"
"You wanna get rid of me that badly?" He teases, but complies with his tutor, moving to put his text books away. "And here I thought you were enjoying my company."
Elizabeth snorts - a sound he didn't expect to hear from her. He dares to look at her from under his lashes, his bangs blocking his eyes from her view. "I told you; whatever is between us is strictly professional." Her tone tells him there's no room to argue. "I'm sure you'd rather be out having sex with some girl that's more than willing to let you into her arms instead of here with me, doing the work you neglected to do the entire year."
He freezes in his movements - does she really despise him that much? Why does she care so much about his reputation? If anything, being seen with him would only boost her popularity, not tank it. But he understands; she's got morals. And walls—tall, tall walls built up.
Meliodas knows Elizabeth is not on the markets for him. Nor would he want to go for her. She's a bit too… stuck-up, is that the word he's looking for? She takes things way too seriously, she doesn't know how to take a joke (not really, unless she's making one), and well… she's not really his type. Don't get him wrong - Elizabeth Liones is beautiful - but the girls he's been with that turn their heads to him the second he enters the room?
Oh, they're heaven until he's done with them.
"Besides," Elizabeth continues, removing herself from the couch. His eyes stay on the back of her head where her bun still falls. "You're dying to get to that party your friends are throwing, right? I really wouldn't want to keep you."
No, she's wrong there. His friends don't really throw the most exciting parties. It's the same thing every time; alcohol is involved, they play beer pong, they play loud music to drown out the sounds of sloppy sex and loud moans from closed rooms. It's all the same, and quite frankly, Meliodas is tired of it. Well, for the most part anyway.
Deciding on staying quiet, Meliodas simply returns to packing up his things. He makes sure he has his phone secure in his pocket before he stands from Elizabeth's couch, turning slightly to pick up his jacket and shrug it on. Elizabeth waits for him by the door to see him out.
Their hands brush against one another as Meliodas moves past her to get through the door and he swears he hears Elizabeth's breath hitch in her throat. But as he looks over his shoulder at her, her face is stoic and her chest falls and rises with each breath she takes. I must be hearing things, he thinks to himself. "Same time tomorrow?" He asks, referring to this whole being tutored situation.
Elizabeth glances away from his face for a moment, and his gaze darts to her hand at her side where the fingers flex. Is she nervous? Anxious maybe? He tends to have that effect on women…
"No," she responds after a minute. "I work and it's Friday tomorrow—it's the busiest day of the week. They need me there."
"Okay," he says with a small grin. "Saturday then? Do you work the weekends?" She shakes her head - that's good. Maybe they can cram more tutoring time into the weekends. "Saturday it is then. I'll text you a time that might work for us both."
"Sounds good," Elizabeth says. Her expression stays the same. Meliodas decides it's about time he leaves; he turns away from her and grabs the door handle, twisting it and pulling the door open. He walks through and into the hallway and Elizabeth catches the door. Their gazes lock for a second and he notices her grip tightening slightly on the door handle. "Um… goodnight, Meliodas. I'll see you Saturday."
His mouth suddenly runs dry—no girl has ever told him goodnight like that, not with so much… sincerity, in a way. "Goodnight, Ellie. See you then."
And he turns away, a faint grin on his face.
ooo
Elizabeth closes the door and leans her back against it. She tilts her head back, cringing with a little of a wince at the slight pain in the back of her skull that collided with the door.
Ellie? What possessed him to call her that? Typically it was just her sisters that called her that - on occasions Diane would call her that too. It just sounds weird in a sense to hear that from Meliodas of all people. Not even her previous boyfriends would have called her by that nickname.
She shakes her head in an attempt to rid herself of the thoughts of Meliodas and him calling her by a nickname. Kicking herself away from the door, she goes back to the coffee table to grab her phone. She sighs as Diane's name lights up on the screen in a text notification; -Won't be home tonight, staying at King's. Don't wait up for me. Love ya!
But a smile pulls at her lips as she responds. -Hope you had fun, Di. Love you too.
Elizabeth puts her phone down just as her stomach rumbles - oh what a time to be hungry. She's exhausted after the day she's had. From having class and texting back and forth with an arrogant Meliodas, to getting back to her dorm she shares with Diane to clean it for almost three hours as she waited for Meliodas, to actually tutoring and teaching him - her brain is absolutely fried and her body demands she go to bed.
Going to bed at the moment is temporarily out of the question. Hunger tugs at her stomach and she would rather not go to bed like this. So, as she tugs at the hair tie barely keeping her hair up, she walks into the kitchen.
She opens the fridge, hoping to find some leftovers - and to her luck, she does. Although it's the pizza Diane brought last night, Elizabeth supposes she can't complain too much. Her tummy growls, protesting with the hunger of her empty stomach. She exhales sharply, taking the food out of the fridge to heat it up in the microwave. Usually she would use the oven - or even a damn airfryer - but given the time; it's late. And she needs her rest for work tomorrow.
Inputting around a minute for the microwave to warm up her food, Elizabeth gets to thinking. Her life is fairly good; she has a good relationship with her family—with her friends too. Margaret and Veronica give her a call or a text every now and again, and it's always a pleasant conversation.
Though she wishes their talks would last longer, each one of them has their own errands to run, their own lives to live. It's especially more difficult when Elizabeth resides on the opposite side of the state.
On the other hand, she supposes her friends make it more bearable. Diane is certainly her number one supporter, helping her with every little thing she can if at all possible. King and his younger sister are also delights in their own quirky ways - even Ban and she doesn't really know him that well.
She feels pretty damn lucky to have all these people in her life.
The sudden beeping of her microwave startles her, though it effectively breaks her train of thought. Elizabeth exhales softly, taking her food out of the microwave and she eats somewhat quickly; the demand to sleep grows every second she stays awake.
Thankfully though, she's done not before long and her bed invites her to fall into a comforting slumber.
ooo
-Let's meet at the cafe by your job, Meliodas texts Elizabeth on the day she promised to tutor him next. He lazes around in bed, phone in hand, absolutely bare under his covers. Last night was… interesting to say the least. Meliodas only wishes he could forget last night as a whole though.
(He had gotten back from spending the day with his younger brother only to hear from Ban that some girl was waiting for him outside his bedroom. Meliodas sighed - the day he had with Zeldris was tiring; all he really wanted was to go to bed and wait for Saturday. He would have been damned if he met up with Elizabeth just to end up nearly passing out a couple hundred times. Then he would have to deal with an upset Ellie, and both parties would be angry.
And Ban had been right - a girl around his own height, hair dark and eyes an equally dark green was sitting in the hallway right by his door, looking down at her phone. Meliodas contemplated turning around, jumping down the stairs and excusing himself for a few hours more. But then she looked up and smiled… seductively? Or at least tried to - before standing up and inching closer to him, opening her arms to wrap around his neck.
He stepped away, laughing awkwardly. "What are you doing here, Zaneri?"
Zaneri had frowned slightly at his hesitancy. "I just wanna talk," she told him, "I have things I want to tell you…"
"Well, tell me whatever it is right here," he responded, shoving his hands into his pockets. "It's been a long day and I'm pretty sure I can hear my pillows calling my name."
Again she frowned. Then she placed her hands behind her back and leaned toward him, to which Meliodas leaned away from her. He had a sneaking suspicion that she was going to confess something to him - whether it be some sort of feelings or she wanted to propose they be exclusive fuck buddies.
Both were things Meliodas did not want.
"Fine," she spat lightly. Her eyes strayed from his in favor of staring at the floor they stood on. "I… I realized how I feel about you, Meliodas. I don't want to keep doing this with you; secretly meeting up to have sex or me coming over here on the offchance that you're actually here. I– I think I love you, Meliodas."
His heart had stammered against his ribs with each word that left her mouth. It was true that they would have sex ever so often, but not once was it ever sober. Every time he drank, she was near. Every time she was near, she also had a few drinks of sweet alcohol. Drunk sex was all it ever was - and quite frankly, only when he was drunk could he ever see her as pretty.
When he was sober, she didn't meet his usual coherent standards.
Though she had said love. Why would she go as far as saying she loved him? They know nothing about one another besides the fact that he's the captain of the basketball team, and that she's clearly way in over her own head.
"Zaneri," he had sighed her name, closing his eyes for a split moment. How could he have put this delicately for her impatient heart? "I'm not looking for anything serious. Yes, we've had sex a handful of times, but that's all it'll ever be, 'kay? I won't beat around the bush—I'm not attracted to you like that."
"What?" She whispered, lifting her gaze to his. "That–That isn't true! You would call me beautiful and– and…"
"Because I was drunk. Every. Single. Time." Meliodas supplied an answer. "And so were you. Just go home, Zaneri. I really have nothing else to say to you."
He pushed past her, but then she grabbed his wrist, keeping him from entering his bedroom. "Who else is there?" She has asked, her voice clearly hurt. He rolled his eyes, not exactly having felt up to be playing these types of games with her. "Who else is there that's keeping you from reciprocating my love for you?"
"You don't love me." The words left him fairly easily—because they were true. "You love the idea of me, right? I was just some dude for you to fuck to destress. I'm not going to be that for you anymore, Zaneri. Go home."
And he pulled his wrist from her grip, entering his room and he closed it shut behind him. He made sure he locked the door before he stripped himself of his clothing, not bothering to put any sweats on and sleep claimed him not long after he shut his eyes.)
Meliodas shudders as he replays that whole ordeal from yesterday in his mind. He never liked Zaneri like that and thankfully never will. She wasn't his type, not really, no way.
He shakes his head in an attempt to rid himself of those thoughts and turns back to his phone. His conversation with Elizabeth lights up his screen and he finds himself grinning a bit. -Does that work for you though? He continues his text. -I could pick you up if you don't have a ride. It won't be much of a hassle for me.
To his surprise, she responds in record time. He glances at the time before reading her message - it's eight in the morning. What is she doing up so early? He had a rough night and barely got any sleep. Maybe work was awful last night? She said it would be busy since it was a Friday, but he's never worked at a restaurant. He wouldn't know what exactly busy means in that area.
-Yes please, she wrote back. -Diane spent the night at King's so I don't have access to her car at the moment. What time do you wanna go?
He chuckles at the mention of Diane and King. They're pretty serious, aren't they? -What are you doing up right now? It's a Saturday, woman. How does 10 sound?
-Work sucked. They had me working three different shifts because some people quit. So excuse me for not getting enough sleep, Meliodas. 10 sounds fine. Why are YOU up, then?
-Rough night. Spent most of the day with my brother and came home to some girl declaring her love for me. I made it pretty damn clear I wasn't interested in her but she kept insisting she loved me and then had the audacity to ask me who else there was that was 'keeping me from loving her back'.
-Wow, she writes back and even though he can't hear her say it physically, he knows it must be dripping with sarcasm. -Is she delusional? What did you even do to have her so strung on you like that? Also I didn't know you had a brother.
-You've probably seen him around. Looks just like me but he's a year behind us. But yeah… I don't know what I could have done to make her so obsessed with me. She was waiting for me right next to my bedroom door! I contemplated literally jumping down the stairs and never coming back. or at least until she left.
-You're stupid. Let me guess, she's one of those girls you fuck every other day?
-Not really, she was a weird case. We only ever had sex when we were drunk. Honestly, she isn't really that good looking…
-Mhm. Maybe keep it to a minimum with the amount of girls you have sex with. Especially when your entire basketball career is on the line.
-Why? You want a turn on my dick instead?
Elizabeth doesn't respond for a moment and Meliodas curses himself for stepping out of line with her. Now she's gonna tell him she refuses to tutor him anymore; she's gonna absolutely chew him the fuck out—
His phone pings with a notification - another text from Elizabeth. It reads; -In your dreams, you blonde weirdo. Nice to know you've thought of me like that, though. It'll have to stop immediately. No one thinks of their private tutor like that.
Meliodas chuckles humorously. Oh, how Elizabeth Liones has that spark - that little flame that excites him so. -Of course, he responds, playing it safe. -But sorry to burst your bubble, but I haven't thought of you like that, Ellie. That is unless you want me to…?
-Absolutely not. Anyways… have you had breakfast yet?
-Does Elizabeth Liones want to take me out on an early morning date? I'm so flattered Ellie!
-It's not like that at all! Meliodas laughs again, wondering if her face is bright pink from his teasing. -I'm just asking so we can meet up a little earlier than 10 and get more done. The semester ends next month and I know you'll be on my ass if you end up getting cut out of the team for good.
-I wouldn't give you shit for something you can control, he replies in all honesty. Because really—he wouldn't! It's really his fault for not doing his work or paying attention in class when he was meant to… it's his burden to shoulder and he has to face the consequences of his actions. Or in this case, the lack thereof. -But sure, I'm open. Do you want me to come over? Do you still wanna go to that cafe then?
-However you might see it fit, Meliodas. You looked bored as hell when you came over for the first time. Maybe you'd be less bored at the cafe.
-I was only bored because of the math. You did a great job explaining, by the way. I actually understand what the fuck I was looking at. Seriously- how the hell are you so smart, Ellie?
-I don't know. I just study a lot, I don't think it's really a matter if I'm smart or not. I just have a good memory, that's all.
-Bullshit, but whatever. I'll accept your answer for now. I'm gonna take a quick shower and then be on my way.
-Sounds like a plan, Meliodas.
